Earth is in an Ecotone: Are you?
Navigating the peril & promise of liminal space.
Hey friends,
Greetings to you, here upon the threshold of a new year.
According to Pythagorean numerology:
2025 has been a global 9 year (2+0+2+5 = 9).
2026 will be a 1 year (2+0+2+6 = 10 = 1+0 = 1).
This transition marks the end of one 9-year cycle and the start of another. It is a microcosmic expression of the grander threshold we are crossing as a planetary collective.
The world is moving through a massive transition — from one era to the next; from one way of knowing to the next; from one mode of shared meaning-making to the next.
This is a generations-long process measured in decades and centuries — grander in scale than any individual life, and yet, it intimately impacts each of us on a daily basis.
The threshold between two states of being is a liminal space. In nature, the liminal space between two ecosystems is called an ecotone. Earth is in an ecotone.
Have you noticed?
In the life of an individual, an ecotone can look like going from:
student to professional;
single to married;
maiden to mother;
old home to new house;
married to divorced; or
working to retired.
You are in an ecotone any time the skin of a given identity has become too restricting and must be shed before you can move forward.
In the life of a planet and her keystone species, it looks like:
long-established systems breaking down;
social norms dissolving;
ecological chaos;
disrupted migration patterns;
collective cognitive dissonance; and
mass extinctions.
The old story is no longer true. The new story is not yet clear. This is an ecotone.
The caterpillar is gone. The butterfly has not emerged. There is nothing but cocoon goo percolating with imaginal potential. This is an ecotone.
Alluring & Dangerous
The thing about an ecotone — it is ripe with both peril & possibility.
It is a moment of supreme vulnerability in which we are, by definition, unstable, unformed, betwixt & between states of being.
Without a clearly established identity defined by solid reference points, we feel disoriented, distraught, lost at sea, grasping for something solid to keep our familiar sense of self afloat.
But what if that familiar self is appropriately destined to drown in the waves of new information washing over it? What if the identity we see as safe harbor is actually the obstacle between us and the evolutionary leap for which we’ve been praying?
An ecotone — where forest meets prairie, for example — is an objectively dangerous place. An invisible lion may be waiting in the shadows, ready to pounce upon prey grazing just a few feet away.
At the same time, edge zones are known to be the most biodiverse areas on the planet. Where two ecosystems meet & mingle there are flora & fauna that exist nowhere else. Permaculture gardens aspire to maximize edge zones because they create the conditions for abundant new life to arise.
This is true in your own life too. There was valid danger when that one job or relationship didn’t work out. On some level, your survival was sincerely at risk. Where will I live? How will I eat? Who will I love?
Looking back you see that certain parts of you did not, indeed, survive the ordeal. This can be a source of grief even when you realize that the composted energy of those parts replenished your soil and laid the foundation for new forms of life to arise.
This is true of Earth as well. Things are falling apart (gestures broadly at everything). It is both abstractly terrifying AND the dangers are all-too-real.
And yet, the confusing swirl of the world contains all the ingredients needed for a complete re-imagination of what it means to be human on Earth.
The crumbling of what has been is prerequisite for the magnificent embodiment of what will be.
What an alluring & dangerous time to be alive.
Time & Space
An ecotone is defined by two primary factors: time & space.
TIME
Examples of ecotones in time include:
Dawn & Dusk;
New & Full moons;
Equinoxes & Solstices;
The Great Ages (Age of Pisces moving into Age of Aquarius, for example).
SPACE
Examples of ecotones in space include:
Where Forest meets Prairie;
Where River meets Ocean;
Where Village meets Wilderness;
Where Atmosphere meets Outer Space.
Of course, time & space form an interdependent continuum — it’s always sunrise somewhere; the time-keeping tides keep the space between land & sea ever-changing..
HUMAN
Examples of ecotones in a human life include:
Moving from one city to another;
Switching from one job to another;
Changing from one relationship dynamic to another;
Evolving from one phase of life to another (e.g. adolescent to adult; maiden to mother).
Though all of these scenarios are unique in their own way, and vary further according to individual circumstances, they speak in a universal pattern language.
Once deciphered, this language communicates the precise nature of your particular ecotone, providing:
insight about what has been,
premonitions of what might be, and
the thresholds you need to cross along the way.
This is what we do at Ecotone Academy.
If you find yourself in an ecotone of your own, we have decoder rings and treasure maps that will help you navigate that treacherous territory and retrieve the gold buried below the infamous X.
2025 is gone. 2026 is not yet here.
This is the ecotone of the year AND the ecotone of a decade-long cycle.
As these two ecosystems meet, what does the flora & fauna of your inner environment tell you about the unique nature of each side of the divide?
The last time we switched from a global 9 year to a 1 year was 2016-2017.
What was happening for you then?
What has been your story for the past 9 years?
What are you bringing with you?
What are you leaving behind?
What will be your story for the next 9 years?
The week between Christmas and New Year’s is an ecotone — a transitory, fleeting time & space where the normal rules don’t seem to apply.
I invite you consciously linger in this liminal space of the year. Don’t look back. Don’t look ahead. Just let your imaginal cells percolate.
Get some rest, when you can, or go for a walk. Do nothing but notice what you notice. Listen, and I promise, the ecotone is speaking to you, through you.
Let your 2025 self be lovingly composted. Quietly know the secret seeds of 2026 are germinating now, preparing for their triumphant push through the topsoil of your awareness.
What you can plan is too small for you to live. What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough for the vitality hidden in your sleep. — David Whyte, "What to Remember When Waking"
More soon. Until then, I am here with you.
