Jacob's Ladder

 I am reading Dennis Sardella's book, Visible Image of the Invisible God, and the ladder in the center, intrigued me.  Icons are full of symbolism.  You can never be finished looking at one.  Here is some of the symbols. This paragraph comes from https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2018/10/the-symbolism-and-meaning-of-unburnt  The

People started painting icons of the Mother of God the Unburnt Bush during the first centuries of the Christian era. The image of the Theotokos was placed inside a burning bush. Most often, the image of the Theotokos belonged to Hodegetria (lit., She Who Shows the Way) type. The icon was becoming more complex over time: first, they added two crossed rhombi, a red one and a green or blue one. The red rhombus symbolizes the earth, while the green or blue one symbolizes the heaven. Red also means fire, while green points at the bush, which is burning yet not consumed by fire. Virgin Mary is portrayed with several symbols: a ladder (an Old Testament symbolic representation of the Mother of God, seen by Jacob in a dream) and a house (as the earthly Church). If we look at the rays of the stars that are formed by the intersection of the rhombi, we will see some angels — the rulers of the natural phenomena — in the rays of the first star (the blue one). There are symbols of the four Holy Evangelists as mentioned in the Revelation in the rays of the fiery-red star, namely, an Angel (Matthew), an Eagle (John), an Ox (Luke), and a Lion (Mark). Then there are angels (spirits of wisdom, reason, awe, and piety) and archangels in the two-lobed clouds. There are six archangels, each with his own sign: Michael, a rod; Gabriel, a branch of Annunciation; Raphael, an alabaster vessel; Uriel, a sword of fire, Selaphiel, a censer; Barachiel, a cluster of grapes. There are visions of the prophets in the four corners of the icon: the apparition of the Mother of God of the Sign to Moses in the Burning Bush; the apparition of a Seraph with a burning coal to Prophet Isaiah; the vision of locked gate to Prophet Ezekiel; and the vision of a golden Ladder with Angels to Jacob.

The more I look and study icons, the more I like them.