Jesus. Buddha. Christianity. Confession. God. Sin.

Where did you feel these words in your body? Did you have a reaction to one or more? Did you tighten? Did you feel angry, hurt, guilty or shameful?

Back in May, my Ascension Tips article was on “Healing Your Inner Wounds” http://www.bellesprit.com/index.php/our-team/columnists-contributors/85-wendy-joy/351-ascension-tips-may-2012 . This month, we are going to cover a very specific wound; those that come from religion. We love to bury big wounds like abuse and abandonment deep within us so that we don’t have to feel them anymore. We do the same with religious hurts. Some feel they had religion used against them. Some feel a deep untruth in the way particular sacred verses were interpreted and used and it makes them angry. Some saw inconsistencies in out-of-church behavior versus what was preached and some were deeply physically or emotionally harmed by some ill-guided person within the church or other religious building.

If you are comfortable with religion, whether you currently practice or not, this article is not addressing you. It is for those with a religious wound. I most often see this hurt in those who still consider themselves of a particular religion but no longer practice. They often call themselves “recovered” with an unconvincing laugh. “I’m a recovering Catholic,” I’ve heard many times. I also see it in many who have fled to another religion, including paganism or those who have retreated to calling themselves simply spiritual. Is it in everyone who has left mainstream worship? No; of course not.

This is not an indictment on religion. We know that religion has been responsible for most of mankind’s wars, but we also know that religion has been a source of healing and comfort for millions. This is simply an honest examination of your relationship to religion.

Begin to Heal: Identify the Troubling Aspect

It is important to identify exactly which aspect of the religion is disturbing you. Is it the mere mention of the name of the religion? Is it a particular figure, like Jesus, Mother Mary or Buddha? Is it some ritual of the religion, like confession, covering your head or kneeling to pray? Is it a particular sacred verse that doesn’t sit well with you? Do you feel like you can sense the untruth in it? Did something happen to you while you were at church? Did the priest leave the altar after preaching a message of love only to curse someone out in the parking lot afterwards because they went the wrong way? Were you abused? Was the sermon on love thy neighbor and then the women gossiped about each other in the fellowship hall afterwards?

Identifying the troubling aspect, as clearly as possible for you, is the first step. Sit with it. Meditate on it. Ask to have it revealed. Many people are disturbed by a single thing, yet because of their inability to resolve that issue, they throw away the entire religion.

Let’s take a few issues and work them through. Let’s take Jesus. Jesus is a guide of mine. As far as I know, I didn’t consciously ask for him to be, he just is. Yet when I’m speaking in workshops, I often see people cringe when I share some of the wisdom he has given me. I experience him as totally separate from religion. His energy is loving and he is often present in my healing sessions, assisting me and lending his energy. Ironically, I didn’t even believe in him before he started coming around. I wasn’t sure if maybe he was just another nice Biblical parable, used to make some points. But no, his energy is real.

Sit quietly and call in his energy (or that of any “troublesome” avatar). Just ask him to come and be near you. Detach for the moment from your thoughts about him. If you can feel him, you are likely feeling comfort, warmth and love. Ask to have any issues you have with this avatar identified and resolved. Feel him as an entity/energy, separate from the religion that man made. His energy is available for you to use anytime you need it to help yourself and others (see Ascension Tips Healing with the Avatar Energy: http://www.bellesprit.com/index.php/our-team/columnists-contributors/85-wendy-joy/701-ascension-tips-healing-with-the-avatar-energy).

Let’s take another aspect; perhaps sin or confession. Explore why it bothers you. Maybe it feels out of alignment with an all-loving and all-forgiving God. Perhaps the concepts feel imposed by man. Don’t take these reasons; find your own. Get to the root of it. Sit quietly with it if need be. Once you’ve found the issue, ask yourself if it’s possible to simply set that aspect aside. Can you put it aside and enjoy the other gifts of the religion?

So how do we deal with the folks, perhaps even clergy, whose behavior is inconsistent with their faith? We recognize their humanness and forgive it, just as we recognize that our behavior is also not always highest and best. And we forgive ourselves for that, too. Does that mean we have to leave that establishment; that we can’t learn from the clergy who behaves poorly; or from the parishioners? Not necessarily. If nothing else, we can learn by being mindful of the behaviors we don’t want to emulate. And in this point in our evolution, you will likely find the same inconsistency in the next place you turn. We are all still learning.

This issue of abuse or injury of any kind that happened within a religious establishment is similar to the bad behavior above. Ultimately, to heal yourself, forgiveness will be necessary. Forgiving doesn’t mean we accept the behavior. Think of anger and unforgiveness as energetic cords between you and the other person (because that’s what it is). The only way to truly be free from them is to completely forgive them and break the cord.

For some, the sticking point, and perhaps final straw, is a specific teaching. Consider: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Wow. That’s pretty clear-cut, isn’t it? Or is it? The church says it means no one goes to God the Father without accepting Jesus. But what if that’s not what he actually meant? Remember that by all accounts, Jesus was a Master. He had mastered earthly issues to the point that he lived in this world but not of it. He was a master healer and would have been energetically clear. He would have achieved Christ-Consciousness, also called Buddha-Nature. Perhaps he was really saying that no one returns fully into God-Consciousness until they are like me—until they have achieved mastery over their own lesser nature and energies; until they have achieved Christ-Consciousness. That could change things, couldn’t it?

There are likely other verses from sacred texts that trouble you. Remember, you have the ability to go within yourself, ask sincerely and know the truth. Don’t believe me? Look at how gifted you already are. You already are intuiting that there is something off about the interpretation. Ask and then look for the answer in direct revelation, dreams, from other people and from other writings.
I’m not suggesting that you accept my beliefs or that you need to discard your religion or that you need to accept any religion or return to yours. I’m simply inviting you to be truly honest with yourself about whether you have an issue with religion. If you do, I invite you to look closely at it and resolve it to further clear your energy.

Clear the Emotion and Feelings

Think again about the aspect of religion that troubles you. See what emotion comes up for you and see where you feel it in your body. What you are feeling is simply stuck energy. The ascension energies are forcing anything that is stuck up to the surface to be faced and released. They can no longer sit in your body without giving you discomfort.

Deeply feel the emotion and the tightness in your body. Close your eyes and give a name to it: “It’s anger and it’s in my solar plexus.” “It’s guilt and it’s in my belly.” Now relax that area and melt it away. Feel the stuck energy flowing out. Do this as often as needed for each issue until you can think of each aspect without emotion and without feeling it in your body. In fact, you’ll know you’ve healed when you think of your issue and have a feeling of love and hold a new perspective.
Clearing out any stuck energies will make your ascension easier. The issues tied to them are going to keep nagging at you anyway. You might as well face them and release them.

For information on healing sessions, ascension and more, order a copy of Wendy Joy’s book, Clear Channel: A Guide for the Newly Awakening from www.wendyjoy.com. Experience FREE energy sent by Wendy on the 9th of each month by “liking” her facebook page: www.facebook.com/wendyjoyauthor. Wendy is the host of Bringing the Light on Para-X Radio Tuesdays 10pm ET at www.para-x.com. Wendy welcomes your comments via email through her site.