(Q) How can I overcome antagonistic forces in self and others?

(A) By ACTUALLY manifesting forgiveness, more and more.

-- Edgar Cayce reading 538-30

I first came upon the 40-Day Forgiveness Prayer by J. Everett Irion in the A.R.E.’s Prayer Circulating File while researching prayer for a lecture that I was giving. Prayer has always been my meditation and the need for forgiveness has reared its head from time to time.

So what is the 40-Day Forgiveness Prayer? It is simple, really. According to Irion, you say the following prayer for 40 consecutive days and then let go of the results, in other words, don’t obsess about the situation.

“____________ (Person’s name), I am praying to you. Thank you, ________, for doing to me all that you have done. Forgive me, ___________, for doing all that I have done to you.

“____________ (Your name), I am praying to you. Thank you, ____________, for doing to me all that you have done. Forgive me, ___________, for doing all that I have done to you.”

The idea is that you are speaking to the other person’s Higher Self or higher consciousness and to your own Higher Self. Because you are praying to the person’s higher self, it is not necessary that they know or that they are even alive.

Before I began to teach about the 40-Day Forgiveness Prayer, I thought it best that I try it. With self-forgiveness being one of the most difficult, I started with myself.

Being a person that struggles with memory and is a rule rebel, I didn’t quite get the prayer right. I said “Cindy, I forgive you for all you did to me. Cindy, thank you for all you have done for me.” It must have been close enough. When I first started, I felt like I was talking down to the Cindy I was “forgiving” and applauding the Cindy I was “thanking.” After about two weeks, without thinking about it, the Cindy I was forgiving was no longer deemed “lower than.” My heart filled with love for her, and I felt no pity, and no judgment. It was the oddest thing to me. It was as if I had become whole and no longer needed to see the Cindy of my past as “other.”

I got excited about this 40-Day Forgiveness Prayer and wondered if it only worked on people. We had a family real estate investment that had lost a lot of money. We had it on the market on and off for years but it never got any reasonable offers. I decided to try the prayer for the situation around the building. Again, a bit of a forgetful rebel, the words changed to be “Building, we are praying for you. Building, we forgive you for all you have done to us. Building, forgive us for all we have done to you.” Within two weeks we had two strong offers on the building!

On my third try, I said the prayer for an actual person that I felt I needed to forgive. But I kept forgetting to do the prayer, and I felt angry every time I did it. I soon realized that I was just not ready. I will try again soon.

My recommendation is this: When you are struggling with forgiveness or ready to let a situation go, try the 40-Day Forgiveness Prayer. I found I didn’t need to do it for the full 40 days to see results, but you may want to say it for the entire time.

Forgiveness is an important Cayce principle found in many readings. Yet, it is one of the hardest to implement. I hope the 40-Day Forgiveness Prayer helps you.