New Order Mormon

[SillyNut]

[K8W8s]

My apologies for not having the time to read this entire post prior to tonight. Over the last week as I have read different posts and references to this thread, it crossed my mind that I knew precisely what was meant by the "Second Annointing", but it didn't occur to me that the mystery of it persevered so strongly. I've read two accounts of the "second annointing" aka the "second temple blessing".

The first is notably vague and was written by my great grandmother in her journal and then, only in passing. She referred to a wonderful day at the SL Temple where they (she & my grandfather and 2 other couples) had the privilege of receiving their second temple blessings. If I recall correctly this was approximately 1928.

The other account is in Levi Peterson's autobiography "A Rascal by Nature, a Christian by Yearning." In chapter 21 entitled: "My Mother's House", he writes the following: "Several years earlier, while my mother and I were seated in her living room, she had remarked that there was nothing erotic about the temple ceremony. In a reflective mood, she went on to immediately inform me that in 1929 she and my father had completed a part of their second temple blessing at home. I was astonished that in nearly fifty years of association she had never mentioned that she and my father had been recipients of the rare (and now entirely discontinued) second temple blessing. She would divulge nothing further, seeming, in fact, to be ashamed of revealing as much as she had. In the months that followed I asked friends for details about the second temple blessing. None of them knew anything; many of them didn't know such a ceremony had ever existed. On later visits my mother at least obliged me by telling me that she and my father had engaged in the temple portion of the ceremony while attending General Conference in Salt Lake City in April 1929, but had delayed the portion performed at home. They wanted the ceremony to serve as a dedication of the house in which their children would grow up."

He later learned more of the ceremony when he and his wife spent a week at his mother's house in Arizona in 1985.

"On perhaps the second morning, she said something that riveted my attention. From the sofa. she looked toward the door entering the kitchen. 'Right there,' she said, 'was where your father and I completed the ceremony for our second blessing.'
'Right where?'
'There. In the doorway to the kitchen. He sat in a chair. I cried. He thought it was because I was humiliated. It wasn't that at all. I cried because it was so sacred.'
I was frantic to know more . . . but she refused to tell more. And then, on the last day of our stay, it came to me: she had washed his feet! Christ washed the feet of the ancient apostles. Sometimes the president of the church, it is said, washes the feet of modern apostles.

His last full day visiting his mother, Peterson "launched a deceit, pretending that I knew from other sources the full ritual of the second blessing. I said to my mother, 'It's a lovely ceremony, the washing of the feet that follows the second blessing in the temple.' My ruse worked. Disarmed by this evidence that I knew, she confirmed my surmise. She spoke of kneeling, of placing my father's feet in a basin of water, of drying them, of weeping." (hardcover pages 305-306).

Having previously read the two accounts above, the title of this thread immediately brought to mind the "Feet Washing Annointing" (as I've called it in my mind). As with most rituals in this church (and any other) I believe the significance lies in the merit any individual places on it. That it's not a commonly known ritual among even the most faithful of LDS can't be all that surprising. Secret rituals pull people in and induct them into an exclusive club of secrecy and privilege denied to the masses - thus it seems, their lure.

K8

Apologies for the length of the post, but thought it appropriate to this discussion.
_________________
So it goes ~

[Mike Michaels]

[d0nquix0te]

I'd hope that we can distinguish between the (possible?) institutionally flawed administration that may exist in such blessing and the extreme sacredness that these blessings may hold for some of our acquaintances, relatives, or ancestors.

After reading the account from K8W8s, I am hesitant really even to discuss these matters, because of their extreme sacred nature. A scholarly discussion inevitably detracts from the sacredness of such things to believers, and one has to way the consequences of such a discussion IMO.
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"If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person."
— Fred Rogers

[why me]

[MIBK]

[d0nquix0te]

[ministry]

I share why me's skepticism. Still, the narrative told by the Annointed One is entirely consistent with what we already know about the Second Annointing. (Berger does a pretty good job of summing this up in Mysteries of Godliness.) In other words, it's not the substance of what he says that I question, only whether it actually happened to him. In my opinion, the burden of proof is on him to substantiate his bona fides.

As for the ordinance itself, it's my understanding that it consists of two parts -- one performed in the temple and one that takes place privately in the home at some later point. Levi's story again jives with what we know about how this works.
_________________
Judging my faith and walking on splinters
I lost my soul to the look in your eyes

[why me]

[why me]

[ministry]

[why me]

[d0nquix0te]

[fh451]

[ministry]