A Wiccan Bible - Exploring the Mysteries of the Craft from Birth to Summerland

Liber ab Mortuus (Book of the Dead)^263

Ask a hundred Wiccans about almost any other subject and you will receive almost

a hundred answers. Ask a hundred Wiccans about the afterlife, and you will probably

receive only two answers: Reincarnation and Summerland.

Common Wiccan Reincarnation—The common Wiccan belief in reincarnation cen-

ters around the idea of learning and life on Earth being an educational Path. We live,

we learn, we die, and then we start over, with no ending in sight or much of a specula-

tion as to why it is that we are living over and over again. It is as if we are professional

students, destined never to have a job, never needing to demonstrate that acquired

knowledge or put it to work.

Common Wiccan Summerland—The common Wiccan belief in Summerland is similar

to the Greek Elysian Fields, only everyone gets to go there, and everyone can leave

whenever they like. It is to reincarnation what spring break or summer vacation is to

college or the public school system.

What strikes me as odd is that if Wicca is a Nature-based religion, these common

views of the afterlife do not seem to fit. From where I sit, life involves work and while

education can be incredibly valuable, without putting that education to work it be-

comes rather useless. Even after working hard one’s whole life, there is further work

after retirement. So why then would the afterlife be any different?

Reincarnation?

Reincarnation has been a central belief in many religions, but not as the superficial

thing that it often becomes in the superficial portion of the Wiccan community. In

other religions, reincarnation could be used as a teaching tool, but it was also a punish-

ment. In Hindu lore, one such punishment is to return as a Preta. This punishment was

given to gluttons, folk who consumed far more than they need. The Preta are disem-

bodied spirits sent to walk the Earth forever, always able to see those things they had

been gluttonous for but never able to consume them, always thirsty but never able to

quench that thirst. Additional tales of such punishment can be found in the many sto-

ries of the dead being chained just outside the reach of water for an eternity.

Generally speaking, the common Wiccan belief in reincarnation is unique to Wicca.

While Pagan religions did demonstrate a belief in reincarnation, where one would re-

incarnate and what that person’s next life would be was in direct relation to the way one

lived his or her current lifetime. In other words, graduating from one grade level might

have meant moving on to the next, but failing did not necessarily mean you would

repeat the class. Instead, depending on how badly you failed, you might be expelled, as

the Preta, or you might have to start again at the beginning.

Summerland?

Generally speaking, like the common Wiccan version of reincarnation, the com-

mon Wiccan version of Summerland is unique to Wicca. Nowhere in all of Pagan lore

y WB Chap 16.p65 263 7/11/2003, 6:04 PM