Te Wheiao

“Te Wheiao” is a Maori term that describes “a space between the world of darkness and world of light... a transitional or liminal space” – so said my lecturer, Cleve Barlow. This wheiao comes to mind when playing with LA-ShT-AL in Reguli, the wheiao equating to Sht. There is continuous flow from LA to AL, from NO thing to creation, through the liminal space that binds them. And we know from Liber AL that “There is no bond that can unite the divided but love.” With Lashtal, all three aspects assume equal importance combining in Reguli to form a triune name of God, and the formula by which we properly incant the Energies of the Aeon of Horus. One might say that we ‘properly incant the energies of the Aeon of Horus’ by giving proper place to these triune parts of self. Or that the formula of the Aeon is to return these aspects to their natural place. That is to say, that the formula LAShTAL, returns Sht, or the inbetween, to its rightful place of importance. Feminists equate this liminal space with the state of chaos, rather than the lineal evolution of thought that is the western philosophic canon, and as such lay claim to it as their own place of enlightenment. The flow of breath in man is as an infinity sign and, as man is the image of the triune God, similarly the triune breath of life proceeds through the inhale, the exhale and the space in between. Says Jones in XXXI, “It is very wonderful to think how whenever one breathes silently, one is pronouncing that True and Ineffable Name.” I also recall Cleve likening a whare to a living ancestor. The door of the whare is the vagina. One enters into the womb of the ancestors by entering the whare, but the doorway itself is the liminal space – te wheiao. From Maori mythology we also have the story of Maui who attempted to make mankind immortal by trying to crawl through the body of Hinenuitepo, entering in her vagina (the liminal space) to reverse the path of birth. So, this liminal space is one of returning to the ancestors, of transition and initiation. In fact, the word “liminal” comes from the Latin, limen which means threshold and also doorway. In “subliminal” it is below perception and the doorway to the subconscious. It is also included in “sublime” – “to cause to pass directly from the solid to the vapor state and condense back to solid form” – AL and LA. And as sublime it is also “exalted.