Mirrors are a common plot device in fairy tales, paranormal series, and scary stories. But what is the spiritual meaning of a mirror? And is there any truth in those myths and urban legends? Let’s look into the spiritual significance of mirrors so we can fully understand them.
Spiritual Meanings of Mirror
1. Pathways to Other Dimensions
To understand this spiritual meaning of mirrors, it helps to take a step back into history. In the past, people used shiny objects like stone or polished metal to look at their reflections. It was also common to use large water bodies as mirrors. This helps you understand their role.
Water is a transition point between the physical and ethereal world. It’s often used as a portal between dimensions. In this sense, mirrors are a portable version. You can see this in books like Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carol or The Templar Chronicles by Joseph Nassise.
This is why many traditions cover mirrors or perform rituals when they break one. A mirror might tempt the spirit of a deceased loved one by luring them back into the land of the living so they can’t move on. And a broken mirror may release any malevolent spirits trapped in it.
2. Messages from Your Subconscious
On a practical level, mirrors reflect light so they show you a physical image. This image tells you how you look and displays the objects around you. But in the spiritual realm, a mirror can reflect the things you can’t see. It can send signals from below the surface of awareness.
Let’s look at two examples. In Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, the Mirror of Erised reflects your deepest desire. The hint is in the name – Erised is Desire in reverse. Meanwhile, in Faust by Goethe, Faust himself looks in the mirror of a witch and sees a young woman.
He desires this woman and thinks he’s in love with her. In reality, she embodies the parts of his personality that he has lost. Mirrors show the hidden parts of your soul. If you stare long enough, you feel vulnerable and see your inner self, not just physically, but spiritually too.
3. Illumination and Self Awareness
In our everyday lives, we use mirrors to check our outfits. We want to see if they fit well and if the different bits of clothing look good together. We also check for dirt, missing buttons, or damage. If there’s something wrong with the clothes or hairdo, we quickly fix it or change it.
Mirrors, in this context, are used for physical illumination and enlightenment since they show us what’s wrong. And since mirrors have a parallel with water, they can be a form of spiritual enlightenment and illumination as well. They make us aware of things we can’t see.
In the same way that a mirror can show you a damaged garment that you wouldn’t have spotted, it can reveal unseen failures from your subconscious. If you look in the mirror too often, you’re seen as vain. The mirror both triggers and represents self-awareness of flaws.
4. A Call to Think More Deeply
The spiritual meaning of a mirror can be expressed in two ways. It might enlighten a specific aspect or it could be more general. As we’ve said, if you’re always looking at your reflection, the people around you might think you’re self-centered, shallow, or obsessed with your looks.
But what if you keep noticing mirrors around you? You’re not necessarily checking yourself out, but it suddenly seems like mirrors are following you. Everywhere you look, you see one. In shops, on TV shows, at people’s houses, in books, in jewelry, in cars, on children’s toys!
In that scenario, your guardian angels or higher self is telling you to take a deeper look at yourself or some aspect of your life. Maybe you’re being superficial in your work or your relationships and they want you to go beneath the surface. It’s a call to dig deeper.
5. Make Time for Spiritual Reflection
People that are in tune with their higher selves are calmer. They take time to meditate, whether it’s yoga, breathing exercises, spending time in nature, or being mindful during daily activities. The rest of us mostly operate on autopilot at work then distract ourselves at home.
So if you’re suddenly spotting a lot of mirrors, it could be a gentle nudge from the heavens. Maybe your partner just brought some shiny new vases, or the bathrooms at work are being revamped. Maybe your office building installed new reflective walls or a floor-length mirror.
Your guardian angels are inviting you to pause and reflect on your inner life. Think about the context around the mirror and the recent events connected to it. Did someone recently die, or did you change jobs or partners? Have you taken the time to grieve or recognize the shift?
6. Find Ways to Expand Your World
Interior design uses mirrors to make small rooms look bigger and dark spaces feel brighter. The mirrors achieve this illusion by bouncing light around, opening up the space without necessarily doing anything else. It’s a cost-effective way to enhance that room’s appearance.
So what’s the spiritual meaning of mirrors entering your life? Maybe someone gave you a mirror as a gift. Or maybe it’s a flowerpot, book, phone case, or wall hanging with shiny, metallic, or reflective bits. It could even be a coin jar that glints when you fill it with change.
The spiritual message here is that your life is too small. Maybe you’ve been afraid of failure. Or worse, afraid of success! So you’ve been playing it safe and turning down opportunities to grow. This could be added responsibilities at work or even a date with your crush. Open up!
7. A Chance to Change Your Mind
We’ve all had the experience where we left the house looking and feeling gorgeous. But once we got to work, we glanced at another mirror – probably the window of a building – and felt alarmingly self-conscious. We might wonder, ‘What was I thinking to wear thing today?!?’
What we may not realize is that office window is distorted. It’s like the trick mirror at the circus that makes us look taller or wider. Or the security mirror that makes out features look monstrous. In such cases, that mirror may be a spiritual message to assess things carefully.
Those weird mirrors around you are showing your false self. Your spiritual helpers may be calling your attention to other artificial reflections. Think of the clothes you wear, the people you hang out with, and the work you do. Are these choices a faithful depiction of your best self?
8. An Opportunity for Assessment
Have you ever fallen in love with someone at first sight? We don’t just mean romantic or erotic interest. Maybe you met someone at work or in line at a café and felt instantly in sync. Or you may have bumped into a new tenant in your building and immediately hated them.
Both these extreme reactions are spiritual mirrors. They send the same spiritual message, even though they’re on opposite sides of the spectrum. This reflexive love or hate says more about you than them, and it’s an invitation to keenly assess your spiritual condition.
Your reaction means the person has certain qualities that you either love or hate in yourself. You’re drawn to the aspects you have in common and want to cultivate. And you’re repulsed by your shared negative characteristics. Both observations can make you a better being.
9. An Invitation to Clarity
Trick mirrors have unexpected curves and angles that deliberately distort the image you see. But they can only work with the data that exists. For example, it might make you look short or crooked, but the reflection is still based on your body, so it will still wear the same clothes.
In this context, the spiritual meaning of mirrors is clarity. The mirror can only reflect things that already exist. Unless it’s a colored mirror, your clothing, hair, and shoes will be the same shade. And in spiritual scenarios, this means there’s no external interference involved.
A spiritual mirror can therefore help you by shutting out external forces. If you’re in a room that’s full of mirrors, all you have is what’s inside you, and all you see is what’s around you. No distractions, no influencers. Make your decision based on intuition, not outside advice.
10. A Reminder to Take Responsibility
Psychology divides people into internalizers and externalizers. The former believe everything in life is their fault, so they’re at risk for anxiety and depression. The latter blame everything on everyone else. It’s the weather, the neighbor, the stars, the economy, or the government.
A spiritual mirror can therefore be harmful to internalizers if they’re already in a bad mental space. But it can be a blessing for externalizers. As we mentioned in the previous point, a mirror reflects what you give. It might switch things up, but it works with what you provide.
So a spiritual mirror could be a hint from your angels to turn inward. That mirror is only showing you the data you offered it. So if you want a different result, if you’d like to see an alternate image, you need to take responsibility for the information you’re feeding the glass.
11. A Tool for Wisdom and Knowledge
In the scientific world, mirrors are used in microscopes, periscopes, telescopes, and lots of other devices. They enlarge objects that are seemingly invisible and show us items that are impossibly far away. In this way, mirrors extend our knowledge and broaden our resources.
Spiritually, mirrors can do the same thing. By angling mirrors a certain way, we can shift the physical perspective and observe things that seemed imperceptible. One spiritual meaning of a mirror is to offer an alternative point of view and to widen the opportunities available to you.
But when you’re using mirrors spiritually, you should always seek help from your guardian angels. Why? The mirror can make you envious and lustful or grateful and enlightened. It can protect you by exposing unseen enemies or amplifying your blessings. Choose carefully!
Do you know any other spiritual meanings of mirrors? Share your wisdom in the comments!
