Clearing Past Life Vows, Oaths and Promises

Think back to when you last uttered a strong, intense thought about something - or someone. It could have been the last time you held your child and whispered into his or her ear, "I'll always be with you", or murmured words to the love of your life, like "I'll never love anyone the way I love you."

It could've been yesterday - or a long time ago, depending on your life. Or perhaps you can only recall the way, Scarlett O'Hara, her fist in the air, vowed "as God is my witness, I shall never go hungry again", in that classic movie Gone With the Wind. By the time you have read this chapter, you may think twice before you direct your intensity towards a vow, oath or promise - because, quite simply, whenever an affirmation, be it positive or 'negative' with intensity, it becomes an oath in our energy system, that is carried with us for not only years to come - but for lifetimes to come.

I wonder how many oaths, vows or promises you've made in your countless past lives that have brought you to this point? We all carry this blocked or frozen energy within us, and it will remain in this state until we can rescind or officially withdraw our intensity from the vows made.

Once rescinded, we can move forward again, be open to letting go of children so that they can grow beyond us, open to loving another lover again in a different part of our present life or in a whole new lifetime to come, open to receiving prosperity again, forming bonds of friendship, healing ourselves, speaking our truth or letting go of hatred.

Our body has its own truth and the longest memory of all - and only by tapping into our energy system can we begin to unpeel the wrapping that preserves hidden, frozen secrets that hold us back from our full potential now. We place so much importance and emphasis on our minds, and revere academics and those with strong intellects - yet, the most limitless part of our self is our spirit, the part of us that remembers everything from numerous life times and events - and the body, as its protector, holds the spirit energy.

So we must begin to listen to the 'bodymind' - the mind that runs the body. Just as I believe that the vast majority of physical conditions originate from emotional energy, so we can discover - through various techniques and therapies like rebirthing, bioenergetics, connected breathing, hypnotherapy and deep tissue massage, to name a few - how to learn the language of the bodymind.

Once we tune into this, we can begin to become deeply aware of what our body is trying to tell us, so that next time we feel a contraction in the chakra just below the tummy button - why the 'chi' or 'lifeforce energy' is said to reside - we can allow ourselves a 'time out', take ourselves to a quiet place, tune in and ask the spirit, the body what is going on. Often, your first, intuitive impression will be the right answer. And, while your strong intellect/mind will start to analyze and question the response, practice going with the flow of the answer and choose to stay in the emotion, the feeling or with the body. If it requires you to cry, rage, speak something, own something, walk away, pound a cushion - then do it. You don't need to know why and how - just do what your body wants you to do, and you will feel the difference.

So, trapped within the bodymind, is trauma from this life - and intense decisions made in former lives also. These decisions can prevent you from choosing to have a relationship, get healthy or rich or spiritual or be independent, almost as if the oath, vow or promises has become a protective mechanism against the possibility of future pain.

One example of this could be that - in this life, you have a fear of drowning and are convinced that you will drown. So you avoid water at all costs, as a safety precaution. The truth is - it's not that you will drown in the future. The truth is that you already drowned, drowned before, in another life, and your energy carries the imprint of that trauma.

Ask anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one and they will be able to tap into their grief and pain, as if it were yesterday. Trauma stays fresh within the bodymind, until we can do the work to let it go.

So - how do you know what oaths, vows and promises you might have made in a past life? Have a look at the following list and see whether you resonate with any of these:

loss of identity, feelings of not belonging the need to stay at your post well beyond the need (such as to stay in a terrible marriage out of duty)
tendency to follow orders without question
to feel as if you are constantly on your guard
constant questioning of your life purpose
tendency to caretake everyone else except yourself your self-worth comes from making others happy, even when it conflicts with your own needs
a fear, disguised as 'respect' of teachers and others in authoritarian positions
a fear that you'll never acquire enough knowledge or qualifications
a fear of expressing your truth focusing on a 'real' job instead of your passion to be an artist, for example
a fear of being rejected for being imperfect
a need to distance yourself from the world
a feeling of being trapped within a body
a strange inability to grow your wealth while being great at healing others, cannot heal yourself
a tendency to avoid relationship, or going deeper within relationship
unable to fall in love and let go completely fear of acting upon your own initiative or in personal power wanting to be separate from different cultures, religions or even the other gender.


These are just a few of the beliefs created by an experience in which a repetitive pattern has been created, due to an oath, vow or promise!

Basically the main vows, oaths or promises we all have uttered in past lifetimes can be wrapped up into a short list - and here they are:

Spiritual vows:

The vow of poverty - now unable to be prosperous without feeling tremendous guilt.
The vow of chastity - look at it this way - if you were married to God in a past life, why would on earth you be available to a partner in a relationship?
The vow of obedience - now unable to use your personal power, but follow orders instead.
The vow of silence - as you may have had to withhold sacred teachings and not reveal these under pain of death in a past life, today - as you cannot recall what's sacred and what's not, you now reveal nothing, or forget everything.
The healer's oath - which forbade healers to partake of healing energy but to use it all for others.
The vow of 'death before dishonor' - why else would you stay at your post, keep doing things for people who don't appreciate you, or remain in a threatening or dysfunction situation? Often this is connected to experiences of being a soldier or a warrior.

Finally, the vows of revenge and retribution are carried by all of us. The rage we may have felt in a past life seeing our tribe slaughtered, our families killed by invading hordes is stored in the bodymind as 'fuel' in order to keep the vow alive until it can be fulfilled. It's very important for our health to release these. My own experience of releasing an ancient Celtic vow to despise all English men brought up feelings of grief and loss, with a thought that came in of 'what will I have to hate now?'

Retribution vows are often the ones we find hard to recognize until we move into relaxation, says the rescinding words and give our bodyminds permission to release what's hidden. All I knew before I said the rescinding words was that, for some reason, I was allergic to English men and never dated them!

While there are workshops around (such as one I regularly run) - that specifically break these vows - you can help your self to clear some of these simply by being aware of them existing within you as a possibility. Spend some time alone in meditation, begin to gather a sense of your guides, or a presence of warm healing green or rose energy surrounding you, and then imagine that you are sitting in the palm of a great hand - the loving hand of the Universal Energy, God, Goddess, Great Spirit - what ever name you place upon it. Breathe and feel the blocked energy begin to seep out along this central channel of light within you and out of your crown chakra. You may have notice its color leaving you. Then close your crown chakra when the energy feels complete, when you feel no more vibration, lifting or movement - by imagining a flower closing down its petals, sealing in your energy, and sending a warm golden seal around your aura, protecting and rebalancing you.

It can be that easy. Then commit to focusing on your new openness, take some risks and start acting in ways that can affirm that you are now free of the past. Remember, whatever you focus on, grows!