We need to pause and take a look at groups.  A group may be in your future.  Perhaps more than one group might be in your future. 

I help preside over at least one such group, and two if you count the place in cyberspace.  And I like to think that they are good groups which benefit all of their members.

I also recall the groups that I've walked away from, and one group that I ran away from!

In the right group, you will learn more, and you will learn more quickly than you ever could learn alone.  In the wrong group, you'll learn the "party line" and little else.

In the right group, you can agree that you disagree within very reasonable limits.  In the wrong group, sometimes even agreeing can get you shunned.

In the right group, you can have friends and confidantes to share life's burdens.  In the wrong group, pseudo-human vipers can gossip your family, your career and even your life into oblivion.

In the right group, you will find fellowship and affirmation.  In the wrong group, you might be manipulated into saying and doing things which you regret later.

That's one of the reasons for Isaac Bonewits' "Cult Evaluation Frame" which I will recommend to any and all.  And there are a few more signs to watch out for.

It is important to know what to beware of.  And there are some signs which you might be able to see.

Some faith is not supposed to be blind.  Sometimes faith requires your eyes to be open.

Blessed Be!

I definitely say our daily compass because of how badly I need to remind myself of this sometimes!

Like it or not, life is lived one day at a time.  The problem with that is that most of our real goals take more than a day to achieve.  And this leaves room for diversions, distractions and detours.

A colonel I once served under had a sign behind his desk which stated that when you are up to your posterior in snapping alligators, it is very difficult to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp.  And that's the problem we are talking about here.

And those familiar with Martial Arts know the importance of understanding the flow of things, and making use of that.  And so, if time is in cycles, we can take advantage of that to remember what our objective is.

This is especially true of our spiritual lives.  The cycles of what we do spiritually can match the cycles which the world forces us into, and the result is that we can keep focus.

There are other tools too, which can help us focus. 

The criteria are simple:  That it works and that it fits.  Especially that it fits your life.  In my mroning devotions, I don't begin them when I wake up.  I begin them when I am dressed and ready to go out into the world.  My evening devotions reflect back on the day, and there's a weekly devotion that focuses on the week.

It fits and it works.  And you can find what fits and works for you!

Blessed Be!

Last time, we had a celebration of 200 episodes, and I spoke some of my journey.  This time, let's look at your journey - and everyone else's.

Some of the greatest journeys remain untraveled.  Why?  Because someone "was going to" do one thing or another.  Others get to their destinations because the people doing the traveling insisted.  In fact, some journeys include what some people called impossible and what others tried hard to prevent.

You can tell that a goal is yours when the sight of someone who has the same (or similar) goal makes you ache - there's something there that needs to be yours!  And you can tell when you're gotten to such a goal, because among your first thoughts after arriving are how much you can do as a result - and how it is part of your next journey.

Or might it be said that one journey is actually part of a larger journey?  See what you think! 

And there are ways to chart your journey.  And, of course, the more waypoints you pass, the closer your destination.

Above all else, the journey requires getting into motion.  That first step.  Enjoy it!

Blessed Be!

Welcome to the 200th Anniversary Celebration of The Secrets In Plain Sight!

Not 200 years, but 200 episodes - and more to come.

It's been said by many, including me, that along your spiritual path it's a good idea to stop occasionally and see where you are, where you've been and where you're heading.  And it seemed to me that this would be a good time to do that in terms of The Secrets In Plain Sight, and to share that reflection with you.

It's a path that goes back to before this podcast, and even before the dial-up BBS known as Covenstead Grove. 

I'm not claiming anything except that I've traveled a long path that did not go to the places where I thought it would.  But it is that path which brought me to where I am.  For those who have heard too many of the Pollyanna-type stories of quick and easy spiritual paths traveled by the supposedly-favored, this is not one of those.  This is merely the path which I have walked. 

And so, a bit of sharing of where I've come from and where I hope to take this show.

Everyone has a ministry, beginning with your own ministry to yourself.  Perhaps this might help get some thoughts flowing for someone with a spiritual version of "writer's block". 

And a time to pause and celebrate.

Blessed Be!

With a bit of effort on your part, your spiritual life can really sizzle!  And that is a good thing, because it certainly beats the alternative. 

We all know people whose spiritual life is flat, dull, and perhaps might even pass for unconscious or comatose.  Most of us have been there ourselves.  In fact, you can find many such people in churches!  But if you're here, it is probably because you're looking for a spiritual life that actually works. 

Having a spiritual life that sizzles is also the easiest way to claim something spiritual, feel like you're grasping it, and knowing that it's actually yours.

And it is here that we'll get into the basics of building the sizzle in yoru spiritual life.  Not only that, but also claiming it and knowing that it is yours.

You will learn from others, perhaps including me.  Others, perhaps including me, might offer input.  But we are talking about your spiritual life, and you are the one who needs to control it, master it, and nurture it!

And within that is the secret that is not so secret, of how to have a really great spiritual life.

Blessed Be!

PS:  Next week is our 200th episode!

You may think of super-heroes as being a part of modern popular literature.  Actually, they have been a part of literature since before literature.  They date back to the days of the ancient storytellers of the oral tradition.

And, they have a great deal in common with each other.  They also have much in common with the divine characters you will encounter in ancient religious texts, whether you're talking about the Bible, the Havamal, or any of a number of other texts and groups of texts.

And this gives us strength to deal with the (usually) verbal slings and arrows of those who doubt what we know, whether they be atheists, agnostics, or the believers in the "my church is the only way" variety of faith.

The very existence of these apparently fictional characters allows us to see what really is there.  Add to that the fact that nature does indeed abhor a vacuum, and you have just possibly the closest thing to proof you'll get that The Divine is alive, well, and at work in our lives.

And this is something that can be very exciting to explore!

Blessed Be!

We've made it through Yule (and/or Christmas, Hanukah and a few others) when the mundane "New Year" hits us.  One thing that makes the mundane "New Year" different from other mundane holidays is that it is literally impossible to ignore.  Most of us had our new year celebration at Samhain, but it is the mundane "New Year's Day" which governs what year and day it is when we express time in a manner that the rest of humankind will understand.  It's also a cause for partying and time off from the job.

But there is one thing about the mundane "New Year" that we can put to our use.  That is the infamous "New Year's resolution".  It is infamous because it is the butt of every late-night TV comedian's jokes this time of year.  And it is infamous with me because of the wise-guy answers I gave as a child and as a teenager when an adult would ask me what my resolutions were.  And besides, we made ours at Samhain, right?

Look at the power we have available to us!  The promise of Samhain has been fulfilled with the birth of Yule.  What a powerful time to set magick into motion, especially the kind which will actually help us help ourselves and others!  It's also a good time to catch up with anything you missed at Samhain, or to get something you tried starting at Samhain back on track!

Let's see how we can bring that off!

Blessed Be!

Yule is a celebration.  And, in a number of traditions, Yule is the celebration of the birth of a divine child.  Your Sunday school teacher might not have told you this, but Jesus is not the only divine being who has a birthday celebrated at about this time of year!

It beings in humanity's earliest beginnings.  Picture a cave dweller peering out of a cave and trying to comprehend the world.  And then, this cave dweller notices that the weather gets terribly cold.  But then, eventually warmth returns.  And then finally, when technology evolves to the point of marking shadows of a stick and measuring how high or low the sun is in the sky, someone notices a pattern.  And the pattern reveals when the sun begins its return journey toward summer when the world will be warm again.  And so, there is a celebration of the fact that the sun is no longer going away - and it is coming back!  And the Yule story takes on as many sets of details as there are cultures to tell the story.

The birth is the fulfillment of a promise made at Samhain.  And, if some people don't quite get what I've been saying all along, they won't get what I mean that the birth which takes place at Yule is the gift of Samhain.  And what is it that a seed has to do in order for there to be a flower?

And for us, we can begin birthing that inner vision which we began at Samhain.  And here we come to the impact of "Celebrating The Useless And Priceless".  There is little more useless than a newborn child per se.  But at the same time there is nothing more priceless than a newborn child because of the potential of what can be!

And therein is the real gift!

Blessed Be!

Letting The Infinite grasp you - and why not!  Last week, we talked about grasping the infinite, and you know that there has to be something to be seen from the other direction.  Besides, it is a common question.  In fact it was one of my first questions when I began asking questions.  How can The Divine grasp us?  What will cause The Divine (by whatever name or names we use) to pay sufficient attention so that I can feel The Divine's actual being?

That's an especially good question coming from someone who has not actually experienced The Divine.  A Bible story claims that Moses went up to a mountaintop and talked to someone, so why can't I?  Where is your Goddess that I can experience Her?  If I am laying in pain on a hospital gurney in an emergency room somewhere and I call out the name of a Deity, will He or She actually show up and do something to help me?

And that's a question which many people have on their minds.  And its answer, lack of an answer, or presumed answer can determine the course of someone's spiritual life.  And beware of that indeed, for there are many people who purport to speak for The Divine - and some of them might not really want to to experience The Divine for yourself!

And when you find the real answer, you'll see why I call this show "The Secrets In Plain Sight!"

Blessed Be!

Imagine, if you will, someone who has a Lamborghini or Maserati in the garage but only uses it to go the few blocks to the grocery store!

That seems to be the approach some folks want to take where The Divine is concerned.  Bear in mind, that if the universe is infinite, The Divine must by definition be as infinite as the universe.

And so, let's see what might be implied by that.

In politics and society in general, most of us know that a freedom for must include the same freedom for another, so that a Christian being allowed to distribute Bibles means that a Muslim would be free to distribute Korans.  It's similar here.  If The Divine is infinite, then we have to consider the implications.  That includes the implication that we don't know the number of ways The Divine can be seen, and therefore we have no idea how many other paths are as valid as our own.

No matter how much I think I might know about The Divine, all I know is one small part of one small corner. 

And here we'll explore that with a look at some writings which show what just some of that might mean.

Blessed Be!