by Elizabeth Clare Prophet

As you forgive others, you are freeing yourself as well as them.

(Decrees make use of the name of God "I AM THAT I AM". When you say, "I AM THAT I AM", you are affirming that God is where you are. Decrees often simply use "I AM" rather than the full "I AM THAT I AM".)

A woman named Teresa experienced how decrees for forgiveness could bring remarkable changes in her life and in the lives of those she forgave. One day she began a daily routine of forgiveness decrees. Soon acquaintances began calling to apologize for what they had done twenty years before. Her sister called to tell her that she had finally been able to forgive an old wrong. And the benefit landed even closer to home -- with Teresa's ex-husband and children.

It had been seven years since Teresa's divorce, but she still felt bitterness and resentment that she knew were hurting herself, her ex-husband and their children. "I started working on completely forgiving more and more each day," she said, "releasing the resentments and the pain." The results were immediate. "The more decrees I gave, invoking the violet flame and forgiveness, the more joyful my life became."

Her decrees seemed to affect her ex-husband too. He asked his children to forgive him for not being there when they were younger. He told them he had made statements about Teresa that were untrue and he apologized for the pain he had caused them. "This is truly a miracle of unprecedented proportions," Teresa said.

So one woman's forgiveness was able to heal an entire family and also bring her to a point of happiness. Truly, you are the greatest beneficiary of your own forgiveness. When you forgive, don't forget to forgive yourself. Sometimes this is the hardest task of all.

We all remember something we don't think we will ever be able to let go of -- a cruel remark, a beating, even a disappointment, someone who wasn't there for us when we needed help. The forgiveness decree can help you to forgive and let go.

Before you give the forgiveness decree, say a simple prayer like: "I send forgiveness to all whom I have ever wronged and to all who have ever wronged me." Then begin the decree. Think of the incident that you have always felt you could never get over. Allow yourself to feel the anger welling up inside of you.

Now see a deep-pink flame of love enveloping that anger. Then see it mixing with the violet flame that already surrounds you. Visualize the violet flame transmuting that anger. Then see the flame of forgiveness -- deep pink, violet and purple -- expanding in your heart and whirling. See it becoming spheres of light that go forth from your heart. Watch these spheres sprout wings, or filaments of energy, and fly from your heart toward the hearts of those you need to forgive.

Each time you give the decree, repeat this visualization. See the spheres going farther and farther from you. Send them to everyone you can think of.

If it is yourself that you need to forgive, see the sphere of violet energy bursting like fireworks over the memory of everything you wish you hadn't done. See the violet energy erasing and dissolving all your thoughts and feelings that are tied up in those actions. Put all your blame, your shame and your sense of guilt into the violet fire.

It's a good idea to do the decree for forgiveness at least once every twenty-four hours. You will find that the memories of negative events will lose their emotional charge as the energy that went into them is liberated. The more recent negative events will begin to recede from your mind as they are transmuted. Then events from the past will begin to come to the fore. These events will, in turn, recede as they are transmuted, leaving you free to go forward with your life.