LIMINALITY

What is liminality? To me, it suggests the area, undefined as yet, between dimensions. Liminality, is therefore the shading between these dimensions. It cannot be defined. Once the liminal becomes finite, it ceases to be liminal. But each liminal zone has certain qualities. It does not exist in a void. These qualities are pegged, so to speak, on the senses and the subtle senses, or whatever one wishes to call them: intuition, clairaudience, clairvoyance, clairsentience, telepathy and so on. The liminal has its messengers, pointing to why Hermes and Hecate have a relationship in myth and magic. Any approach to the liminal involes confrontation with a threshold. In myth and folktales, these thresholds are given anthropomorphic, and often theriomorphic form. An excellent example of this is the entry to the Tower in the Hypnerotomachia of Francesco Colonna, where the Gate is shaped like the Mouth of Medusa. These forms, which manifest in a wide variety of cultural representations, are themselves, emanated messages from the liminal. The approaches to the zones of transition, or interdimensional transformation, emanate their own particular protection - or protectors.

These phenomenon are called in esoteric terms 'The Dwellers on the Threshold.' In the classical Tarot tradition, they are associated with Saturn. And obviously, the liminal has, with Hecate, profound Plutonic implications. Therefore, out of this material, we can isolate two astrological archetypes, those of SATURN and PLUTO

LIMINAL PLACES:  BOUNDARIES

"The performance of rituals or the worshipping of deities at liminal places such as crossroads, doorways and gates reflect one or more of several concerns." p.24, Hecate.

1.  CROSSROADS

2.   DOORWAYS

3. GATES = Index.

4 THE LIMINAL GODDESS  HECATE

5.   LIMINALITY AND THE FOOL.


THE LIMINALITY OF RUINS


Arcanum 22 - as the pure site of liminality, is therefore the residence of all inhabitants of the liminal states of consciousness and the social perimeters. The imagery of Arcanum 22 - suggests abnormality, deviation from the norm, in that, the figure is clothed in animal skins, threatened by reptiles and wandering amidst architectural ruins.

In the Tarot of Mantegna, he is attacked by a dog. Dogs, as we know are also guardians of the entrances and exists of zones, e.g. Cerebus. They appear in Arcanum 18 - as the Guardians of of the approaches to the Black and the White Pyramids.

Here, in the Plutonic Zone, we will also find the Shivaites, and the Bachae. We can recognize the textures in the wild hair and animal skins of St John the Baptist - and even deeper still in historical layers, the ancient late-Stone Age people, the Vradyas of South India.

The Holy Idiot, the Divine Madman, Drukpa Kunley.


OLD NOTES

 HERMES + PLUTO = THE GAP..

3. Bardo and  THE SYNAPTIC  Gap. See:  Kerenyi. Travel - SEE Magda Keneryi in Intro to Hermes.

EGG -

Jumping off a Building. Theseus and Athene.


Crossroads, prostitutes.

Liminal, Cardea, Goddess of Hinges etc - Doors and Portals, Janus.

Vol. 3, p. 8: The Veil and The Edge - Liminality - again connects to HECATE - and to Cancer - to the Crustaceans, Crabs, Dogs etc -

On the left of Cancer: in Gemini - The Phallus, Butterfly, Androgyne, Twins - also note the use of Water.

On the right of Cancer - LEO - The Solar Forge - Fire!

Sequence: = AIR - WATER - FIRE.


Note 15, p. 25, Hecate: Burkert, W., Structure and History in Greek Myth and Ritual (Berkeley, 1979), p. 40 suggests that the ithyphallic herms, which the ancient Greeks used to mark and protects areas, reflect a primitive instinct, still seen in some primates, of the males of a group to encircle their territory, facing outwards with erect phalli, as if to proclaim their masculinity and ability to protect females and young.


PATH and Gate and JANUS - must be Liminal - an aspect of Mercury - Pluto. Aleph and Tau - i.e. the Aleph and the Omega. First and the Last.


Sitting in the front of the cinema and the back of the theatre (cheap seats) also indicates use of polarities on the Outer Fringes, e.g. Plutonic - Inhabitors of the Lands of the Outer Borders. Liminality.

Then also colour inter-connecting lines on the London Tube, fade out as the black outer extremities are reached, i.e. the Rainbow - High Energy - Multi-colours are to found within the dense energies of the Centre. See also Alan Watts thermostat example.

3. Plutonic = 22. 11. 2. and 4 + 13 =