Liminal Moments
encounters in the intermediate universe
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Arriving
It’s been a very long time since I’ve been awake early enough to watch the night turn into day. When our shetland sheepdog Quinn was young, he would wake up every day at 5:30 am. He and Molly, our other sheltie, are older now, content to sleep later and prowl around the house until I get up around eight.
Back then, I took them out first thing and routinely got to watch the moon when it was still visible in the early morning sky. Back inside, I would take a mug of steaming hot tea upstairs and watch Venus, the morning star, sail across the sky. As the sun broke the horizon, I watched as the birds started to make their way to the feeders.
That routine, like many others, has changed as the years have gone by. This morning was unusual after an unusual night. The full moon shone in my bedroom window and woke me several times last night. Just before six, I woke again and gave up on getting more sleep.
Being up so early had a peculiar sense of arrival for me, as if I was somewhere I was meant to be and had arrived precisely on time. Fourteen degrees was far too cold to brave, so Molly, Quinn, and I opted for a fire in the sunroom parlor stove, a cozy blanket, and front-row seats to watch the moon set across the pond, slowly sinking behind the tracery of bare tree branches, a natural cathedral if there ever was one.
Liminality
Liminal /lĭm′ə-nəl/
adjective
Intermediate between two states, conditions, or regions; transitional or indeterminate.
Existing at the limen. Used of stimuli.
Of or pertaining to a limen, especially a sensory threshhold.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Liminality
In anthropology, liminality is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the rite is complete. During a rite's liminal stage, participants "stand at the threshold" between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way. ~ Wikipedia
Places can be liminal. The Celts called them thin places. Certainly, sacred spaces like temples, sanctuaries, graveyards, shrines, holy wells, and more can be liminal spaces. Often built on ley lines, currents of natural earth energy, their natural energies have been imbued with the experiences of supplicants, pilgrims, priests, and parishioners over long periods.
Nature provides many liminal places. The edge of land and water, the horizon where the earth meets the sky, the root of the mountain, and the peak of the mountain are all liminal places. Even in our dwellings, we find liminal spaces. Often, the threshold of a door is considered a liminal space, marking the transition from one room to another or indoors from outdoors, and depending on which rooms and what is indoors and what is outdoors, they may be liminal spaces indeed.
Moments of time, regardless of place can also be liminal. Every day, we witness them, though we may not notice. That’s the bane of familiarity; it breeds contempt or at least dismissal of potent events which, by their ubiquity, are seen as commonplace and not worthy of our attention. These magical times become invisible to us.
Nearly every day, I am reminded how much our experience of life, the earth, and the human community has changed over the last fifty years. Each day, it seems we are devoured more by technology, the machine, and the screen. Our humanity and ability to perceive truth and beauty are eroding on a massive scale. For all of the angst about the climate and the environment, the general population, especially the younger generation, is more isolated from the once-common experience of encountering nature in any meaningful and substantive way.
Virtual reality has eclipsed actual engagement, whether growing food or flowers, raising animals, living in true communities where face-to-face social interaction is the norm, or simply spending free time walking, playing, or relaxing outdoors without being plugged into a screen or audio stream.
Even my generation has, for the most part, long ago lost any sense of the world as an enchanted, alive, powerful, meaningful, and spiritually infused place.
Let me take you into a liminal moment
The daily descent into darkness at the end of each day and the emergence and ascent into the light as day breaks, common events as they may be, are magnificent, awe-inspiring liminal moments that can jettison you into a cosmic drama divinely ordained and filled with high knowledge and mystery.
Arrive in this moment with me, and we will cultivate an awareness of greater cosmic energies and appreciate the daily movement from day to night and back again.
To do this, we must invoke the symbolic and esoteric meanings of the two heavenly bodies and the archetypal and Angelic presences that govern them. Here, we will leave behind the ordinary and enter into the imaginal realm, or what is sometimes known as the intermediate universe.
between the universe that can be apprehended by pure intellectual Perception, and the universe perceptible to the senses, there is an intermediate world, the world of Idea-Images, of archetypal figures, of subtile substances, of "immaterial matter." This world is as real and objective, as consistent and subsistent as the intelligible and sensible worlds; it is an intermediate universe "where the spiritual takes body and the body becomes spiritual," a world consisting of real matter and real extension, though by comparison to sensible, corruptible matter these are subtile and immaterial. The organ of this universe is the active Imagination; it is the place of theophanic visions, the scene on which visionary events and symbolic histories appear in their true reality. Here we shall have a good deal to say of this universe, but the word imaginary will never be used, because with its present ambiguity this word, by prejudging the reality attained or to be attained, betrays an inability to deal with this at once intermediate and intermediary world.
Henry Corbin, Alone with the Alone
The perception of the Earth Angel will come about in an intermediate universe which is neither that of the Essences of philosophy nor that of the sensory data on which the work of positive science is based, but which is a universe of archetype Images, experienced as so many personal presences. ~ Henry Corbin
In that realm, not only will you begin to perceive the Earth Angel, but The Angel of the Sun, The Angel of the Moon, and all the Angelic beings that govern the planets as you sit in the liminal space between night and day.
The Intermediate Universe
If you wake early while it is still dark during the three days of full moon and allow yourself to arrive at the liminal edge of the intermediary universe with a clear intention to see what your physical eyes normally would not, you have a good chance of receiving an extraordinary experience of soul and spirit.
If you have already worked with the Moon as La Luna, Artemis, Diana, Selene, or perhaps even Mary Magdalene as the Moon to Christ’s Sun, you will immediately feel her presence. She will float in the night air, full and ripe, guiding you back from the daily death of sleep and out of the Kingdom of Morpheus, the son of Somnus, the brother of Death, to the land of the living. You may, in fact, startle in wonder as you begin to understand the likeness of sleep to death and the dreamworld as closely akin to the world of living consciousness we share with the ancestors, the archetypes, the angles, and even the Divine.
The Moon, as High Priestess of the Mysteries who guards the knowledge behind the Veil, watches you and keeps you safe as you return once more to the land of waking perceptions. She is remote and cool, silvery and virginal yet ever watchful of her human charges. Though it is in her nature to be elusive, even deceptive, as she waxes and wanes over the course of a month, sometimes hidden, sometimes round, always changing shape.
As you sit in the last moments of darkness, you may wish to invoke the protection and wisdom of the Archangel appropriate to the day of the week as you arrive in the liminal moment. You can find a chart of the Archangels assigned to the hours of the day and the days of the week HERE.
The Aurora Consurgens, an alchemical manuscript often attributed to St.Thomas Aquinas but generally considered to have been penned sometime between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries by an anonymous cleric, comes to us as a rich and labyrinthine text weaving strands of theology, wisdom sayings, and alchemy.
In the Aurora, we meet seven women. We find these seven (perhaps a remembrance of the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades) in exile. Together, they are imprisoned. Their prison may be real or a metaphor, resulting from the desire they all share for one husband. The seven women in the Aurora are understood to be fragmentations of Sophia. They are the spouses of the seven planets that have fallen. They are waiting for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which will allow us to understand the seven alchemical processes.
In the Aurora, we catch a glimpse of the notion that the classical Seven Planets (the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Saturn) are not simply inert matter, dead and unconscious. They, like Sophia, the Divine Wisdom, are enlivened by essences or angelic presences that are living and real in the intermediate universe, the imaginal realm.
As you sit in the early morning under a full moon and attune your inner sense, your active imagination, to the liminal moment of the night being overtaken by the day, you may begin to recognize the vast cosmic entities and energy at play. You may even feel yourself swept up in the drama of the greater workings of both the primary and the intermediary universe.
You have traveled during sleep into the Realm of Dreams, and now you are journeying back to the world of day. You are also witnessing the ordained rising and setting of the Sun and Moon, a relationship of give and take, opposite and complement, that teaches a deep mystery about our conscious (sun) and unconscious (moon.) You may also receive hints or even entire downloads of information about the nature of reality.
Experiences like these only come when we are freed from the machine and the deadness of the modern concept of the universe. You are equipped, designed, and even meant to engage in the experience of the liminal spaces that take you into the intermediary universe.
As strange as these places may seem, you will soon find your inner being deepening, growing, and your worldview expanding, nourished with mystery, meaning, and purpose. The way in can be as simple as arriving at the edge of night, just before dawn, and communing with The Moon while asking the Divine Wisdom to teach you.
Wonders and holy mysteries are all around us. There are many jewels in the crown of the Western Way that are worthy of study and will help you regain the natural ability to engage with higher realities.
Nature offers one path. The sky and stars, particularly when combined with older Western cosmologies and astrology, are another avenue. If you are interested in cosmologies before the modern period, I recommend The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis. Biblical studies and the Kabbalah provide yet another road to travel, as does alchemy. Tarot, with its rich imagery, is a goldmine of deep wisdom and can easily be combined with all of the above paths.
If you would like to begin a journey into the intermediate universe, in March, I am offering Tarot readings that will present three archetypal cards from the Major Arcana that reveal what energetic patterns are presently at work in your life, along with a single card from the Minor Arcana which will illuminate how those patterns are showing up in your everyday life. From there, I will guide you in a time of active imagination (similar to a guided meditation), during which you will have an opportunity to retrieve information from that realm that will benefit you. Plan on taking notes during the session.
The one-hour Archetypal Discovery Session is $99, or $79 if you are a paid Hedge Mystic subscriber.
My approach to Tarot is both psychological and spiritual. It’s not about fortune-telling or predicting lottery numbers. What it will do is connect you to your own inner wisdom, the currents of unconscious intuitive knowledge inside you, and the deeper archetypal energies at play in your life. You can expect relevant insights, transformational ways of looking at your situation, greater clarity, and understanding of yourself, where you are now, and where you are heading. A Tarot reading from me is illuminating and supportive, offering you guidance and confidence as you follow your life’s path.
Today’s essay explored ordinary experiences like waking up early, how morning routines change over time, watching the moon set, and how our culture has changed over the last half-century in ways that have disconnected us from nature, enchantment, and a living spiritual cosmology. We also took a deep dive into what is always happening around us on other planes of existence. This might be new to some of you, or it may be familiar territory. What parts of today’s offering struck a chord with you? What intrigued or dismayed you? What did you find compelling, and what would you like to explore more?
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SOURCES
Thanks to @lux_e_tenebris3x3 on Instagram for providing a well-written and concise summary of this portion of the Aurora Consurgens from which I have drawn some of the information above
Liminal spaces are among my most visited.
I'm a early riser, most often rising in the darkness.
I honor the resonance here in your words.
This!!!! All of this has been so top of mind lately. So eloquently put and just magical and inspiring as always. Daybreak and nightfall are truly Download O'clock.