Nicolas Maxim: Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Rites de Passage

In Turner and Turner's book, they describe how all the "rites de passage are marked by three phases: separation, limen or margin, and aggregation" (Turner & Turner, 1978, p. 2). When we look deep into the three phases we begin to see that they lead into each other. Separation is a detachment or isolation of one from a previous group or collective. I feel that an individual will only start this stage if they are in search of something different in their life. This searching stage is what starts the domino effect of the three phases. After finishing the separation phase the individual will be in a state where he/she is in between two worlds. I feel that this phase is a transformation phase where the individual has no pressure and is a point where they can really decide what they want. Turner (1978) says that the liminal phase is where the individual becomes ambiguous, and begins a state at which he has few or none attributes of the past or upcoming state. The third phase is where the individual returns to the life that he use to live. The individual is most likely in a different social group than he was before the separation and the liminal state. Unlike the liminal state, this state is a point where the subject once again has structure to follow and rules to abide by.

When I think of this description of rites de passage by Turner and Turner, I think of many times in my life where this occurs. One example that comes to my head is school structures. When going to classes for a semester I am in one state of structure that I must live by for nearly four months. Once picking classes for the next semester I am beginning that phase of separation from the current social and class structures that I have been living by. Over Christmas break or summer I enter the liminal phase where I have no structure to abide by and no classes to attend. At this time I can think about the direction my life is going and decide whether or not I want to continue doing what I'm doing. All of my school friends are at home so I am essentially by myself away from the people I spend most of my life with. Starting the next semester is what begins the third phase where new social structures and new classes begin. I have now returned to a state similar to the one I was a part of before, but in many ways different.