Liminality and synchronicity
The word liminality refers to a state of in-betweenness. In India, one is constantly aware of sharp contrasts: the rich culture and the poverty; the beauty and the pollution; life and death; the suffering and the joy. Religious references everywhere bring spirit to matter— on the dashboard of the taxi,
at the door step,
in the phone booth.
The proximity of opposites creates a mental and emotional space that is liminal; it is neither here nor there. A visitor, especially a first-time visitor like me, is pushed out of both realities into a third space, a liminal space in which one has little choice but to accept the two simultaneously.
And I think it is being in a state of liminality that opens one to synchronistic events.
Two photos, taken on the same day:
The first is our friend Durga riding her scooter
and the second, the goddess Durga riding on her tiger. 
Was the goddess able to manifest so patently because I stood at the threshold between mythic and material realities holding open the door?
at the door step,
in the phone booth.
The proximity of opposites creates a mental and emotional space that is liminal; it is neither here nor there. A visitor, especially a first-time visitor like me, is pushed out of both realities into a third space, a liminal space in which one has little choice but to accept the two simultaneously.
And I think it is being in a state of liminality that opens one to synchronistic events.
Two photos, taken on the same day:
The first is our friend Durga riding her scooter
and the second, the goddess Durga riding on her tiger. Was the goddess able to manifest so patently because I stood at the threshold between mythic and material realities holding open the door?
posted by Eve at 10:02 PM
2 Comments:
Some people must be more prone to feelings of liminality than others. When I talk to my students about paradoxes, they just stare. I don't think most people ponder such things. And yet, paradoxical phemonena mystify me. How can they exist? For example, how could one of our neighbors in Detroit have been simultaneously the Mob Boss for the entire region (responsible for murder, prostitution, etc.) and a fine father and community figure? I guess I've been in a state of liminality ever since. :)
To be honest, I think I have lived my whole life in a liminal state.
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