Transition spaces and events have held mystical significance for millennia. Doorways, crossroads, public meeting places, village squares, windows, mirrors, archways, bridges….all of them suggest to us transitions from one place to another, one state to another, one moment in time to another. With minds that look for pattern and for bodies that seek for and look to experience order, we see these places as symbols for the transition periods of our lives. Moving from childhood to adulthood, from singular to partnered, from adult to parent, from parent to elder, and from this life to the next.
The between places, those spaces or moments of time where we are neither here nor there all us to connect with something beyond the pattern, to a reality that exists outside of time and alteration, apart from physicality and restriction. The between places have been imbued through tradition and mythology, fiction and fantasy, with the power to transform us into something other than ‘normal reality’. The between places become portals for the Other to enter our world and return magic and wonder to it. Or the horror depending on the type of books or movies you watch. There’s a reason we don’t want those college kids to go through that door in the basement. It’s not just a door, it’s a portal, and we all know what lies behind it.
The between places are a way in which we make intimate, personal connectivity with the numinous, with the sacred which stands outside of time. Walking through a doorway we not only forget why we entered the room, for a moment we experience the disjointed feeling that there is no reason to be other than here, there is no reason to be here, there is no reason. There’s just here. A reminder to be present in this moment. Look at your surroundings today and note how many between places and spaces you have around you in each moment. If each one is an opening to what could be, how much potential is at your fingertips?
