Yesterday, I found out that Joseph Smith's father was the first patriarch of the church and that he charged $3 per blessing which would be around $108 today.

https://www.tiktok.com/@analyzing.mormonism/video/7342969835233529131?lang=en

Mormonism is all about Money! I am from the tribe of Ephraim. In my blessing, it says that I should always pay a true tithing so that my heavenly father can bless me so that heaven can open and knowledge can be placed upon me. My best friend and I got our blessings a few days apart and we compared our blessings and they were almost identical ( I didn't know that the blessing was not allowed to be shared). The only difference was that in my blessing it says that my non-member dad will join the lds church through my example. My dad is 73 years old and so far has not joined the lds church.

My patriarchal blessing was a real disappointment.

I am also of the boring, vanilla tribe of Ephraim, and I had hoped that it would be something a little more interesting like Dan, or Asher...anything but Ephraim.

Our son-in-law's father's PB said that he would walk back to Missouri and help build the temple there. He passed away in 2020.

In my husband's blessing, it said basically to pay attention to what your wife says. Now, that's something I can agree with. :)

valkyriequeen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Our son-in-law's father's PB said that he would
> walk back to Missouri and help build the temple
> there. He passed away in 2020.
>
> In my husband's blessing, it said basically to pay
> attention to what your wife says. Now, that's
> something I can agree with. :)

Sorry about the passing of your son’s father in law. There still is not a temple in Missouri so I guess he will build it from heaven with his “spiritual eyes”.

Back when I was an active member I would explain when something didn’t come to pass that the person was needed more in the next life than in this life building the temple. I had to ability to still make it work for me. The church was true because I “felt” it.

“my blessing it says that my non-member dad will join the lds church through my example.”

Obviously, you were the right kind of example.

My PB said that I would “labor with those who hold high office in the church.” In all my decades of activity, that never happened. Maybe because of my loud laughter.

CrispingPin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My PB said that I would “labor with those who
> hold high office in the church.” In all my
> decades of activity, that never happened. Maybe
> because of my loud laughter.


During my active lds time I could even explain this. So I grew up in Germany in a very small branch. Every active member had several callings. As soon as I turned 18 I was put into the nursery. The nursery only had 3 children. When I was 19 years old I was the second councilor for the young women. The missionaries even had to pass the sacrament because there weren’t enough young men to do it. Basically I would explain it that this blessing would have come true had you lived at a different location. Had you lived in my branch boundary you would have been either the branch president or one of his councilors or young men’s president or his councilor.
When I was 21years old I said to the branch president that there are no men my age and he said look there is x. I said x is 39 years old and I am 21. I am not looking to date my dad the branch president was very upset at me for saying that.

My older brother has a light complexion like my mothers family.

I have a darker complexion like my fathers family.

His blessing tribe of Ephraim.

My blessing a year later from the same patriarch - Manasseh!

LOL, they had to guess the tribe by how people look. How inspired!

That's another reason for why intermarriage of any kind presented problems for them. It's a contributing reason why they need to stop the tribe assignment BS and Patriarchs altogether.

Once again, science with DNA, reveals the hokey practice and beliefs are bunk.

Two siblings from 2 different tribes? The patriarch has some explaining to do lol.

The mormon answer is that their mom is the one who's got some 'splaining to do, Lucy!

Someone here on RfM, when PBs were the topic, that his stated quite boldly that he would have a fabulous life because of his love and talent in music.

I don't recall the exact wording, but the author detailed how he'd pointed his educational efforts towards that field, rather than another field he'd been interested in ...

Finally, he recognized that he was not really gifted or even talented in the musical field and had wasted years of his life by listening to that Fakeriarch.

Mine must not have been important because it didn't leave any impressions unlike church leaders.

I don't recall anything significant. Maybe it suggested that I remember to always park between the lines in the church parking lot.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2024 12:25PM by messygoop.

You’re not supposed to share your PB for two reasons:
They don’t want you to notice how much of the PBs are just boilerplate verbiage.

They don’t want you to notice how often their predictions don’t pan out,


They of course tell you the reason is because it is too sacred to talk about. That’s their usual “get out of jail free” card when they find themselves in a really awkward position

I read mine.....however many decades ago that was. 6? maybe.....once....and it meant nothing to me then. I haven't read it since....I still have it. Might use it to light a fire with.

Please read it and report. I am curious how what the lord had promised you.

Sometimes the PB are downright cruel. I've posted this before. My overweight friend in high school got a very generic PB with no mention of posterity, marriage etc. She totally shut down emotionally and never even tried to date. Now mid 70's never married and totally bedridden. it is so sad.

gemini Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sometimes the PB are downright cruel. I've posted
> this before. My overweight friend in high school
> got a very generic PB with no mention of
> posterity, marriage etc. She totally shut down
> emotionally and never even tried to date. Now mid
> 70's never married and totally bedridden. it is
> so sad.

That is horrible. My great grandpa was a Patriarch. My aunt got married by her grandpa in the temple. Looking back that I gave so much time and money to the LDS church without doing my own real research was plain silly. My P Blessing made me feel like I was the only person that could bring my father to the church through my example. Putting so much pressure on a teenager at the time when I got my P Blessing I was only 16 or 17 years old. People have their own life no matter what example I am. When I resigned from Mormonism my mom got very upset. My great grandma actually got 2 P Blessings. People are supposably only allowed to get one P Blessing in their life time but my great grandma had received 2. Before my great grandma died she wrote a book about her life and she wrote she copied and pasted her two blessings in it. My great grandparents were temple presidents and my great grandma in her book wrote the story about this young couple traveling all the way hours long to the temple to get married. But the bride to be is very upset and crying and says that she doesn’t want to get married any longer. The groom to be is very concerned as to why she doesn’t want to marry him any longer. So my great grandma ask the bride when she last ate? The bride said that to prepare for the temple she was fasting and praying for the last 24 hours to make her wedding day the most spiritual experience of her life. My great grandma told the groom to be to take his bride and get her some food. The bride was crying and said that she wanted to be worthy and felt that the only way she could be worthy is by fasting. Once my great grandpa the temple president told the bride to eat something the couple left and ate something. The couple came back and got married in the temple. At the time when I read this story I felt so happy that my great grandparents were so intuned with the spirit that they knew exactly what this bride needed. Looking back why did the bride needed to be told to eat by priesthood authority? Why did the bride feel unworthy unless she was fasting? A grown woman should be able to eat when she feels hungry without being told to do so. Toxic teachings of fasting not everybody can fast for 24 hours without food and water. Toxic teachings of purity.

I'm nowhere close to this, but in general I think that facts/evidence are taking a stronger role in people's decisions, this 'could' apply to Mormons also...

I'm further thinking that LDS parents of current times only see this as a ceremony but without true, meaningful meaning/application; am I wrong on this?

Mine as well as several of my ancestors have our lineage is simply written as "literal drscendant of Joseph".

I worked some years ago with a woman who had the church job of transcribing PBs. The patriarch would bring her the tapes.

Like doctors do, they have a format for a certain type of surgery like cataracts, and we just have to pull up his report and he fills in any blanks. That is what the patriarch would do sometimes.

That is when she started questioning the church.

I had a pretty interesting PB compared to ones I've read, but I obviously wasn't found in holy places serving the lord so that I would not be called upon to suffer unduly at any time. I gave my daughter mine. Just after I had thrown it away, I retrieved it and gave it to her. It was way off base.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2024 10:33PM by cl2.

The whole PB thing always made me laugh. If I had been caught with Tarot cards I would have had my butt worn out and church would have thrown a fit. The fact that Ol' Joe's father was the first to do them, and CHARGED, speaks volumes. It fits right in with the money digging and fortune telling. There were a lot of very good reasons that Emma's family didn't want her to have anything to do with the Smith family.

It makes me think of this song. I have liked it since it came out even when I didn't quite understand all of it :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsFaVxcUMhQ

I’ve had a few tarot readings. They’re at least as accurate as PBs, more entertaining, and don’t require fasting.

Mine said I would become a church leader (that part was for my father). No mention of crippling anxiety and depression. I cannot lead by my very nature.

My patriarchal blessing was so overwhelming that I put it away and didn't look at it for years. I ended up throwing away the original, forgetting that I had a copy somewhere till I stumbled upon it many years later. I misplaced it again and recently found it in a drawer. I just read through it again. No wonder it was so disturbing to me.

I received my patriarchal blessing when I was 16 years old. The patriarch was an intellectual odd ball without very good social skills.

I went to his house for the blessing. He questioned me for an hour before he did the blessing. He was not a friendly person and the questions felt very invasive - kind of like a bishop's interview. I was so uncomfortable I contemplated running out the door several times. I now wish I had. He made me feel like I was unworthy to receive the blessing although I was a good, obedient morgbot. I thought for sure he was going to tell me that I should go home without getting a blessing but after an hour of interrogation he finally told me he was ready. It was not a pleasant experience. This is the first paragraph. The entire blessing was almost two pages long:

"You feel concern for the imperfections which you know exist. Now this concern is important and appropriate. You are blessed to make correction, and to make restitution, and to make effective repentance. So that those concerns about your imperfections, about your behavior which is not Christ-like, can be removed. You are blessed to repent effectively. For God loves you. You are His child. He would have you fulfill the purpose of your life, which is to become a queen and a god in His kingdom. To fulfill the full measure of your existence, which is to create. To create things of beauty. To create new worlds. Now you practice creating new worlds on a tiny scale. This is in preparation for becoming like God. For becoming a god yourself. And thus enjoying and appreciating a fullness of your capacity, which now you sense and experience on a tiny scale. But you see that it is good. Building upon this seed, which is good, and which you know is good, you can construct for yourself the fullness, the completeness which has potential within you as you contemplated coming to earth."

Pretty intense stuff for a 16 year old. A lot of the blessing pointed out my faults but then praised me. It was very unsettling.

I've basically been a good person my entire life. I kept the Mormon rules and served a mission. I was a good Morgbot. I've mostly been honest and kind. I've never broken any laws. My blessing made me feel like there was so much wrong with me. I hated it and still do. I refer to it as my patriarchal cursing.

I'm wondering if any of you had a similar blessing or one that made you feel like you fell short, even if you were told you could become a god. Lol, no godhood for me now that I no longer believe.

Sorry this was so long.

"...a queen and a god (sic) in His kingdom..."
"...for becoming a god yourself..."

A god? or a goddess? to "create new worlds...?"

Interesting mix--or confusion--of gender offices there.

I never thought of it as gender confusion. Interesting. I did notice that god was not capitalized. Maybe it meant I would be a lesser god.