Death or loss of the people we love and care for is one of the hardest parts of life. It’s hard to imagine someone you once knew, now ceases to exist. But what if that weren’t the case? Many spiritual beliefs say that souls carry on just as they were in the after life, a version that we knew, forever existing. Many organized spiritual groups also talk of soul families, karmic lessons, and reincarnation. And many believers use spirituality as they grieve losses in their lives.
We hope to provide some introductions to how spirituality can help us grieve, and provide us hope that there is so much more to someone’s purpose and existence.
One thing many spiritual beliefs have in common is what comes after death. From Eastern practices such as Buddhism to Hinduism and Western Wicca, there is some common ground that souls continue to exist. Where and why is what makes them different. These beliefs are also those of mediums who have connected with souls, spirits and entities from other dimensional existence.
The Buddhist belief of the afterlife is that based around reincarnation and karma. When a soul leaves one’s body, the energy will transfer to it’s next host for more lessons.
The type of karma you have accumulated or cycles broken in a lifetime will determine what kind of host you will go into next (animal, human, circumstances). You could look at it as “leveling up” as you learn more lessons.
Our souls, or energy are in a cycle or samsara, the loop of birth and death, until we learn our lessons. Nirvana is the end goal, achieved when one reaches enlightenment, the highest consciousness or “non-return” level. From where they can reach higher realms.
Those who practice Wiccan beliefs also assume reincarnation. However for them, their souls get to rest before continuing on to the next life. This soul rest takes place in a realm called Summerland, also known as the Heaven of the Astral Plane.
In Summerland, our souls reflect on the life we just lived. Processing all our experiences, good and bad. Including the people and how they made us feel.
With this time, our souls can prepare for what we will face in the next life and apply what we have learned for an even better experience. When our soul feels satisfied with its rest, a new life will be chosen.
If you were to have a conversation about the afterlife with a Medium, or what some call a Psychic, they would tell you a similar story to Buddhist reincarnation and Wicca’s Summerland. In many recounts from Mediums speaking to a spirit from the other side, they tell of a place where complete love has come over the soul. This is where they are resting and reflecting on their life with a new perspective before continuing on.
For some, structured beliefs like Buddhism and Wicca are too much. However, looking at studies and work of past-life regression therapists, they’ve had their own glimpse at what comes after life. With clients, they have been able to go in-between lives, and recount soul memories from another realm. They too have been told that this place is for feeling love and resting between lessons.
To add an extra touch of sweetness, these therapy sessions have on numerous occasions revealed the possible existence of soul families; when a group of souls have agreed to do their lessons together by reincarnating as important parts in each other’s lives. So there’s a good chance the people closest to you have been close to you all along.
Thinking that someone is gone “forever” can be huge to wrap your head around, it’s almost unbelievable. Thankfully, spirituality helps us along the way as we grieve. With these beliefs from highly spiritual groups, we can have comfort in knowing our loved ones had a purpose here. And not only a purpose for their own but also for our own experience and enjoyment.
Now, from wherever they may be, they can look back at us with overwhelming love.
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