Liminal Spaces: The Forgotten Thresholds of Ancient Lore
- Bee Williams
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Throughout history, humanity has been fascinated by spaces that exist on the boundaries—places neither fully here nor there, where the lines between reality and the unknown blur. These are the liminal spaces, ancient thresholds where worlds meet, and the ordinary gives way to the extraordinary. This is the story of Liminal Spaces: The Forgotten Thresholds of Ancient Lore.
The Origins of Liminal Spaces
The term liminal comes from the Latin limen, meaning threshold. In many ancient cultures, these thresholds were seen as powerful, even sacred, spaces. They marked transitions, not just in physical location but in life itself—passages from childhood to adulthood, life to death, or even the mortal to the divine.
Rites of passage in ancient societies often emphasized this transition. For instance, among the Greeks, the god Janus presided over doorways and passages, his two faces looking both to the past and the future, embodying the very essence of the liminal. The Romans revered Janus as the deity of beginnings, endings, and all in-between, ensuring no journey or endeavor began without his blessing.
Mythological Thresholds and Supernatural Spaces
Myths from around the world feature gods, spirits, and creatures tied to liminal spaces. In Celtic folklore, the sidhe—fairy mounds—were believed to be entrances to the Otherworld, a place that existed alongside our own but on a different plane of reality. The Japanese Torii gates symbolize the transition from the mundane to the sacred, standing as portals to the divine realms of the kami.
Ancient crossroads were another potent symbol of the liminal. In Greek mythology, the crossroads were sacred to Hecate, the goddess of magic and ghosts. These intersections represented choices, change, and the thin line between worlds. Similarly, the Norse concept of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, was a cosmic liminal space, connecting the heavens, earth, and the underworld.
The Haunted Spaces of the Mind
Liminality is not just a physical concept but a psychological one as well. Adolescence, for instance, is a liminal stage between childhood and adulthood, marked by uncertainty, transformation, and the search for identity. Just as physical liminal spaces can feel eerie and disorienting, so too can these internal states.
In these in-between moments, the familiar rules and structures of the past no longer fully apply, but the clarity of the future remains out of reach. This psychological liminality can be both liberating and unsettling—a space where old identities are shed and new ones slowly take shape. It’s a time of heightened self-awareness, where every choice feels significant, and the search for meaning becomes urgent. Much like wandering through an unfamiliar hallway, one can feel both exposed and invisible, craving connection yet struggling to articulate their evolving sense of self.
Modern Reflections – The Backrooms and Beyond
In the digital age, the concept of liminal spaces has found a fresh form in the eerie, unsettling imagery of the Backrooms. First surfacing in 2019 as a creepypasta, the Backrooms capture the essence of forgotten places and the uncanny feeling of spaces stripped of their original purpose. This idea has since expanded into a sprawling fictional universe, complete with hostile entities and endless corridors—a fitting metaphor for the disorienting, ever-shifting nature of our modern world.
What makes the Backrooms particularly resonant is their ability to tap into a collective, almost primal discomfort with the banal and the forgotten. They mirror the fragmented, disconnected experiences that often define our online lives—endless scrolling, virtual anonymity, and the blurring of reality and simulation. In this sense, the Backrooms aren’t just about fear of physical spaces but also about the psychological disorientation of existing in a hyper-connected, yet strangely isolating, digital age. Like the flicker of a fluorescent light in an empty office, they hint at the unsettling undercurrents that lie beneath our curated digital personas and polished social feeds.
Why We Fear the In-Between
Liminal spaces, both physical and psychological, force us to confront the unknown. They are places without fixed purpose, moments without clear direction, and states without defined identity. Whether in ancient myths or modern horror stories, these thresholds capture our deepest anxieties and fascinations, reminding us that, sometimes, the most terrifying places are those that lie between here and there.
References
Van Gennep, A. (2019). The rites of passage. University of Chicago Press.
Simpson, R., Sturges, J., & Weight, P. (2010). Transient, unsettling and creative space: Experiences of liminality through the accounts of Chinese students on a UK-based MBA. Management Learning, 41(1), 53-70.
Huang, W. J., Xiao, H., & Wang, S. (2018). Airports as liminal space. Annals of Tourism Research, 70, 1-13.