Liminal Spaces & Astrology
A deeper look into the liminal spaces and where they hide in plain sight, sent to you from my 12th house
Hi, friend! Long time, no chat. I have been in complete hermit mode since the sun entered Sagittarius, but I’m not complaining. It felt great to slow down and embrace the “no” in November.
I honestly worked my ass off during September and October. I hosted a Venus Retrograde workshop and ritual, launched this Substack, started a second podcast, reopened my books, gave some of the best readings I’ve ever done, and did a lot of behind the scenes work on my business. Capricorn risings are workaholics. We are quite literally addicted to the grind and have a hard time knowing when to stop. Then, Sagittarius season arrives and the Sun enters our 12th house. That’s our cue to slowww it down.
The Sun spends about one month in a sign, eventually moving through all twelve zodiac signs in your chart. At some point, the sun will transit your 12th house. This transit can feel very low energy. You might feel like taking a step back and becoming a bit of a homebody, and it can be hard to find the motivation to do much of anything. Your body and mind simply wants rest. This transit is all about giving yourself the TLC you didn't realize you needed. When the sun enters your 12th house, it’s your invitation to step into the liminal.
My worst trait as an astrologer is that in order to write about astrology, I have to be living it (and that’s on my Pisces Mercury). You won’t see me talking about every moon or transit, mainly because I’m too focused on experiencing it that by the time I’ve synthesized any thoughts or insights, the moment has passed and we’ve all moved on. Yay for social media algorithms exploiting our attention spans!
All that to say, this solar transit through my 12th house has inspired this Substack. Let’s dive deeper into the 12th and explore why so many astrologers (including myself) consider this a liminal space, and spoiler alert: the 12th house isn’t the only liminal space in a chart :O
The Twelfth House
To better understand the 12th house, let’s start with the 1st house. The ascendant is the starting point of a chart. My astrology hot take is that it’s more important that your sun sign because it creates the architecture of your entire chart, like what signs/planets fall in each house and your MC/IC… but that is for another Substack. When the Sun transits your ascendant (and 1st house), you can think of it as the start of a new cycle. It’s like a birthday for your rising sign!
So if the 1st house is the beginning, that means the 12th house is the ending. The 12th house is a place of closure, release, and dissolution. It operates like a liminal space, serving as a threshold between the conscious and the unconscious. Here, the boundaries between reality and dreams blur. It represents a limbo-like space where we grapple with hidden thoughts, spiritual insights, and karmic patterns. Like an episode of The Twilight Zone, this house encourages us to explore the uncharted territories of our psyche and confront the deeper layers of our being.
The 12th house holds a special place in my heart. Err, maybe it holds my heart? My moon, the planet of emotion, is in Sagittarius and falls in the 12th. It’s one of my favorite placements now, but it always hasn’t been. My stomach actually dropped when I learned I had a Sag moon. I found Sagittarian people, like my dad and good friend at the time, so annoying and cringeworthy. I couldn’t POSSIBLY be a Sag moon! (we’ve talked about this on Girls Who Cast, people seeing their chart for the first time will often totally reject their moon sign, then come to love and appreciate it) I’m right, btw– Sagittarius is definitely annoying and cringeworthy. I guess I just accept my fate now.
Anyway… the 12th house is the most puzzling house in astrology. The 12th is hidden and hard to access, and your experience there is deeply personal to you (it is your subconscious, after all). It’s hard to find the words to adequately describe a place like this. The 12th is also ambiguous and confusing… what exactly is the “liminal”? Don’t worry, dear reader, we will cover that in the next section.
If you’re tapped into the astrology and spiritual side of social media, you will often see transits and lunations described as the perfect “time for a fresh start” or “moment for closure.” It implies that you must always be starting or ending something, that there is no room for rest or reflection or just vibing out. Why are we always so eager to move onto the next chapter? Why can’t we sit in the space between the ending and the beginning for a while?
Liminal Spaces
Liminal spaces have gotten a lot of attention on the Internet in the last few years. I think that many people, regardless of age or culture, have this shared experience and 1) never really talked about it with anyone else and 2) never had a name for the phenomenon. Now, you can search “liminal spaces” and find thousands of photos and hundreds of social media accounts dedicated to posting them.
Liminality refers to a state of being in between, or at the threshold, of two different conditions. The types of places that only exist in your life to get you from point A to point B. Think of transitory places like the airport, subway, or a gas station on a road trip. There is also a sense of anonymity in places like this. You typically don’t know anyone there other than who you’re traveling with, and there is usually minimal interaction with others. There is a sense of comfort in no one knowing your name or your story, it means you can be whoever you want to be. Similarly, these places are diverse. People of all walks of life convene here. Regardless of your background or status, we are all just NPCs here on our own quests.
Personal aside– these types of liminal spaces tend to hit me really hard. Like all Sag moons, I love to travel. But for a 12th houser like me, it’s like a spiritual experience. I’ve had so many breakthroughs and revelations while traveling, and I find myself so open and receiving all types of intuitive pings, signs, and synchronicities!
Liminal moments or spaces are also characterized by their potential for change and the exploration of new possibilities. In this type of liminal space, one teeters the threshold between the familiar and the unknown, ultimately leading to personal growth and transformation. Libraries and schools are great examples of this type of liminality. Similar to transitory liminal spaces, the main purpose of their existence is for you to get to point A or point B. But here, instead of a physical passage, it is an intellectual or psychological journey. Within the confines of classrooms or lecture halls, students take in new ideas, challenge existing beliefs, and form their identities.
Liminal spaces start to feel really weird when you’re in that space during “off-hours.” Online, you’ll often see liminal spaces described as a place that is usually busy with people and somewhere you frequent and are very familiar with… yet when it's devoid of people, it feels uncanny, off-putting, and almost unrecognizable. Most liminal space photos you come across capture this feeling. A pang of nostalgia often comes with this type of liminality.
For example, do you remember how weird it was being at school after dark? In high school, I would occasionally stay late to work on the school newspaper (I was the editor-in-chief, and it was one of my favorite experiences of my teen years). A place that is bustling with people during the day, completely quiet and desolate at night. A place I found so comfortable and familiar, turned creepy and cold.
When you are in a transitory space, physically or psychologically, you go from being an active participant to a passive observer. You begin to notice the things that you typically walk right past. The small details that make you think “huh, that’s neat.” You start to notice the beauty in normal, everyday things. I tend to people-watch more and often have the realization that everyone is living their own complex life, filled with memories of love, happiness, and pain. Of course as an astrologer, I always think “everyone here has a one-of-a-kind birth chart and they probably don’t even know it.”
In this passive state, it’s easier to hear your intuition and inner voice. It’s easier to hear the Divine. It’s reminiscent of the Hanged Man card in Tarot, who is depicted with a halo around his head that represents the connection to Divine wisdom when you take a moment of pause. To me, this is what it means to be “in the liminal”.
Liminality & Astrology
As a 12th house moon and 3rd house Pisces stellium, I am obsessed with liminal spaces… probably because I am constantly living in the liminal! In astrology, the houses are broken into three categories:
Angular - 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th
Succedent - 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th
Cadent - 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th
I will be exploring this concept more in my Astrology A to Z reel series on Instagram, but for now let’s focus on the cadent houses: the liminal houses of the chart. The cadent houses act as transitional spaces, facilitating the movement between different aspects of our lives. They are like crossroads, allowing us to navigate the intersections of thought, routine, exploration, and the hidden realms of the unconscious.
Cadent houses come right before the angular houses, which are very visible in our lives. In order to get to the angular house, we must pass through the cadent house, each marking a shift in focus and experience. The 3rd house doorway opens to the realm of communication and learning, the 6th house introduces us to daily responsibilities, the 9th house to the vast landscape of philosophy and spirituality, and the 12th house to the hidden recesses of the subconscious. In essence, the cadent houses are where the tangible meets the intangible.
Astrologer @saturnandhoney has an amazing video on the cadent houses that I highly recommend watching. She breaks down each house and provides examples of liminal spaces that are associated with each house. Her video inspired me to compile my own list of liminal spaces associated with the cadent houses:
3rd: being in a Uber/taxi, a former neighbor's house that you’ll never step foot in again, being at school after dark, gas stations on a road trip, sleepovers at your friend’s house, empty parking lots
6th: daily commute to work, local gym (especially gyms like Planet Fitness that are one enormous room), the waiting room at the doctor’s office, 24-hour laundromats, empty shopping malls
9th: libraries, walking on your college campus after you’ve graduated, airport lobbies, hotel corridors, elevators, moving to a new place and looking at your empty bedroom one last time
12th: abandoned buildings that once held life, rites of passages, places of exile, the period between teenage-hood and adulthood, your bedtime routine, funerals, grief
I mentioned previously that the 12th house is a deeply personal experience. That can really be said about your entire chart! Take a look at the cadent houses in your chart and find what signs and planets fall in them. The signs ruling your cadent houses can reveal the energy and approach you bring to transitional phases. Each planet represents different facets of your personality, and their placement in cadent houses can provide more context around how that planet operates or how it manifests for you during transitional periods. If you have an empty cadent house, look to the house ruler for more context. For example, if you have an empty 6th house ruled by Cancer, look to the moon (Cancer’s ruler) in your chart.
Friendly reminder that I have posts breaking down the planets, signs, houses, AND aspects right here on my Substack :)
Final Thoughts
I will leave you with this Wattpad post that I came across and enjoyed reading through: zodiac signs as liminal spaces.
I’m super curious what sign is on your 12H and what placements you have in any of the cadent houses. What do you think of liminal spaces? What is your personal experience there? You can leave a comment on this post below or share with me privately if you prefer. As always, thank you for reading and supporting my work ♡
fuck you
why you think sag is cringeworthy ?