Please forgive me ahead of time for this word jumble that is about to happen. I have some general ideas floating around in my head and I am not sure if they will be put into coherent sentences or thoughts…but bear with me! Hopefully I can clearly express what is going on in my brain.
I have been thinking about liminality more and more over the last few days. This is interesting because @Susurrus and @marsha have both pulled oracle cards titled Liminality multiple times over the last few days as well. I made note of this in the daily oracle draw, too. Even then, liminality was still pulled a few times after my comment.
When I think of “As above, so below,” the first thing that comes to my mind is this → “What’s in the middle?” If we look at the original text from the Emerald Tablet, this is not necessarily what it means. The original text is in Arabic and was supposedly translated from Greek. Then we have the Arabic version translated into English so it is possible that something has been lost in translation. But let’s read the original real quick.
Tis true without lying, certain & most true.
That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing
And as all things have been & arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse.
The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.
Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtile from the gross sweetly with great industry.
It ascends from the earth to the heaven & again it descends to the earth & receives the force of things superior & inferior.
By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world
& thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
Its force is above all force. For it vanquishes every subtle thing & penetrates every solid thing.
So was the world created.
From this are & do come admirable adaptations whereof the means (or process) is here in this. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world
That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished & ended.
I’m not philosopher so I will not even begin to try and understand what this text is actually saying. I do want to focus on this one portion though, the portion where our phrase As above, so below, comes from.
That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing
This phrase reads, to me anyway, in a way to try and explain how the heavens and celestial bodies affect the earth and terrestrial realm. It may also be a way to explain the concepts of macrocosm and microcosm. In both of these ideas, though, where is the middle? We have celestial and terrestrial…but what is there between them? Atmosphere? Even in the macro vs. microcosm…what is there in the middle? A mid-cosm? I mean, I don’t think that’s a word but oh well.
Realms of Belief
In order to connect this back to where my thoughts are I need to mention the three realms of existence within Irish pagan practices. These realms are Land, Sea, and Sky. Taken from folklorist Alexander Carmichael, we get the following phrase and blessing.
Power of sea be with you,
Power of land be with you,
Power of sky.Goodness of sea be with you,
Goodness of land be with you,
Goodness of sky.
Each realm in Irish mythology is on a spiral all connected by one central spiral (hello there, triskele 
). Of course, I do not mean this literally, more so figuratively in that we can move between them all through the center. Anyway, the central part of the triskele is that liminal space between all three realms. Lora O’Brien (https://loraobrien.ie/the-three-realms-in-irish-tradition/) describes it as the world of Fire. These three realms or more complex than I currently understand so I will not go into too much detail here.
Liminal Spaces
In reflecting on the phrase “As above, so below”, plus the connection between the three realms of existence in Irish mythology, I can’t help but wonder what we have in the middle. I know I can feel the liminality between the realms. Even when thinking of the three realms themselves, outside of the central spiral, the Sea is liminal for me. It is the middle realm between Land and Sky. It is a liminal space between the physical Earth and physical sky. It is a place of borders where one can be whisked away to an Otherworld, whether you like it or not.
Then I look at one of the pictures that @BryWisteria shared in the post for this challenge.
This image shows a tree with branches stretching to the sky and roots reaching into the ground. But what do we have in the middle of this image? Us! People! We are the space between spaces. What happens above us affects what is below us, yes, but it also affects us ourselves. The celestial and Divine energy that moves through the cosmos in whatever manner it does – because let’s face it, no one truly understands how it works – has a profound affect on our lives as people here on this planet. It goes further, though, because that Divine energy also touches the Earth, the animals here, and reaches into the core of our planet and breathes life into it.
We are also one macrocosm with microcosms around us. What is in the middle of our own collection of -cosms? We have us on a macrocosm level, then the Earth itself on a smaller scale…but what is in between?
In these in between spaces is where the answers lie hidden, I think. We may not have all the answers, but there are things out there at work that we cannot see. It is within these liminal spaces that the sídhe live, breathe, and exist. It is within the liminal spaces of our hearts and minds that the Divine exists.
