Liminal Times and Spaces

If you have lived for very long you will have come to recognize that our lives are like stories and they have very distinctive chapters and parts.  When I was a child my father worked for the Forest Service and about every 3 years we were transferred to a new place.  During these times it seemed to me a chapter closed and a new one begin.  This was both exciting and scary.  It was hard to leave behind what was known but strangely freeing.  I remember this brief time usually traveling through space from one place to the other, that really felt like we were in the unknown zone.  It feels like that time is also our collective NOW.    This time is known as liminal time or in between time.  It is a special kind of time and needs a special conscious approach when possible.

 In primary cultures, the whole community was involved in an individuals transitions through the major passages of life.   Our culture still celebrates a life chapter such as marriage, we blow out a candle on the birthday cake, but we don’t know how to make use of and support the process of transition.  LIfe naturally does this but it helps to have the cultural road maps to help us navigate the times.  Because our current moment does seem to have all the ear marks of a chapter closing, even a whole section or book. The sequel is not yet written, and while we know a new chapter will commence at some point, where we are now is in the in between place.  

We are not very comfortable here.  Our comfort comes from the illusion of permanence and reliability even though we know it is not ever as secure as we want.  Rationally we know things change and nothing stays the same, yet we need some durability in the physical over time.  Emotionally we are always surprised when things change.  It often brings up lots of resistance.  It is often seen as less advantageous than the current situation.  

Yet life needs to bring us change and our lives need to have chapters and parts.  So I hope I can share with you some of the wisdom of the soul and nature centered cultures and from my own inner exploration about how to make use of times like these.  

Almost all traditions talk about a time spent going into the Wilderness…Going beyond the familiar places in life, beyond the boundaries of the known in the world.  In our development from child to elder we go through major transformations physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, and this development is natural but can get blocked or out of balance.  

There is always a discontinuity during these liminal passages from one world into the next but the degree will be different with each person, where they are on the medicine wheel and if they have learned how to meet these changes. 

One of the most universal ways of learning to meet them was to go on a Wilderness Retreat in a kind of participation mystique with the outer times.  In other words, as above so below, as within so without.  Or in this case, as without, so within.  Ceremony and ritual are actually ways we use to participate in the natural transitions life is always bringing us both individually and collectively.  If we can join in and act in concert with the times we find ourselves in, this allows us to move with them and through them understanding and bringing a new vision for the future as well as finding a way to complete the past.  

The thing that marks liminal zones is that they take us out of the routine of ordinary every day living which stops us from our unconscious activities and brings into awareness all the underlying assumptions we are operating on.  We want to cultivate a loving objective witness that is consciously looking at whatever arises inside us in this space.  The space/time is really magical.  What ever arises in this liminal space is revealing something for us to learn and work with.  Perhaps it is our biggest fear that arises, or what we are still unresolved about from the past.  A relationship that we feel codependent on; an attachment to something we know is not in our highest interest. All these things arise in these moments and we can try to ignore them and just keep going, or we can take this time we are given, a kind of pause in the old activity, and we can consciously explore them and see what we want to do with them.  It is a kind of cleaning out the inner closets so to speak.   Like our outer spaces this usually feels good and helps us reset. 

So I recommend that if possible you make a conscious retreat for yourself.  Individual retreats can come in many forms and I offer a co-creative process and I can offer you ideas and demonstrations of the inner work that can be done and then time is set aside, a location chosen and physical and emotional preparations are made to create a severance from your current life.  

In many ways the current pandemic lockdown may have already created this so just acknowledge that and then actively cooperate with that movement.  Take at least 3 or 4 days and enter consciously into a sacred space and time that allows you to actively cooperate and work within an inner council within yourself and be guided to complete and close one chapter and open the next.  Visioning work is also done to see what you are to bring to birth in this new time we are moving into.  But before we can move into the new we need to embrace the seed of pure unknown potential and allow ourselves to be held in a cocoon of transformation.  

Nature is the perfect cocoon and the spaces along the creek are amazing for a wilderness passage. The trailer space combines nature and comfort for those unfamiliar with wilderness and camping retreats.

I also invite you to look at the news and all that is going on in the world as a kind of collective outpicturing of all these voices and rather than react or identify with any of them, allow yourself to just witness them all and stay in non knowing.  Stay present but without judgement, for yourself as well as the world.  

Here is a link to a Youtube video where you can see one of the sites for a nature immersion experience along enchanting run.  It was very early spring so the light colors are the brand new leaves.  

Please give me a call if you are interested in exploring a Retreat of some kind.
I will be offering a talk about this and taking questions  on zoom if you would like to join me there for a meet and greet and discussion.