introduction to concept

In my personal and creative life, I have always been intrigued with the concept of ‘liminality.’ As a therapist, I am very aware of the liminal spaces that we are all encounter and must transcend to grow and prosper. Being stuck in a rut, apathy, depression, avoidance, addiction, co-dependency can all be signs of being stuck at a seemingly impasse in a liminal space.  It’s where the feeling of ‘liminality’ is challenging and painful. However, transcending thresholds, overcoming and working towards and reaching meaningful goals can lift the soul. I guess, in truth we are a constellation of sorrow and joy if you decipher things my way. So, we could add, that in life, and in the liminal spaces we need to decipher things, to make sense of what has happened, what’s happening and what might happen.

As a polite refresher to those who know, and an explanation to those who are not aware of these concepts, cypher or cipher can mean a code or secret writing, a method of disguising a message by replacing or rearranging characters. In some esoteric or artistic contexts, "cypher" can mean an enigmatic symbol, riddle, or hidden meaning. In our psychological selves we have so many ciphers we need to look at and work out to find balance, integration and authenticity.   

Liminal comes from the Latin word limen, meaning “threshold.” It refers to the in-between, a transitional space where one thing is no longer but the next thing has not yet fully emerged. It’s a state of flux, ambiguity, and transformation. So, if one is in a space where things are shifting or unclear, they are in a ‘liminal’ space. In this space they would be experiencing ‘liminality,’ the feelings associated to how they feel about being in transition or uncertainty. 

A liminal space can be seen in places, time, psychological states and in rituals and myths. It can also describe a therapeutic process or journey. For instance, doorways, crossroads, shorelines, abandoned buildings, train stations, anywhere that exists between two defined spaces are seen as liminal. So too is twilight, midnight, dawn, solstices, new moons, or historical moments of great change.  

Grief, adolescence, spiritual awakenings, or moments of identity shift are psychological representations of liminality. Considering rituals and myths we have initiation rites, vision quests, death and rebirth cycles, or journeys into the underworld. One could consider life and existence to be liminal. We transition from the womb to the world, develop through many liminal spaces such as toddlerhood, adolescence. We leave home and try and find safety and identity again being independent, transition in and out of relationships, have a midlife, retire all the time experiencing challenges, trauma, aging, the list goes on.

We could also posit that the universe is forever on a liminal journey, expanding from its creation into infinity, in transition, always reaching its own thresholds and transforming with no end in sight.  

So, liminality is in every fabric of our existence on macro and micro terms. From cosmic journeys to small incidents, we have in our lives. As I mentioned, some liminal spaces can be seen and experienced as unsettling. The emotions, feelings, fears and uncertainty can cause us to feel we are not walking on solid ground so to speak. Most of us only feel safe on ‘solid ground’ within life. We construct routines, belief and values, identities, create a sense of belonging, familiarity.  Others of course like the liminal and the sense of freedom an chaos it can offer.

We can also enter a state of limonoid. These experiences are more personal and optional, often found in art, music, play, and creative work. Its when we sit and look at something, listen to something and go on the journey. Of course, music, art and life have a habit of crashing into us at times, shaking us up and inviting us into transitional spaces. So limonoid can turn in liminal quite easily.

Whilst liminality might seem and be unsettling and it certainly can be, liminality can also be full of potential. It’s a space where normal rules, beliefs, values, needs and wants dissolve, and transformation whether personal, societal, or mystical becomes possible. Letting go of childhood influence, beliefs and shame, letting go of the rules and regulations, the normative behaviours of society, finding we in a new form of sexual or gender expression can all be this.    

This belief of letting go of the rigid constructs is common in various esoteric traditions, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism, certain Gnostic sects, and aspects of Western occultism. 

The idea is that after death, the soul enters an intermediate state, which is often seen as a liminal. A dreamlike realm where we/the soul encounters allies and deceptive forces, trials, and illusions before moving on.  

The Tibetan Buddhist call this dreamlike realm ‘Bardo.’ The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes the bardo as a transitional state between death and rebirth. In this realm, the soul encounters a series of deities, some appearing as peaceful guides and others as terrifying wrathful beings.

 These figures are said to be projections of the deceased’s own mind, testing their ability to recognise truth beyond illusion. The trick is to see through the distractions and not be lured back into the cycle of rebirth by fear or attachment. 

These figures are said to be projections of the deceased’s own mind, testing their ability to recognise truth beyond illusion. The trick is to see through the distractions and not be lured back into the cycle of rebirth by fear or attachment. 

In Gnostic thought. Ah, the word “gnostic” comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning “knowledge.”  

However, this knowledge is not just intellectual; it's often described as a profound, spiritual understanding of divine truths and the nature of reality. According to our Gnostics, the soul must pass through layers of reality controlled by archons, deceptive, demiurgic beings who seek to keep it trapped within the material realm. 

A bit like modern culture if you get my drift.  

Offering ways to keep us immature, selfish, narcissistic, fatalistic, ego centric, ethnocentric, the list goes on.  

Some Western occult traditions interpret these entities as guardians or trickster figures that present riddles, trials, or illusions, preventing passage to higher realms unless one possesses knowledge (gnosis). These tests serve as a means of filtering souls, with only the most aware or enlightened escaping their grasp.

Moving on, several traditions envision the afterlife as a labyrinth or a maze where we have to make a series of choices so the soul can navigate. Ancient Egyptian mythology speaks of the Duat, where the deceased must answer riddles and pass tests before reaching the Hall of Ma’at.

Similarly, the Greeks imagined Hades as a shadowy place with different paths leading to various fates, while some Native American traditions describe a journey through trickster-infested lands before reaching the ancestors. 

Furthermore, some contemporary occultists believe the afterlife is akin to the astral plane, where disincarnate souls may be misled by spirits masquerading as guides or loved ones. 

Some view this as a “false light” realm designed to lure souls into reincarnation or entrapment. 

Practitioners of astral projection and lucid dreaming sometimes report encounters with such trickster entities, reinforcing the idea that awareness and discernment are crucial beyond death.  

So, the underlying theme across these traditions is that the afterlife is not simply a passive state but an active process—one where awareness, wisdom, and the ability to see through deception determine the soul’s ultimate fate. 

The therapeutic journey, self-healing, restoration, integration, recalibration to name a few ways of explaining the process are all connected to liminality. They are all deeply connected because psychological or physiological healing, growth, and transformation often require stepping into the unknown.  

Joseph Cambell called it the Monomyth. Other terms are, The Hero’s Journey, Vision Quest, The Call to Adventure, The Hero’s Arc, The Trial of the Chosen, The Path of the Outsider, The Shadows Reckoning and all are found in historic and contemporary culture.   

As a therapist, I try my best to be a ‘guide’ or a be ‘a benevolent ally’ of sorts in a liminal space. I follow an ethical code, bring experience and training and ‘me’ into the space.  Clients are ‘held’ in a safe, robust boundary and forge ahead on their journey trying to decipher their own hidden codes and to perhaps see through illusions and inner tricksters if you will.  

The other side of their liminal space can be empowerment, freedom, peace of mind, new beginnings etc. They experience liminality, sometimes pleasant sometimes uncomfortable. So, one way of looking at a therapeutic or healing journey, is trying to move from a place where the old self no longer fully exists, but the new self has yet to take shape. 

Even if we don’t enter therapy, we all are on a quest in life to develop, mature, transcend and grow. We all need to fine the traits, virtues and skills to negotiate life. We also need allies, which might come in the shape of good enough parents, mentors or elders, groups, sub cultures and for some faith beliefs, to help us pass through the liminal spaces we encounter. 

As I said sometimes, we don’t want to be in a liminal space, and we can try with all our might to get back to the shore we felt secure on. We may do this by staying in our immaturity, a toxic or un-transformative relationship, doing the things we are accustomed to and have normalised, staying in dependency and addiction etc. 

We can bargain, deny, suppress, deflect, get angry, sad, overwhelmed, lost before we find empowerment and a way forward. 

People can find themselves spending years or a lifetime in a liminal space, overwhelmed by life’s challenges, trauma, emotions, fears, shadows, not knowing how, really wanting or feeling totally disempowered.  However, in understanding the transiency of liminal space, we can use the thresholds to transform, transcend, work things out, to decode, make sense of, take responsibility, accountability and decipher….

The Rorschach Connection

I have attempted to turn my interest of Liminal Cyphers into a conceptual artistic offering. I am not an artist by trade nor have a traditional background in art. However, I believe that there is an artist and musician in us all that needs to negotiate its own liminal path of us allowing ourselves to express our artistic and creative self. I have certainly doodled for eons and been creatively involved in productions and art installations, cofounded and run ambient clubs and installations over the years. I have written (half written) books and offered poetry and prose to the night air.

In starting my artistic endeavours in attempting to create abstract liminal spaces, using a digital art platform I quickly found that designing symmetrical images that contained elements of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity also led to a kind of pseudo–Rorschach Test, those weird ambiguous inkblots where the viewer or client tells the therapist what they see. The tests present a very liminal offering in themselves.

When a person interprets a blot, they reveal aspects of self not normally articulated. The test becomes a ritual space where identity is temporarily unmoored, a characteristic of liminal experiences. In that moment, the subject is not just who they were, but also who they might be. From a Jungian or Freudian perspective, the Rorschach test accesses the threshold of the unconscious. It's a portal, like a dream or myth, that bypasses linear thinking, opening a liminal passage into deeper psychic material.

The Rorschach inkblots and so too, my art, if I may, are designed to act as a bridge between the internal psyche and external expression. What one sees in the blot or art is not in the blot/ art, it is a projection from within. This act of projection takes place in a liminal space where the unconscious begins to speak through conscious interpretation. Each art piece as in the inkblots are deliberately ambiguous, defying fixed meaning. This ambiguity is classic liminal terrain, where form and content are unstable, and meaning must be constructed in the moment. Many of my images sit between chaos and form, inviting the mind to create coherence where none objectively exists.

 Therefore, I hope there is an underpinning element to my art, past the title and how I have psychologically framed it to one of what the viewer might see and feel past the cognitive appraisal of the quality of the art. My art is not perfect and I’m sure many might think its childlike or one of a novice. That it is, and that’s okay. It’s an expression of the concept I have and want to convey and offer to the world.  

I have included a title and a short phrase and poem about each piece and how I think its fits in the Liminal Cypher. It aims to offer and ask the viewer about themselves.

I have also included a couple of creative writing pieces to highlight liminality and its associated cyphers, the archetypes, stories etc.

I hope you enjoy the journey.