Approaching the Threshold
Dear Readers,
The year is declining. Here in the northern city where I live, darkness shrouds the world in the mid-afternoon, and icy temperatures keep us huddling indoors. There is a feeling of the universe contracting—but I feel in my bones that this is only the final stage before something new is born. In the Roman pantheon of gods, Janus, who gives his name to the month January, was a gate-keeper, ushering us across the threshold of a new year. Our new call for submissions is therefore on the theme of crossing the threshold. Editor Marco V. Morelli writes:
From one year to another is a banal example—but what about one kind of society (or political regime) to another? One state of consciousness to another? Or one stage of life to the next? How about the collapse of a civilization or the sprouting seeds of its rebirth? Or the ineluctable phase-shifts in any kind of relationship? Or ecological transitions on a global or local scale? Or shifts in technological paradigms? Or the transubstantiations of artistic movements?
Have you got something to share with us on the theme of thresholds? You have until 19 January to send us your work!
Speaking of thresholds, Metapsychosis, and the associated Cosmos Co-op, are working hard to get across one that is particularly dear to our hearts. While this project was started on a shoe-string, it has always been our goal to be able to pay our writers and artists fairly for their work, advocating for their value in a society that consistently devalues creative endeavour. That also means paying for the often invisible labour of publicity and technical support. If you would like to help, please consider giving to our Indiegogo campaign that will be running until the end of 2024. At the time of writing , we are 11% of the way to our goal, with 24 days left. Let’s get us over the threshold to become a sustainable, paying market for creative workers!
As an example of the amazing work we’re featuring on Metapsychosis, this week a poem and a short story from our Creature Consciousness series both radically shift the viewing frame to move humans out of the centre and put our world in a new light. “Eye O Yew” by Strobus invites us into the point of view of a yew tree in order to give the reader an unusual perspective on human history with all its intellectual achievement and brutality, and ultimately recenter us in the world of ritual and nature. Meanwhile, Tom Carlson’s short story “The Library” recounts a startling encounter in the afterlife in which a human discovers that they may not be the star actor in the movie of their life.
Cosmos Co-op writers are also making waves beyond our website. L.E. Maroski, the author Embracing Paradox, Evolving Language, talked with Open Mic UK. You can listen to a recording of this rich and wide-ranging conversation here.
If you love the work we’re doing at Metapsychosis, consider joining us. It might be the community you need to cross the threshold into the unknown and exhilarating times ahead of us.
Until next week,
Mary Thaler
Associate Editor, Metapsychosis journal
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