BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Wicca The Charge of the Goddess

What about an afterlife?

Most Wiccans believe in reincarnation. That the soul keeps going where the physical body ends.

Personally, I'm not sure I believe it. I'm not discounting it completely, because there are some very interesting stories of people experiencing past lives, but there are a whole lot of questions in my mind that make that sort of reincarnation not add up...

My idea of reincarnation is much more simple, and scientific. When we die, we start to decompose. The molecules that make each of us unique are integrated back into the greater whole. As simple as that!! All of our "stuff" is reintegrated into the universe as a whole.

Rebirth! I'm learning about the difference between that and reincarnation. The only thing I have to think more about is how can rebirth explain the things that reincarnation can? For instance, my BIL and SIL are married, she's one I'll never understand, nor like. BIL takes whatever she throws at him and silently moves through the relationship. When I wonder why/how they're together, reincarnation makes sense. They have to work through things here that they weren't able to work through 'there'. I like the concept of rebirth too though.

I dont think that I would say Most believe in reincarnation... but many do.

But Wicca is not about acheiving some special place when you die, its about making the place you are IN a more beautiful and fulfilling place right now.

Sorry. I only know what I read about that specific topic. Most of the books I've read say that Wiccans generally believe in reincarnation...

No worries... Wicca has a lot of variety!

Who controls who gets reincarnated into what? Who is in charge of that process? What about something like heaven or hell?

If you want to talk about heaven and hell, those are Christian concepts. You might get an answer that is more to your liking over at the Bible Basics forum for that discussion.

Heaven and hell are boogeyman stories to help ensure that Christians stay Christians. Wouldn't you be more apt to stick to your religion if you were promised eternal damnation upon leaving??

For Wicca, the afterlife depends your particular beliefs. My personal belief is that there is no afterlife, which is why the life we are living is so special and important.

I read this thread this morning with great interest. Very thought inspiring questions, I must say.

In answer to your question about reincarnation, I can only give my own personal belief, since of course, until we go through death and rebirth, we can only speculate as to what will happen...hehe.

I think that we are all in charge of our own reincarnation choices. I believe that after we die we will, for a short time, experience what we expect to experience (be that heaven, hell, summerland, a nice long rest, etc, etc), and that once the greater realization, that we are - at that moment - one with the universe, sinks in, then we will evaluate our recent past life (the one we just came out of) see what lessons we have learned from it, then we will decide what is still needed to be learned before progressing into our next life experience.

I believe that this process continues until we have reached some form of enlightenment, and then we are able to remain permanently as part of the universal energy.....joining with the God and Goddess, with Divinity, with All That Is.

Of course that is my own personal take on it.

YMMV
Blessings,
Selene