November 4, 2001

Samuel: Greetings, dears.

Greetings, Samuel.

S: Lexington. How are you?

Good.

S: And do you feel like you’re sweeping up, cleaning up, clearing from the aftermath of the attacks that you’ve had, and of which almost every conversation I’ve had with anybody in the world of late seems to refer to? Coming up from that? That’s good, that’s good.

What are we talking about tonight? Well, now think about it: what have you got going on in your world right now? Frank.

This is the month of Thanksgiving.

S: It is, isn’t it?

You often use the first Sunday of Thanksgiving to talk about some aspect of giving thanks, of gratefulness, of appreciation. So we might talk about that.

S: Good. That’s good to remember. Aye.

It’s also a time of completion, with it being the end of the year for many ancient cultures.

S: Yes indeed, Yes indeed. And, in fact, you might even say that the two of them work amazingly well together, because you have the end of the year, if you wish, or the time in which very many things are closing down. At the very least, in your own world, working with your own calendar, you’re working at a time in the year right now in which you are winding down, getting ready to move into something else.

As far as your most strong religious culture in western society, it’s also a time in which, rather than celebrate the veil between the worlds being at its most thin, it is a celebration instead of what? Catherine, this one should be easy for you. A time to celebrate what, though? What do they celebrate on All Saints Day?

All the saints.

S: You’re just really a bunch of pagans, aren’t you? Again.

Their death.

S: Well, yes, yes.

What they celebrate is the service that the saint performed when they were here among us.

S: Thank you. You’re celebrating that they’re dead. No, you’re not. You celebrate their life. And, at this time of year, particularly right now, with what has been going on in your nation and with the war that you are commencing, with all of the things that are happening in consciousness right now and the changes that are coming about as a result of the massive energy flow that has changed, life is what this is about.

However, it just happens that I’m going to use all of those different lily pads to bounce from. And it‘s going to start with Samhain, slide over to the saints, and slip on into Thanksgiving.

So, let’s start for a bit with Samhain. What is that?

The Celtic New Year.

S: Celtic New Year is one good answer. Sure.

It’s also a time when the veil is lifted so that that particular energy is very . . .  manifestation time.

S: What veil would that be?

Between the different layers of this world.

S: I like that. Between the different layers of this world, somewhat like icing between layers of a cake. The best stuff. Aye. It is that which marks the seen and the unseen. It’s that which holds all of the energy, seen and unseen. And when it’s said that that veil is the thinnest, well, depending upon what particular philosophy or society—ancient society—you’re going to be listening to, that can actually have several different meanings.

One of them is that that is the time that all of the wee ones, pukas, so forth, are able to be out amongst the people, that that is the magical night in which you might go out and catch yourself a fairy.

A whole lot of things just came to mind for that one, and I think several of you caught on without the words. All right.

But, again, depending upon which philosophy you’re going to be going with for that, you also can see how very, very easily that could slip in to a very powerful spiritual teaching. Yes. The idea that the veil is at its thinnest and you have the ability at that time to do some of your best communicating that that became All Saints Day or the Day of the Dead makes a lot of sense. Somebody want to expand on a few ideas on why that might make sense? Frank.

Well, one of the layers in the unseen are those that are not in form any more, and one may think that since the saints had a passion and service for working with this planet and the people on the planet, perhaps there would be a way to access some of their knowledge and some of their service and some of their assistance at a time when the veil to them was thinner.

S: Absolutely. You know that there are very, very many cultures that regard—to the point, perhaps, of worship to a certain extent—the ancestral knowing.

You, very much, in very many ways, in your current world right now, in many ways, worship your ancestral knowing. Give me a couple of for instances about that.

Our forefathers.

S: All right. All right. The forefathers, meaning . . . ?

The people who founded this country.

S: Thank you. All right. Wasn’t too sure there, but I was going to just wait patiently and listen. Those who founded the country, and what they had to say. And I imagine it’s constantly being thrown back in your face and interpreted whichever the way the person doing the throwing needs it to be interpreted. Aye. Some things never end. Right. That’s one. Good. Very good.

What’s another influence from the past that you deal with? Frank

The laws that we have.

S: Excellent. Excellent. Going exactly in a direction I’m looking for. Sure. That’s one of those areas in which your ancestral worship comes through. Why ever would the laws you have be anything about ancestral worship? Frank, you want to take that further and give that explanation?

In this country, except for Louisiana, we’re based on the British legal system, and many of our laws can be traced back to their common laws in England. Based on those, and they can trace them.

S: On laws from a couple of hundred years ago. Interesting. Do you have in your society laws that really don’t apply any more?

Some laws.

S: Making my point there. That’s good. All right, so you’ve got laws as one. What’s another? You again. All right.

Religion. Organized […] religion.

S: Be careful with that one, now. You want to explain that one a bit better.

Well, Christianity and the little bit I know about Islam, and Judaism, and Hinduism and Buddhism are based on teachings from a thousand or more years ago.

S: Teachings. Excellent. Excellent. Well said. Very good. And a recognition of that wisdom is based upon philosophy, teaching, historical information, depending upon which one you are, you might say that all the rest of them are based on legend. And it’s a past accuracy that you’re basing your current accuracy on. Good. What’s another?

Well, our grandparents and maybe their grandparents have given us beliefs that a lot of times are handed down.

S: Excellent.

And maybe they are a propos now, and maybe they aren’t.

S: Good. Can you think of an example?

Well, maybe racial bias would be one of them.

S: All right. Very good. Very good. Excellent.

Our holiday traditions and even our holiday mythologies back to Santa Claus, and the traditions that you have in your family sometimes go back quite a way.

S: Lovely. Lovely. Aye.

Architecture.

S: Yes. Yes. That’s very true, and was there more over here.

I was going to say genealogy. People who just trace back their families.

S: Seek back. Sure.

Science.

S: Excellent. I was waiting for that one to come up. Sure. Science in very, very many directions—and I’m being very polite there—is very much based on the old, and you know the very nature of so much of that sort is that the minute it’s put out there, it’s already old. It’s basing on the old.

In fact, almost all that you know, that you see, that you do, that you are, is based on yesterday. Whether that be four thousand yesterdays or one. Aye.

History.

S: That’s another. You’re right. Sure. And all of the things that history teaches you.

The wisdom of the past is a powerful function in your life, and the ability to tap into that wisdom is a gift to you. When does it stop being a gift? Well, there’s a whole lot of answers there. Let’s have one.

When we dwell there.

S: When you dwell there. Very good bottom line.

With some more military stuff now with the change, and supposedly this is a different war. They are trying to rely on previous ones and realizing that, no, it won’t work here.

S: When you do not make changes that would help you in the now, because you are dwelling there.

When you may allow it to be a limitation in how you create your present.

S: When you use your past as an excuse for not living, maintaining, experiencing, your now. Very good.

When you idealize it so much that you forget to, you know, enjoy the moment of now, and it’s […]

S: You cannot enjoy where you are, because back then was so much better. Aye.

When you identify with your past, and use it as a way to think of who you are now.

S: Good.

When you accept the outdated version.

S: When your definition of self is based on the outdated version. And I will add to all of these, when you don’t know that those are what you’re doing. What tragedy.

Your awareness of what has been gives wisdom and help, but it also can be the means by which you just tread water and don’t keep moving. It can be the means by which you get stuck in the past and don’t move forward.

So, part of what Samhain needs to be is a recognition that there is much wisdom in the past, and it is available. That which is gone is here. It’s available. But it needs to be available for now.

In your life, right now, one of the most important things you can be doing is reviewing what you know, and making sure that it works for who you are now, what you are now, where you are now. Many, I would say most, never do that, and when you continue to base what you are now on what you were, then you are going to constantly need to justify what you were, to keep it alive.

What happens when that’s done? What happens when you spend so much of your time justifying your past? It’s not a hard answer.

You don’t focus on the present.

S: You don’t focus on the present. You cannot move forward. That’s absolutely right.

Samhain is a recognition of the power of what is unseen in your world, whether that unseen be your past experiences, past knowledge, wisdom, science, religion. And the danger of it is that you elevate it into your now without making sure that it fits.

If you were to look at Samhain another way, it would also be recognized as an ending. The ending of the year for many of the old societies was right there at Samhain. The ending of a year that recognized an opening into a doorway, a new doorway, of new beginning. But not a new beginning that had to do with activity, it had to do with strengthening what is within.

The seed that has been planted is growing stronger. It’s a seed so that by springtime it can move forth out of the ground and become the plant it’s meant to be. The seeds of growth and life within you, those new sparks of awareness, hibernating, not gone—probably forgotten. But finding where they fit so that, come the energy of growth, they will be able to spring forth.

The door closes in order that energy can be used to strengthen possibility. Every seed that is planted, every farmer will tell you, won’t grow. Every new seed you plant will not always grow.

You give yourself a very difficult life when you try to make sure that every seed you plant turns into a strong bush. You give yourself a very difficult time when you do not allow this time for growth underneath from the inside out, and instead set forth something new, and immediately are ready for it to go into action. It is a typical impatient response to forget the time of going within and creating strength. Stupid human tricks. Plant the seed, and immediately seek the fruit is what most do. Plant the seed, immediately seek the fruit, realize you’re jumping the gun a bit, so backing off and just being impatient for the flower.

And this is the time under the ground. 5:3:2 is planted into the world, and immediately you want full access to all that energy can offer. A change has come into your world, an access to energy, an awakening for you, and immediately you want to be able to do all the parlor tricks that awakening involves. Going within and strengthening that spark of life is what is needed right now.

And the way that that’s done leads very much to the more societally recognized version of Samhain, and that is the Day of the Saints or the Day of the Dead. And, as we discussed just a bit earlier, what is it that is celebrated at this time? The life, the service of these saints. Exactly right. The life of these saints.

I’ve always found it rather interesting that it was the death that allowed the sainthood to be made. Right. But it’s the life that gave the death meaning. Hear that. Hear that, for that is so true in your own life. It is your life that will give your death meaning. What will your death mean based on your life?

Years ago, I gave a homework to think about what your life would be if you were told that you had about six months to live. What would you do differently? Another time I’ve given the homework, if you were to write a eulogy about yourself, what would it say now? Is that how you wish to be remembered?

Those are excellent exercises, because anything in your life that you can think of that you would change—“Well, I’d stop doing this, let me tell you. I’d quit my job, I would”—those are the things that are killing you now. Those things in your life, having been told that you have six months to live, those things in your life that you would change, because they’re not serving you, because they’re not how you want to be spending your last six months, those are the things that are killing you.

Some of them you can do without. Some of them you cannot do without. And you can’t do without them because they define who you are. And you are stuck back on the other side of Halloween, unable to change beyond what your path has held you to.

And right now, at this time, when you have before you such power, the very energy of change, adaptation, flexibility, the very energy of new, which often comes disguised as chaos, is so here, and if you’re not taking advantage of it, you’re wasting your life.

Catherine, love, you did not say the other thing that is greatly celebrated on that day.

It’s my birthday.

S: Of course. There you go.

One of the things that happens for you in your life—as I continue to move down the month, and move toward that opportunity that you call Thanksgiving, which is a real interesting concept, don’t you think? One day a year there, we are having Thanksgiving now. And what is it about? Food. It’s about food. One day a year, you devote to Thanksgiving, for giving thanks, and it’s about food. Aye.

You know, I don’t really think that way.

S: I’m glad. I’m very glad.

I have some Cherokee blood, and I’ve come to know that it’s about teaching people how to live.

S: Ideally.

Well, I mean, I wasn’t on the boat to come over here, but I have a feeling that they really weren’t prepared for what was here. Just like we’re not prepared for Afghanistan. And they needed some help.

S: Or life generally.

Right, but food is a symbol of that. Without food we cannot live. And so natives here were humble enough to share what they knew about staying alive, and the English settlers needed that, because America was like Afghanistan and they were used to something very different. And so I see that as a Thanksgiving that we can still do that.

S: Absolutely.

Help one another. Share information. Share customs even. Unfortunately, as with all gifts though, the poor turkey, which was a very noble bird to the Native Americans, turned out to be a symbol in our society for somebody who’s a geek, which is a shame, because the turkey’s a kind of cool bird, actually. And then, of course, we ate him, which was not very reverent. Other than that, I guess, it worked out pretty good. They learned how to survive here amidst all the heathens.

S: And, through all of that, was left with an actual day that commemorated that giving of thanks. And yet, nonetheless, for the purpose of my talk this night, I’m going to move it on forward to what is more traditionally recognized. And it happens to be a day that you get together with your family and you eat. Right?

And more often than not, one of the most unfortunate aspects of your society also comes out at that time. Any ideas?

Gluttony.

S: Well, all right. Sure enough, that’s a good answer. It’s not the one I was looking at, but you’re right. All right, that can work.

Family issues.

S: Yes. Yes. And although tonight I am touching very lightly on things, do not mistake. Count on whenever I start cramming a lot of what would seem to be hardly touching, far-reaching, aspects, it’s because my point is that you need that connection desperately, truly, now.

And the first one that I talked about was recognizing in your life what works now and what does not, and to be able to adapt and flex, to function and gain what can be gained from the wisdom of the old, but to not let it stop you from moving into the new. And that that new is recognized as a seedling, not immediately sprouting forth, but having necessary time, needful time, required time, to grow strong before it bursts forth, which—in a very simple way—refers to patience. But it also refers to knowing what you’re after before you run off toward it, knowing what you’re going to be doing before you start changing everything about you to readapt. Being clear that when you throw out a part of you, you need to have a part of you that can grow there.

It’s so easy, right now, to be so focused on what no longer is or to be simply reaching toward something new that you don’t have anything stable in your life at all, and that is the most destructive thing you can be doing right now. It’s happening right now in your political system. It’s happening right now in many of your world governmental systems. It is happening right now in your economic system. It’s happening right now in many of your lives.

Do not misunderstand the importance of that time in which that which is within grows strong before it moves out, not that that becomes stagnant, because that’s a part of the growth. Do not be misled into thinking that because you are working on what is inside, it will not have an effect on the outside. Do not be misled into thinking that because you cannot see what that person is doing, that it means they’re not doing something.

And as we lead that around, that inner work, I began shifting over to that idea of thanksgiving, a time in which, obviously, there is much potential for very good, powerful lessons about giving to one another, offering every year that we have been together in this fashion. I have spoken to you about Thanksgiving in very, very many guises, in very many ways, and yet tonight I am choosing a very interesting tack, remembering that I am telling you that what is going on in your life is also happening in your world, and that I’m talking about that inward time needing strength.

For very many people, Thanksgiving opens up a season of misery. Do I think you should focus on that misery? No. Do I think that everybody is in that misery? No. But in your world, interestingly enough, very, very many people in your society take their lives around this time. They are overwhelmed, overburdened, overstressed. It’s a very difficult time.

A time in which it begins with a celebration of coming together to give thanks, and in a society in which there is so very much to be thankful for, it’s hard to imagine that that’s a difficult time, but the reason it is difficult is for many people their family connections don’t exist well at all. And it is a time of falling back into old patterns, of seeing selves that you hoped were long gone rear up their head at the dinner table. Well, where did that come from? A time in which misunderstandings happen by far too easily; feelings are hurt. It’s very often a painful, difficult time.

And if in your life you have the one or two honest-to-goodness, perfectly working, happy, secure, sane families that surely are in the world somewhere, then I would say look into other relationships in the greater family, at the very largest view of it the family of all on the planet. I would say, right now, you have a rather dysfunctional family relationship with some of your extended family members in humanity as a whole.

Why is it difficult—I’m going to bring it down to one, huge generalization: communication. Now, this night is not being videoed, and so I can say it in a way that audio will not misunderstand. It‘s because your communication stinks. Stinks. Big. And you who are here to be a part of the healing, to help bring about a new doorway, you are getting stuck in it. Caught in it, in the web of old and stinky dirty-socks relationships.

How can that change? Well, that’s also a part of this season, because when you have in your life a relationship that is giving difficulty, for whatever reason that might be—whether it’s simply because it brings out the worst in you, you bring out the worst in them, they were blaming you for something when you were five and have never gotten over it, for whatever reason, for whatever excuse—gratitude changes it.

This is the season for giving thanks, and right there in that line—“this is the season for giving thanks”—that gives all of the lesson. Thanks requires forgiving, and that’s when gratitude comes out of it.

Any relationship you have in which the communication is difficult, where there are old things not becoming stronger from within, but festering and becoming polluted and weak from within, anything in your life that is keeping you from anything but a One Heart connection with others—and I want you to hear how broad I am making that—any relationship in your life that is not based in a foundation of love and growth and joy says that there is something that needs to be forgiven. There is something there that requires forgiveness. Whose? Yours.

Wait a minute, Samuel, it’s not my fault! Yours. But wait, even if I do forgive to the point that I can actually be grateful for something, I don’t think that’s going to help this relationship at all. If you can, trust me on this one.

Once upon a time in a universe not so very long, long ago, not so very, very far, far away, there was a great healer, and people from near and far would come to this healer. It was known that for anything that was wrong this healer would be able to help.

Being a healer, the healer also was a teacher, and taught many how to do the very same things that this great one did, so that they too would be able to pass along that healing. Also, because the healer knew that the time would come in which there would need to be a replacement. And so, without ever saying that it was a test, the healer devised a way to know who would be ready to take the job.

Somebody would come for healing, and when they would come for healing, the healer would do whatever it was that happened to be needed at the moment. And as the healer would walk them out the door, he would say, “There are two paths here. And, you take the one that you think will serve you best and get you where you want to go within your life. You have just come through a horrible, difficult time, but you have come through it. You’re well. Now, if you go down that road, there is a pond, and in that pond, if you drink the water of it, you will be able to forget all of the difficulty that has been. And you’ll be able to start fresh and move forward. And if you go down this path, there is a pond there as well, but if you drink out of that pond, you will never forget. It will remain with you beyond the day you die.”

Well, you know human nature. You know your own nature. Humans mistake forgetting for forgiving all the time. I have forgotten; that means I have forgiven. Oh, well, then, let me remind you. Oh, maybe I’ve not forgiven! Hear me here.

Until one day when somebody came through and chose a different path, every choice was always, I want the road that will allow me to forget. Why? Why? Thoughts? Frank.

Well, memories can be painful.

S: Yes, they can be painful.

And so by forgetting, you can release things.

S: And goodness knows a part of your built-in survival mechanism is to forget, isn’t it? How many of you have things in your life you have forgotten? Can you remember them? [Laughter] Some of you have whole ages gone. Do you remember saying your first word? Do you remember your last word? Yike! Some of you have whole passages gone in the story of your life. Some of you choose not to know, because it serves you, because—as is so true with many of humanity—once they have been healed they do not any long want to dwell on all the difficulty they went through. That healer knew that the work was not done.

Until that time somebody came through and said, “I want to remember.” The healer knew immediately this is the one. Why?

Because it takes also courage to remember.

S: Yes, it does. Yes, it does. One reason is because it takes courage to remember.

And the person that is willing to remember will be able to help the next person that comes around.

S: Yes. Yes.

That’s basically the same thing as saying that wisdom comes from the knowledge if you apply it correctly.

S: Aye.

Through remembering, you’re willing to be responsible, and through that you make change.

You are able to see gifts in it that it offered to you.

S: I’m not sure which one to call on. Yes, I do. No, I don’t. Yes. No. Yes.

By remembering, you can continue the healing process.

S: Yes. Yes.

When you have come to a place in your life in which you are willing, with open eyes, to see whatever is before you, and with open eyes to look at whatever has been behind you, only then can you grow. Only then can you make true change, lasting change. Only then.

To sit at the Thanksgiving table and allow old hurts to simmer—it does cause ulcers—allows those old hurts to have more power than you have, allows your fear to be what guides you, rather than your hope and your knowing. It shows that you need to live out of your instinctual survival mechanisms rather than moving forward into something new.

Does that mean that around that table you should say, “By the way, Mom, I remembered this last week, and we really need to talk about this. And you too, brother dear. I remembered a few things about you too.” No, that’s not what it’s about at all, because the focus—if you will remember—remember as a part of healing. Healing is a statement of wholeness. To be whole does not mean to be what you were; it means to be what you are. Right now, at this moment, what are you?

What you have not forgiven takes from you. Any situation in your life for which you do not have gratitude, owns you. Owns you, directs you, builds the walls that keep you.

Forever, the student says, “Why? Why? Why? Woe is me. These terrible things have come about in my life. These persons are so terrible to me. I always have this stuff going on in my life.” It is the master who can say, “Here is what I learned from that. This is what I gained. This is good. I’m grateful for it.”

When you’re not afraid of what you see in the mirror, then you willingly allow that everything out there is a reflection of you. When you fear what you see in the mirror, because there are parts on the inside of you that have not quietly gotten stronger, but have only quietly rotted so that there is nothing to grow out in the springtime, maybe it’s just because the soil on the top is the only thing that’s been prepared for life, instead of what’s underneath.

When you come to that point where you can say, I am grateful for what I learned in that experience, you’re maybe not thankful for that experience, but grateful for it.

Hold off, Samuel! Just a moment. I thought they were the same thing. You are thankful to, but grateful for. Does that make sense? Thank you to Mary Claire for doing the lovely work at announcements. I am grateful that there is somebody here who can so easily speak to a group of heathens like this. Do you see that difference?

Gratitude—well, I’m working on all sorts of little metaphors here, and none of them were exactly what I was wanting—gratitude is the fertilizer. All right. Well now, that’s not exactly what I want to say, is it? Fertilizer. No. But you get the point. All right. Gratitude is the rocket fuel. All right. Well, that sort of takes you out of this world. That’s not where I’m wanting to go either. Gratitude is the work of the master. It requires that you forgive.

You’re sitting at the table and you realize that you are grateful. If it had not been, perhaps, that that brother tortured you all of those years, you might not have become the strong, resilient person you are now.

Look for it. Gratitude. Because when you experience the gratitude, you’re experiencing the forgiveness, and when you experience the forgiveness, your world changes, because your power is released. And that creates the true and only new birth that your new year offers.

In this half of your world, you are, right now, very much at that point in which the planting, the seed, has been put forth. You are very aware right now of all of the things—particularly communication issues—that are showing you how that ground is not rich enough, deep enough, fertile enough, for that seed to gain strength from within.

These are places in your life that are showing you the remarkable powerful gift. This is an area for forgiveness, this is a place to seek the gratitude that you hold that represents the master that you are.

Right now, forgiveness and gratitude, gratitude and forgiveness, is very, very much the key to allowing that spark of 5:3:2 life to grow and bloom in this world. Look at your patterns of communication. Those areas where there is a difficulty are going to show up in the next few weeks. Use it as an opportunity to forgive what has been that you might be what you truly are now.

There is nothing in your life from which you cannot learn, positively and powerfully, wisdom that will take you through the rest of your life. Only you can see it. Only you can do it, because only you have experienced it. Stop running. Please. Stop pretending you don’t know.

The old is passed away. The seed for the new is here. This is the time for giving thanks.

Glochanumora. Happy trails.