Discovering Liminal Spaces in Tarot and Oracle Cards
When you find the liminal spaces in your tarot and oracle cards, you are presented with keys that reveal deeper meaning in your readings. These liminal spaces open you to the mystical and crack your subconscious wide open.
And there are liminal spaces scattered all throughout your tarot and oracle cards!
Wondering what liminal means? The word liminal comes from the Latin word “limen”, which means threshold. To me, a liminal space, object, or place is one which transports you between the worlds. These are special places of magic that change your perception when you pass through or into them.
Before I lose you, let’s look at a few examples and what they might look like and what you gain from playing with these spaces in your readings…
Here we have the Ace of Pentacles from the traditional RWS deck.
Do you see the liminal space? The doorway?
What happens when you take yourself to that doorway? For me there are a myriad of questions that arise, and those questions help me to feel my way into the message of the card.
What’s on this side of the doorway? What’s on the other? Based on my question, am I afraid of the doorway? Why or why not? How does the door make me feel? The questions go on and on, drawing me deeper into my subconscious.
You are already engaging with the liminal when you sit down to do a reading.
A liminal space takes you just a bit out of the ordinary, into what feels sacred or extraordinary, and recognizing those spaces helps you grow your intuitive practice.
While on a walk in the woods searching for liminal spaces I wrote this:
“In the liminal spaces I come back to myself. In order to notice them, I have to be present with ME, my inner world, and how the essence of me is connecting with this deeply ethereal space... it is this beautiful reminder of personal power, exuberance—and Invitation— to be a part of something that is so much more than the busyness of my day.”
I want my readings to bring me to myself. When I pull out the cards I am attempting to gain understanding and clarity. I need to be present with myself, but I need to go beyond what I can grasp with just my ordinary mind. How about you?
This is one of my favorite 4 of Cups ever! Here in Deborah Blake’s Everyday Witch Tarot, this 4 of Cups is an excellent example of a card that wants to offer a liminal space to explore.
You could just focus on the man staring at the empty cups. But behind him is a doorway (instead of the RWS, disembodied hand) there is someone offering him a cup, standing IN THE DOORWAY.
The man will need to turn himself towards the threshold in order to see what is being offered. What is in that cup? What is inside the house, and
what is beyond the doorway? In your reading you may wish to ask yourself who you are in this card? Does the scene represent the situation you are asking about? How does engaging with the cup in the doorway influence the question you are asking? Going deeper into the liminal space you can ask: What makes the cup in the liminal space different from the cups on the table? Can you feel your way into that liminal space in order to experience the answer to your question or find a new perspective because of it? Imagine that the liminal space is the doorway. It takes you to a place where you are absorbed by what lies within the doorway and the power of it. Imagine the power of going from the reality of what’s inside the house, through the liminal spaces’ offering, and coming out the other side transformed by that offering, into the new world beyond. See how this card became so much more?!!
Don’t get caught up on doorways as liminal spaces.
You may perceive more than one space that calls out to you as a liminal space in a card you are looking at. Or maybe the person you are reading for may notice something that calls out to them, drawing them into the liminal.
In Cheyenne Zurate’s Wild Woman Oracle, The Goddess Incarnate there are several “liminal possibilities”: the window, the mirror, the moon or even the book. The liminal calls out to us and says, “I’m different. notice me!”
Trust yourself and let the tinglies, or whatever you call it, to point the way. Is there an object that really stands out? Is there one card in the spread that appears brighter, seems to hum, or wink at you? Let yourself step into the between and betwixd places and investigate.
There really are no rules in magic and divination, except the ones you impose on yourself.
So where do you see a liminal space here in Chris Ann’s Light Seers Tarot? Is it the disk as a whole, the center, the the golden field above the disk between her arms, or nothing? All are good answers and not the only ones available.
YOU must trust yourself and what you are being called to. Please ditch the formulas!
The word liminal wasn’t really used until the era of the Golden Dawn movement(late 1800s), and it finally became widely used in 1983. My point to telling you this is that meaning and significance change, just as you do.
Allowing yourself to explore tarot or oracles, not just through books or others’ ideas, but by trusting yourself, is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself!
If you are signed up for my newsletter (you can do so at the bottom of the page), then you probably have seen the exercise that goes with this blog post. You can try looking for liminal spaces in your cards and seeing what questions come up when you explore them.
In the meantime, tell me what you think of this idea and maybe how you already do this in the comments below!?
