The Threshold

An Automatic Writing Ritual from Kate Belew

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Welcome to part 2 of our series on Creative Mediumship, The Threshold: An Automatic Writing Ritual with Kate Belew. In these conversations, we’re exploring the intersections of creativity, consciousness, trance, magick, and imagination. If you’re new to the Literary Coven, start at the beginning with Creative Mediumship: Spells for Spring. Join the Literary Coven for a journey into and through the landscape of the unseen.

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Literary Magic: Automatic Writing Ritual with the Threshold 

The liminal is the territory of the witch; the liminal is where the word witch turns for creative inspiration. Liminal spaces are thin places and home to myths, magic, and creativity. The word liminal comes from the Latin limen, meaning the threshold. 

The threshold is the archetypal place where a writer can turn to connect with their creative impulse—that which compels the writer to put pen to paper. The threshold is a place where things are made different. It is a ritual space. The etymology of threshold comes from the word threshing, which is the act of loosening or separating the edible part of grain from the straw and husk. It also comes from the word entryway, a way through, a starting point. A threshold is a place that separates one moment of life from another, a blessing, an initiation. Once you cross a threshold, there is no returning to the way things were in the before times. 

William Blake said, “In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors.” Doors are everywhere. A door opens, a door closes, one journey ends, and another begins. The threshold is a liminal space. At the threshold sits a door. 

Becoming familiar with this in-between place is the work of a Word Witch and the literary magic maker. Wherever the element of spirit lingers, find the betwixt and between. An empty page is a threshold, a portal, a place to scry and conjure and beckon words forth from. Sitting in front of an empty page, imagine that it is one of these doors. On one side of the door is where you are now, Word Witch, and on the other side is a story. 

One of the favorite tools of Word Witches is the ritual of automatic writing. Using this practice, we will connect with the archetypal threshold through the page. Automatic Writing is a ritual approach to writing that can help you shake off your waking consciousness and tap into a more significant or collective consciousness that you can then channel onto the page. Automatic writing is a form of channeling and divination. It can produce different types of writing: poetry, prose, lyrics, unrelated words, and fragments. Or even symbols and drawings. 

A Writual for Communing with the Threshold 

Step One: Set your intention for your practice. For today, consider “I intend to connect with the archetypal threshold,” or, “I intend to connect with the liminal and my creativity.” 

Step Two: Create an anchor statement and write it at the top of your page so you can easily refer to it. An anchor statement is a single line repeated until the words begin to flow. It can work as a repetitive litany, an opening, or a phrase to return to if you lose your train of thought over the exercise. For today, consider, “The threshold says/teaches/guides.” 

Step Three: Set a timer for a specific amount of time. For this exercise, you might consider ten minutes. 

Step Four: Write continuously and without pause, allowing your words to flow without trying to “make sense” of them. These pages are just for you, so feel free to express yourself without judgment or fear. If you can write by hand, that’s the preferred method. See how your handwriting shifts and changes. If you don’t know what to say, return to your anchor phrase, but do not pick your hand up from the piece of paper until you hear the timer go off.

Step Five: Re-read and reflect on your writing. In today’s exercise, consider what the threshold had to teach you, what the liminal wanted to say, and what you learned from spending time in the in-between place, communing with your creative magic. 

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Join Kate Belew and Kristin Lisenby in their creative coven, The Crossroads: Sacred Stories & Potent Plants, The Luminous Months April-September, to explore myths, symbols, and to practice word witchery under the dark moon here. And craft weekly word witchery with Kate Belew on her Substack Word Witch here. 

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