Home

Death and Reincarnation

Copied with permission from Moonlight Magick

Wiccans, as normal human beings, do not always wish to discuss death on a daily basis. We have our promise of eternal life, and we hope that there exists in the universe a place of eternal reward and a place of eternal punishment depending on the person and what we feel they deserve. As a religion that does not claim to have all the answers, the specific details of what happens when you die is not as ironed out as most other religions have it. Perhaps it's due to the number of psychics that practice Wicca - many have on some level witnessed that the details are not, by any means, ironed out and vary by the mesh of souls and what they need and desire.

Most religions have a promise of either eternal reward or attaining union with the universe - through the process of being the best person you can possibly be, and/or through the process of reincarnation, eventually a human being will no longer return to earth. Wicca differs, and I've yet to see the details laid before me explicitly. As I have it, Wiccans are the hidden children - the children that were never meant to "leave home", home being the Earth. We reincarnate.We have past life memories that never go near Cleopatra. A few of us do have nasty visions of executions as witches in past lives (not restricted, necessarily, to Wiccans, but statistically a higher instance among us). Our experiences are undeniable, and our development continues forward, seeking an ever stronger relationship with the God and Godess.

But we don't necessarily seek to join the God and Goddess in their universal consciousness. As one sister put it, "We don't wanna get off!" It's as though the entire cycle of our souls is to make sure that that two or three percent of activists come back to make sure that someone takes care of the Earth. Perhaps in part Wiccans rarely emphasise human perfection as a goal is because we each experience cosmic moments where we *are* the Godess, when she chooses to share her consciousness with us and we see the existence from her perspective, or the moments, when facing the tragedies that must occur so that life can continue, or the injustices that happen just because some people just suck, we feel as the God feels and understand that we live a paradox of insignificance and absolute importance.

We live the circular life with the round Earth. I should hope that with each reincarnation, we learn more, we grow more - and we seek to make the world and safer and more loving place where free will collides less and less. We do reincarnate, and we actually see the Sabbat cycles as an expression of our belief in reincarnation - to know all, we must experience all, and then take what we have learned back to our home and use it for the good of our people.

The Summerland

Scott Cunningham - Wicca: A Guide For The Solitary Practitioner - (p71)

This is where the soul prepares for the next incarnation. "... 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 Spiral Of Rebirth

Scott Cunningham - Wicca: A Guide For The Solitary Practitioner - (p69)

"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 into another body answers many questions, but raises a few more. Why? In common with many other religions, 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."