truth dancer wrote: What is the difference between a cancellation and a clearance?
Clearance = having permission to add another sealing to the union (i. e. make it polygynous).
Cancellation = undoing a sealing, making it null and void.
Or in other words, an LDS man who wants to re-marry and obtain a new sealing after the death of his former wife or divorce has to seek a sealing clearance, and after it's granted, he has at least two eternal wives. An LDS woman who wants to re-marry and obtain a new sealing after the death of her former husband or divorce has to seek a sealing cancellation. She either has to have the first sealing undone or she can't be re-sealed.
I have yet to encounter any living LDS women who have more than one sealing in effect, and won't believe it until I see it. The CHI is pretty clear that the only women who can have more than one sealing are dead women.
There's a nice couple in my husband's ward, each of them lost his or her first spouse in their mid-twenties after having one son. They married one another in the temple for time, and the two daughters they had together are considered sealed to the wife's first husband; they aren't sealed to their father. Seems to me that the wife would be a prime candidate for having more than one sealing if it could be done, but they don't have it.