• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Eleni Gage

Author, Journalist, Pop Folklorist

  • About
  • Books
    • Lucky In Love
    • The Ladies of Managua
    • Other Waters
    • North of Ithaka
  • Blog
  • Articles
    • Travel
    • Essays and Reviews
    • Lifestyle
  • Talks
    • Book Clubs
  • Contact

The Liminal Stage

Navigating a modern world with the help of time-tested traditions

What is a Liminal Stage?

Liminal stages are psychological thresholds, times of transition when we stand “betwixt and between” one state and another. The biggies are birth, marriage, death-cultures develop splashy rituals around these transitions to ease the anxiety they provoke. For the smaller, but significant, crossroads we traverse every day, I offer the celebrations, superstitions, and coping mechanisms found in this blog.

Memories, Mansplaining, and the Bestseller I Never Wrote

A couple of weeks ago I woke up thinking about a man who is not my husband. He’s someone I went out with over a decade ago and there was no reason he should have popped into my head, except: Dr. Jill Biden. The night before, with my children safely asleep and my husband in…

Read more about Memories, Mansplaining, and the Bestseller I Never Wrote

Young Love: Spellbound by Syros

The challenge of travel, for me, is time. My nostalgia vein runs deep, so I constantly want to return to the places I love, and when I’m there, I wander around narrating what makes each spot meaningful to me. “This is where Papi and Mami got married,” I tell my children each time we pass…

Read more about Young Love: Spellbound by Syros

This Little Piggie Loves a Do-Over

It’s the most wonderful day of the year: Lunar New Year. Although I’m not Asian and don’t follow a lunar calendar, I can’t help but get excited about this holiday because it involves so many of my favorite things. It’s not just the dragons and fireworks and lucky red and gold everything. (Some people walk…

Read more about This Little Piggie Loves a Do-Over

Mamma Mia III—Acropolis Tantrum!

Sorry to disappoint you, but that is not the name of the next sun-splashed singing, dancing delight coming to a cinema near you this summer. It’s a brief summary of the last week of my summer vacation, which saw me romping around Athens’ monuments, restaurants, and open-air cinemas with my kids in tow. Traveling with…

Read more about Mamma Mia III—Acropolis Tantrum!

It’s Your Lucky Day…And Everyone Else’s Too!

Right now it feels like everything is happening at once. Between the holidays, end of the year, my book coming out next Tuesday and regular work and #momlife, I walk around constantly feeling like there’s somewhere I should be and something I should be doing that I’m not. And pretty much everyone I know feels…

Read more about It’s Your Lucky Day…And Everyone Else’s Too!

Wild Orchids, Trees of Life, and Voting to Repair the World

“If everybody loved flowers, there would be no war.” That’s what George Psailas, the caretaker of the British cemetery on the Greek island of Corfu told me and the English-speaking visitors I brought to see the rare wild orchids that grow in the graveyard. I just smiled, thinking something had been lost in translation. I…

Read more about Wild Orchids, Trees of Life, and Voting to Repair the World

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 21
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Get lucky!

Subscribe to my blog,
theliminalstage for
updates, articles, and
auspicious rituals.

Eleni Gage

About Eleni

The daughter of a Greek father and a Minnesotan mother. I grew up in Athens, Greece, and the suburbs of Worcester, Massachusetts—
and became obsessed with cultural rituals and traditions along the way.

read more

Lucky in Love

is a guide to planning a wedding that’s unique, meaningful, and, above all, auspicious, with the help of customs from all over the world

Buy Now

Footer

Travel Writing

I love covering places that inspire me—from Greece to Nicaragua and everywhere in between—for outlets such as Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, InStyle and more. Join me on my trips here.

 

Essays and Reviews

From parenting to politics to pop culture, I’ve got opinions —and I’m not afraid to share them in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. Learn why I’m a bad mom here.

Lifestyle Articles

I may not always live my best life, but I’m trying to live a better one! I enjoy learning from the experts when writing about everything from reading more to wasting less. Pick up some tips here.

Copyright © 2023 Eleni Gage. All Rights Reserved.