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If I had to compare our Samhain to anything, it would be to the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Of course, the comparison is inexact, and maybe even a little misleading. Certainly we did not—consciously, at any rate—structure what we do on the ancient Mysteries of the Barley Mother. In fact, although we've been enacting this ritual for more than 30 years now, the analogy with Eleusis has only just occurred to me: interestingly, as I attempted to describe it to a first-time guest.

Really, though, such a resemblance is hardly to be wondered at. That Mystery should variously speak a like tongue in different times and places should surprise no one.

As such, the immemorial principle of Holy Silence obtains. There's much that I cannot tell, nor would I if I could.

But this much I may say.

Cross-posted at Goddessing From the Heart.

For today’s #Thealogy post, I want to build on my post regarding mystery. I’ve known for a long time that spirituality isn’t all about bringing light, but I believed “darkness” represented only aspects of self for which I felt shame. My frame of reference has widened to realize we need areas unseen and unexplored in our lives. Permaculture practice includes leaving a small corner of your land to the wild; we need this space internally as well.

It's the hand-sign that, in the language of the Mysteries, means: Mystery.

The ritual has just reached its high point. The Mystery has been revealed.

How do you communicate: What you have just seen is a mystery, not for revelation elsewhere?

You can't simply say, Don't talk about this.

Then you'd be talking about what shouldn't be talked about.

No. Instead, you give the gesture. You say it with signs.

My bag is packed--minus the Tevas that need a good scrubbing first--and I am mostly ready for pilgrimage. It surprises me when I think back on the times I've been in Britain during the month of April--when folks long to go on pilgrimages, according to Chaucer.

It's field research really, though most of my traveling these days is one form of quest or another. There is a deep longing in me for new lands and vistas, new smells and tastes. But my travel always brings me to Britain and Ireland, when I leave these lands of home. I think of them collectively as the ancient motherlands. My DNA test showed that to be true--so much whiteness here, so many blood-links to those places that know my soul.

   Yule nearly passed me by this year. My husband and I have been working around the clock, it seems, and the days leading up to Yule were no different: long days at work, scrambling to keep the house neat and the children fed and in bed at reasonable hours. We missed the opportunity to collect sunfire, and because of this it feels like something is lacking this year. It almost feels like the mystery has gone out of Yule.

   Over the years I have come to learn that we need mystery in our lives. Overall we believe what we can see, though some of us (many) are willing to believe that which we cannot. And therein lies a truth.

Title: The Hell You Say (Book Three in the Adrien English Mysteries)
Publisher: Just Joshin
Author: Josh Lanyon
Pages: 259 pp
Price: $13.99 (paperback) / $6.99 (ebook)