Alex Clark: Image and Pilgrimage 3: liminality

Liminality is “The state and process of mid-transition in a rite of passage” (p. 249). The concept of liminality in my mind is essentially similar to that of limbo. It is a place or state of no real substance in between two places or states of substance. This concept seems to be mostly used in wilderness studies when discussing the attempts of man to go back and forth between a “normal” modern day life and spiritual or sacred exposure. It is also a more supernatural seeming place referred to as similar to death, the womb, invisibility, darkness, etc. I’m not quite sure if I completely understand this concept myself. I’m not sure how one would become a laminar (a person in a state of liminality), or what that title implies. I wrote this blog in hopes that reading and writing more about liminality would help me understand it better. I think I have more knowledge of the concept now, even if I still do not understand it fully.