It’s not very pleasant to think about, but we all recognize that, after we die, our bodies pretty much get recycled by nature. What’s left of us—assuming we’re not embalmed and sealed away in some airtight vault—breaks down and becomes food for bacteria and other life-forms—maybe even some delightful carrion-eating creatures if we’re “lucky” enough to die out in the middle of some desert somewhere.
Since pagans are big into preserving the environment and recycling to conserve resources, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that most pagans believe the soul, too, gets recycled. Like the Hindus, most pagans believe the soul doesn’t die with the body—it just takes a break, then gets to do life all over again.
So where does the soul go to take that much-needed break between lives? Depends on who you talk to. As the late Wiccan writer Scott Cunningham explained, “Some Wiccans say that it journeys to a realm variously known as the Land of the Faerie, the Shining Land, and the Land of the Young. This realm is neither in heaven nor the underworld. It simply is—a nonphysical reality much less dense than ours.”
Another popular name for this “rest area” for souls is the Summerland. Pagans view this realm as both a paradise and a place where the soul gets to take time to review everything we’ve learned in this life before moving on to the next one.
Unlike the Christian version of the afterlife, in the pagan Summerland, there is no divine judgment. Our good and bad deeds aren’t weighed, sending us to either heaven or hell. Everybody goes to the Summerland—and there’s no punishment there. It’s just an objective review of how we lived and whether we learned the lessons we needed to learn. Then, when the time is right, we come back in a new form—and that’s where we get our reward (or punishment).
Like the Hindus (again), pagans believe in karma. Although we won’t burn in hell for being bad people, our lives—whether it’s this life or another one down the line—will kind of suck if we don’t do what’s right. So it makes sense to live well now in order to avoid a crappy existence later.
The question is: Do we just keep living and dying and living again for all eternity? In Hinduism, the cycle of death and rebirth ends when we achieve enlightenment—when we finally get it right—and then we become one with the great Divine.
Although different pagans have different ideas about what exactly happens after our “last life,” most agree with the basic Hindu philosophy: Once we achieve perfection in life, the energy that forms our soul breaks away from the life/death cycle and becomes part of the energy of the God and Goddess. In other words, we go back to the energy source from which we came—it’s all one big circle (which explains why the circle is a recurring symbol in pagan belief—but more on that another day).
I don’t know. I still find something discouraging about the notion of reincarnation. It sure as hell beats nothingness after death, but the idea of living over and over again is probably more appealing to people who, unlike me, are good at life and aren’t constantly screwing up. I mean, seriously. If I do any worse in this life, it’s very possible I’ll end up as a garden slug the next time around.
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