An afterthought on Liminality
“In anthropology, liminality (from Latin limen : threshold) is the 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 they will hold when the rite is complete. 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 (which completing the rite establishes).
Jungians have often seen the individuation process of self-realisation as 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".
A rock formation near the Monastery of St Lot, venerated as Lot's wife as a pillar of salt. Located near the Dead Sea in Jordan, at the entrance to a natural cave, which Catholics believed to have been the one where Lot and his daughters sought shelter after Sodom was destroyed (Genesis 19:24–25). The monastery, dating to the 5th-7th centuries, is centered around a basilical church and overlooks from a steep slope the southeastern Dead Sea and the modern town of Safi in Jordan.
The spatial dimension of liminality can include borders and frontiers to crossroads, to perhaps airports, hotels etc. Sociologist Eva Illouz argues that all “romantic travel enacts the three stages that characterize liminality: separation, marginalization, and reaggregation". In mythology and religion or esoteric lore liminality can include such realms as Purgatory or Da'at, which, as well as signifying liminality, some theologians deny actually existing, making them, in some cases, doubly liminal. Between-ness defines these spaces. More conventionally, springs, caves, shores, rivers, volcanic calderas — “a huge crater of an extinct volcano...[as] another symbol of transcendence" — fords, passes, crossroads, bridges, and marshes are all liminal: “edges, borders or faultlines between the legitimate and the illegitimate". Oedipus met his father at the crossroads and killed him; the bluesman Robert Johnson met the devil at the crossroads, where he is said to have sold his soul.
In the late 2010s, a trend of images depicting so-called “liminal spaces" surged in online art and photography communities, with the intent to convey “a sense of nostalgia, lostness, and uncertainty". The subjects of these photos may not necessarily fit within the usual definition of spatial liminality (such as that of hallways, waiting areas or rest stops) but are instead defined by a forlorn atmosphere and sentiments of abandonment, decay and quietness. Additionally, it has been suggested that the liminal space phenomenon could represent a broader feeling of disorientation in modern society, explaining the usage of places that are common in childhood memories (such as playgrounds or schools) as reflective about the passage of time and the collective experience of growing older.
