Last night I was watching a new television show about a woman who could see ghosts. Though it was a rather dull show it did get me thinking about the afterlife, and what it means to people.
The first thought that came into my mind was just how much people actually think about life after death? Anyone who is religious or has a belief will have a sense of optimism and favorite that there is actually life after death. Yet no matter how much you do believe I think everyone has a certain amount of skepticism.
Most of the people I know that believe in life after death are Christians. They believe in heaven and that if you have lived a clean and peaceful life then you will be rewarded with eternity in heaven. Yet that does not apply to me because I am Pagan. I do not believe in heaven, I believe in our own version, which is called the Summerland’s.
The basic definition of summer lands is as follows:
“The traditional portrayal of the Summerland is as a place of rest for souls in between their earthly incarnations. Some believe that after one experiences life to its fullest, and has come to know and understand every aspect and emotion of physical human life (usually after many reincarnations), their deity will allow them to stay in the Summerland for an eternal afterlife, although this belief is not universal amongst Neopagans. Another common element is that the soul has little, if any, recollection of the Summerland once it arrives on the mortal plane again. The Summerland is also envisioned as a place for recollection and reunion with deceased loved ones.
As the name suggests, it is often imagined as a place of beauty and peace, where everything people hold close to their hearts is preserved in its fullest beauty for eternity. It is envisioned as containing wide (possibly eternal) fields of rolling green hills and lush grass. In many ways, this ideology is similar to the Welsh view of Annwn as an afterlife realm. However, the Summerland is also viewed as the place where one goes in the afterlife in traditions of Spiritualism and Theosophy, which is where Wicca got the term.”
Now I certainly do believe in life after death, and I do believe that each living being is taken to another level. Yet are we constricted to our own religious boundaries? Whilst joining fellow pagans and Wilkins and in the Summerlands, are Christians only confined to heaven?
For example, am I as a Pagan able to cross over to another existence where my Christian friends are , yet in my own opinion this place does not exist?. Or are all living beings taken to the same place in the afterlife just confined to a different name?
It’s something that I think about a lot, as we get older. The people we lose along the way the people we never get to say goodbye to, it would be nice living under an belief that we will see them again one day.
Yet as the eternal arguments between science and religion continue I think that there is no harm in believing in something after our own mortality ends. What that is I do not know where it is I do not know. All I do know is that things are seen, things I’ve heard makes me realize that there is certainly something else out there.
What others, or what is called I cannot answer. I guess the only get to see this one time is up. What are your thoughts?
