Thresholds
The ones we are entering, ones we are leaving, and the ones we are in the middle of.
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Today I am exploring the subtlety and complexity of thresholds. Looking behind the veil, into what they reveal. Their mystery, beauty and magic. As well as when they become quagmires. Here are my humble musings and meanderings around this. Love to you all!
Natures Thresholds
The other day I went hiking in Upper Muir Woods, which is my endearing name for Mt. Tam, otherwise known as Mt. Tamalpais. A beautiful day all around! It had the coolness left over from the previous night’s ocean breeze, while lacking the fog that can roll in the afternoon. Not that I don’t like fog but hiking to a view and not driving in dense fog afterwards was preferable.
As I deepened through and with the day, I could feel a quiet growing inside me. My senses more receptive to the sights, sounds and smells. A humble pleasure of taking it all in, being present. Then I started noticing thresholds! They were everywhere. Outwardly they were like this bridge in the photo above and the path taken step by step. Inwardly they were the movements from one moment to the next.
In-between spaces that invited me to pause… to pay attention. To stand in the middle and literally straddle two worlds. Being neither here nor there, in time yet out of time. These betwixt places where the two collide and the richness of existence reveals itself. Being in the ordinary yet feeling the extraordinary.
Types of Thresholds
These pictures are some of the thresholds from that day. The first pic is leaving the shadowy forest and entering the fullness of sunlight reflected off the golden grassy hills. The last pic, I am standing on a bridge that is spanning a gap, allowing me to get to the other side. The middle pic is from Stinson Beach. The liminality where water meets the land, one foot in the ocean, one foot on shore. Amazing to be on this beach after looking down upon it from the grassy hills overlook, we had from our hike. The threshold of above and below.
There are many types of thresholds. Traditionally, it’s the stone or wood that lies under a door. This sill that we cross over by entering or exiting a doorway.
A threshold is also a value or level at which something becomes true or can happen, below which it will not. Water is a wonderful example. The temperature determining when water is ice, liquid or vapor. Another example is the point when we can’t hear something and then our auditory senses pick it up.
Thresholds are also liminal. Inward or outward, these spaces where two opposites or environments meet. Life’s margins weaving together our heartbeats, connecting our moments.
Implicit in these edges is impermanence, change is afoot. A movement from one time, location or stage of life to another. This gap can be small or wide. Externally, it’s like the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. In the inner worlds we travel we have our own seasons and cycles, thresholds of our lives.
Thresholds of our lives…
EVERYDAY THRESHOLDS
These tend to go unrecognized, hiding in plain sight right below our level of awareness. Yet, they can become alive when we bring our curiosity to them…
Twilight, between day and night
Dawn, between night and day
Hypnagogia, between being awake and falling asleep.
Hypnopompia, between being asleep and waking up.
Pause, between the in-breath and out-breath
Pause, between the out-breath and in-breath
CHALLENGING THRESHOLDS
These are hard to ignore for they come unexpectedly, crashing in like a huge tidal wave, wreaking havoc in our lives. The death of a loved one, a loss of a job, an illness. Including what we all moved through together, the pandemic. Some challenging thresholds we see coming. Things like divorce, shifting of opinions and beliefs, leaving a career, parting with a religious/spiritual organization.
These difficult in-between stages can feel like long hallways, a place of limbo, a dark night of the soul. The aftermath of one door closing but nothing else has opened yet. These are underworld times, requiring a shedding of old ways through reflection and introspection. Time is needed for this alchemy to complete itself for we are being primed for the return journey, an embodiment of a new expression. How important it is to not rush or force the process. Instead, to synthesize the wisdom within these wanderings.
WONDROUS THRESHOLDS
Crossing life’s thresholds are also junctures of wonder. Exceptional moments where we are filled with awe! Time seems to stop… drawn into an intimate relationship with an expanding and unfurling marvel… which wasn’t there a moment before. Like…
Experiencing an instant connection.
Birth of a child.
A prismatic sunset.
The northern lights.
Witnessing something we have never seen before.
Simple like…
Being moved by a piece of music.
Watching trees blowing with the wind.
Catching sight of a hawk soaring above.
New insights.
Déjà vu.
MAGICAL THRESHOLDS
These are crossroads where energies converge. A merging of currents that together generate power and potentiality. We find these liminal times during the equinoxes, solstices and the cross days between them. The full and the new moons, those junctures amid the wax and the wane. Times when the veils between the worlds are thin. As well as sacred places around our globe.
We’ve heard and read about these other worlds, through fairy tales, myths and legends, especially from Celtic traditions… Portals, liminal gateways to the elementals, nature spirits and fae.
By placing ourselves at the center, in the middle or honoring these spaces of time, we can open to the magic that is present there. Confluences are wonderful for divination, ancestor work, energy healing, mediumship and casting spells. Be careful if working with fae, they can cause mischief.
Final Words…
There is a deeper invitation here… In truth, thresholds are with us in every moment in some form or another! By bringing our awareness to them, they can enliven our everyday experience. Life doesn’t have to be monotonous, the extraordinary is always right here, waiting for us to shift our perspective… To become present and fluid with these transitions, collaborative with change and polarity. And this can be a place of tension and discomfort as something fades away and something new arises. Still, these sacred junctions are calling us to linger. To grow our capacity in navigating them and to receive the gifts they offer. To fully enter and be intimate with the liminal, this mystical nature of existence.
I have been working with people privately for some time now and am feeling called to offer this to those here on substack for the first time. Focusing on supporting the rising of the sacred feminine in our lives and to assist in navigating challenging thresholds. If you are interested in a one-on-one session or have any questions, please direct message or e-mail me. Looking forward to working with you, it truly is an honor. Let us rise together!
Questions for you…
What thresholds are you moving through right now?
Which challenging threshold are you in the middle of?
When did you last experience awe? What was it?
Would love to know your thoughts and feelings. Let’s have a conversation…
For more information about the liminal and my offerings:
Please go to: https://www.liminalwalker.com/
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I LOVE this, Julie! I used to do a practice of consciously walking through doorways, paying attention to my body moving from one space into another and how meaningful that can be when we do it with intention. Now I want to revive that practice, so thank you! Thresholds also make me think of the words entrance...en-trance; and ecotone (a word I learned only a couple years ago, but I love it). Thank you for always teaching me new ways to integrate liminality into my container of presence! ❤️❤️❤️
Beautiful. I strongly suspect there exists an inner portal in every one of us that opens up whenever we least expect it. The ancient egyptians and other civilizations called it the Third Eye. During the pandemic I wrote a 360 page novel about someone who sees a threshold in his dreams. One day, accidentaĺly, he goes across it and ends up hundreds of years before his time.