The Divine Threshold: Before the New Year

Ah, the space between. The liminal space…the cusp of the New Year of 2023. We haven't quite let go of the old and we have one foot stepping into the new.

The energy of this week has become a familiar one for me - a realization that I'm full of energy - looking forward to the new year, but yet still integrating the old. 

I've been doing a lot of writing and thinking about the liminal space; that space between two chapters -  the old and the new. It is a familiar and mysterious place. It is also commonly a space marked by astrological transitions throughout our life span. And it’s my favorite time to work with clients - the time we most need an anchor as we explore unchartered territories. Even our 3x per year Mercury Retrogrades, pre-New Moon phases and void moons, the pre-menstrual phase for women, are liminal spaces and pauses which ask us to reflect and be still. Nature and the universe in its wisdom, provides us with these times if we choose to honor them.

Liminal comes from the root Latin word ‘limen’ meaning ‘threshold’.  In ancient times across cultures, gods/goddesses and entities have presided over the liminal - or crossroads’ spaces. Janus is one such Roman God, and where we get the name of the month January. How fitting that this God represents our New Year and our first month. Persephone, who spent half of her life in the underworld and half on earth (bringing spring when she arrived)  and Hecate, who is the goddess of magic and crossroads - also represent the liminal space.

Our lives are a series of liminal spaces - the space between. Whether we instigate or desire change, or it happens TO us, there is the space  between what was and what is to become.

*graduating college and going out into the world

*pregnancy

*changing careers

*spiritual awakenings

*divorce

*death/grief

*health challenges

*crises of any kind

The list goes on.

It's easy to think that this is an ungrounded space -  the space we don't want to be in. It can be uncomfortable.

Ego rushes for control, for a place to stand on, for secure ground - but that's an illusion. In fact the liminal space is the richest space of our lives. It is not a valley nor is it a peak. It's somewhere in between. Sometimes we feel confused, even grasping for anything to make us feel safe. But what is safe? And what is control? The only thing we can really control is ourselves and the only person who can provide us safety is ourselves. So when we're spinning  between the two chapters  - the ‘what was before’ and the ‘what comes next’ the most power comes from the surrender to it. 

But what does surrender mean? And how do we do it?

Therein lies the greatest mystery and the greatest wisdom of the liminal space. it is in the non doing. it is in the crying to the heavens, to our gods, to the Divine…’I don't know what I'm doing, help me. All I know is I want things to be different and better, please show me.’

We often hear that the voice of spirit is still and small. Stillness is surrender. The willingness to not just hear but to listen, and to make space for the listening.

…and sometimes begging on our knees. I’ve been there. It is a dark and shadow yet richly beautiful place, when we give up control and ask for help. 

The most magical things are created from the liminal space -  the space of chaos and  the space of pure potential.

Something has ended and yet we feel nothing has yet begun. But it's in the non-beginning that the seeds are planted, the butterfly is away from the sun, in the darkness, in the depths of our soul, in its cocoon.

It’s learning to have the patience to let the beauty unveil itself. 

Just as in nature there are cycles of Letting Go and Beginning. And as far as I know, the leaves are not over worrying about when they will unfurl again, and the grass is not fretting about when it will be green again. 

And so let us be inspired by the nature around us. Let's just rest in this threshold space, giving ourselves permission to just be. Between this threshold between the old and the new, where the magic happens, let’s sit in gratitude, reflection, hope and divine trust.