We present resonant x-ray Raman scattering results on Sr₂CuO₂Cl₂, a model compound for high- T_c superconductors. We demonstrate that the dd excitations can be observed and show that the polarization dependence can be used to identify the dd excitations. We find the transition from the d_x2−y2 ground state to the d_xy excited state at 1.35 eV and to the degenerate d_xz and d_yz excited states at 1.7 eV. From analysis of the polarization dependence we conclude that the d_3z2−r2 orbital energy is at 1.5 eV and not in the midinfrared (0.5 eV) as recently suggested. We use recent theoretical arguments to show that the d_3z2−r2 excitation is accompanied by a local spin flip resulting in a shift upwards of 0.2 eV due to the exchange interaction with the neighboring spins. ©1998 American Physical Society.