Keeping it sane during liminal times
Keeping it sane while also holding the tension of the opposites in these initiatory times of death & rebirth.
Liminal times have their own geography
To understand is to stand under - it's to know the depths.
Our human anxieties often create more challenges when dealing with change. We’re too quick to speak of ‘death & rebirth’, too easily seduced by that ampersand’s ‘slim-barely’ appearance. It's easy peasy—death and rebirth. The body is barely cold, and we’re on to rebirth.
But that ampersand is a whole landscape, a rich geography, with peaks and valleys that fill the space between who we were and what we are becoming.
It’s this geography - this richly Plutonian landscape that fascinates and scares me. My fascination with this landscape has risen out of my anxieties around the unknown that surrounds it.
Apocalyptic Times
Just that word alone stirs anxious thoughts, but for the ancient Greeks, ‘apocalypse’ meant to reveal, uncover, disclose, and discover. It’s not all about death; it’s also about what is breaking ground and being revealed and (re)discovered.
Just this week, my husband was asking me if we’re always, as humans, always going through liminal times. It made me think there are differing degrees of liminality: how the night swallows the day, how the day rises yet again anew; how we move through the seasons and stages in our lives. However, I think we live in uniquely liminal times now. Sure, every generation will say that their times were the most important, but due to our culture's global nature, it seems like this sense of something dying while another is pushing through is everywhere and in every sphere of our lives.
Our ancestors shared their experiences through liminal times through their myths and their knowledge of ancient ways of knowing, too. So if it helps assuage our anxieties, we can remember that this is not our first rodeo - we’ve been here before, and our ancestors’ knowing lives in our DNA.
The birth contractions in liminal times
Death and birth are messy because they don’t follow our ‘rational’ purview. They pull us deeply to the duality inherent in our world: the physicality of it all and the spiritual that wants to soar. Thus, during the contractions of these threshold times, there’s a danger of getting caught in the sticky web of LITERALISM (the trollish cousin of FUNDAMENTALISM, which means lack of imagination.)
We get hyper-focused on the what-ifs, the anxieties, and the need to control through seeing things as black and white. We practically break out into hives when we see the interconnectedness of complexity and how there are more than fifty shades of grey.
Feeling disoriented and swept away by psychic forces beyond our rational boundaries is very easy. As fear constricts, we can lose sight of what matters and makes life worth living. We get caught by the choppy waves of the ‘daily drama’ barrage and cannot glimpse the larger story.
A mythic perspective helps us see the bigger picture during times like this. Astrology can help us stay sane and act in alignment with what we already have to bring to this cosmic potluck.
We’re each other’s midwives
In these initiatory times of death and rebirth; we're both death doula and midwives.
Last year, while my mother was ailing in the hospital, two of my friends also had parents who were having serious health issues. Sadly, one of my friends’ father passed away last Summer, and my other friend’s dad died at the end of March. Meanwhile, my dearest cousins who helped me so much when I was dealing with my mother’s passing, are now entering the stage of witnessing their mother in hospice.
In a short period, we’ve had to become each other’s midwives as we all witness death, journey through grief, and see the first shoots of rebirth in our lives. While it grieves my heart to see my friends and my cousins struggle, at least we can show up for each other as midwives to the moment. And at times, we take turns getting each other off the ledge by witnessing what is rising.
It indeed takes a village to traverse liminal times - personally or collectively.
“At the top of the mountain, I would begin to discover that the best thing I could do with fear is to build a shelter: a story shelter.”
Stories are meant to be witnessed
We are story weavers.
Telling stories is how we make sense of ourselves and the world around us. How stories are told also determines how we can imagine the future.
Owning the narrative is more than a PR strategy. It’s vital in helping us be co-authors (as in authority!) of what is unfolding.
Fear constricts our ability to imagine a more creatively affirming narrative.
What I love about Gareth Higgins’ quote from his book “How Not to Be Afraid: Seven Ways to Live When Everything Seems Terrifying” is the imagery of building a shelter—a container that not only protects but also serves as a container for gestating what is to be born anew.
I think that’s beautiful imagery for Saturn—the container, the vessel that will receive the inspiration of Neptune, channel the courage of Mars, gestate the pleasures of Venus, and focus the perceptive mind of Mercury.
Coming together to share our stories helps us be witnessed and to witness. In doing that, a spark of creativity, joyous courage, and inspiration is lit, unfurling in ways we cannot imagine. Remember that we’re all a node in the web of our world - what we do ripples further afield than we can possibly imagine!
And it’s time for better stories!
Even how we use astrology needs to expand our storytelling abilities. I strive for this, with more and less success, but I’m trying.
There’s so much in the current astrology that can motivate us, give us vision, and not feel bogged down by what I like to call ‘drama astrology’ - where something “big” is happening every week, like a red alert going across our 24/7 news cycle.
Looking for sanctuary amid cresting waves
What the world needs now more than ever is CREATION MAKERS.
In early 2020, as the lockdowns were in full force and we were all grappling with the twilight zone feeling, I gave a series of online talks called “Keeping it Sane” about the astrological transits. It was my way of being of service at such a discombulating time. In those online series, I offered a sideways look at what was happening, with the intention that it would help folks have a sense of meaning, while also activating their creativity to see and approach things differently.
As a Gemini, I love trying to find a new perspective on something that most people are hyper-focused on seeing in a certain way. And times such as these are a rich opportunity to expand our perspective, lest we fall (easily) into a dystopian nightmare.
As I mentioned in another post, times of change can bring up a lot of anxiety, but that’s not the only thing they bring. Times of change also unhook us from ‘past its sell-by date’ ideas that have been gripping us in place.
We may finally look at something that has held true to us, snap free of it, and take a step entirely out of our ‘norm’ - (insert sigh of relief!)
Crossing the threshold into the unknown can also be liberating! The liminal landscape can catalyze a reimagining of who we are, how we want to be in the world, and what we want to do! It can reinvigorate our lust for life!
Holding the tension of the opposites
By now, we know toxic positivity doesn’t do us any good, and that’s because it refuses to look at the shadow, pushing it underground. But when I look around at the news and many other so-called ‘thought leaders’ and influencers, I see a lack of ability to hold an ‘and-both’ stance.
Bad news sells faster than sex, cute babies, and puppies.
However, what we need now is to be able to hold the tension of the opposites withIN and withOUT.
Yes, I’m afraid, overwhelmed, worried, anxious (insert your word of choice), AND I ALSO hold hope. I’m exercising my creativity and honoring my joys. I feel the fear, but I don’t let it drive my car or even play DJ on my radio!
Now this isn’t a one-person show.
We need others to help. That’s why we’re midwives to each other in these times. We need midwives for each of us to give birth to a vision for a world worth living - not this techno-dystopian wet dream they’ve been pushing down our throats.
Who do we need to be during these liminal times?
In short, we need to approach these times, seeing both the forest while making their way through the trees.
We need to explore a different vision and not surrender to the fearmongering.
We need to be CREATION MAKERS willing to do their inner healing work, reimagine and transform perceived limitations into medicine, and actively create a more joyful world.
Lest it be known - understanding the astrology of the times won’t erase our anxieties.
But it can ignite our imagination and inspire us to dream of new vistas—if we honor the planets and do not become passive spectators. It surely can make things much more interesting and creative because nihilism is a boring disguise for hubris.
Time to tap into your CREATION MAKER self. Are you ready for it?
Enjoy & Thrive!
Vanessa Couto
