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Episode 76: Liminal Spaces
632 Plays2 years ago
Welcome back Witches! This week we're taking on the topic of Liminal Spaces. This means those spaces that serve as an in-between or as a transitional space! This was such a fun and interesting episode for us to research, so we hope that you learn at least 1 new thing today! So get in losers and let's talk all about those Liminal Spaces.
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References:
- Blanchfield AMFT, Theodora (2023). The Psychology Behind Liminal Space: A Transitional Place or Time That Can Feel Unsettling. Very Well Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/the-impact-of-liminal-space-on-your-mental-health-5204371
- Hoyt, Alia (2023). Why Do Liminal Spaces Feel So Unsettling, Yet So Familiar? How Stuff Works. https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/architecture/liminal-spaces
- Rayne, Allorah (2021). Liminal Space: Spiritual, Magickal and Personal Places In-Betwixt. Otherwordly Oracle. https://otherworldlyoracle.com/liminal-spaces-spiritual-magickal-personal/#:~:text=These%20magickal%20liminal%20spaces%20are%20personal%20times%20of,dimensions%20flows%20with%20more%20ease%20than%20other%20times.
- Hutcheson, Cory Thomas. New World Witcher: A Trove of North American Folk Magic. (2021). Llewellyn Worldwide.
- BetterHelp Editorial Team. Liminal Space: What is it and How Does it Affect You? (2023) BetterHelp. https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/general/understanding-how-liminal-space-is-different-from-other-places/
- Youtube:Ivy the Occultist
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft and the occult but feel lost on where to start? Then welcome to Get In, Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we've learned about the craft. So get in, witches, as we learn all about liminal space hoods.
00:00:44
Speaker
So as a disclaimer for this episode, we have been having some crazy weather. So if you hear thunder or crazy winds, which they've calmed down for a while, hopefully it stays that way. But if you hear them, that's, that's just life. Yeah. Of course, my husband's not home.
Dog Behavior and Generational Trauma
00:01:04
Speaker
which means that my dog is freaking out at every little leaf that moves outside. So if you're in her parking, I also can't control that. She's a nervous belly. Oh, sweet baby Nick. She's like, mom, I'm saving you from the attackers, these leaves. Literally terrified of everything. And we've been doing this training program, which her last class is next Thursday, but I'm going to talk to the trainer about the next, like next group of classes because she is getting better, but like,
00:01:35
Speaker
Like day one of those classes, she was terrified inside that building. We couldn't have her to relax or calm down. And they have these little like mesh beds that are like up off the ground just a little bit. They call them climbs and we use them in training. Six weeks into training because we had a week off. Six weeks into training was the first time I was able to get her to put all four feet on this thing.
00:01:59
Speaker
Oh, she's making so much progress. I know. And what's funny about this is, too, is you would think that maybe she's had some sort of trauma or something. You've had this pup since she was four months old. Yeah. We adopted her at four months old. And she was born. Her mom was a shelter dog who was kept in a foster home, like how we used to foster puppies.
00:02:29
Speaker
she was born into a loving foster home. She was then like fostered by a really nice lady and her daughters that like almost adopted her because they loved her so much. Yeah, this dog has never known like
00:02:42
Speaker
like a bad life. She acts like it's just the end of the world for everything. And her trainer's like, sometimes that's just a dog, like you can't, just like people. I wonder, you know, it makes my social work senses buzz. It makes me wonder, because, you know, there's always this talk about generational trauma in humans. I wonder if there's generational trauma when it comes to dogs. I think that I feel like I remember hearing something in the past about generational trauma in animals.
00:03:11
Speaker
And it all makes sense with how generations evolve and how some animals, with the pigeons, how we domesticated them. And then we just basically were like, fuck y'all, we don't need pigeons anymore. And they've never been the same. So I wonder if her mama went through some trauma.
00:03:33
Speaker
I don't know. It's really sad. We actually were laughing this morning because the dogs are just like polar opposites. Like Nyx is, she's so sweet and so loving, but she's also like, she's not very trusting. She's anxious about everything. Like everything makes her nervous. She's scared of everything. And then Rune is just this like happy go lucky loves everyone. Like a little cuddle slut, like whoever will give him love. He's like, absolutely. And he's just like this goofy dog. And there she is barking.
00:04:06
Speaker
Sweet little babe. Yeah, she's probably gonna do that a lot. So if you don't like dogs barking, I guess skip this episode. So we love dogs, so we're going to, obviously, be here for it. There's the big scary thunder that she's got to protect the house from.
00:04:30
Speaker
That's our disclaimer. You're going to have lots of background noise, apparently. Because Illinois is in the Midwest, and we have shitty storms all the time. And my dog's terrified of everything, so she's going to let you know about it. Right, yeah. She's just like, Anne, I'm protecting you all from the thunderstorms and telling you all about it, and I really don't appreciate it. Thank you. She's like, I'm uncomfortable, and everyone's going to know about it. Oh my goodness.
Understanding Liminal Spaces
00:04:57
Speaker
So with that, we're talking about liminal spaces today. Yes. It was a fun topic to research. It really was a fun topic to research. I know we've mentioned it maybe a couple of times on the podcast, just in passing. But there's a lot of information out there regarding liminal spaces. I was really shocked at all the different kinds of liminal spaces, which we'll get into later. But for
00:05:26
Speaker
all of our podcast listeners, if you listen to this episode and you're like, I really like liminal spaces, I want to know more about them. I can't remember the episode, but I know that Keep It Weird podcast has an episode. I think it was even released last year, so it's a pretty recent episode where they talk a bit more about liminal spaces. I meant to go and listen to the episode before I started researching.
00:05:50
Speaker
And I know I'd listened to it before, but you know, just as a refresher, but then I forgot and I never did. But that episode, I just remember it was a really good episode. So so just to kind of give you guys a little bit of background, the editorial team of better help did an entire article on liminal spaces that is going to be in our show notes, but they define liminal space in a couple of different ways.
00:06:13
Speaker
So first they note that a liminal space is a threshold due to the etymology of liminal, deriving from the Latin word lemon, which directly translates into meaning threshold. And when I say lemon, it's L-I-M-E-N, not the yellow fruit. I said it and I was like, I mean, if you, if you're not looking at it, you're going to be like, a lemon went. Yeah. They also state that liminal spaces are transitional or transformative spaces.
00:06:42
Speaker
And that because of this, they are often associated with like a forlorn atmosphere, a disconnection from the concept of reality, and a fluid or sometimes neglected aesthetic. And lastly, they define a liminal space as being a waiting area between one point of time and space and the next.
00:07:03
Speaker
Liminal spaces is that in certain transition between where you've been and where you're going physically, emotionally, or even metaphorically. And again, we'll explore that a little bit later. But to be in a liminal space means to be on the precipice of something new, but not quite there yet. And so I've referenced this article from Tara Ogle down in our show notes.
00:07:26
Speaker
She says that liminal spaces are those places that occupy the spaces between. And I think that kind of is a perfect way to sum up what liminal spaces are if you were just trying to describe it to somebody and didn't know what to say.
00:07:40
Speaker
I also read that liminal spaces are said to be a space where the spirit world connects to the physical world, and that's like what makes them special. It's important to remember that the liminal space is that transitional space. So this can mean physically like a doorway, but it can also be a period of time, either in the day, the week, the month, year, or like even just someone's state of being, or even a transitional space within someone's life cycle. And this was interesting to me because
00:08:08
Speaker
When I thought about liminal spaces, I thought of it more like crossroads or like graveyards, like those kinds of things. I didn't even think about it being like a doorway or like a state of mind or like where you are emotionally. So it was, it was just really interesting to learn some of this stuff. In folklore, the concept of a liminal space is actually pretty important.
00:08:34
Speaker
because it often will represent a location that is not fully like of one world or another. It stands as a sort of like gray zone between two places. So we cross through liminal spaces all the time. And again, just using like the doorway as an example, like standing in a doorway can be considered both indoors and outdoors. So it's like a transitional space making it a liminal space.
00:08:58
Speaker
Creation and art also have a unique relationship with liminality because creatives will often utilize the liminality in various art forms as a way to provoke an emotional response from a person.
00:09:11
Speaker
And oftentimes people's perception of liminal spaces can be unsettling or stressful, anxiety inducing, and in some instances can trigger certain mental health conditions such as depression or even suicidal ideations. And for that reason, it's important to be aware of your own reaction to liminal spaces, learn about them, and then decide for yourself if using liminal spaces in your practice would be beneficial because it's not going to be something
00:09:35
Speaker
that's going to work for everybody.
Research Challenges and Physical Liminal Spaces
00:09:38
Speaker
Liminal spaces itself bring up many of these feelings that I just mentioned because tied in with the idea of liminal space is also the fear of the unknown and the fear of uncertainty, and for some people, they may not possess the emotional resources to cope with those types of feelings and emotions. But it's important to note that outside of any unsettling emotions that liminal spaces bring up, there's a lot of beauty in liminal spaces, and being able to appreciate that can take some time.
00:10:02
Speaker
in the research, it was really hard to initially find what I was looking for because a lot of it is tied to like horror or just like fear inducing things versus like the science of them or like what, what they are. A lot of it was like, look at all of these scary pictures that are liminal spaces and this is not what I need. So it's interesting like that there are spaces that just collectively as a human race,
00:10:32
Speaker
they unsettle you so much that even trying to research them, it's like, here's a horror movie that shows all these liminal, not movie, but a YouTube clip that shows all these liminal spaces to make you feel uncomfortable. It was interesting. Whenever I was researching this, I came across this YouTube video where he basically showed pictures of all these liminal spaces.
00:10:57
Speaker
It didn't really make me feel unsettled or anything, but it was just kind of weird. I'm just like, where did these pictures come from? And what it was was Lego boxes. That was the background of the Lego boxes. If it was an ocean-themed one, it would be this ocean reef situation underneath the water. But there's no fish, no nothing. So it looks unsettling in that way, because there's nothing there. It looks like a deserted ocean floor with a coral reef.
00:11:25
Speaker
And so like seeing that I'm just like, okay, like I see where he's going with this. But like, yeah, apparently Lego boxes remove the Lego like demonstration or like example of what is in the fucking box off of the cover. The background is like a liminal space.
00:11:43
Speaker
And I was like, okay, interesting. Interesting. So let's look at some examples of liminal spaces. Something to keep in mind is that while liminal spaces are often a literal and physical space, they can also be spaces within our mental states. Like we said earlier, it's said that liminal spaces will often feel unsettling to most people.
00:12:06
Speaker
And many have described the feeling being similar to the anxious feeling that you get when you're watching like a horror film. Even though they're often described as unsettling, they're also tied to spaces that feel very familiar to a person. And when I say familiar, I'm not meaning, Oh, this is a place that you've been, but a lot of times it could be a hope, like everybody's been in a hotel hallway. Like that's familiar to a person, but it's still a liminal space.
00:12:32
Speaker
The reason for this unsettling feeling is that transitions are unsettling for most people. It can cause them to feel a sense of disorientation or a loss of a sense of place since these spaces lack clear markers of identity or even ownership.
00:12:48
Speaker
Yeah, and so going into some of the different types of liminal spaces, the first one that we're going to discuss are the physical liminal spaces. This is probably the easiest of the examples to understand because physical liminal spaces are spaces we inhabit all of the time, but we often don't notice or recognize when we are inhabiting them because we may only inhabit a physical liminal space for a brief moment of time. So some examples of this are going to be like a stairwell or an elevator.
00:13:17
Speaker
These are spaces in between spaces that take you from one floor to the next, making them liminal spaces. So hotel hallways, like we said earlier, especially at nighttime, hallways in general are in between passing zones, but during low traffic times, like at night, they can give off the feeling of being like out of place because they lack a feeling of the familiar and can even induce a sense of anxiety or fear in a person.
00:13:45
Speaker
The unfamiliar and emptiness of them give hotel hallways in particular more liminal qualities than, say, the hallways within our own houses. Yeah, and also things like just doorways in general, which you mentioned already, trains, bridges, crossroads, which I think is something that we also discussed in our Hedgewitch episode as liminal spaces. Empty parking lots.
00:14:11
Speaker
because a parking lot in general is considered an end between space and they function in conjunction with other spaces. So the parking lot and the road or the parking lot and your final destination would be functioning as that in between. That's interesting. I never even thought of that before, but yeah.
00:14:31
Speaker
It is I feel like unsettling sometimes to be in an empty parking lot. Oh, for sure. I've never really like thought about why and it's because of that liminal space. And I guess kind of going with this like rest stops, especially like I there's some rest stops like we used to
00:14:49
Speaker
to pass all the time when we would be coming from illinois into Oklahoma like around Tulsa area and there's like they look like they made him into look like teepees and stuff and they're always a band like no one is ever there like we don't even want to stop here like let's just keep going like not even truckers like pulled off at these rest stops sleeping we were used to stop at that one because it creeps me out it
00:15:12
Speaker
Yeah, it creeps me out too. But also like waiting rooms, which I can see this because I feel like waiting rooms in a lot of places like they can be anxiety inducing anyway, because like, if you're in a waiting room for like a doctor or like a dentist or something, and you already have like medical anxiety and stuff like that can make it worse. But even just like the furniture and stuff like it's, it's made for a waiting room. And like nothing about it is comfortable or I don't know, like, it just feels odd. And I don't like it.
00:15:42
Speaker
Another would be like non-functioning places. So the idea is that when a space loses its function, that it becomes liminal. And this would also work in terms of like abandoned buildings since they have become like spaces that have lost their function. And when I say non-functioning places, like maybe a doctor's office that shuts down permanently.
00:16:04
Speaker
you know, it's not abandoned per se, but like maybe they've closed the practice, something like that. Another example that I saw under this like non-functioning places would be like non-functioning lighthouses apparently are very like, like highly liminal spaces.
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah. Also boundary zones, which we've discussed this not super explicitly, but basically we have. But these are just all these areas between indoor, outdoor, public and private, even here or there. Any of those that you would classify as a boundary between one place and the next, it's elemental space.
00:16:43
Speaker
And just because a space is empty doesn't necessarily mean that it's in liminal space. So an example of this is a person's home. So that isn't considered a liminal space because the resident of the home traverses the area all of the time.
00:16:57
Speaker
Because the person is living their lives in all spaces of the home, they might be taking note of the surrounding area and noticing things that are out of place or things that might need to be fixed or even just cleaned. So leaving your home to run errands or even take a trip wouldn't turn your home into a liminal space.
00:17:14
Speaker
But on the other hand, an airport bathroom or a hallway can be an elemental space because these are spaces where we don't normally spend much time. So just to make that clear as mud, hopefully that does because I feel like whenever I was researching some of the physical ones,
00:17:30
Speaker
it makes sense to me on more of just an understanding level, I get it. But also, if you think about it, really, there's so many things that can be liminal spaces that it's just like, it could be all of these things, if you think about it. Yeah. Yeah. That goes back to what I wasn't even thinking of a liminal space being something outside of
00:17:52
Speaker
things that we were talking about earlier, like across roads or doorways or something like that. But the fact that pretty much anything can be a liminal space if it fits a category, like if it's abandoned or non-functioning or empty when it shouldn't be. Or a transitional space, like we were talking about with the parking lot. It's wild to think that there are just so many spaces that are liminal spaces.
Emotional and Metaphorical Liminal Spaces
00:18:20
Speaker
And so going into more of like emotional liminal spaces, these are often thought of as a transitory period and we face many emotional liminal spaces throughout our life and throughout the different phases that we go through as humans. And in a lot of these instances, it appears like these examples might be an ending, but with each of these, while there are endings,
00:18:42
Speaker
it's an opening to another part of your life where you didn't know what to expect at the threshold of either side of a life experience is essentially what defines an emotional liminal space. Yeah, and this this one, again, this isn't something that I even ever thought of as being a liminal space. Yeah. So when I started looking at the research of like emotional liminal spaces, it was
00:19:04
Speaker
This was kind of like crazy to me, right? So divorce, divorce is a liminal space. There's a couple of things to note, like with divorce as a liminal space. And the first is that not only are there often like, like a divorce is often unexpected for at least one party, if not both, if it's not just like a, well, I guess we just need to get divorced kind of situation. But they're often a very uncomfortable time, like emotionally.
00:19:31
Speaker
The more obvious is that they're also a transitional period for the people involved. So like where marriage is often seen as a beginning of like a new life, divorce is seen as a way to transition into a separate life, making it have liminal qualities.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah. And so another one that is considered a little space is moving and that just kind of goes back into, I mean, obviously this is a physical one and an emotional one because like the physical act of moving to a new space, but then also with moving and this is something you're going through right now. I feel like you're in a very transitory, minimal space.
00:20:05
Speaker
But that process of moving, it's not even just the act of physically moving, but emotionally everything that comes with it and transitioning your life into a new space, a new place, so that can be a liminal space as well. And then also the death of a loved one, this is considered a liminal space. And really it's that going back to the definition of an emotional liminal space of
00:20:29
Speaker
Yes, there's an ending technically, but also like you as the person who has lost a loved one moving on to that next step in your life without that loved one present, that process is a liminal, emotional liminal process. Another one is job loss. And this is just another example of transitional liminal space. So like you lose a job and whether it's like transitioning out of that job and into life without one,
00:20:56
Speaker
if it's transitioning into a new job, you still have that transitional liminal space involved with that. Yeah. And to go along with that one too, I would also include graduations because if you think about it, yeah, it's an ending. But again, that emotional process of moving on to like, what is that next step in your life? And there's a huge fear of the unknown. And there's so many things that
00:21:20
Speaker
maybe aren't set in stone yet that you're working through that's considered a liminal space and then also illnesses especially if you are someone who's been very healthy and then you develop some sort of illness that's you know kind of life altering or maybe just makes you very sick like that can definitely be included as a liminal space as well. This one I really liked and it kind of goes back to what you were saying earlier about like how we go through
00:21:47
Speaker
so many liminal spaces in transitional periods like all throughout our life cycle is the coming of age and the midlife crisis as a liminal space. Both of these points in a person's life are seen as in between times, as well as transitional times for that person making them liminal. And then lastly, a University of Missouri professor named Dr. Timothy Carson, and he refers to the pandemic as an involuntary social liminality.
00:22:16
Speaker
a time and space that was full of uncertainty and ambiguity, all the landmarks gone, the future undefined. Professor Carson teaches liminal studies at the university, which is pretty cool. I didn't know that you could like go to college and learn liminal studies. Like, yeah, but apparently liminal studies professor at the University of Missouri.
00:22:39
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. That reminds me so much of like the first lockdown whenever COVID first kicked off and everybody's just like, the whole world is going to change after this. Like, people were dying. And then I just remember seeing like videos and stuff like we were I felt like kind of removed from it because even though we were overseas when it happened, like we lived kind of in the country.
00:22:59
Speaker
but I really wish that we could have experienced it while living in a big city because my in-laws, they were in Italy and in Germany whenever, they went through so many lockdowns over where they were living. And there was a time in Rome where obviously no one was able to come or go, only the residents could be there, but it's just like they would go on their morning walk to the Trevi Fountain and there's literally no one there because no one can be there. Could you imagine how eerie and
00:23:26
Speaker
unsettling that would be for people that live in these huge cities where it's always full of people and then all of a sudden the whole world is silent. Like we don't live in a big city like we live near St. Louis but like I loved
00:23:43
Speaker
the pandemic, like I thrived in it because there was there was literally no people anywhere. Like if I had to go to the grocery store, it was rare that there was a ton of people in there, you know, or like if we have like a Costco membership. So if we would go to Costco, you would have to wait in line outside the store and they would only let so many people in at a time. So shopping was so much nicer for somebody like me who hates being around a lot of people. I was like, I am thriving in this pandemic.
00:24:13
Speaker
That's how it was in England, too. We had to wait outside. I hated it because I'm not very patient and good with waiting. And so it was really hard for me. If I got to this, I would have to go right when it opened and still sometimes have to wait online. And I'm just like, this is a waste of my time. And I hated it. But it was nice for a little bit. But also, it was very anxiety inducing for me.
00:24:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So getting back on topic, let's discuss some metaphorical liminal spaces just kind of very briefly. So metaphorical liminal spaces are spaces that exist when you have two ideas that you're wavering between. It's the waiting to transition from where you came from to where you're going. And so they say like until you make a decision, you are in a liminal space. So I thought that was interesting because essentially like that means that we could technically
00:25:11
Speaker
be in these liminal spaces all the time, depending on what decisions we're making. And also there's something known as spiritual liminal spaces. And so these are experiential liminal spaces, and basically they are events or states of being where we leave something behind, but we haven't arrived at our destination when we part with them. And so examples of this are things like dreams, astral travel,
00:25:40
Speaker
recovery from addiction, life altering trauma, childbirth and pregnancy, which I never even thought about any of those being liminal spaces. But I feel like childbirth and pregnancy is like a really, like great example of like a spiritual liminal space. That's such a transitional time in your life. And then the baby being born, you know, you're transferring from like a womb to
00:26:06
Speaker
actual like living out in the world. Yeah, that is a great example. And I never again, until this episode, I never would have thought of half of these things. Same. Yeah. I'm just like, Oh my gosh, down a rabbit hole. Yeah. And there's also personal liminal spaces. And I thought this was a very interesting take on the topic. And so when I was reading about this, they were defining personal characteristics
00:26:33
Speaker
which embody the in-between. That's essentially what these personal liminal spaces are. So those who do not identify with predefined categories in society can fit into these liminal spaces. And so they can be based on your gender. So if you are trans or gender fluid, those are personal liminal spaces, I should say. It can also relate back to sexuality. So if people who are pansexual or bisexual, it can relate back to ethnicity and race. So people who are of multiple different ethnic backgrounds,
00:27:03
Speaker
also personality. So people who are known to be chameleons, those who can blend in anywhere and make friends with any type of group of people. They're not clicky. Those people are said to have personal liminal spaces. And then also, it can relate back to religion as well. So people who are optimistic or gnostic, that's said to be personal liminal space. And then
00:27:26
Speaker
Also relating back to neurology, and so people who have high functioning autism, dyslexia, or ADHD, those people are said to basically embody that in between all the time. So this is why I'm just always like on edge or uncomfy. Probably. I mean, maybe I could see that.
00:27:49
Speaker
So personal and spiritual liminal spaces can be some of the hardest to navigate because when we are between one state and another, we are often faced with the unknown.
00:27:59
Speaker
And so being able to navigate these little spaces requires a lot of trust, intuition, and faith. Believing in a higher power outside of yourself, whether that be in a particular deity, faith, or belief, this is something, or basically anything outside of yourself. So an example of this is believing the world will continue to turn because of your knowledge in science. So it doesn't have to be, I'm not saying the way you can make it better is if you believe in God. I'm not saying that. But having that trust in something outside of yourself, focusing on your intuition,
00:28:29
Speaker
And practicing those things is said to help you navigate through those personal and spiritual liminal spaces. So now that we've talked all about liminal spaces, let's talk about using liminal space in magic.
Witches and Liminal Spaces
00:28:44
Speaker
So it's said that witches are often drawn to liminal space because of having to live on the fringes of society throughout history. And just think about being in the broom closet. That in itself is a liminal space because it's a time where you're occupying two spaces, the space that you hold for yourself and your practice versus the space you hold and the face you put on to the outside world. And so just occupying or just being in the broom closet is a liminal space. You are occupying liminal space
00:29:12
Speaker
throughout that time that you're in the broom closet. And I think this can also relate back to say if you are in the broom closet with some people, but not with other people. Like say if you're open with other people, but for like your parents that you haven't told them yet, like that's still occupying a liminal space, which is interesting. That is really interesting. Again, not something I would have thought of as being like liminal space
00:29:38
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Yeah, absolutely. And using liminal spaces in magic, there are times during the year that we'll kind of go into, and we've already gone into multiple times in the podcast where like the veil is thinner. And these are great times to work with liminal space because, you know, basically the definition of a liminal space in the instances of, of, uh, of time. So yeah. And liminal spaces can be used for divination.
00:30:05
Speaker
It can be used for communicating with spirits and spell work just in general. One of the biggest ones that I kept coming across was like the time of day considered like before sunrise or before dawn is considered a liminal space because it's between night and morning. Like I feel like every time I was like, oh, let me look at like liminal space and magic, it would be like practice magic before dawn or before the sunrise because that's a liminal space. Like it was in everything.
00:30:33
Speaker
I wonder if that's why, too, when we think about the witching hour and things like that, such an appropriate time, because it's pre-dawn, it's right when that transitional space is happening. It would make sense that based on what we know about liminal spaces and the veil being thinner, it would make sense why during that transitory period, people experience more
00:30:56
Speaker
like hauntings and like they say it's the best time to practice like so that absolutely makes sense. I was also reading about like the days of the week like certain days of the week could be considered liminal spaces and there wasn't like any explanation about it so I just kind of came up with my own explanation but so the days of the week are Wednesday and Saturday and these are considered liminal spaces and my assumption here is that basically like Wednesday is like the middle of the work week
00:31:23
Speaker
And so yeah end of the week from the beginning to the end. Yes, like you're transitioning out to the end of the week and then the same for Saturday like Saturday is like that day of the weekend where it's like you could still have fun and stay out late or do whatever it is you need to do but you're also transitioning back into the workday because
00:31:42
Speaker
the next day is Sunday and you kind of have to like get your shit together and you can't like, you know, depending on what you do, you might not be able to sleep in or you might not be able to like, you know, do whatever it is you do on the weekend, I don't know. So also months of the year are considered, like certain months are considered liminal times. These are September, July and December. Again, there was no like real explanation of why specifically these months, but I'm assuming like obviously like,
00:32:12
Speaker
what we know about like the wheel of the year and like going into I feel like there should be more months on here honestly because like I would assume like obviously December like and this kind of goes into like my next point with like different holidays and holidays and sabbats being considered liminal times so like Maybahn, Yule, Beltane, Midsummer, Samhain, those things but like obviously December is when we usually celebrate Yule and that's whenever like obviously the rebirth of the sun right and then
00:32:40
Speaker
like with July leading into fall or autumn and getting prepared for the end of the harvest season to go along with September. Like I said, I feel like there's some months missing because I would have added June for the summer solstice. Yeah. See, in my brain, automatically when December is the last month of the year, so we're going and transitioning into the new year. Yeah. July is transitioning into the second half of the year,
00:33:08
Speaker
September confuses me. Yes. Yes. Thank you, ma'am. I'm just like, okay. I'll put this in here. We have, like I said, with everything, we have all of our resources listed below. But the resource that I pulled this off of, I don't remember. Well, there wasn't. There wasn't an explanation. It was just listed those. I was like, okay. But again, it is what it is. I feel like
00:33:30
Speaker
And see, I would think January would be on it because it's the beginning. June would be on it because it's the end of the beginning of the year, going into that second half of the year. Yes. July is the start of the second half. So I totally think there should be more on here too, especially if you start thinking about the wheel of the year and the harvest seasons and stuff like that being in there. But I'm still September confuses me. Same.
00:33:58
Speaker
Yeah. But because doorways are liminal spaces, they are one of the best places to put up charms or wards to protect your home. Since they are charged with that in-between magic, assaulting your doorways is a way to put a barrier in place against something harmful passing through this liminal space too.
00:34:17
Speaker
A lot of the work we do as witches can exist between worlds and maintain that liminal space. Some examples of this are things like mediumship or working with the spirit world, divination,
00:34:29
Speaker
And so these are things that include tarot, tassium antsy, which we just recently covered on the podcast, and palmistry, casting spells or anything that requires manifestation and intention, invocation of a deity or asking a deity for their presence and help, ancestral work and magic,
00:34:47
Speaker
And hedge witchcraft, which we've discussed in a previous episode, practicing in liminal spaces is often done with this type of witchcraft. And if you want a deeper dive on it, definitely go back and listen to our episode where we discussed hedge witchcraft because it was pretty interesting.
00:35:02
Speaker
It was really interesting. I loved that episode. The last one that I have is liminal dreaming. So you mentioned dreaming as part of like liminal. I think you said this one was under spiritual liminal space. Yes. Yeah. So this is a practice that is often related to creativity and it's the state during which you're not really like quite asleep yet, but your mind can experience vivid images or sounds.
00:35:30
Speaker
It's also known as hypnoidal dreaming. During this state, you might notice physical signs that you're falling into the liminal dream state because your body either jerks or you have that feeling of falling, which I feel like everyone has experienced at some point in time. But that is considered a liminal space, and some people actually use this type of dreaming
00:35:52
Speaker
in their practice, which I thought was interesting. I would never want to use it because I hate that feeling. Me too. I just recently had that feeling yesterday. Oh my gosh. And I did not like it. I hate falling asleep and feeling like jerking or feeling like I'm falling. It's the worst. The literal worst. But more power to you if this is something that you use in your practice. I could never.
00:36:22
Speaker
I'm intrigued to learn more about it or to see it happen because I can't visualize. I would just fall asleep, just straight up fall asleep. Interested to see how people use this in their practice. If you are a witch that practices with liminal spaces and you try to highlight them in your practices,
00:36:42
Speaker
let us know how you use them because we want to know. For sure. And hopefully you guys learned something new. I know I learned a ton of new information with this episode. Again, I didn't think of even a fraction of these really as being liminal spaces. I mean, my
00:37:01
Speaker
My knowledge on it was kind of limited I guess you could say like I Literally just thought of them as being like crossroads and doorways or graveyards or you know those kinds of things like yeah I didn't even realize that you could have like emotional liminal space or mental liminal space or personal space. Yeah
00:37:18
Speaker
There's so many, and I was just like, oh my gosh, there's even more. There's even more. So it's intriguing to learn about it. I really like liminal spaces now. This is something that, I mean, I don't want to be in them because they make me uncomfortable, but I like to learn about them. So I'm intrigued.
Podcast Conclusion and Next Episode Preview
00:37:45
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we would be forever thankful if you lose a 5 star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft.
00:38:07
Speaker
There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and 10 exclusives like getting episodes early, shout outs on the show, access to our Ask Me Anything forum, our monthly newsletter, a promo code for merchandise, and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Get In Witchings or email us at we'redoingwitchcraft at gmail.com. Check us out next week where we will talk about Auras. Until then, blessed be with you.