Passages, ordinations, and initiations.  Similar, yet different.

Is it something that happens anyway, which people have chosen to mark as a milepost?  Is it the result of a quest and a process of learning?  Or, it is something that happens - perhaps even when you are unwilling - that causes a change?

Are we acknowledging a change which has already come to pass, conferring something on someone who has achieved something, or is it something that actually causes a change in the person?  Is it an acknowledgement by society or a group of people, or might it be something that is at least partially secret? 

Those are some of the distinctions.  And therein lie the differences.  But therein are also some of the similarities.

But they have one thing in common: they are signposts on your spiritual journey.  Some might also mark your mundane journey.  Some of them, you can see ahead of you, or at least anticipate them.  Some of them, you can see behind you.  In some cases, you might only recognize them when you look back at them.  Some initiations are especially like that. 

To recognize where you've been is one of the secrets to knowing where your spiritual journey will lead you.

On your spiritual journey, you will find boundaries.  Or at least, you will find them if your journey is to take you where you need to be.

Some boundaries are there to be crossed.  And, in fact, some boundaries must be crossed if you are going to get anywhere that is worth going to.  They are the same boundaries which hold so many others back from having a real spiritual journey.

There are other boundaries which must not be crossed.  Why?  Because if you cross them, you might find yourself distracted or on a "side-trip" which will prove either non-productive or even counter-productive.  But, these boundaries can move over time.  In the same way that you don't go to the high-dive on your very first swimming lesson, but you might well do so when you've become a more accomplished swimmer, some boundaries do move.  But, you need to know how to define those boundaries.

Once you know the boundaries, you can chart the course of your spiritual journey so that you can seek what you need and want, and get there!  And that path is moving forward, but on the path that is right for you.

Much of what so many of us did at Samhain was to honor and reach out to those who have crossed over to the other side of the veil.  But what about the rest of the year?  Surely we don't only miss them and honor them one day a year!

There is an old saying: "There is nothing new under the sun."  That seems to be especially true where spirituality is concerned.  Find any spiritual or religious practice, and you will find that its current practitioners "borrowed" it from someone else's tradition.  Follow the history of that tradition, and you'll see that they learned it from yet someone else's tradition - and so on through history until you finally reach a point where you run out of records and even folklore.

And this gives us something that we can do to reach across the veil the rest of the year if there is reason to and it is appropriate - and to help the people on the other side reach out to us.  The veil may thicken, but it does not become a brick wall!

Of course, the common rules of common sense, reasonableness, and the like do apply. 

And with this, we can begin to look at some of the secrets which have been waiting for us.

Samhain has come and gone.  And what of it?  Does having celebrated Samhain make any difference now?

What do I mean?  Look at how the Christians and others deal with Christmas.  From approximately the time of the US Thanksgiving holiday until the time when it's OK to open presents under the tree, those people are so nice, aren't they?  And then, suddenly and for the next three months or so, watch your back!

Is there something we can take from Samhain and use throughout the year?  What might it be?  How would someone go about doing it?

For Wiccans and most Pagans, Samhain is a major holiday as well as a Sabbat.  It is one of eight sabbats in the cycle of the year.  If we take something from each sabbat to use during the course of the year, we'll have gained something.

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***Special Announcement ***

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At the end of the podcast, there is an announcement and invitation concerning November 11, 2006 (Veterans' Day).  Expect some other announcements to be coming from Circle Sanctuary and others.