Liminal Spaces

Liminal means threshold in Latin. 

Pic by A. Davey

In Celtic lore these spaces are "thin spaces," where the veil between the worlds is so gossamer thin that one world seeps into another. 

Liminal spaces are disorientating spaces.  In rituals around the world it is the middling space where you have moved on from what was before ~ orientation and normality and everydayness ~ into a space of disorientation.  Everything's flipped.  Alice is down the rabbithole and nothing is the same size anymore. 

In rituals, the disorientation is for a purpose.  Out the other side of the initiation, the participant comes changed from their experience.  They are back in the topside world once more, but everything has changed.  Or, at least, they have, and therefore the world looks different and they walk in it differently.  They have gone from orientation to disorientation to reorientation.  Order out of chaos.

Some of us find ourselves in these spaces on a physical level and on an ongoing basis ~ through chronic illness or trauma or both.  These are difficult spaces to hold.  You can easily lose track of any kind of meaning attached to your suffering or of any transformation coming from your experience.
 
But now the earth's climate is changing, and along with it monumental seismic cultural seizures happening around the world.  Now, we all find ourselves in this strange space, where it feels like everything is disorientated, everything shaking, everything falling apart.

This liminal space is where we are now.  It is anything but comfortable.

But amazing things come from this space.  It is the space of possibility.  It is the space where creative acts come out of necessity.  Amazing energy flows from out of this space.

And while it feels like everything is up for grabs and we seesaw between abject despair and furious hope, we need to remember that we are in the middle of the process.

The reorientation is still to come and none of us know what it will look like.  It may even, just possibly, be better than we could have hoped for.

This is the logo for the space that I am hoping to birth into being.  It is probably quite appropriate that I am swinging myself between abject despair and furious hope about its formation.

I do not even know if it is a viable space.  What I do know is that it is an idea that will not leave me alone.

I envision a space that involves relaxation and stimulation, where no matter how halt or infirm or on the edges you feel, that you feel welcome.  A space that explores ways of feeling more at home in discomfort, and creative ways to envision the future.  A space that has a swing inside.  For adults.

I am planning a newsletter to send out to anyone who wants to be kept in the loop on what's happening (which may be a little or may be a lot - I am trying to start this up with $1.71 in my bank account and 14 years of chronic fatigue syndrome under my belt :).

If you'd like to receive the newsletter, drop me a line at susieq777@dodo.com.au.