A "hidden" stairway?

Existential Challenge of "The Other" (Part #6)

Clearly recognizing the possibility of such movement -- "slipping between the walls" -- is relatively easy for those with aesthetic sensibilities, if only to music. Such "hidden" possibilities may also evoke the kinds of worldwide excitement associated with rumours of secret codes (as with the Da Vinci Code and imitations thereof). For those locked into conventional thinking, the possibility may be as problematic as the threatening chaos that the autistic may experience -- challenged to understand the rules for such behaviour.

But whilst one may or may not have experience of how such an "unconventional" movement "works", it is interesting to note various forms of recognition of it in mythology and legend:

the challenge of navigating Scylla and Charybdis is one classical example
the Vedic insight regarding Neti Neti (not this, not that) is another
the two pillars, Boaz and Jachin, of Solomon's Temple, the first Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 7:21; 2 Kings 11:14; 23:3) of significance to the ritual of freemasonry and other esoteric groups, and common features of their symbolic architecture.
as noted elsewhere (The Isdom of the Wisdom Society: Embodying time as the heartland of humanity, 2003), mytho-poetic folk legends, and modern fictional explorations, serve to sustain and echo the archetypal insights in many cultures relating to elder "ancestral" races who "withdrew into the stones" -- or to those that may have been "trapped" therein, like Merlin and the proverbial geni in the bottle. Most curiously, one of the most popular and best known Christian hymns has as its opening lines: Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee [more | more].
as an extension of the last point, a number of theological studies refer to the necessarily "broken symbols" through which people are reminded of the broken world in which they live and which appropriate insight may heal as a dwelling place "for eternity" (cf Barry L. Davis, Broken Symbols, 2006; Robert Cummings Neville, The Truth of Broken Symbols, 1996). Whenever reference is made to something through symbols, this is an indication that it is representative of something else - generally much greater than the symbol itself.
in Theravada Buddhism, the Middle Way is understood as a description of a Nirvana-bound path of moderation -- between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification through the practice of wisdom, morality and mental cultivation. In Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, the Middle Way refers to transcendental ways of approaching seemingly antithetical claims about reality.
the decorative art of China, including temples and traditional folk dances, focuses extensively on the theme of two dragons, typically depicted facing one another in the air in eager pursuit of a spinning pearl floating like an iridescent bubble between them. This theme was a mark of books issued under imperial auspices. For Taoists, the complex associations of that pearl include wisdom, yang energy, truth and life -- even the everlasting life of those who perceive the truth and attain enlightenment. Elsewhere (Psycho-social Significance of the Mandelbrot Set: a sustainable boundary between chaos and order, 2005), it was suggested that the two dragons can readily be associated with the two sides of the standard rendering of the Mandelbrot set -- in pursuit of the circular 2-period ball.
as with the Chinese dragons, complementary (magical) beasts, "counter-rampant" are a common feature of heraldic devices symbolic of the identity of dynasties and nations
numerous political groups have endeavoured to articulate a "third way", to avoid the polarizing extremes of left and right-wing politics (Anthony Giddens, The Third Way: the renewal of social democracy, 1998 ; The Third Way And Its Critics, 2000)

To the extent that the intermediary passage is an open secret, it is seemingly only "hidden" by fixation on the attraction or repulsion of the twin guardians -- however symbolized -- of the way between them. Correspondences subtly introduce what is effectively a "spacer beam", holding the opposing forces apart in order to provide a viable cognitive pathway. Such a beam might be understood in terms of the best of counter-intuitive lateral thinking.

The degree of "openness" of the "secret" is perhaps best exemplified by what has been ambiguously translated as the Gateless Gate -- echoed in a very common symbolic portal in China and Japan -- whose paradoxical cognitive nature is indicated through a classic collection of 48 Zen koans (Mumonkan; Wumenguan) and their many commentaries. Its comprehension resists description in logical terms, as this quotation from the preface by the compiler Mumon (or Wumen) indicates:

The great path has no gates,
Yet thousands of roads enter it.
When one passes through this gateless gate,
He walks freely between heaven and hell.