With Ostara, we finished a significant sequence of events within the Wheel of the Year.  We begin with a death at Samhain, and see a birth at Yule.  But what was born at Yule is only an infant.  At Imbolc, what was born is beginning to have some strength.  And at Ostara, the one who was born at Yule is seen as being really back to life in every sense.

In many ways, it's like a graduation.  And you can look back and see where you've been.  And perhaps more importantly, you can look forward and see what lies ahead.

Ancient lore from almost any spiritual path (including that which we share here) will tell you what lies between death in one lifetime and re-birth in the next.  And there are many points which all of them seem to have in common.  Of course, people who purport to speak for a particular path will lay claim to certain embellishments as if they were true.

And somewhere, there is reality.  How to tell your own reality?  There are a couple of basic facts which can make a great deal be abundantly clear.

I'm not going to give you answers, but I will show you where to find answers.

Blessed Be!

At Ostara, there is a story.  Ostara, Easter, Spring Equinox, whatever name you give it, there is a story that gets told.

A story you've heard before, or is it?  If you hear the story from another path, can you recognize it for what it is?  And if groups of people who probably had little idea (if any) of each others' existence come up with the same lore, should we take time and ask why this would happen?

It might well be that the slightly-different stories have a truth in common.

And here is a message at Ostara that some folks miss.  Does it occur to anyone that if another path has the same lore as yours, that means that the paths corroborate each other.  Neither one is an adaptation of the other, but they share the same truth!

Something that I pointed out when remembering Tempest Smith is appropriate to mention again.  In one path, there is a writing in which someone said that he had "sheep which are not of this fold," but he did not say how many other sheep or how many other folds.  And if two paths share a truth, then their respective followers will do well to share respect with each other. 

But in this case, the shared truth means something even bigger than that!

Blessed Be!

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I was listening to some music the other day, and I heard an old favorite: Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence."  I have been known to say that my definition of great writing is one which reveals new things to the reader no matter how many times you read it.  By that measurement, this is one of the greatest!

There is a story in the words to that song, and the story brings with it some powerful verbal imagery.  And it leads us to one of the truths which we all need to confront.

What I see revealed here is a basic truth about ourselves and our nature.  And as a result, it seems the obvious conclusion is that there is one thing which none of us will ever do.  Not a one of us is capable of doing it. 

The irony is that there are many people whose own belief system is such that they are sentenced to living their lives in denial of this truth, but it is there nevertheless.  And by what I say that they cannot do, it implies that there is something that they are doing, because what they cannot do is to avoid doing it.  They might do it on a different basis, but they do nevertheless.

A puzzle?  Not if you know what it is that we cannot do. 

And because we cannot do that one thing, there is something else which takes on even greater importance as a result.  And it is something which you probably are doing.

And it's what makes things exciting.  And it begins with knowing what it is that you will never do.

Blessed Be!
 

Barrier Busting!

We all face barriers.  There are enough of them in our mundane lives, but on out spiritual paths, they can be formidable.  And they need to be dealt with, one way or another.  Some of them were put up for you by other people (or circumstance), and others are barriers you put up for yourself.

There are two kinds of barriers which we all have to address.  The first kind of barrier is the kind that's there for a good reason.  One example would be the things you don't do because of vows you've taken.  Another example might be things you don't do because you feel it's more risk than it's worth. 

But there is another kind of barrier, and that is the barrier which keeps you from something which you want or need.  Prejudices can be the basis of this kind of barrier, but they are not the only way these barriers come to be.  Sometimes fear can bring about an unnecessary barrier, such as a person who refuses to fly in an airplane. 

And a useful role of discernment is to help you know the difference.

And in this, there is another key which can open doors.

Blessed Be!