Meanings of ‘Threshold’

Photo credit: Martha A. Strawn

A “threshold” is both the edge and the point of change. It's the liminal space between the known and unknown.

The late Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue spoke about the word in an interview:

“If you go back to the etymology of the word “threshold,” it comes from “threshing” which is to separate the grain from the husk. So the threshold, in a way, is a place where you move into more critical and challenging and worthy fullness. When we cross a new threshold… we cross into new ground.”

‘Crossing the Threshold’ is also a stage of the mythic story. In his book The Writer’s Journey (1992), Christopher Volger says: ‘Here, the protagonist needs to leave the known world and venture into the unknown. It’s the moment when the story takes off’.

The image above is from a book by Martha Strawn about an Indian art form known in Tamil Nadu as the kolam. These artworks are created daily to sanctify the threshold by women who learn the practise from their mothers and older female relatives. Rice flour is the traditional medium, inviting ants, smalls insects, and birds to be nourished, as the kolam becomes “the feeder of a thousand souls”.

Threshold art is a daily devotion to harmonious co-existence, welcoming other beings into one’s home and life. Among those welcomed is the goddess Lakshmi, who is invited to depart her heavenly abode and rest momentarily at the threshold.

Filmmaking feels to me like a threshold art; a welcome mat laid down in the known world to meet the unknown, an invitation to others to come and be nourished by story.