Paper short abstract:

The paper studies how the places where religious and magical rituals aiming to contact with the supernatural and the divine occur, are transformed into intermediate spaces that permit the approximation of the two spheres.

Paper long abstract:

The successful communication between human and supernatural beings or forces was a complicated procedure involving many parameters. One of the greatest importance was the place where these encounters occurred and although there are various types of ritual practices aiming to establish a connection between the two spheres, they have something in common: the creation of an intermediate- or transitional- place, in the natural space, that could work as a sheltered meeting point. In this paper, I will present some religious and magical rituals, emphasising and analysing the way in which the transformation of the place into a space in-between the two spheres is achieved and how essential is this transformation for the manifestation or even the revelation of the supernatural.