Liminal and Liminality

I chose “Liminil” for this site because I am currently in a transition stage in my life. I am at the threshold. This project symbolizes my graduation and entrance into a world of careers. What better name than something that symbolizes this in between phase? I am not quite an undergraduate student, yet not quite submerged into the working world. As a student at College of the Atlantic, we are required to design our last term of study, to create, direct, and execute a large scale project. The “nil” part of Liminil is a play on words, “nil” meaning nothing. I feel this symbolizes how unique this present time is in my life.

"Liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective, conscious state of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology (a "liminal state") and in the anthropological theories of ritual by such writers as Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner, and others. In the anthropological theories, a ritual, especially a rite of passage, involves some change to the participants, especially their social status.

           The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy.One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation. Liminality is a period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed - a situation which can lead to new perspectives."

Liminality in Time:

"Twilight serves as a liminal time, between day and night. The name of the television fiction series TheTwilight Zone makes reference to this, describing it as "the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition" in one variant of the original series' opening. The name is from an actual zone observable from space in the place where daylight or shadow advances or retreats about the Earth. Noon and, more often, midnight can be considered liminal, the first transitioning between morning and afternoon, the latter between days.

           Within the years, liminal times include equinoxes when day and night have equal length, and solstices, when the increase of day or night shifts over to its decrease. Where the Quarter days are held to mark the change in seasons, they also are liminal times.

           New Year's Day, whatever its connection or lack of one to the astronomical sky, is a liminal time. Customs such as fortune-telling take advantage of this liminal state. In a number of cultures, actions and events on the first day of the year can determine the year, leading to such beliefs as First-Foot. Many cultures regard it as a time especially prone to hauntings by ghosts -- liminal beings, neither alive nor dead."

Liminal State of Consciousness:

"Another example of liminality can occur when someone wakes from dream sleep and in a hypnagogic state of mind is unable to distinguish if a vaguely recalled dream actually occurred."