When we speak of making sacred, thresholds have a few distinct meanings.
On the one hand, the threshold time is the central axis around which a rite of passage can turn. This is the middle phase, between severance and incorporation, the time of being betwixt and between, of being in the ordeal.
For a wilderness rite-of-passage ceremony, like those we guide with Alchemy of Prana, Rite of Passage Journeys, and The School of Lost Borders, this is the entire program of being away from your everyday life, and most quintessentially the three or four days of solo time on the land, empty, alone, and exposed (the three taboos).
This threshold (lexically) is the ordeal.
On a more granular level, to make thresholds throughout the course of a 12-day program, say, for instance, as you enter a daily walk, make a prayer with a candle, or just before you step into an important meeting at work, this is an intentional marking, a meeting of the intangible psyche with the physical real in a way that directly communicates to our self and to the more-than-human world that we are entering/exiting with intention.
On our programs, we invite each of us to suspend disbelief as we enter these thresholds so that we might open our linearly built, logic-based epistemologies to something of the sacred transpersonal that surrounds us all the time but which has been banished by sanctioned cultural norms.
In this second definition, almost anything can be a threshold: drawing a circle in the snow or with some sticks, making an altar, creating of a sacred fire, taking that first step through fresh snow, walking under or through a particular tree or brush, jumping or stepping into water, making a snow angel, sounding an Ohm or similar acoustic expression, a bridge, a sunrise, the lighting of a candle, or the building of a purpose circle for an all-night vigil. While the actual threshold is not unimportant, the act of pausing and announcing this otherwise unseen meeting is core.
Whatever the threshold might be, what is critical is the formalized intention, invocation, and courage to take the step and traverse the boundary (Foster & Little, 1989, p. 102). In this, the threshold becomes a moment of (en)action, an embodied moment of crossing in or out of something of deep importance. The threshold becomes representative of a symbolic action (Davis, 2014).
In the monomyth of Joseph Campbell, the initiation begins when we accept the call (to purpose, to meaning, to depth, to wild aliveness, to (insert your deep truth here) and cross the threshold (Foster & Little, 1998, p. 136).
In many ways, ceremony is an enacted metaphor, a cry for purpose where we evoke the unseen that lives with us and that we live within to call forth meaning for our lives.
Without such ceremonial acts, however, the requisite actions for basic survival needs can easily overwhelm and bypass deeper aspects of our lives. The goal is not to shame ourselves or our culture; the aim is to make space amidst that chaos to remember who we really are and long to be.
As Meredith Little and Steven Foster (1989) wrote–-two of the most important individuals in the (re)emergence of modern wilderness rite of passage ceremonies and the founders of the School of Lost Borders—"Through performance of ceremony, the quester determines and sacralizes his deepest myths about himself. His actions forge the connection to his place on Earth" (p. 101).
Whereas the intentional thresholds we humans might carry with us into our ceremonies may be intangible and metaphorical (i.e., calling forth our vision and purpose, grieving the loss of a loved one, or a change of status in our life such as that from child to initiated adult), the cycles of nature are undeniable. The setting of the sun, the changing of the leaves, the first snow, the mid-winter darkness, and the great veriditas of spring's renewal, these are changes that we can feel, touch, see, taste, and know deeply in our embodied processes of existence.
Essentially, the threshold moments—be they the small acts of lighting a candle or earth-returning acts of spending four days and four nights empty, alone, and exposed on the land—become the bridge between these often disparate worlds.
In the face of the awesome nature of existence, of impermanence, of our assured death, how might we truly engage meaningfully with our gifts and come alive in the wildness of this precious, tenuous, fragile existence?
and time moves on
ever
on
tbird 🌊
Author's note: if you have made it this far, thank you. I so appreciate you taking the time as I thread my way forward with this creative enactment.
Has any of this piqued your interest? We would love to know. Feel free to reach out with questions, comments, and the like about any of our writings and upcoming programs. Please click here for all current programs. Following is a brief description of the fall backpacking program:
On this ceremonial wilderness rite of passage immersion, you will have the opportunity to deepen your connection with Earth and Soul by encountering the more-than-humyn and humyn beings who instinctually understand the cyclical movement of death, liminality, and emergence as well as the magic of seen and unseen vistas of restoration and possibility. As a ceremonial immersion and wilderness rite of passage, ALCHEMY ON THE MOUNTAIN intends to support you in making a clearing in your life, reaching into the unknown, and making contact with and embodying vision, purpose, intent for your life and Earth. In addition, this ceremonial experience does not necessitate that you need to be marking a rite of passage or life transition. For some, it may be an immerseive experience of letting go, retreating, connecting to nature.
Click HERE to learn more
References
Davis, J. (2014). Diamond in the rough: An exploration of aliveness and transformation in wilderness. In D. A. Vakoch, & F. Castrillon, (Eds.), Ecopsychology, phenomenology, and the environment (pp. 46–63). Springer.
Foster, S., & Little, M. (1989). The roaring of the sacred river: The wilderness quest for vision and self-healing. Prentice Hall Press.
Foster, S., & Little, M. (1998). The four shields: The initiatory seasons of human nature. Lost Borders Press.
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