Defining The Liminal Sphere

What Is The “Liminal”?

The concept of the “liminal” has existed for thousands of years, but always defined in ways that were nuanced to the particular time period and culture in which it was situated. It would have had many different words associated with the realms and paradigms of its sphere, and phases of context that would flavor it.

The word “liminal”, though, has really only been in use for a few centuries; since about the 19th century, specifically. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) the liminal is characterized by being on a boundary, such as between two states, phases, places, times, events, or conditions. It also has come to mean spaces or experiences that are situated at a sensory threshold, in other words, that which is barely perceptible. In a similar vein, the liminal has also come to describe anything that exists or functions below the threshold of consciousness, which can refer to a plethora of things from the frequencies of sound or light that is at the thresholds of human capacity to the supernatural and paranormal.

What Is The Liminal Sphere?

Ah, the liminal spheres. The realms of near infinite possibilities, and shades and hues of every flavor of existence. Limen, the latin root that serves as the basis of a number of other words in the English language, all closely related. Think subliminal — which is where the barely discernible lies. Or the sublime — sometimes referring to the most delicate of beauty or the uncanny and horrific. Or the preliminary — referring to the introduction of something, the cusp of a subject matter.

The liminal is transitory, transmuting, transformative, amorphous, and fluid. It’s in hallways leading from one room or part of a building to another, it’s in the threshold of doorways, and other physical boundaries. Its is within the dawn and twilight phases, transitions of light and dark. It’s in river deltas where warm fresh waters from mountains clash with cold briny waters of the deep ocean. It’s in the sacred spaces from ancient times like deep forest groves brimming with fairy circles to the stone arches of Neolithic ruins that were considered portals to other worlds like the Underworld and other chthonic realms. It is writhing in the shadows we glimpse in our peripherals as the darkening of the night encroaches on our senses.

It exists in fringe and counter cultures that lie outside the previews of the mainstream. It is deeply entrenched in old world knowledge, indigenous ways, in the New Age communities and teachings.

The liminal reigns supreme over everything outside the norm, the mainstream, the expected and the logical.

The Role The Liminal Has Played In The Human Collective.

As mentioned above, the concept of the liminal has been around for ages (literal ages and epochs of human culture, even pre-dating society) with different names and words. But the idea itself is nothing particularly new. It is the realms of the spiritual and even the scientific, from portals in stone to the observation of shifting matter phases and frequencies. It’s presence also stimulating the fanciful flights of imagination and creativity, the sphere of the arts and literature. Through it has come religion, philosophies and spiritualities, hypotheses for scientific discovery and experimentation, to technological innovations. A spawning point for everything from tv shows and movies to video games and novels.    

In every culture, there are liminal rituals—ceremonies for birth, coming-of-age, marriage, and death. These aren't just quaint traditions. They're (sometimes structured, sometimes not) ways of managing transformation and uncertainty. Humans instinctively mark transitions: we need liminality to make meaning of change, to make sense of our existence. From Mesopotamian gates to the realms of the gods, to Persephone’s seasonal descent in Greece or other entrances to Hades such as Hierapolis in Turkey, to medieval religious pilgrimages all over Europe and sacred Buddhist or Taoist pilgrimages over the far East, history is full of people engaging with the liminal. Borders were never just geopolitical—they were spiritual and symbolic. Nature is particular has always been associated with the liminal. Forests, mountains, deserts, and oceans have always been thresholds where the normal rules and expectations were suspended.

In the realms of Psychology, Carl Jung would call the liminal space individuation—where the conscious self encounters the shadow of the unconscious. It’s the therapy room, the internal dreamscapes, the emotional fog after a breakup or death of a loved one, or the anxieties and hesitations before a major life decision.

In modern terms? It's the existential ‘pause' button.

Liminality is uncomfortable but necessary—it’s where growth happens, where we question who we are, our values, our reasons, our sense of purpose, our perceptions, and more.

The Role The Liminal Has Played In My Life.

The liminal — a word that tastes like ancient incense and sounds like a whisper beyond the Veil.

A long sigh escape from my chest, contemplating this subject. It has permeated every facet of my life and experiences from the earliest childhood memories to recent experiences with the passing of my grand mother — spanning from the mundane and tepid to the heights of the paranormal. I could likely write a book on my own encounters with the liminal sphere alone, and a long one.

I’ve always been an intuitive and empathic individual, to the point of being referred to as uncanny, and unwittingly unnerving people with my candid words, my insights, and even my presence. Perhaps, I’ve always had one foot in the apparent realm, and the other planted somewhere in the spheres of the liminal. I could sit here and wax lyrical about every strange encounter, synchronistic meeting, supernatural experience and even mundane life transitions (like graduating from my undergraduate phase of university and higher education in a few weeks) — but I’ll save all that for another blog post, or podcast episode!

Why The Liminal Still Matters Even Now.

Climate change, AI, political upheaval, mass migration, shifting identities—modern life is one big rite of passage. A huge and colorful parade of transition. The stable identities and social structures constructed in the rise of the industrial age are dissolving; sometimes slowly over generations, and other times in chaos and strife of wars and shifting political regimes. We’re collectively standing in the mists of the liminal as our world transforms around us.

The liminal teaches us to sit with the discomfort of simply not knowing. It calls us to listen, reflect, and be brave enough to step into the Unknown. Invites us to become more creative, to take a deep breath where the rigid and predictable ends, the imaginative begins. Through the experiences of the liminal we can foster greater empathy—we see others in their in-betweenness, messy middles, phases of transmutation and honor them. Its transitional nature demands transformation—not the performative kind, but the deep soul-churning and mind-melting kind.

Humanity's relationship with the liminal is ancient, intimate, and ongoing. It's the crucible of change, the bridge between what was and what might be, infinite potentials. And in a world of rapid flux, reclaiming our understanding of liminality isn't just poetic—it’s essential.

Because let’s face it: we’re all in the middle of something.