Image and Pilgrim 1

In the processual form of ritual Turner talks about the rite of passage on pilgrimage as it accompanies change of place, state and social position in culture. He says that it consists of three phases: separation, limen and reaggregation. “The first phase detaches the ritual subjects from their old places in society; the last installs them, inwardly transformed and outwardly changed, in a new place in society” (pg 249). He says the liminal space is the transitional space in this rite of passage, where we are “betwixt and between” our detached state from society and our transformed self in society. On pilgrimage this is something that is very important because as Turner says, it removes any authority we had when we begun the trail and equals us out to those surrounding us. Here we are liberated from social structure. Turner lays out the transformative process as one that decenters the self in the liminal stage allowing for pilgrims to acknowledge the sacred power.