A place of skylight windows in the mythical world is where skylights can feel at home. There are many of these windows pouring light into an interior. The lights come from other skies. In other words, the colors that come from these worlds are exotic and spectacular. These skylights were probably used as artistic forms. In times of danger, when a home was being attacked, people could climb through the skylight and enter another place out of trouble. Sometimes one would see the rain coming down a skylight; the rain was falling somewhere else that provided a comfortable feeling, hearing the rain drops on the glass, elsewhere the sun came in through other windows. There seems to be a dream coming through these skylights when the evening and night come, the stars as they are in the northern or southern hemispheres. Sometimes through a skylight, one might hear music from a distant house or village. At night when one is lying in bed, a skylight might not only show the night but a daytime sky from the other side of the world where it’s already morning or from another planet.

Scholar-shamans use the skylight to clear their minds during the night or day and to develop new concepts in learning and understanding. They stare in a trance up at the sky through the window as if speaking to the sky. Then an idea pops into their heads. Many of these wise scholars would sit or lay on a large rounded platform that became a place for sitting or with a large skylight above. This was where they would work. Scholars weren’t the only people to contemplate a skylight. The artists and teachers often did this to clear their minds and think about what they wished to create.

The skylights of the mythical world provided a multitude of purposes for observing the sky.

The shapes and manners of skylights are so varied that it’s impossible to describe them all. Many of them are round, which is quite popular. Some are oblong shaped with a design etched into the glass or transparent material. Some of the glass skylights are multi-hued, one color graduating into another creation, subtle shades of in-between color. Some skylights resemble a fisheye camera lens, and the observer can see a more comprehensive view of the surrounding scene outside.

Skylights create a world of dreams and imagination when looking into the sky at night or during the day. They provide warmth and comfort.

Robert J. Matsunaga