Honor the space between no longer and not yet.
Nancy Levin
The word liminal comes from the Latin word limen, meaning “a threshold.” It is a “crossing over” space – an entry point into the void of what was once familiar and known to us, and what has not yet occurred.
In the creative arts, it is that mysterious space we enter when we give ourselves over completely to the stroke of the brush, to the energy of the movement, and to the sweet sound of poetry resonating from our lips.
In this sense, the liminal space is a space of freedom, play and imagination. To enter, we must let go of our agendas, our judgements, our ideas of what should happen and what it should look like. Instead, we must surrender to the ideas, shapes and images brought forth from the unknown. Here, within the liminality, exists an invitation to surrender to something larger than ourselves, and trust in the wisdom of divine creativity.
Allowing is essential. Steven Levine explains: “If we can let go of our precious identities and move into the experience of the void, then the possibility arises for new forms of existence to emerge.” This is the space of change and transformation.
We also experience liminal spaces within the context of everyday life. Some are short and pleasant: a wedding and a honeymoon; graduation ceremonies; holidays. Others are less pleasant and sometimes drawn out: buying/selling a home and moving; being between jobs; a prolonged illness; divorce and its aftermath; the death of a loved one followed by the mourning process. The sense of limbo, especially when it feels as if there’s no end in sight, can feel uneasy, even desperate and painful enough that we may feel provoked to drastic measures to alleviate the discomfort.
There are a few potential benefits to being “stuck” within life’s liminal waiting room. While most of us want to get through and beyond the uncomfortable limbo as quickly as possible, we often realize in retrospect–once the pain and discomfort has yielded to comfort and (at times, reluctant) acceptance–that we tend to appreciate these times for their transformative power. There are rich resources of deep learning and personal development to be mined from the process of going through the experience as well as the reflection which happens after the fact.
Allowance, acceptance and surrender to the shaping of the experience is the key to being receptive to its ability to create paradigm shifts within our minds, and develop as sense of self-agency, resilience and a more peaceful, aware and mindful way of being within ourselves and the world at large.
If we can let go of our precious identities and move into the experience of the void, then the possibility arises for new forms of existence to emerge.
Stephen Levine
The Liminal Space 