The Art
of
Liminality
Maybe you know this too:
You are going thru a period of intense outer and inner change. A divorce maybe, a long pilgrimage, a near death experience, a dark night of the soul.
Or just a timely upgrade of your operation system.
The ascension in consciousness.
I guess it’s called a trans-formation for a reason.
Things that had meaning, they dont have that anymore.
You are not the same as you have been before.
Friends say that you have changed so much.
You are estranged to them.
Like they dont know you anymore.
You seem to them a different person than before
But you are not!
You are simply in the process becoming.
Becoming more of Your Self.
It is a bittersweet experience.
Because you are letting go.
Of things you know.
Of all you identified with.
You entered the liminal twilight zone.
You have entered the in-between.
Welcome to the liminal.
Not the caterpillar anymore.
Not yet the butterfly.
You are suspended in the cocoon of undefined.
If you resist it, it is terrifying and strange.
Yet it is sweet, if you welcome it.
If you surrender to it,
the transition is swift and clean
and you appear in the end,
as new.
More new and more whole than ever.
And there is BLISS.
Do you know that too?
twi·light zone:
1. a conceptual area that is undefined or intermediate.
2. the lowest level of the ocean to which light can penetrate.
lim·i·nal:
1. occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
2. relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
Welcome to the Age of Transition
I know that we are living in a time now of immense transformation, and I dont mean just since yesterday. We are right in the middle of it. Change seems to be the only constant and uncertainty the new normal.
I believed that 40 years ago as I believe that now.
In society and the World-at-large it is evident for anybody who can see.
But more than in the outer reality, in the Inner Realms of Consciousness, this is what I see:
Ascension
A gradual shift of the vibration of it all, a change in the quality. Like the weather is changing, after all.
It may feel strange.
It may feel frightening.
To me, it feels right.
Welcome to Liminality
Liminality is the most intense transition state in the center of any transformative experience.
Liminality – in-between states and threshold experiences – can be experienced in rites of passage, pilgrimages, in spiritual transformation, personal crisis, war, natural disaster, climate emergencies and religious shifts, critical illness, prison, social collapse and reconstruction, gender transition, and communities in conflict, extreme adventure, initiation rites, ritual, therapeutic practices and the arts.
The term ‘liminal’ originated from Anthropologists who studied the rituals and ‘rites of passage’ in tribal cultures.
A rite of passage (originated from French rite de passage) is a ceremony, ritual, or significant event marking a major life transition, like birth, puberty, marriage, or death, changing an individual’s status in society.
It officially indicates the moving from one life stage or group to another. It signifies a fundamental shift, celebrated formally or informally.
In traditional rites de passage – that have been conducted in all tribal societies since ancient times – there is a strong quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status.
During a rite’s liminal stage, participants “stand at the threshold” between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way.
The liminal state, before sleep
It is not easy for me to make some adequate kind of visual art of the liminal stages.
This is how i see the initial stage, the loosening of the distinct features, the dissolution of the form, the feeling of disappearance …..
Whats really going on inside the deep liminal cocoon state, that is truly mysterious to me. [ Remember the butterfly? ]
….. and this i how i see the re-awakening, the glorious new Self, beautiful, flowing, illuminated from inside
Obviously this is all metaphorical talk. That’s easy. Yet the real state of ‘in between’, the true liminal state, the complete dissolution of form in the cocoon, where the alchemy of transfiguration takes place? My mind stops.
I try, but i can hardly imagine what chaotic and intelligent forces are at work in there 😉🙃
A cocoon looks so dead to the world, but for the clairvoyant eye, intense forces are at work inside.
transformation
transmutation
transfiguration
….. and hopefully
the revelation!
~
In modern times and contemporary culture, the term liminality has broadened to describe political and cultural change as well as upheavals.
During liminal periods of such kinds, social hierarchies may be reversed or temporarily dissolved, continuity of tradition may become uncertain, and future outcomes once taken for granted may be thrown into doubt.
Welcome to the 21. Century! Welcome to the Time of Trump.
The dissolution of order during liminality creates a fluid, moldable situation that enables new institutions and customs to grow from the ground up.
I for one, i count on that.
~
In modern times, the term liminality has also deepened and those painful states of transition can now be viewed in a light that give meaning to the pain and uncertainty.
Thanks to Transpersonal Psychologists like C.G.Jung and Carl Rogers.
Depth psychology
Jung understood, that the individuation process of a person – the self-realization – is taking place within a liminal space.
“Individuation begins with a withdrawal from normal modes of socialisation, epitomized by the breakdown of the persona … liminality”.
“Individuation can be seen as a “movement through liminal space and time, from disorientation to integration. What takes place in the dark phase of liminality is a process of breaking down in the interest of making whole” one’s meaning, purpose and sense of relatedness once more”
C.G.Jung
I think that Jung’s understanding of the importance of the liminal state in any process of transformation, transmutation, or transfiguration can be applied not only to the psyche, personal growth and spiritual regeneration but also to the life and development of groups and societies.
Maybe also to nature as a whole and to the cosmos.
If we apply that understanding wisely in the coming times of uncertainty and fundamental change in our societies and the environment, we will manage to move through these times without fear and recoiling to archaic patterns of survival.
The norms and structures of societies are increasingly crumbling, and entropy is setting in as a natural force that will speed up this process.
During such times the person is wise who can relax and trust, who can hold an inner peace even when there seems to be chaos all around.
I know that this is not an easy task, since we have not been trained for such a situation. But we can learn the skills; I am certain of that. There are many ways and many spiritual and social practices and methods that can teach us the tools.
Meditation, sharing circles, deep listening, art.
Such “non-activities” create in-between states, silent spaces where the transmutation can happen.
Liminality often happens in very mundane moments for me. In the wee hour before I fully wake up from my dreams, when I am not yet fully my everyday self.
Under the shower, when I don’t rush and want to have it done and over with. Or when I sit in a café for a full hour over one espresso, simply watching the world go by. Or when I look at the ocean’s horizon line while the sun goes to sleep.
Such liminal times transform me and make my mind quiet and receptive to receive. My best inspirations and ideas come to me in such moments. They just come; I don’t need to produce anything.
Yes, I am not the same when I get up to continue my day. I have become more of my Self, because I was receiving.
That is the blessing of the in-between, the structure-less, the plan-less, the pure receptive state.
I recommend we become familiar with it.
We could even make an art form out of it.
Liminal art.
~
~~
~
Postscript
ps:
“Two mistakes we can make:
– We provide no ritual space at all in our lives.
– Or we stay in it too long.”
C.G Jung
pps:
Deep Psychoanalysis (Jungian Analysis) is a depth therapy by Carl Jung exploring the conscious and unconscious mind, focusing on dreams, symbols, archetypes (like the Shadow and Anima/Animus), and the Collective Unconscious to achieve Individuation—becoming whole—rather than just symptom relief, integrating personal history with universal human patterns for profound self-understanding and growth
Individuation: The lifelong process of integrating conscious and unconscious aspects to realize one’s true, whole Self.
But thats another topic for another day. ;D
ppps ; D:
The great liminal States we all experience quite naturally.
sleeping – dreaming – dying
Death and the Bardo – the Ultimate In-between
…………………….