Breaking Past Life Vows and Pacts

By Clive Hetherington

Many of us have had past lives in monastic environments, religious orders, secret sects and so on. Some of us will have made strong vows in the name of God with much emotion and determination, believing that they were right, and perhaps they were for us at that time. A vow made with strong intent carries over into other lifetimes unless a time limit is specified, which is usually not the case.

We may have made vows of chastity, celibacy, poverty, silence, suffering, cleanliness and purity. We may have made other vows, such as a vow of everlasting love or of vengeance against someone who hurt or tricked us. Often we find ourselves playing out those vows in later lifetimes. For example, we may keep playing that "vengeance card" again and again until we let it go. All these prior vows are limitations that can constrict our souls and restrict our freedom.

For example, you may have had a lifetime where you fell very much in love with someone and it was mutual. The pair of you made a pact of everlasting love. As great as this may sound, there are some slight problems here. The first is that your soul sees love as universal and not restricted to one person. The second is that the vow limits you to this one soul as a partner every lifetime. The key word here is "limit." In each future life when you find yourself in a relationship and it's not with your avowed true love, it doesn't feel right; something is missing. In this situation, until you break the vow and move on, you will find loving someone else quite difficult.

This is not to say that some prior vows are not serving you well, for they may be. Vows to work towards or with God specifying no fixed path are helpful.

All of this applies to judgments as well as vows. We can make judgments against ourselves as well as others. Judgments are different from vows, however, for a vow is usually made with a great deal of emotion. A judgment is made rationally and usually in situations where you think you know better than someone else; you are right and they are wrong. Judgments need to be broken also.

Pacts, contracts and agreements are made specifically between people (beings) at particular times. These can be made on different levels, not just the physical. For example, you are in a battle. You are killed with your friends and in spirit form you meet each other and make an agreement as a group to get revenge on the person who just defeated you. Thus, every so often you would incarnate as a group trying to satisfy your desire for revenge against this other person. Until you break the vow, you will remain stuck in this repetitive revenge cycle.

To break past life vows, pacts and judgments, try the following prayer/affirmation: