I would like to preface this article with a brief note. I worship and work with Loki, and this article is heavily rooted in my UPG and experiences with him. Loki is not widely acknowledged as a god of liminality. Please regard my thoughts and opinions below as exactly that and nothing more.
First, let's go over some known details about Loki.
Loki (meaning "knot or tangle") is the Norse trickster god of chaos, fire, and mischief. Although his parents are thought to be giants, he is recognized as a member of the Aesir tribe of gods. He frequently travelled as the companion of Thor, and was central in several significant Norse myths. Loki is predicted to fight against the gods at Ragnarok, and will die at the hands of Heimdall, the guardian of Asgard. He is also a shapeshifter, and has taken many forms, including that of animals and women.
Liminality is described as "occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold." The boundary or threshold in question can be metaphorical or physical. Some other examples of liminal deities include Cernunnos, Hekate, Persephone, Janus, Terminus, and Osiris.
Loki, throughout Norse lore and tradition, walks several lines in between opposite concepts of boundaries. He walks the line between good and evil, as he is recognized as a member of the gods despite repeatedly acting against them. In the story of Sif's hair, Loki cuts off the golden blonde hair of the goddess Sif. Thor, enraged at the mistreatment of his wife, forced Loki to make amends and find a way to return Sif's hair to her. He ultimately gained a wig of pure gold to replace Sif's hair, and was able to make peace with Thor again. In this myth, Loki acts as both problem and solution.
He also walks the line between man and women. Loki is described as taking the form of a crone in order to gain the secret to Baldr's invulnerability, and the form of a female horse to lure away a giant smith's steed and save Freyja from marriage to the giant. His ability of shifting gender allows him to have both masculine and feminine energies. In society, gender has historically provided boundaries and rules upon both men and women, and in the occult these energies are often cited as equal but opposite. His ability to give birth also gives him another aspect of liminality: life and death. Loki is able to create life by giving birth, and to create death (as in the death of Baldr).
In addition, his balancing act between man and animal provides yet another aspect of liminality: the line between anarchy and society, civilization and wilderness. Animals often represent the aspect of untamed wilderness, free of the rules and expectations of society. By acting as both human and animal (in the forms of a salmon, a horse, a fly, and a falcon) Loki embodies both the order and rules of man-made society, and the structureless chaos of the wilderness.
In short, Loki can be recognized as a deity of liminality, and as a deity of those in-between spaces and gray areas that are so prevalent in life. Loki, in all his contradictions, at once embodies good and evil, feminine and masculine, cause and solution, life and death, and civilization and wilderness. These seemingly opposite attributes, held in deft balance, produce in Loki an additional aspect of liminality.
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