I have not attended church for a few years, after rejecting it for all the same reasons people talk about here. That said, occasionally my Patriarchal Blessing comes to mind, and I feel more tentative about leaving the church than I want to. It totally fucks with my mind.


My blessing told me that I would “write that which will become known as scripture. It will be a great blessing to many because of a high calling you will receive within the church. The ability that you will have to speak to many latter day saints all over the world.” It goes on, telling me I am a “very special spirit child,” that “many souls will be saved through my instrumentality,” and stuff like that. After my blessing, the Patriarch told me he had never given a blessing like that before, and hoped he was still here when I began my ministry.


I totally thought I would become an Apostle, and from adolescence to young adulthood, that framed the way I saw and did everything in my life. Receiving that blessing remains the most powerfully spiritual moment of my life, and fully rejecting the blessing is, I think, the final step for me in fully moving on from Mormonism.


In order to do that, my thought has been to collect similar passages from other blessings, to dispel the sense that my blessing was all that special. I’m hoping that in the process of doing this, I’ll be able to really get rid of my attachment to it, and to move on. I’ll post some I’ve found here, but if any of you have blessings that led you to think you’d be an Apostle or something, or are aware of others’ blessings that say that, please share!

These are some I've found so far:

* D Michael Quinn apparently had two (!) blessings telling him explicitly he'd be an apostle, IIRC.

* u/Yospito: “It hinted at being an apostle (not kidding), but the kind of hint that could be waived away as just a really serious disciple…. The PB that was so important to me as a young man still lingers in my head. It's hard for me to explain how badly being a superTBM has fucked up my head, even a year after leaving."- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/6e8bu1/patriarchal_blessing_experiences/

* u/liefromthebeginning: “I was likened to an apostle in ability and told I would have similar duties as he did…. The Apostle for me was N. Eldon Tanner. Very specific.“ - https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/4uz8w2/my_patriarchal_blessing_showed_me_the_truth_lies/

* u/RekrahCreative: “mine also said I would become a great leader in the women's organization and speak everywhere. I found this a little intimidating and contradictory to what it said about my husband having many important callings.
In regards to a husband, it made it seem like I would marry a future apostle or something, just that he would hold all sorts of important callings, I knew after I married my husband, that he wasn't going to be like this at all. So I put it on the shelf but would question if I married the right guy from time to time.“ - https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/21ubss/did_your_patriarchal_blessing_screw_up_your_life/

* u/kevinrex: “My grandmother's blessing said that one of her (male) progeny would be an apostle when the Lord come's again. She took that to mean ME!… Her telling me made me hunker-down even more than I would have, I think, and I became even more perfect, more hidden in the gay closet, and determined to make that blessing come true!” - https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/78x8ej/thoughts_on_my_patriarchal_blessing/

* u/theskafather: “Mine said I was one of God's chosen sons and I had a special work to do on the earth. I legit thought I was gonna be an apostle or a prophet. Talk about delusions... Jesus, I haven't ever told anyone that. I also thought I had the spirit tell me that I was going to be one. My grandma once told me that the spirit told her that my mom was going to be born a boy and she was going to be the prophet that would lead about the next dispensation. Then she said that when my mom was born she knew it would be her first born son. HOLY FUCK!!!!!!!” - https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/2oiieu/was_anybody_elses_patriarchal_blessing_super/

* “My blessing also was a major catalyst in my staying longer than necessary after my faith crisis. Details aside, it is pretty kickass and I could certainly have exchanged the currency of my PB for some mindless hot lds girl who thought I might become an apostle, because of the verbage. “ - https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/595lfw/patriarticle_blessings_explained_by_stake/


Reading through these, a pattern seems to emerge among at least a few people:
1 – Have a statement in your blessing that makes you feel really special.
2 – Base one’s entire self-image and life on the contents of the blessing.
2 – Reject the church, but have lingering thoughts and doubts regarding the blessing.



Anyhow, if anybody else has anything specific in their blessing that has led them to believe they were supposed to become some super great person, or knows of any other blessings where that has occurred, and has a story of working through that, or thoughts on how ridiculous it all is, please share!

Mine sure as hell doesn't. All about being among the chosen of the LARD but then obey obey obey and you'll get blessings. Fuck that. I did OK by doing the opposite.

mutednight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anyhow, if anybody else has anything specific in
> their blessing that has led them to believe they
> were supposed to become some super great person,
> or knows of any other blessings where that has
> occurred, and has a story of working through that,
> or thoughts on how ridiculous it all is, please
> share!

Just an FYI - strong language use needs to be mentioned in the subject.


Now to my thoughts. I thought I was going to be a super special Mormon because of my PB. I posted my PB here and no one got that from it. Many had similar passages. I'm not doubting yours pretty much spells out super special but my comment was regardless of whether it does or doesn't like Amway Mormonism pushes you to believe that you are super special.

The whole organization is designed to make you feel like you could be prophet or his wife if you are valiant and righteous enough. Then when you do get some wee higher callings you realize it is just another multi-level marketing thing and you are stuck in it like no other MLM could get you stuck.

In the years since leaving the LDS Church, I have thought that the LDS Church instills a sense of destiny. And that's a bad thing...

The patriarchal blessing is arguably the prime example of this tendency.

Generally, these blessings reveal your secret lineage, which always turns out to be the same for just about everybody--Ephraim. ZZZ.

The blessing also spells out, usually in generic ways (exceptions noted in the posts above) the ideal LDS, Inc. approved life that is waiting for you--if you have the Spirit (tm) and listen to it and make the "right" decisions. There's usually stuff about missions, temple marriage, offspring, leadership in the church and the community etc.

Now that all sounds kind of nice. But in real life, things don't always fit in neat packages. As an LDS member, I had a great deal of anxiety about not grasping ahold of that ideal life. When the best version of your future is semi-fixed (unless you screw it up), it can be hard on a person. I felt as paralyzed by these notions. A person stuck in this worldview has a hard time embracing the possibility of failure. Everything has to go right, or all is potentially lost.

Now, if you don't believe that Mormonism has this kind of mindset. Let's think of a favorite talking point of Herr Dieter Uchtdorf (aka the Silver Fox). Now Silver Fox was a pilot earlier in his life. Silver Fox observed that if you start your journey a few degrees off course--you'll end up way off course in the end.

Applying this flying analogy to the course of a human life makes some huge assumptions--beginning with the idea that there is a fixed destination just like a flight from New York to Frankfurt. Hasn't this guy heard the saying: life is about the journey.

I've found that it can be far more effective to just take the situation as it is, accept the uncertainty and do the best you can.

Wow. That's really insightful. I have thought about how much the church messed me up, and how my Patriarchal blessing has been manipulative in a sense; but I haven't considered how it influences towards being risk averse, and intolerant of failure.

Re Uchtdorf: You know, I feel like analogies are too often used as evidence of things rather than being used to simply illustrate things already established. Of cours, the church does't even really pretend to be super high on evidence..

in the bad times that were to come, I would be found in holy places and would not suffer unduly at any time.

My mother really caught onto that statement.

I was more concerned about whether I'd get married as I just thought that was what I really wanted. I used to read it and reread it because all my friends were getting married and I wasn't. I was dating nonmormons because mormons didn't seem to like, so it wasn't like I was what? Some special spirit like they said of all homely girls. I was asked by 3 nonmormons to marry them and I would have loved to marry any one of them, BUT . . . I thought they were there to tempt me as my PB told me.

I reread it after I'd left the church. I hadn't read the whole thing in years. I threw it out and then I retrieved it and gave it to my TBM daughter. I never want to see the damn thing again.

I'm just wondering what I did to suffer "duly" while still a mormon. My life has gone along SO MUCH BETTER since I left.

Ugh.. It's heart wrenching how much of life the church can steal from you.

So your RfM posts are scripture?

LOL! I need to archive them.

Well, have you prayed about it?

They are nothing but the Mormon version of a horoscope. Pay the lady in the tent and she tells your future. Pay the Patriarch and he will too.....

Actually, they are worse than a horoscope. They don't even have some kind of process to produce them other than a Mormon mixed bag of "thoughts and blessings" that bolster the already pumped up religious ego about being a chosen people.

Mormons forgot that everyone is special.

My patriarchal blessing helped me get through a tumultuous adolescence since I received mine at age 12.

Otherwise, most of it hasn't materialized. It does have some common sense instructions on being a good person, Mormon or not.

It honed in on some of my interests that would follow me throughout adulthood. I don't blame the blessing or the sweet old patriarch who gave me mine for the great disappointment I found in TSCC.

My husband's PB declared him "Ephraim", even though he was darkish and one of those considered "Lamanite". He even has slanted eyes. We wondered: "Who gets to be "Manasseh?"

Then we learned of the DNA results of Native Americans. Of course he is not Manasseh, because he is ASIAN!

Mine said Ephraim too....but my birth lineage is southwestern England (Cornwall/Devon) and I'm VERY light skinned....and the old geezer didn't discern that I'm adopted either and have no DNA connection to Mormonism.

Mine said that I would sleep in on the morning of the Return of Christ and wind up missing the last bus...

There was also mention of staying out of the sun and not drinking and driving.

I shouldn't have joked about David O. McKay looking like he owned Tara...

That sounds like a very special blessing. As an EXMO, my interpretation is that the patriarch was, indeed, fucking with you by putting extreme demands on you such as writing scripture, etc. Other than General Conference talks and Ensign articles (scripture lite that can readily be edited or buried), can you name a recent instance when a GA, including the “prophet” has published scripture? I’m talking about the kind of stuff found in between leather bindings.

And, I do wonder the patriarch’s sincerity in saying he had never given a blessing like that. My take is that he8s “loaded” blessings before.

In any event, being free of a cult enables you to create your own life based on YOUR priorities. Very best wishes! The Boner

My blessing was almost identical as the one my at the time best friend got. I thought that must have meant that because we were so much alike god had the same words for us to say. Now I believe he gives the same to almost everyone. I felt special being named Deborah and from the house of Ephraim. Now I know there are thousands of Deborah's they all got their name on the 21 rst of the month like I did lol.

http://www.fullerconsideration.com/pbrevelator.php

Somebody once told me after I found out that the lds church is false that I could keep the parts of it that made me happy. I enjoyed going to the temple because it was quiet now I enjoy going to other pretty places where it is quiet. I enjoyed girls camp now I make sure my children get many activities like that ouside the church. Reading the Book of Mormon gave me piece it got replaced with reading Brian Tracey. Paying tithing made me feel like I am helping the third world get clean water now I am donating to a charity each month for that. In my opinion you can keep part of it funeral potatoes green yellow salad. No church attendance or tithing is required for it. If there is a god or not I feel so much better doing what I think is right than following an organisation where I don't even know where their money is going. Jesus mall comes to mind lol.

I got a good one! Excerpts from mine, given July 9, 1978. He laid it on thick:

"Dearly beloved [Mordor], carefully observe the blessedness of thy mortal being. Gaze studiously about thee at the billions of souls contemporaneously alive with thee upon the earth, such vast numbers living in countries of spiritual darkness where disease and starvation are ever present from birth until death. Then witness thy own being having miraculously found thy way into the church of Jesus Christ."

The whole thing reads just like this. Be humble and grateful. You have a lot of work to do. Obey every law and ordinance, or else. Avoid and shun the scary evil world ("isolate thyself and thy loved ones"). Finally, the money quote:

"…Also the Holy One shall bless thee with important calls in the Priesthood, and thou shalt rise to high office within the Church, where the very soul [sic] of those with whom you labor shall benefit because of thee. Surely important is thy righteous being."

No thanks, old guy.

My friend got her patriarchal blessing not too long ago. She's now doing her temple prep class to prepare to get her temple recommend. She mentioned something about the tribe of Judah.