Paige Dwyer-Image and Pilgrimage (1)

In Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture they give proper definitions for certain terms such as ritual, symbol, liminality, communitas, structure and flow. Ritual is a formal behavior prescribed for occasions not given over to technological routine that have reference to beliefs in mystical beings or power. Prior to reading this description of a ritual, I would have said that it is a ceremony that is a performed in memory of someone or something. A symbol according to Turner, is distinguished from a sign by both the multiplicity of its meanings and the nature of its signification. There is some kind of likeness between the thing signified and its meaning. My idea of a symbol is simply a representation for something else. Liminality was a new term to me that means the state and process of mid-transition in a rite of passage. Liminars are betwixt and between. The threshold of a door can be an example of something liminal. It isn't quite inside nor outside. Communitas is a term used for hikers on a trail such as the Appalachian Trail. it is a relational quality of full unmediated communication between definite and determinate identities. The term is closely related to community; however, they are two very different things. The term community, or structure, has attributes in association with the following: state, partiality, heterogeneity, inequality, distinctions of rank, complexity and avoidance of pain and suffering. Flow is the merging of action and awareness, the crucial component of enjoyment. We can easily relate to this idea in activities such as intently playing an instrument, playing a sport or taking an exam. It requires total concentration and immersion, without any room to focus on anything other than the task at hand.