We've all heard of miracles, especially religious miracles. 

Some of us have experienced them, others of us want to experience some, and still others wish that they could. 

We've heard of those who have visions, those who are told things, and those who are healed when even the most expensive doctors have given up.  How does this happen?  More importantly, what can someone do to see one, and benefit from it?

There are some who claim to offer formulas that usually consist of prescribed prayers and other things to do, almost as if it were a recipe on the box of some sort of spiritual bisquit flour.  Then again, some of those folks are the same ones who speak of "faith" almost as if it were a measurable commodity that might be obtained at some sort of spiritual supermarket. 

But how does it really happen?  Is it like some of the movies and the Sunday school filmstrips?  Or something else?

And, theres an even more important question.  When it does happen, how do we recognize it and make use of it?

That's a secret that is waiting for all of us to find!

I've made much emphasis on the Priesthood of the individual, and how much can be done by one Priestess or Priest in the privacy of their own altar.  But that is not to degrade or belittle what can be accomplished in the rituals a Priest or Priestess might be called upon to do in a public or semi-public setting.

In that sort of situation, the "rules" (for lack of a better term) are a bit different, and there are some "do's and don'ts" that can make a major difference.  And with each type of public/semi-public ritual there are some specific points to be aware of.  But they also generate a special kind of magick that can't happen in private.  You just have to know how to bring it about.

What do I mean?  People come together for a reason, and you're there to help them with their focus and to help them meet the need that caused them to ask you to come.  And there's more.

It's also one of my favorite things to do.  I, Aidan, am a priest.  And what I find here are some of the reasons I love being a priest. 

What do I mean?  I think you'll see!

Every faith teaches something about forgivness.  The problem is, it can be hard to do.  Face it, some people and groups of people make anyone feel like there's an absolute right to get mad.

There is a lot written on forgivness that sounds like it must have been written by someone who hasn't had to forgive very much.  Either that or the person is being used for a doormat.  How many times do you "turn the other cheek" until you've run out of cheeks?

Of all of the obstructors that can get in the way of spirituality, there is none harder to deal with than "anger-based baggage."  This is especially true since you might be carrying this "baggage" around long after the people who caused it have become irrelevant to your current life.  Some of those people might not even still be alive!

And how can you forgive if the hurt won't go away?

 So often, some of the standard advice you get sounds ridiculous.  It's easy to tell someone to ignore the hurt if the person giving the advice isn't hurting, right?

So, here's another way that works for some, when nothing else would work.  But it must be done carefully, and with wisdom.  Anger, hurt, and their remedies have one thing in common:  they should be taken seriously.

And we are talking about the kind of "baggage" which does need to be put behind you so that you can move forward to where you need to go.

Stepping forward from the previous episode, let's see where we can go once we get past the obstructors.

I added "101" to the title because in a college catalogue, the 101 courses are the ones that are for beginners with no prerequisites or presumed knowledge of the subject.  Not that you haven't heard the terms before, but because we need to understand some more proper definitions.

"Sin" comes from an ancient archery term meaning "to miss the mark".  That's different from some definitions which connote breaking a rule.  And if sin is missing the mark, we could call sainthood the state of completing our lives on this plane on-target.

And by that definition, sainthood is not the exclusive domain of Christians.  What of Stewart Farrar, Doreen Valiente, Scott Cunningham or Lord Serphant?  Why not!

Let's look at it from that perspective and see if we discover something hiding in plain sight, waiting for us to discover.