{"id":93395944,"date":"2022-12-28T16:43:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-28T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/?p=93395944"},"modified":"2022-12-28T16:43:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T16:43:00","slug":"the-illuminating-spark-liminal-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/?p=93395944","title":{"rendered":"The Illuminating Spark: Liminal Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some thoughts about winter and in-betweeness.<\/h2>
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(Image description: A photo of a lone, bare tree in a vast expanse of white snow and sky.) Credit: Photo by Fabrice Villard<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>

Winter is officially here, and it certainly came in with gusto! Much of North America experienced colder than usual temperatures and weather, which had some side effects on some of the local infrastructure. Thankfully, the issue is in the process of being resolved.<\/p>

The solstice and the recent flamekeeping shift went smoothly enough, but now that weird period of time between Christmas and New Year\u2019s has arrived. Time seems wibbly-wobbly, and days now run together.<\/p>

This strange time was nicknamed \u201cthe daft days\u201d, originating with the eponymous poem The Daft Days<\/a> <\/em>written by Robert Fergusson. It covers the time after Christmas through to the first Monday after the New Year, also known as Handsel Monday. The poem simultaneously mourns the temporary death of nature, revels in Yuletide merrymaking, and finally warns the celebrants and the reader to beware of the Black Guard, the authorities who would quell the overabundance of merriment.<\/p>

Overall, the daft days serve as a liminal break between the Old Year and the New Year, indicated by winter\u2019s silence but also the reveries carried out in homes. These stand as markers, the two points at which we exist within the season.<\/p>

During my flamekeeping shift, I did a \u201cwalk\u201d on the spiral hand labyrinth I have. Compared to other labyrinth designs out there, it\u2019s relatively simple, but it served its purpose. \u201cLiminality\u201d was the intention I focused on while using my non-dominant hand to trace the grooves. The experience wasn\u2019t immensely transformational, but I did learn a bit about what liminal can mean.<\/p>

In those moments, liminality can be quiet and full of potential. It\u2019s the moment before you take a leap into a pool or off a cliff. You could even consider it a leap of faith, in the appropriate context. It is both a rest point and a catalyst.<\/p>

With these concepts in mind, they had me pause to think of the Fire Festivals, the liminal points in between the solstices and the equinoxes. The upcoming Imbolc stands between winter and spring, carrying with it the new potential for wildlife, livestock, nature, and the spirit. Bealtaine is a plentiful period, letting us grow and thrive. L\u00fanasa brings the harvest for both food and the self, so that we can acknowledge how far we\u2019ve come. Samhain begins the cycle anew as we\u2019ve harvested what we\u2019ve gained and learned for a hopefully better future.<\/p>

These aren\u2019t traditional viewpoints, but there\u2019s merit to more deeply understanding the seasons and points in between them. With them, we learn more about gratitude, the inner workings of nature, and ourselves in connection to it all.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some thoughts about winter and in-betweeness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93395944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93395944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93395944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93395944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93395944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93395944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93395944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}