Betwixt-and-between places are the places where things connect, allowing us to enter more interconnected realms and begin to heal our separation. They include the meeting of physical and unseen worlds at an axis mundiAxis mundi. A real, physical place in nature where the veils between the worlds are thin; the world-axis (World Tree) from which a shamanic journey is entered. Read the full answer, transitions in life, and gaps between what someone says and how they say it.
What does “betwixt and between” mean here? #
The phrase means in between. In Therapeutic Shamanism, it points to the cracks between separation that allow us to enter more interconnected realms. These places play a central role in shamanic practice.
Shamanic cultures understood the ordinary and shamanic worlds as running parallel, living with one foot in each. Modern people are generally hugely disconnected from that way of being. Finding where things connect is a way of beginning to heal the separation.
Why does that separation matter? #
Our animist ancestors lived as interconnected parts of nature. By contrast, modern people often encounter a domesticated natural world whilst distracted by phones, with little knowledge of it and difficulty recognising the sentience of their surroundings. We mostly experience the world as things, only some of which we regard as alive.
It cuts us off from experiencing our surroundings as living, sentient beings. The modern ideal of an independent adult is called into question too. Animist ancestors understood a healthy adult as an interdependent being, “a twig on a branch of a much bigger tree”.
“For a twig to declare its ‘independence’ would be both nonsensical and suicidal.” The same is true of humans acting as though we are separate from nature.
How is an axis mundi a betwixt-and-between place? #
An axis mundi is the starting point for a shamanic journey, a place in nature where physical reality and the unseen worlds meet. The veils between the worlds are thinner there, making entry into the shamanic realms easier.
Ideally, it is an actual physical place in the middle-worldMiddle-world. Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. “If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world.” Read the full answer, in nature and not human-made. It can change: different starting places tend to bring different flavours to the journey. See What is an axis mundi, and why does place matter? for the fuller practical answer.
Do betwixt-and-between places include transitions in life? #
Yes. Transitions and rites of passageRite of passage. The deliberate death-and-rebirth (separation → liminal → incorporation, after van Gennep) by which the childhood-built identity is dismantled and a new one, rooted in the Soul, is grown. The lost route to Adulthood. More about this are betwixt-and-between places too, alongside the axis mundi. Becoming a healthy adult means transcending childhood self-centredness, and a deliberately managed rite of passage helps make that transition.
Following the anthropologist Arnold van Gennep’s account of rites of passage, the liminal, or in-between, phase is full of potential, flux and interconnectedness. The person is taken apart and reformed “like a pupa in a chrysalis”, then returns to their community transformed, with a new role and place. See What is a rite of passage, and what did we lose when initiation disappeared? and Who was Arnold van Gennep, and what are the three stages of a rite of passage?
How can this matter in psychotherapy? #
Depth psychotherapy is also a relational practice. One way of going deeper is to notice gaps or inconsistencies between what someone says and how they say it. Those gaps are another kind of betwixt-and-between place.
Such a gap can act like a mini axis mundi, leading deeper towards lasting change and insights.
What can transitions within a journey mean? #
In a journey, moving from sea to sky, fire to land, or sky to underground can matter a great deal. Transitions are some of the most meaningful moments in a journey, suggesting movement, change, growth or a turning point.
Moving from sea to sky is described as moving from deep emotional and unconscious territory into perspective, spaciousness and thought. Descent from Sky to Land is often about embodiment, coming down into the body, being grounded and present. Descent underground or into fire demands something of the journeyer: it might be about facing the shadow, and it means surrendering to a process of being broken apart and forged anew.
These are liminal moments: in-between spaces that are neither one thing nor another.
How does the surrounding landscape affect an encounter? #
A dense forest can be protective, ancient and mysterious. Grassland is wide open, with nowhere to hide, and might ask something different. A mountain often speaks of effort, perspective and solitudeSolitude. Chosen aloneness from other humans: a healthy, essential Adult capacity, the opposite of loneliness (which is about the quality of relationship, not the quantity). Relational solitude is time away from the humans in the company of everything else. More about this; deserts bring silence, simplicity and stripping things back.
The invitation is not to decide the meaning too quickly, but to ask how it feels to be there. A snow leopard in the mountains has a different feel from a jaguar in the rainforest. Beings appear within a setting, and the setting is part of the teaching, not just a background.
How does a physical place become a starting point? #
To find an axis mundi for a Lower-WorldLower-World. The realm of Mother Earth: pure, unspoilt, wild nature, with no technology and no agriculture. Home of the Peoples and of our own Soul, and completely safe: feeling threatened in a journey is a reliable sign of not having reached it. Read the full answer journey, think of a real place in nature that you know, like and feel good about. It might be woodland where you walk the dog, a favourite tree, a beach, mountains, hills, a lake or even a park.1
The point is to connect the worlds, including this physical one, so the starting place needs to be actual, not imaginary. The person then imagines being there and looks at it anew with their shamanic eyes.
What does crossing from that place involve? #
In a Lower-World journey, the person notices an entrance to a tunnelTunnel. The descent at the start of a journey. Still middle-world territory, all the way down: the Lower-World begins only where you emerge. More about this. It may be under tree roots, a small cave entrance, an animal hole or even a pool that seems to have no bottom. The entrance is natural, not human-made.2
After examining it, the person enters, shrinking down if necessary, and follows the downward-sloping tunnel. At the other end they step into the Lower-World, a complete new world with sky, geology and vegetation, not somewhere still underground. The Lower-World is pristine nature; arriving amongst roads, cars, farms, hedges or fields indicates that the journeyer is still in the middle-world.
