I stopped my outward apostasy for the past few months for my wife, so she doesn't have to deal with the fallout. I was starting to really struggle with it the past couple weeks. One thing that was really bothering me was the consecrated oil vial on my key chain, but I didn't want to take it off and have someone notice (because everyone pays attention to what's on my keychain...). I also didn't want to do it in front of my wife, because she doesn't need it thrown in her face.
This weekend I finally did it. I discreetly took it off, and put it somewhere no one will notice.
I know it's not significant, but it feels so good to be moving at least a little bit away from the dogma I was indoctrinated into that has its tentacles all through my life. I am itching to ditch the garments next, but that is harder to do without fallout or throwing it in my wife's face.
No More Oil Vial
No More Oil Vial
"I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order" - Kurt Vonnegut
Re: No More Oil Vial
Valid excuses:
"The oil went rancid..."
"The vial cracked and was leaking..."
"I don't believe in magic salad dressing anymore."
"The TSA thought it was a mini pipe bomb!"
"I loaned it to Brother So and So."
"I used the oil to polish the wood when we cleaned the chapel last month."
"I gave it to the missionaries..."
"I gave it to the missionaries to lubricate their bike chains."
Valid garment excuses:
My Dr. suggested something breathable with less polyester so my testicles don't rot away.
I'm allergic to Mormonism?
"The oil went rancid..."
"The vial cracked and was leaking..."
"I don't believe in magic salad dressing anymore."
"The TSA thought it was a mini pipe bomb!"
"I loaned it to Brother So and So."
"I used the oil to polish the wood when we cleaned the chapel last month."
"I gave it to the missionaries..."
"I gave it to the missionaries to lubricate their bike chains."
Valid garment excuses:
My Dr. suggested something breathable with less polyester so my testicles don't rot away.
I'm allergic to Mormonism?
“It always devolves to Pantaloons. Always.” ~ Fluffy
“I switched baristas” ~ Lady Gaga
“Those who do not move do not notice their chains.” ~Rosa Luxemburg
“I switched baristas” ~ Lady Gaga
“Those who do not move do not notice their chains.” ~Rosa Luxemburg
Re: No More Oil Vial
I remember feeling weird taking it of my keychain. Its a sign that you are super duper priesthood holder willing to give a blessing at anytime. Its a lot like when people do garment checks, or the obvious line around your pant leg near the knee. People see it and know.
It's nice to free yourself from magical thinking and superstitious beliefs.
Excuse...
The consecrated blessing had expired. It's just like a temple recommend 2 years.
Or...I had to get rid of it because it didn't work on any of the blessings I gave.
It's nice to free yourself from magical thinking and superstitious beliefs.
Excuse...
The consecrated blessing had expired. It's just like a temple recommend 2 years.
Or...I had to get rid of it because it didn't work on any of the blessings I gave.
Re: No More Oil Vial
That works for so many things.My kid lost it.
Reading can severely damage your ignorance.
Re: No More Oil Vial
No more vile oil for me either.
Loved RR's post BTW.
Loved RR's post BTW.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.
Rumi
Rumi
Re: No More Oil Vial
I drove one of my dad's car for a few months while he didn't have a place to park it during some construction at his house. He gave me two sets of keys. One had the priesthood rod vial keychain. The other had a bottle opener keychain with the logo of my brother's liberal coastal elite college.
He didn't need to bother with two sets since I only ever used one. Obviously.
He didn't need to bother with two sets since I only ever used one. Obviously.
"Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. To be healed we must come with all the other creates to the feast of Creation." --Wendell Berry
Re: No More Oil Vial
These kinds of symbols can be hard to abandon - the conditioning runs deep! The oil vial is kind of funny for me because even as a TBM I never carried one around and thought it was kind of silly of those who did. Maybe it was my subconscious distrust of priesthood blessings and my desire not to give any: "Oops - sorry, don't have any oil with me!"
fh451
fh451
Re: No More Oil Vial
fh451 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:16 am These kinds of symbols can be hard to abandon - the conditioning runs deep! The oil vial is kind of funny for me because even as a TBM I never carried one around and thought it was kind of silly of those who did. Maybe it was my subconscious distrust of priesthood blessings and my desire not to give any: "Oops - sorry, don't have any oil with me!"
fh451
Oops- sorry don't have oil with me.
Good thinking..
Re: No More Oil Vial
You could always fill it with a little "something" to help get through church.
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Silver Girl
- Posts: 375
- Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2016 6:31 am
Re: No More Oil Vial
I thought of the same thing - I know it's only about 1/10 of a shot glass or something, but I'd probably hit nirvana just from the flippant way of using it.
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Silver Girl is sailing into the future. She is no longer scared.
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Silver Girl is sailing into the future. She is no longer scared.
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MalcolmVillager
- Posts: 703
- Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2016 8:01 pm
Re: No More Oil Vial
RR strikes again FTW.
I put mine in my truck years ago just to be minimalist. It is still there. If I ever use it again it will be for the benefit of someone searching for their magic feather. If I can help them then great, but I certainly don't see any real power in it regardless of my perceived worthiness or faith.
I put mine in my truck years ago just to be minimalist. It is still there. If I ever use it again it will be for the benefit of someone searching for their magic feather. If I can help them then great, but I certainly don't see any real power in it regardless of my perceived worthiness or faith.
Re: No More Oil Vial
If you return to the roots of Mormonism, you will find a wooden cane has just as much healing properties as oil.
One particular folk healing form was the implementation of wooden canes. [34] The following two accounts offer a comparison that potentially highlights the particular syncretism of some British Saints. The first account describes the healing use of a cane in Winter Quarters before the vanguard company left for the Great Basin in 1847. According to his journal, John D. Lee suffered from a violent fever and vomiting. Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Willard Richards, and Levi Stewart came to his residence, whereupon Young “laid on [his] breast a cane built from one of the branches of the Tree of Life that stood in the garden in the Temple.” The sick man described that “this as a matter to be expected, collected my thoughts and centered them on sacred and solemn things.” Stewart and Woodruff then anointed and blessed him. [35] In this case, the traditional folk use of the cane was grafted onto the Mormon temple rites and symbolism. While the healing nature of the cane is reflected in its placement upon the chest of the afflicted, the implement itself was metaphorically understood to be a branch from the tree of life, a central image in the temple liturgy. It is also possible that the allusion to the Garden of Eden may have particular meaning to the individuals involved, evoking both the Edenic state without sickness and the image of the Saints cast out from their sacred garden, suffering in the lonely, bitter world. These scraps of the temple to which the Saints clung served as a poignant context to the suffering from disease on the western trail.
The second account can be found in the 1848 Millennial Star, which published a letter from John Albiston, a native elder in England, recounting many miraculous healings. Among them were several healings elicited by the use of his cane:
While I was looking about me one day, I left my stick at the brothers in Old Swinford; the brother and father-in-law worked together as nailors, and the young man had a deep cut in his hand, caused by a piece of iron with which he had been at work. He went to my stick and rubbed his hand against it, and the wound immediately closed. Both father-in-law and mother-in-law were witnesses to this healing. The old man and woman had each wounds; they took the stick and rubbed, and were healed,—so there were three healed in that house, one after another. [36]
Also, you could buy pre-blessed oil down at temple square...
Yet, even as healing practices incorporated secular approaches, the relationship between healing and the temple appears to have strengthened once the Church got to Utah. While one could technically consecrate oil anywhere, starting in Nauvoo and continuing in Utah, the temple was viewed as the preferred place to perform this act. [53] When John Pulsipher joined a regular prayer circle group in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, he noted that such meetings were “the proper place to consecrate oil for the use of the sick.” [54] Elder Abraham H. Cannon of the Quorum of the Twelve stated in his journal that oil consecration was a regular part of his weekly prayer circle meetings following the completion of the Salt Lake Temple. [55] The temple gate on Temple Square in Salt Lake City hosted a small shop which sold oil consecrated in the temple, and prominent individuals such as Helen Mar Kimball Whitney and Charles Ora Card described purchasing bottles there. [56] Oil remained available at the temple gate into the first decades of the twentieth century, with at least some of the oil sold there having been consecrated by Elder George F. Richards’s prayer circle. [57] It is also important to note that with time, regular fast meetings became special meetings for ritual administration, with consecrating oil being a regular feature. [58]
Reference: https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/our-rites- ... ouring-oil
One particular folk healing form was the implementation of wooden canes. [34] The following two accounts offer a comparison that potentially highlights the particular syncretism of some British Saints. The first account describes the healing use of a cane in Winter Quarters before the vanguard company left for the Great Basin in 1847. According to his journal, John D. Lee suffered from a violent fever and vomiting. Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Willard Richards, and Levi Stewart came to his residence, whereupon Young “laid on [his] breast a cane built from one of the branches of the Tree of Life that stood in the garden in the Temple.” The sick man described that “this as a matter to be expected, collected my thoughts and centered them on sacred and solemn things.” Stewart and Woodruff then anointed and blessed him. [35] In this case, the traditional folk use of the cane was grafted onto the Mormon temple rites and symbolism. While the healing nature of the cane is reflected in its placement upon the chest of the afflicted, the implement itself was metaphorically understood to be a branch from the tree of life, a central image in the temple liturgy. It is also possible that the allusion to the Garden of Eden may have particular meaning to the individuals involved, evoking both the Edenic state without sickness and the image of the Saints cast out from their sacred garden, suffering in the lonely, bitter world. These scraps of the temple to which the Saints clung served as a poignant context to the suffering from disease on the western trail.
The second account can be found in the 1848 Millennial Star, which published a letter from John Albiston, a native elder in England, recounting many miraculous healings. Among them were several healings elicited by the use of his cane:
While I was looking about me one day, I left my stick at the brothers in Old Swinford; the brother and father-in-law worked together as nailors, and the young man had a deep cut in his hand, caused by a piece of iron with which he had been at work. He went to my stick and rubbed his hand against it, and the wound immediately closed. Both father-in-law and mother-in-law were witnesses to this healing. The old man and woman had each wounds; they took the stick and rubbed, and were healed,—so there were three healed in that house, one after another. [36]
Also, you could buy pre-blessed oil down at temple square...
Yet, even as healing practices incorporated secular approaches, the relationship between healing and the temple appears to have strengthened once the Church got to Utah. While one could technically consecrate oil anywhere, starting in Nauvoo and continuing in Utah, the temple was viewed as the preferred place to perform this act. [53] When John Pulsipher joined a regular prayer circle group in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, he noted that such meetings were “the proper place to consecrate oil for the use of the sick.” [54] Elder Abraham H. Cannon of the Quorum of the Twelve stated in his journal that oil consecration was a regular part of his weekly prayer circle meetings following the completion of the Salt Lake Temple. [55] The temple gate on Temple Square in Salt Lake City hosted a small shop which sold oil consecrated in the temple, and prominent individuals such as Helen Mar Kimball Whitney and Charles Ora Card described purchasing bottles there. [56] Oil remained available at the temple gate into the first decades of the twentieth century, with at least some of the oil sold there having been consecrated by Elder George F. Richards’s prayer circle. [57] It is also important to note that with time, regular fast meetings became special meetings for ritual administration, with consecrating oil being a regular feature. [58]
Reference: https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/our-rites- ... ouring-oil
~2bizE