Reincarnation: Weekly Lesson 5

Reincarnation

Reincarnation is an ancient belief. It is part of many religions (Hinduism and Buddhism, for example) and was even one of the original Christian tenets, until condemned by the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 C.E. It is believed that the human spirit, or soul, is a fragment of the divine and eventually it will return to its divine source. But, for its own evolution, it is necessary that the soul experience all things in life.
It seems the most sensible, most logical explanation of much that is found in life. Why should one person be born into a rich family and another into poverty? Why should one be born crippled, another fit and strong.. . if not because we must all eventually experience all things? Reincarnation seems the most logical explanation of child prodigies. A musical genius, composing concertos at the age of five (as did Mozart), is obviously carrying over knowledge from one lifetime into the next. This does not usually happen, but it can. In the same way, homosexuality might well be explained through reincarnation: a person male in one lifetime and then female in the next (or vice versa) might have carried over feelings and preferences from one life to the next.
For someone who does not believe in reincarnation, it is difficult to understand the death of a child. What was the point of the child living at all, if only for a few short years? For the reincarnationist it is obvious that the child had learned all that had been set to be learned in that particular lifetime and so was moving on. A very good simile for this is the grades of a school. You enter school in a low grade and learn the basics. When you have mastered these you graduate, take a short vacation, then come back into a higher grade to learn and experience more things. So it is in life. In each life you have a certain amount to learn and to experience. When you have done that, you graduate (e.g., you die). To come back into a higher grade you are reborn in a new body. Occasionally, remembrance of previous lives, or parts of them, is experienced but more generally you do not remember (it is possible, of course, through such procedures as hypno-regression, to go back to previous lives and bring them once more to the surface). Perhaps one of the most common of occult experiences is that of deja-vu-the feeling that something has happened before-so often attributed to reincarnation (though by no means is reincarnation the only possible explanation of all cases of deja-vu); the feeling being a brief flash of memory of something that happened in a previous life.
In what form do we return to the Earth? Some believe (the Hindus, for example) that it is not necessarily in human form each time. Certain Hindu sects teach that the soul may be reborn as a plant or an animal. However, such beliefs are not generally held in Western civilization. Some say there is a progression from the lowest life forms to the highest- putting humans at the top. But then who is to say the order? Is a dog higher than a cat, or a cat higher than a dog? Is a centipede higher or lower than an earwig? Does this mean, when every soul has finally passed up the scale and graduated, that in the afterlife there will be no plant, animal, or insect life? It seems unlikely. In Witchcraft the belief is that all things have souls. In Saxon Witchcraft, for example, it is believed that a dog will go through many incarnations, but always as a dog; a cat always as a cat; a human always as a human. There is reason for all things to be here. . . what we term the \"balance of nature.\" It seems we certainly have a choice, within our species, of being either male or female, in order to experience and appreciate the different aspects.
One argument often put forward by non reincarnationists is, \"If what you say is true, how do you explain the fact that the world population is continuously growing?\" Of course it is! So is the population of souls/spirits. There are not simply x number of souls who all started their development together. New souls are being introduced all the time. So we have so-called \"new souls\"-those on their first incarnations-and \"old souls\"-those who have been through a large number of lives. It is possible that eventually, when the gods decide enough souls have been introduced, there will be a stabilizing of the population followed later by a decline, as old souls in their final incarnations make their graduations. There is yet another thought that might be considered here. . . where do these souls originally come from and where do they go after that final graduation? One possibility, of course, is that we not only experience lives here on Earth, but also on other planets and in other reality systems. Who knows? Perhaps we go through the cycle here having already been through it a dozen times or more on other worlds. There is obviously much food for thought, very little (if any) proof of preferences and great scope for new tenets.

Retribution
Along with reincarnation go thoughts of karma. Karma is usually thought of as a reward-and punishment system stretching throughout all lifetimes: if you do evil in one life, you will have to pay for it in the next. It seems, however, that there is always talk of \"karmic debts\" and \"karmic punishments\" but seldom of \"karmic rewards.\" The Witchcraft view seems to make more sense.
First of all there is a Wiccan belief in retribution within each life. In other words, rather than being rewarded and punished after death, for what you have done in life (the traditional Christian view), Witches believe that you get your rewards and punishments during this lifetime, according to how you live it. Do good and you will get back good. But do evil and evil will return. More than that, though, it is a three-fold retribution. Do good and you will get back three times the good; do evil and you will receive three times the evil, Obviously there is here no inducement for you to ever harm anyone. Of course, it is not a literal three-fold return. If you were to punch someone in the eye, it does not mean that you will get punched in the eye yourself three times. No. But, sometime in the future, you may \"just happen\" to break a leg. . . something that might be considered three times as bad as being punched in the eye.
In the Witchcraft belief, then, one lifetime's experiences are not dependent on the previous one's. For example, if you suffer physical abuse in this life, it does not necessarily mean that you were an abuser in your previous life. It is possible you were, yes. But it is just as possible that you were not but are going to be in the next life. In other words, it is a case of experiencing all things-being both the abuser and the abused, but one is not necessarily dependent on the other. Several lifetimes could even take place between the one experience and its apparent correlative.
Just because you have chosen a particular lifetime and are to undergo the set experiences does not mean that you can just sit back and say, \"Everything is preordained. I'm just along for the ride.\" The God and the Goddess will make sure that you do get all the particular experiences, but your job is to progress; to strive your hardest toward perfection you create your own reality. Whatever you want, you can achieve. But always remember the Wiccan Rede: \"An'it harm none, do what thou wilt:'
Whenever possible, help those less fortunate than yourself. By \"help\" I do not mean \"interfere.\" Help can be given by simply offering advice; by showing compassion; even, sometimes, by actually refusing direct assistance. For, in this latter case, it is sometimes of the greatest help and to the other's benefit to make them give a little more effort: to make them think for themselves.
Between Lives
The length of time spent between lives may vary,
depending on your study of the lessons learned and
their integration with previous lessons; also on the
necessary preparation for the next \"semester.\"
While between lives, you might also become involved in helping some other spirit here on Earth. Just as there is development and advancement in this life, so there is in \"the between times:' You may have heard of such things as guardian angels and spirit guides and wondered if they really exist. In a sense they do. It means that a spirit is always watching over a less-developed spirit here on Earth. Since time does not exist in the between-times (it is a human-made concept, for the sake of reference only), then to watch over an earth-bound spirit for its whole earthly lifetime would not actually hinder the watcher's progress. In fact, it would add to it in the sense of gaining \"student-teacher\" experience.
Witches always hope that they will be reborn in the next life with those they have known and loved in this one. From psychic experiences, etc., it seems that this is often the case. Many times a couple will stay together throughout a number of lifetimes, in different relationship roles (e.g. lovers; husband-wife; brother-sister; mother-daughter).

That is one of the best explanations of reincarnation I have ever seen!
Personally, I am still on the fence when it comes to the end of thisd lifetime, but the lesson certainly had some great food for thought!

Christina Krantz
Pagan