Defining Imagination, Ritual, & Threshold
A Framework for Inner Christmas and all practices of Inner Development
In reimagining Inner Christmas this year, I realized that over 21 years of Inner Christmas, I had never defined three core words essential to our inner development: Imagination, Ritual, & Threshold.
Below are definitions that are good enough from my perspective. I could refine and elaborate further on each, as these are not the definitive definitions. It was an exciting challenge to define.
I hope you find comfort and clarity in these Higher Understandings. Higher means they are not the ordinary definitions, but definitions alive with spiritual design.
In looking for an image, I found my choice and had the imagination of waves as an image of ritual, the horizon as threshold, and the sky as imagination.
Please share your response to the definitions in the comments. Do these feel right? Do they consecrate the words…make them holy?
Imagination
Definition: The living spiritual truth and the higher reality that lives beyond the senses and the intellect.
Elaboration: Within this framework, Imagination is not mere fantasy or simple cognitive creativity, but the very substance of the spiritual realm. It is the dynamic, primary reality from which all other realities flow. It acts as the direct, inherent way in which the soul perceives and interacts with the divine or ultimate source, making it the most authentic and vital form of truth.
Ritual
Definition: An enlivening, nurturing, and cultivating cycle of imagination.
Elaboration: Ritual serves as the practical, cyclical process designed to consistently engage, feed, and strengthen the connection to the Imagination (the spiritual truth). It is the conscious practice that prevents the higher reality from becoming dormant or abstract. Through its deliberate structure and repetition, Ritual establishes a rhythmic flow that allows the spiritual force accessed in the Imagination to be embodied, anchored, and grown within the individual’s life.
The Threshold
Definition: The Inner imagined location where your soul directly experiences the spiritual source, force, and gesture to imagine beyond the last imagination.
Elaboration: The Threshold is the sacred, liminal space—created and held by the practice of Ritual—where the perceived boundaries of self and spirit dissolve. It is the point of direct communion where the soul is immersed in the raw, dynamic energy (source/force) of the spiritual truth (Imagination). Crucially, it is not just a receiving point, but an initiating point: it provides the impetus or gesture necessary to transcend previous limits of understanding and creativity, pushing the soul to conceive of a new, expanded layer of the higher reality.
From Earthly Nouns to Spiritual Verbs
If you would like to consider a deeper understanding of Imagination, Ritual, and Threshold, not as objects or nouns, but as spiritual actions or verbs, here is a link to a Google Doc that weaves these three phases of Inner Christmas into spiritual activity.
Tomorrow’s post will bring descriptions of Angels, Archangels, and Archai and their role in our unique experiences during Inner Christmas.
It came to me that imagination is a mental exercise, ritual an act of will, and the threshold a place we experience when we engage both, a merging of the spiritual and physical worlds. That's what Christmas is all about!
Inspiring!