I have a question. I don't mean anything disrespectful by it and not meaning to ask private stuff, trying to think of a way to word this do it doesn't come out wrong . (Maybe I don't understand completely what a Patriarchal blessing is exactly), I was just found mine yesterday and was reading it again and noticed that it just consisted of wording such as " I bless you to make plans to enter the temple, get married and have a family, live the WOW, etc" It just went on with being blessed to live each gospel principle out there( nothing private, just stuff you'd hear in church). I thought Patriarchal blessing were suppose to be like a prediction of the future. I got it only after I had been in the church for 2-3 years. I googled it and started reading stories of people who got read predictions , etc. of course, some said that the more the Patriarch knew you and your interests, etc, the more precise the blessings would be, which is starting to make since mine were just generic gospel principles , which I already knew.
Also I got the tribe of Ephriam, which everyone seems to get , I've read. Maybe that's not supposed to be literal, but if I'm part Jewish wouldn't I be from the tribe of Judah?

I just think they are designed to make you feel like you have a personal attachment to the Church. More sense of belonging and purpose. At least that's how mine made me feel.

I actually didn't know or even meet the patriarch until I went to receive my blessing. He went on to say that before I arrived an angel visited him and told him all about me and how special I was to the kingdom and God's plan.

My blessing told me I was a Son of the Morning in the pre existence and that I'd be a GA while on the earth.

Basically, they are supposed to make you feel special. They are supposed to make anyone feel special. Just another form of mind control and manipulation. Bullshit.

I'm gonna rewrite my own PB. Be right back.

About 15 years ago, I had a lifelong friend pass away. We received our patriarchal blessings within a few weeks of each other prior to leaving on missions. During the funeral services, our former bishop read excerpts from my friends PB. The excerpts read were -word for word exactly like my PB.

Its no wonder TSCC counsels its minnions to keep their PB secret/sacred and never read them out loud. This occurrence was very much a tipping point in my exit from TSCC.

Bingo. I'm certain my "personal" blessing is shared by thousands of others!

Also why they are counseled to keep your temple name secret (I mean sacred, my bad), they don't want you realizing you share that special name with everyone else who entered that month/year.

But the Mormon God knows every hair on our heads, yet mission calls, PBs, temple names, callings, etc......are all auto generated. Felt like just another sheep....oh wait...

Usually, "esoteric teachings" are doctrinal matters which are kept hidden from the outside public, proselytes ("milk before meat") and lower-tier worker-bee members. Think Scientology's higher "Operating Thetan" stuff and LDS "Deep Doctrine" such as the concept of polygamy in the CK.

But it is also individual and personal. Some cults (Sun Myung Moon's "Unification" cult) have special, unique "words of wisdom" and special revelation. LDS is not the only one where the Holy Ghost tells a man some girl is to be his wife; in others it may be a church leader (e.g. "Moonies" and Jim Jones' People's Temple).

My take is is that such decisions are based upon sheer political and personal agendae, with a fortune teller's intuitive & psychological skills mixed in.

I've heard a lot of generic b.s. in patriarchal blessings as well, but yours sounds a bit understated. I always thought they were supposed to contain at least some little blurb to make you feel special in some way while not going too far out on any limbs.

This is a wild guess, but it may be that your patriarch had been
called on the carpet for coming up with PBs that were a bit too sensational. Maybe he had too many candidates that sprang from obscure tribes, or too many people who would save the constitution when it finally hung by a thread, or too many people promised positions of high leadership, etc. Most of the blessings are a bit generic, but if yours contained nothing whatsoever to distinguish you from the next blessee, perhaps you were the victim of a rogue patriarch who had been reined in a bit.

Hockey Rat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a question. I don't mean anything
> disrespectful by it and not meaning to ask private
> stuff, trying to think of a way to word this do it
> doesn't come out wrong . (Maybe I don't understand
> completely what a Patriarchal blessing is
> exactly), I was just found mine yesterday and was
> reading it again and noticed that it just
> consisted of wording such as " I bless you to make
> plans to enter the temple, get married and have a
> family, live the WOW, etc" It just went on with
> being blessed to live each gospel principle out
> there( nothing private, just stuff you'd hear in
> church). I thought Patriarchal blessing were
> suppose to be like a prediction of the future. I
> got it only after I had been in the church for 2-3
> years. I googled it and started reading stories of
> people who got read predictions , etc. of course,
> some said that the more the Patriarch knew you and
> your interests, etc, the more precise the
> blessings would be, which is starting to make
> since mine were just generic gospel principles ,
> which I already knew.
> Also I got the tribe of Ephriam, which everyone
> seems to get , I've read. Maybe that's not
> supposed to be literal, but if I'm part Jewish
> wouldn't I be from the tribe of Judah?

That's what I'm talking about. When I was active, I never wondered what anyone's said , nor had anyone ask me what mine said , even close friends . Im just hearing about all of this now. If there was no such thing as the Internet , I wouldn't know any of this.

Well , I'm female, so I wouldn't get any predictions of my being a future GA or anything , but thought I'd get something else, or do all women get " I bless you to be a wife and mother ", etc?
That's not a blessing or prediction, it's what you suppose to do anyway as a member. I should of got " you'll marry a military guy, travel the world, " LOL

No, I have it in my hand right now, nothing specific,in fact, I probably could print it out publicly and not be giving out anything private. Now I feel bad, I'm not special .
Well, I was a member for only a couple of years when I got it. I don't remember my interview, since I got it in the 80s . I'm shy and probably didn't talk a lot in my interview or just gave short answers to questions.
(In another post , I talked about quitting church when I moved because I felt too embarrassed about being called to any position where I'd have to talk in front of people , which covers every calling)

In most cases, a Patriarch interviews you and asks questions before giving the blessing. If there is anything less than generic in a PB blessing, it's probably there because a patriarch learns a little about you before giving the blessing.

My PB daughter had a blessing a few years back. The patriarch talked to her for a bit while I was there. He did mention something somewhat specific to her. But it was something that he learned by questioning her before the blessing.

I can honestly say that I can't remember one detail from mine. I think I read it once after it was given to me and I have no idea where it is. We're I to come across it I would burn it and video the act. I would NOT read it again.

RB

My TBM wife consults her PB every other month, and alludes to it almost every other week. It has become her lodestone.

I would say that hers is perhaps a little more specific to her that many of those referenced here. But then, my wife is an open audio book to anybody she meets; "Got a minute to hear my life story?" is her favorite self-effacing joke. Therefore, it's not a stretch to assume the person doing her PB had a pretty good bead on my wife and the concerns she had with her day-to-day existence. It really is nothing more than the general advice she'd get from anybody who has spent more than a couple minutes with her.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2016 11:44AM by surprenant.

I have briefly mentioned my PB here before. When I got mine, I showed up at the guy's house only to find my parents already there. Years later I went read the blessing and discovered everything in it could have easily been told to him by my parents. Back then I just believed what the morg had told me about such blessings. Now I know they are bs.

It is a padlock system attempting to permanently attach the recipient to the Mormon church.

My wife's PB mentioned that she would marry a priest worthy man, who would have many callings in the church and she would need to sustain this man. Also said that she would be a great teacher of her children, which would be many. I'm paraphrasing here, but you get the jist.

Well, she married a non mormon who will never be a member or go to church, and she was not able to have children, so we adopted 2.

What a crock.....

But it has the obligatory out "If you live by the gospel....." then these things will happen.

Really, it's perfectly fine to be "disrespectful" of patriarchal blessings. Happens all the time on this site. (Same with "speaking evil of the Lord's Anointed." Try it, it's fun.)

Here are two other threads on PBs:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1583607
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1837794

Hockey Rat, in the nambe of jebus, you are now special! Oh, and have a PB&J sammich to seal the deal.

My PB contains a lot of generic crap that could happen if, "you are faithful and obedient" which I tried to be for many decades. Look to see if those words are in yours. I'll bet you a chocolate doughnut with sprinkles that they are.

Wow!! I'm special! I had a burning in my bosom by reading your blessing, you people are all special yourselves and clearing up a lot of stuff, and I know that I'm not the only one with these feelings.

Yup - it's always conditional. "These blessings I pronounce upon your head - according to your faithfulness."

Standard church psychological warfare. If they don't come true, guess who's to blame? YOU. You're not faithful enough. It couldn't possibly be that the whole thing's a load of tripe.

Another excuse I've often heard given when things don't come to pass is that they'll happen in the next life. Convenient. *insert giant eyeroll here*