Forgiveness and Freedom

Forgiveness and Freedom ©2016 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

Today's Ezine/Blogpost has more religious references than usual.  Please forgive me if this offends you :)

I was raised Presbyterian, and I always thought the Catholics had it better.  They had specific rules on what was right and wrong, you knew exactly what level of Hell you were going to, and even better, they had Confession which meant you could get absolved.

As a Presbyterian, my impression was that *everything* I did was sinful, it was my fault that Jesus died 2,000 years ago, and there was no forgiveness - it was on your record for life.

Years later I learned that Presbyterians supposedly believe in 'spontaneous forgiveness', but I certainly didn't experience that growing up!

So here's what I've learned about forgiveness:

Forgiveness as Ferguson, photo by loavesofbread

Forgiveness doesn't mean that whatever happened wasn't wrong, it means you've let go of it so it no longer affects you.

Sin in Aramaic (the dialect Jesus spoke) is an archery term meaning 'missing the mark'.  Imagine how Christianity would be different if sin was interpreted that way!

From the perspective of Consciousness, forgiveness is releasing energy. You let go of the energy of injury. In so doing, you allow yourself to heal and become whole again.

Consciousness is beyond time and space, and yet our experience of Presence exists only in the present moment. When you let go of the past, including past hurts, you can be fully in the Now.
You are aligned with Consciousness, you get to know yourself *as* your Expanded Self.  It's exhilarating and empowering.

Spontaneous forgiveness happens effortlessly as Consciousness, it's always in the Now, always releasing the past.

So here's the deeper aspect about all this - in Present Time there is no karma.  My Mystery School taught that that the cycle of karma was released 2,000 years ago.  What that means is that we don't carry issues from our past lives into this present one.

It may have been a benevolent aspect of removing all references to reincarnation from the Bible after the Nicene Council in 500 A.D. If you don't think past lives exist, then you're only focused on this one. On the other hand, with the distortion of the concept of sin, it became a way to control people.

The idea that our soul can be anything but immortal, and that it's possible for us to go anywhere but back into greater Consciousness when we pass, is ridiculous. YOU are an Infinite Being, and when you die, you'll remember this!

If you feel you've done something horribly wrong, you don't need anyone else's forgiveness, just your own. You missed the mark. You can make amends directly, or you can make a living amends by being different now. You can release that burden.  You can be in present time, aligned with yourself as Consciousness, and feel it melt away.

But what if you're walking around with scars from past abuse, wrongdoing by others? The abuser is long gone, but we're still experiencing PTSD, or the lies they told are still echoing throughout the family (abusers always point the finger at their victim).

Forgiving them doesn't make them right, forgiving them releases their affect on you. When you release their energy, the patterns cease to influence you.

Forgiveness allows you to gain your power back from people, corporations, and religious institutions. It allows you to reclaim your energy from disempowering situations.

When you look at this world as Consciousness, you see it as a complex, multilayered, ocean of frequency patterns. There are physical patterns that make up what you can see and touch, and there are emotional patterns that you can feel and sense.

As Consciousness we dive into this swirling sea to enjoy it's diversity of denser energies.

As personality we lose our perspective and feel like we're drowning in it.

Forgiveness lets go of those restrictive patterns, frees you to feel your Expansiveness again.

What about others who continue to engage in those patterns? Lies and abuse passes down through generations (and passes on to extended families as well).

Your releasing the energy from your space heals it within you and allows the opportunity for it to be released and healed within others. Yet, as much as we love our loved ones, we all have free will, and sometimes that means the will to hold on to dysfunctional behaviors and interactions until they've milked the drama for all it's worth.

However, we're *all* Consciousness. We're *all* Expanded, Infinite Beings. In forgiveness, in letting go, you get to experience your magnificence. And our loved ones? They'll remember theirs eventually.