Busting Stereotypes: Reincarnation and Past Lives

[saint dreya]

hmm. while i personally believe in reincarnation, i do not really consider it a characteristic of nor crucial to my faith.

we honor and worship the dead, and if you happen to believe in reincarnation, there are ways of honoring, remember and beseeching the help of your past incarnations.  

[Keistera]

I was apparently a viking that died at sea. I drowned. Some accident or something. Anyway, this confused the reader because I absolutely love all things nautical, so she said, "Well, it would make you either love it or hate it. I guess because you died doing something you love..."

No s**t.

Anyway.

I, personally, believe in reincarnation. How that meshes with my belief that my heart will be weighed upon my death and, if it's heavier than the feather of Ma'at, devoured -- I honestly don't know. The Gods haven't beaten me upside the head for allowing those two ideas to coexist in my head (on slightly seperate levels, it seems), so I may be able to make sense of it eventually.

I did collect polished stones because I was dabbling in stone magic. Whether or not I'll do anything with that now is up for debate. XD I'm at a sort of stand-still. Not interested in being eclectic, yet I still honour the Taras seperately from the Netjer, and know it would be rude to tell them, "Sorry, since I'm going for Kemeticism, you're just gonna have to go. My bad." There's still something I need to learn.

I'm thinking it may be "compassion".  

[Mercurial Anima]

I don't do demon-calling or any sort of s**t like that, but I do have a couple of animal totems.

My first spirit guide was a little white kitten with blue eyes.

I dreamed about her when I was a toddler. When I approached the cute little kitty, she didn't mew. She ROARED.

I was scared shitless.

Later I began to adjust to the cat, and when I was no longer afraid of her, she meowed.

I also later had dreams of a multi-tailed white fox...with blue eyes. The fox doesn't show up much.

Next came the dragon. I've always had a thing...an obsession...with dragons. It's a white dragon, also with blue eyes. A couple of my friends have the Sight, and they tell me when I'm really pissed off, they can sometimes see a dragon around me.

As for reincarnation I think my past life was that of a nun.

I've always been involved with the extraconventional/"black" arts. Stuff my hyperChristian parents wouldn't like.

I also have this thing...about pregnancy.

I'm terrified of it yet obsessed with it...

And, I HATE children.

HATE.

Here's why I think I was a nun.

My past life may have gone like this.

I was a witch practicing my craft. The religious poohbahs got to me, and gave me one of two decisions. I could either renounce my pagan faith and join a convent, or die.

I find myself wearing a nun's habit.

I knew my life from then on would be hell.

For some reason I desperately wanted to have children, but I was terrified because it would get me punished severely.

The desire turned to jealousy, which became hatred that carried over into this life.  

[MoonJeli]

I don't believe in reincarnation... I believe that any "self" just dissolves back into the energy of the universe, along with our bodies.

I don't do chakras, or anything of the like.

I do have a ... hmmm, animal patron/guide/mentor of some sort -- Slug. Specifically Banana Slug. And no, I am not joking. Maybe some day I'll have to write about that. I'm not sure if that makes me fluffy or slimey.

And I do have a collection of shiny rocks but that's just because I love shiny rocks. My parents (in addition to being pagans and just weird) were rock hounds.  

[Kiwigrl]

I believe in reincarnation, and i have probably had a past life... I don't know how to do a past life regression to be sure though.
You need to change your poll; witches in salem were hung not burned at the stake.  

[Deoridhe]

Kiwigrl

You need to change your poll; witches in salem were hung not burned at the stake.

It's sarcastic. 3nodding  

[Iosonos]

Kesseire

Is what happens after death at all relevant to your belief system or practices?

For the most part, no. Mainly because I haven't thought about it that much. I believe when I die, I'll pretty much be shoved back into the astral.

And then wherever we believe we're gunna end up, we'll construct for ourselves. So if, for example, you believe you will be judged by a god, you give the power of where you're gunna go (heaven/hell, whatever) to that being to make the decision of where you're going to go.

I don't believe a god can make that decision, so i'll probably keep exploring.

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Do you believe in reincarnation? If so, what form, and do past lives have any significance to your path?

Due to the people I used to hang out with, i've kind of adopted their take on the soul.

Basically there's three parts of the soul, the source soul, or in a sense the "ascended" you. Second is the watermark, or your personal connection to the source soul. The last is the conciousness.

The end goal in my path is more or less to ascend, by taking full control of your Source Soul. This is done by first merging with your watermark, and then with your true self in the end.

Dulliath

Yes, I do believe in reincarnation. I believe that we are here to learn something, and until we learn all the lessons, we will keep coming back.

This is basically the same idea. Until I'm me, I get to come back to this luvtastic world.

As for form, can be this world, another; animal, human *shrugs* i'll tell you when i find out.

Now, significance? Yes, in many ways. Since my reincarnations are all connected, I learn from each of them, and the True me is an amalgamation of all of them, led by the strongest. As for the here and now significance, well I can learn from them if I want to, and sometimes it may effect relationships with someone I had known in the past.

Last life I remember, I was a gangmember in some metropolis, my girlfriend was shot (and killed), and I might've gone emo and suicidal. Pretty much all i can remember/make out.  

[jaden kendam]

I think the poll should have included "does not give a rats a** about reincarnation"  

[TeaDidikai]

Iosonos

For the most part, no. Mainly because I haven't thought about it that much. I believe when I die, I'll pretty much be shoved back into the astral.

And yet- some parts of the Otherworlds are better than others.

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I don't believe a god can make that decision, so i'll probably keep exploring.

You are aware that your belief doesn't set objective reality, yes?

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Basically there's three parts of the soul, the source soul, or in a sense the "ascended" you. Second is the watermark, or your personal connection to the source soul. The last is the conciousness.

These aspects of self are divided why?

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... the True me is an amalgamation of all of them, led by the strongest.
...
Last life I remember, I was a gangmember in some metropolis, my girlfriend was shot (and killed), and I might've gone emo and suicidal.

Interesting.  

[Iosonos]

TeaDidikai

Iosonos

For the most part, no. Mainly because I haven't thought about it that much. I believe when I die, I'll pretty much be shoved back into the astral.

And yet- some parts of the Otherworlds are better than others.

Haven't studied the Otherworlds much. Before I make any assumptions, how do you see the Otherworlds, our world and the astral connected together?

TeaDidikai

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I don't believe a god can make that decision, so i'll probably keep exploring.

You are aware that your belief doesn't set objective reality, yes?

Not quite sure what you mean here. Do you mean my belief does not take into account objective reality, or doesn't consider it, or ?

Oh, do you mean if there's a god/s that I'm required to go through to whatever afterlife? Yeah, then no this doesn't buy me a free ticket.

This would get into the whole Christian hell thing, though. If I don't believe in a specific god, and s/he's the only one real, am I screwed? In this case, I can't really see how my choice of "I'll find my own way" would be worse than trying to appeal to a certain entity.

TeaDidikai

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Basically there's three parts of the soul, the source soul, or in a sense the "ascended" you. Second is the watermark, or your personal connection to the source soul. The last is the conciousness.

These aspects of self are divided why?

Not really sure, this is still mostly a belief rather than an actual Fact in my mind. I'm at the point right now where i'm reviewing a lot of my beliefs, and just trying to find which way is the right way now.

With that said I have found some validity in my own experiences. I've actually experienced a moment of "enlightenment" once, which in this system would be considered merging with your watermark. That'd explain the first two. As for the third, I believe that in reincarnation, the Source Soul/ True Self could be seen as a link between all of your lives. I mean, you haven't grown up with the memories of, let's say, 5 or 6 other lives floating around in your head, right? So, if you have reincarnated, were those initial memories lost, or are they just somewhere else?

If you want, you can see your true self as being an Akashic records of sorts within your being, while the watermark is the penman of your personal journal. Although, I consider the True Self to be a bit more than that, partly since I believe there may be other forms of me living at this moment in other realities.

lol, I was trying to keep this simple with some basic explainations. If you want me to get deeper into my beliefs, send me a PM and i'll try to explain as much as I currently know/remember.

TeaDidikai

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... the True me is an amalgamation of all of them, led by the strongest.
...
Last life I remember, I was a gangmember in some metropolis, my girlfriend was shot (and killed), and I might've gone emo and suicidal.

Interesting.

Yeah, was lots of fun.

Haha, and no, he's not the one wearing the crown stare wink  

[Dulliath]

The only past life experience I have ever had was mostly a very short dream. In the dream I was a little girl, maybe five years old. Looking back, I would say that my family was probably poor, but that never came up in the dream. I was playing near a path that ran not to far from a house. I saw something shiny and picked it up. It was a metal solar cross in a circle with celtic knotwork on it. I thought it was beautiful jewelery and intended to wear it as a necklace. That's where the dream ended.

Although the dream was very vivid and stuck in my mind, I didn't think much about it until I was looking through a mail order catalog and saw a sketch of the exact same thing. I called the company, hoping to buy one (I still thought it was beautiful.), and was told that the sketch wasn't of an item for sale, but just for decoration. The woman I spoke with was nice enough to look up the sketch in their records. It was sketched from a decoration from a horse collar circa 500ce that now resides in a museum in Ireland. I was surprised and impressed to find that it was real, and not just a pretty sketch that looked like what I had seen.  

[Sir_Catherine]

No past life dreams or feelings for me.

I don't believe in reincarnation. We've got to get ourselves together in this life. If we have it together, it would be a good thing to offer help to others. By help I don't mean as a spiritual guide or such as that. I mean volunteering your time to help build a home for a family that doesn't have one, offering support to a friend attending AA meetings, donating money to your prefered charity, becoming a mentor or participating in a Scoting or Big Brother/Sister program, that sort of helping your fellow humans.

Some Christians wrongly (IMO) believe that we must do good deeds to recieve salvation. I firmly believe that we must accept Christ and that no deed of ours will help us.
On the other hand, how can we say we accept Christ and then ignore our fellow humans, also God's children, who are in need of our help? Good deeds/works generaly follow if one is truly Christian. Cause and affect.

I went into Christianity to explain a bit more about why I think helping is important, and went into helping to show I wasn't being callous to those who might not otherwise be able to 'get it together' in one lifetime. I figured others share their beliefs so I could use mine as an example/explanation for what I had to say as well.

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As far as after-life goes, I'm up in the air about purgatory. Long story as to why. If I must label myself, I'd say I'm conservative Lutheran, but I attend a liberal Catholic church. rolleyes Amazingly this hasn't bothered anyone yet, including my Catholic friend, my Lutheran parents and the Father of the church.  

[TeaDidikai]

Iosonos

Haven't studied the Otherworlds much. Before I make any assumptions, how do you see the Otherworlds, our world and the astral connected together?

Trick question. "Otherworlds" is a generic term for cross-trad discussion.

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Not quite sure what you mean here. Do you mean my belief does not take into account objective reality, or doesn't consider it, or ?

Oh, do you mean if there's a god/s that I'm required to go through to whatever afterlife? Yeah, then no this doesn't buy me a free ticket.

I am saying your personal opinion doesn't trump objective reality no matter how much you believe it.

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This would get into the whole Christian hell thing, though.

No it doesn't. Christian Hell is specifically for people who are bound by the Law of Agape through Yeshua ben Yoseph to YHVH.

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If I don't believe in a specific god, and s/he's the only one real, am I screwed?

Considering scripture point blank states that Christendom is Monolateralistic? No. It means that their ignorance doesn't need to be compounded.

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lol, I was trying to keep this simple with some basic explainations. If you want me to get deeper into my beliefs, send me a PM and i'll try to explain as much as I currently know/remember.

That's what Pathways is for.

I fundementally disagree with your assertion, so I challenged it. Simple as that.  

[Iosonos]

TeaDidikai

Iosonos

Haven't studied the Otherworlds much. Before I make any assumptions, how do you see the Otherworlds, our world and the astral connected together?

Trick question. "Otherworlds" is a generic term for cross-trad discussion.

Looks like I made an assumption.

TeaDidikai

I am saying your personal opinion doesn't trump objective reality no matter how much you believe it.

Neither does yours.

TeaDidikai

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If I don't believe in a specific god, and s/he's the only one real, am I screwed?

Considering scripture point blank states that Christendom is Monolateralistic? No. It means that their ignorance doesn't need to be compounded.

I just read part of Domari Dvoeverie in the pathways section, so I understand what you meant now.

TeaDidikai

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lol, I was trying to keep this simple with some basic explainations. If you want me to get deeper into my beliefs, send me a PM and i'll try to explain as much as I currently know/remember.

That's what Pathways is for.

I'll think about it. Like I said, my beliefs are under review, and I don't really have a specific "path".

TeaDidikai

I fundementally disagree with your assertion, so I challenged it. Simple as that.

Which is fine, but after going over the intro page of your path, your take on the afterlife is fairly similar to my own. There's personal and communal afterlife constructs, as well as worldwalkers (mind explaining this more?).

Also, as part of this afterlife, could there not be a thoughtform created to pass judgement, in some cases like Christianity?

I'm not saying that there aren't real higher (or otherwise) lifeforms out there, but that the vast majourity of past gods are thoughtforms. Some may be real, some may have been real before a thoughtform was created in its place.

Like you said,

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This means that the stories and legends of the gods is not the end all be all of their relationships with one another and can be likened to the gods version of Live Journal. Just because it is posted there- it is not always 100% accurate, nor is it a complete representation of the individual who holds the name of Odin, YHVH, or Zeus, or Czarnobóg etc.

See Of Gods, Spirits, and the Universe if anyone is interested.

Yes, these happenings are not 100% accurate, and in some extreme cases such as the Egyptian pantheon from Early to Late periods, it can vilify some gods, while combining others. In this case, did Set become the lesser God to Heru because the Upper Kindom conquered the Lower, or because it really did happen?

In these cases, I see the thoughtform becoming a replacement for the initial god (assuming all existed as originally laid out).

My belief just takes the above example to a more extreme viewpoint. Some entity-gods may never have existed, most of the rest were replaced in worship practices.  

[TeaDidikai]

Iosonos

Looks like I made an assumption.

Seems that way.

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Neither does yours.

Very true. But I wasn't proffering my opinion as objective "true" was I?

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Which is fine, but after going over the intro page of your path, your take on the afterlife is fairly similar to my own.

Not from what you have presented here.

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as well as worldwalkers (mind explaining this more?).

Not to a Paradigm Pirate who hasn't shown a reason for me to trust them.

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Also, as part of this afterlife, could there not be a thoughtform created to pass judgement, in some cases like Christianity?

You're assuming that YHVH wouldn't do so since those who profess to be Christian do so in a way that has them breaking every mitzvot.

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I'm not saying that there aren't real higher (or otherwise) lifeforms out there, but that the vast majourity of past gods are thoughtforms.

Care to support this assertion?

Although- I will applaud you. You have managed to come across as supercilious as the Soft-Polytheists who tell Deo that Freya is a Moon Goddess.

Prey tell, how do you measure "most" of a non-falsifiable grouping?

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Some may be real, some may have been real before a thoughtform was created in its place.

Like you said,

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This means that the stories and legends of the gods is not the end all be all of their relationships with one another and can be likened to the gods version of Live Journal. Just because it is posted there- it is not always 100% accurate, nor is it a complete representation of the individual who holds the name of Odin, YHVH, or Zeus, or Czarnobóg etc.

See Of Gods, Spirits, and the Universe if anyone is interested.

Please read in context. The analogy does not preclude that the legends are always inaccurate or incomplete.

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In these cases, I see the thoughtform becoming a replacement for the initial god (assuming all existed as originally laid out).

That's a bold assumption considering that for all we know the individual deity in question is merely rolling his eyes at the slander.

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My belief just takes the above example to a more extreme viewpoint. Some entity-gods may never have existed, most of the rest were replaced in worship practices.

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