Summerland - the concept and the path
The pagan transition of the soul is not instantaneous, but
rather occurs after a brief rest in the spiritual realm of Summerland. Within
this concept of belief, Summerland is the first of three realms on the
spiritual or ethereal plane. Here the soul embarks on a restful plane of
self-created reality, where the soul can review it's accomplishments, and
failures, without the emotional or physical pains that went along with the
events of the physical life.
Eventually, the soul moves to the next level of the ethereal
plane where it prepares for the next steps of spiritual evolution. Upon this
plane, a soul can decide if it wants to return now to a new incarnation, or if
it would rather perform spiritual service on this plane of existence for a
brief time. You can think of this plane as the Land of Spiritual Guardians.
Those spiritual beings who work with those in physical incarnations as personal
spiritual guides, or teachers.
The last realm of the pagan ethereal world is the plane of
divine energies. When a soul has reached it's pinnacle of spiritual evolution
where it no longer needs to return to the physical world, it has the option of
moving to the divine plane of existence.
All religious systems have a place where the soul ascends
(or descends) when the physical body can no longer function. In Craft belief,
we call this place the Summerland. This is the resting place- the way station,
if you will- for souls to recover, and categorize information and lessons we
have learned. We have no Hell, or place of terror or damnation.
Reincarnation- the logical process of living, dying, and
living again on the earth plane. Some religions also believe in transmigration,
where an individual's soul may enter not only the body of a human, but the body
of a plant or animal.
In most Witchcraft Traditions, reincarnation is the accepted
theology for dealing with the subject of death and rebirth. We move with the
seasons, the cycle of the Wheel, the turn of birth, death, and rebirth. That
part of it usually isn't questioned because it is logical.
What is questioned is the space between the living
experiences, the number of lifetimes, and the reasoning for going through each
one. Also intriguing is "who we were," with whom, and when.
Reincarnation is one of Wicca's most valuable lessons. The
knowledge that this life is but one of many, that when the physical body dies
we do not cease to exist but are reborn in another body answers many questions,
but raises a few more.
Wicca teaches that reincarnation is the instrument through
which our souls are perfected. one lifetime isn't sufficient to attain this
goal; hence, the consciousness (soul) is reborn many times, each life
encompassing a different set of lessons, until perfection is achieved. No one
can say how many lives are required before this is accomplished.
In Wicca, we seek to strengthen our bodies, minds and souls.
We certainly live full, productive earthly lives, and we do so while harming
none. The soul is ageless, sexless, non-physical, possessed of the divine spark
of the Goddess and God. Each manifestation of the soul (i.e., each body it
inhabits on Earth) is different. No two bodies or lives are the same.
What happens after death? Only the body dies. The soul lives
on. Some Wiccans say that it journeys to a realm variously known as the
Summerlands, 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 non-
physical reality much less dense than ours. Some Wiccan traditions describe it
as a land of eternal summer, with grassy fields and sweet flowing rivers,
perhaps the Earth before the advent of humans. Others see it vaguely as a realm
without forms, where energy swirls coexist with the greatest energies- the
Goddess and God in their celestial identities.
The soul is said to review the past life, perhaps through
some mysterious way with the deities. This isn't a judgment, a weighing of
one's soul, but an incarnational review. Lessons learned or ignored are brought
to light.
After the proper time, when the conditions on Earth are
correct, the soul is reincarnated and life begins again.
The final question- what happens after the last incarnation?
Wiccan teachings have always been vague on this. Basically, the Wiccans say
that after rising upon the spiral of life and death and rebirth, those souls
who have attained perfection break away from the cycle forever and dwell with
the Goddess and God. Nothing is ever lost. The energies resident in our souls
return to the divine source from which they originally emanated.
Because of the acceptance of reincarnation, the Wicca don't
fear death as a final plunge into oblivion, the days of life on Earth forever
behind them. It is seen as the door to birth. Thus our very lives are
symbolically linked with the endless cycles of the seasons which shape our
planet.
Reincarnation is as real as a plant that buds, flowers,
drops its seed, withers and creates a new plant in its image.
Summerland & Time
Pagan Beliefs about the Afterlife
Every spiritual path has it's own belief in what happens
once you pass on from this world. One thing all of these beliefs have in common
is that the soul leaves the body and moves on into some type of divine
spiritual realm or through a divine realm into a new incarnation.
The concepts of life after death are clearly laid out in
many cultures and religions through books. Such as the Egyptian or Tibetan
Books of the Dead, the Torah, The Holy Bible and so on. The Celtics however,
did not have books in the same fashion, but rather a rich and colorful oral
tradition. These stories were kept alive by poets, story-tellers and druids who
recited traditional lore within a collection of verses or legends.
What happens to us after we die? Although no-one really
knows, all of us, Pagan or non-Pagan have wondered what happens to our spirit,
our soul or essential being, when our body gives up the ghost.
Additional Information
Pagans, almost without exception, believe in reincarnation,
but the form that it might take varies widely. Our earliest ancestors seem to
have understood this concept, since many ancient bones have been found that are
smeared in ochre, a red earth, symbolising re-birth, and the simple existence
of grave goods indicates a belief in either the actual or spiritual
continuation of life after death, requiring earthly marks of rank and/or tools
to help the dead in the afterlife. Perhaps the most sophisticated of these
graves belong to the Pharaohs.
The oldest long barrow, or tomb, in Britain, built
at the same time as the earliest Egyptian pyramids, is a long, narrow shape, a
shape associated with death but inside, the tomb itself is divided into 5
rounded chambers, uncannily resembling the shape of a woman: birth within
death.
A unifying factor in Pagan philosophy is a disbelief in a
tortuous hell-like environment. Whilst many of us understand the need for
judgement, it is seen as a time to learn from our mistakes and successes rather
than something to anticipate with dread.
Historically, Odinists believed that the souls of women who
die in labour and warriors who die in battle are cared for by the Valkery, a
band of warrior women, who accompany them to Valhalla,
or a land of contentment. Recognising that the life of a modern Odinist may not
have as much to do with war and childbirth ending in death that the tribes of
Northmen had to deal with, Odinists now share much in their beliefs about the
afterlife with other Pagans; that death is not an end, but simply another
beginning.
Dianics, women who worship the Goddess alone, as well as
many Pagans of all faiths, hope for a return to the source, to the Ultimate
Mother. "Mother" may be a representation of a Goddess, Diana, Kali,
Brigde, but it is more likely to be The Goddess Herself, an all-embracing
feminine creative and destructive power to which we all return to become a
part, part of the power. This is very close to the Native American traditions,
which explain that everything is simply an expression of a Holy energy; buffalo
and grass and human are blobs of divineness from the same source to which we
return at death to replenish, which will, in turn, create us again.
Some Pagans trust in the Summerlands, a peaceful and
enjoyable place of rest where they can recover from their past life, be helped
to assess it and prepare to be reborn.
Amenti, the ancient Egyptian land of the Gods, would be the
preferred destination of Pagans following the Egyptian Mysteries. To get there,
they are accompanied by Anubis, the jackal-headed God of the death, to a place
of judgement. Their heart is weighed against a feather and they are asked 42
challenging questions about the way they behaved in life, another way of
assessing it. If they really were very bad and just about to give up hope of
Amenti, the final question by the 42nd Assessor is "Is there one upon the
earth who is glad that you lived?" Of course, there is almost always one,
a stranger perhaps, who benefited from this person's existence, and this will
allow the dead person, having learned something about how to live, to move on
to the next life, to be with the Gods.
Most Pagans believe in a reincarnation of their physical
body too, through decomposition or a returning of ashes to the land. Our decay
feeds the land and we become part of it. The land feeds plants, the plants are
eaten by animals and so, we are reborn by helping to sustain new life.
Samhain, the Celtic New Year on, is the time
of year when Pagans celebrate our ancestors and our dead. The mortal and other
worlds are very close, and we can ask for advice, talk with our dead to tell
them how their descendents are getting on, and appreciate our long personal
heritage and wider community. Samhain is also the season when the first
stirrings of Winter approach. Winter still means death for many elderly and
infirm people, and the land appears to die too along with the weakening of the
sun itself, appearing feeble and bleak for a good part of winter. But again, we
trust the seasons to move round, for the Sun to begin its ascent in the sky
again around the winter solstice, or Yule.
Pagans do not particularly relish the thought that they must
die. It is still a painful and difficult reality to come to terms with, but the
knowledge that we are not going to suffer hellish torment and that death is
simply another life helps us bow gracefully to the inevitable.