There’s a few things going on here.
The steps are the journey we take in our yearning and awareness for growth, both physical and spiritual. It is the growth that makes us human. And yet we can only see a short distance in front of us before the path turns a corner.
The metaphor of the trees is beginning to take shape here. The difference between a community which is supportive of the mystic journeyers, which earlier (though this painting comes earlier) was compared to the lonely tree, gnarled and twisted. Here they grow straight. Their full interaction will become evident later.
The stone reappears here, and I regret not having included it in some way in the original door imagery. (Again, this picture was painted first! Before the pathway tot the lonely tree)
