What Do I Really Think Happens When I Die?

September 30, 2010 By Star Foster

Patheos’ new What Do I Really Believe? series is about what we feel is true in our heart and soul, which may conform to our faith tradition’s beliefs or not. Only so many Pagan responses made it to the homepage but we received some really fabulous ones. Instructions on how to respond to the next question are at the bottom of this post.

What really happens when we die?

Your best friend is crushed when his 10-year-old son dies of cancer. He tells you that he is comforted, at least, that one day he’ll get to see his child again in heaven.

Later that day, you begin to wonder… Is there life after death? Are heaven and hell real places? Do our souls continue to exist in some form?

What do you really believe?


I believe that beliefs about particular afterlives tell us far more about the views of the people involved about life as-we-know-it-now, rather than presenting any accurate description or depiction of what actually happens.  Pagan views are no different, except that many of us are able to experience those states while still living through trance, journeying, and shamanic work.  Who is to say, though, that it occurs in the same way for a person once they are dead?

The prerequisites for ideas known to us cannot exist outside of a material form that has senses, intelligence, emotions, and the like.  When a person dies, whatever is in us whether soul or simply energy?o longer inhabits the body, and thus life after death is not really a good way to think about an afterlife, ironically enough.

Some people‘s beliefs in an afterlife are cemented by a near-death experience.  I‘ve had about five of these.  While I am qualified, therefore, to describe what an afterlife is like, I am in no way capable of doing so.  As a result, I‘ve tried to live my life as well as I possibly know how.  I do not fear death, as much as fearing that I won? get to accomplish everything I would like to before I die.

Time is short and precious, and should not be taken for granted.  No matter how beautiful our beliefs are about afterlives, it is not up to us in the end.  Therefore, my focus is on this life, now, and what I can do with it.

P. Sufenas Virius Lupus is a founding member of the Ekklesía Antínoou (a queer, Graeco-Roman-Egyptian syncretist reconstructionist polytheist religious group dedicated to Antinous, the deified lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and other related gods and divine figures), a contributing member of Neos Alexandria, and a Celtic Reconstructionist pagan.You can find Lupus’ blog, Aedicula Antinoi, at http://aediculaantinoi.wordpress.com/.


Do I really believe I will be reunited with the souls of loved ones when I die? I have many I‘d like to reunite with, that‘s for certain. My mother, because I miss her more than ever now that I? a mother myself. My sister, because when she was alive, she was mentally handicapped and I would love to meet her as a whole soul.

But I‘m not certain I will, at least not right away. Not because I don‘t believe we will be in the same place. I don‘t believe in a specific place of eternal life; not a heaven or a hell. I emphasize eternal because I believe we have choices. I believe in reincarnation, but I believe we have the choice to do so. We can choose to come back for whatever reason. Maybe we need to learn something or maybe we want the opportunity to live life as a completely different type of person. We can choose to rest for a period before coming back. Or we can choose to move on to a place of peace.

Yes, I believe I will see my loved ones again because some connections reach beyond mortal life. Maybe we won‘t be at that place of rest or peace at the same time. But I believe when we do meet again, we‘ll know each other not as human bodies with eyes and ears and noses and mouths. I will see my loved ones, and they will see me, not as I see with my physical senses, but as pure, spiritual beings, not limited by physical frailties.

Julie Maldonado is a member of the Covenant of the Spirit Wheel, a member of CUUPS and is on the planning committee for Front Range Pagan Pride Day ( www.frontrangepaganpride.org ).

Hell.

I‘m going to Hell when I die.

Unlike the Christian concept of Hell that is associated with the devil and eternal suffering, the original meaning of Hell was far simpler: it simply meant place of the dead, or the place where something was concealed (which is an apt description of a grave).  The term originally had no connotation of good or evil associated with it. Hell was simply the place where all the dead went, whether they were good or evil. The Goddess Hel as guardian of the graves would host the dead within her Hall, but we also see some scattered mentions that the dead in other circumstances may be hosted by other deities: warriors would either go to Odin or Freya, drowned persons to Ran, maidens to Gefjon, etc.

While Hell isn‘t a bad place to be there are two specific places in Hell you really don‘t want to visit. Nifolhel and Nastrond are areas reserved for the oathbreakers, those who spoke false oaths, those who seduced married women, and murderers were said to dwell in torment.

I‘m on a road to Hel, and when the day comes when my life here on Midgard (earth) comes to pass (whenever that will be) I will be glad to go to Hel, where I will go to the Halls of my Gods and the Halls of my ancestors where I know I shall find welcome.

K.C. Hulsman is a gythia of Urdabrunnr Kindred and an active member of her local Asatru community. Her combination of academic research and personal exploration provides interesting insights into modern day Heathenry. Ms. Hulsman has contributed content to several devotionals, and delights in bringing attention to seldom spoken of Gods and Goddesses in the Northern Tradition.

I believe our souls — the essence of who we are — survive death. Past-life memories, after-death communications, and thousands of years of human thought and experience strongly indicate that there is more to Life than the material world. I believe that after death we experience a time of peace and rest and reunion with our ancestors before returning to this world to resume learning and growing and helping others to learn and grow.

That is what I believe, what I think, what my heart tells me is true. The only certain answer is “we don’t know.”

But this I do know. I have looked up at the night sky and felt my connection to the most distant stars. I have walked barefoot in the grass and been warmed by the life-giving rays of the Sun. I have been refreshed by cool water on a hot summer day. I have seen scattered families come together to mourn a death, and I have watched the miracle of birth.

What I cannot know by fact, I believe by love. Whatever the Universe has in store for me after death, I am sure it will be good.

John Beckett is an engineer, Pagan, Druid, and Unitarian Universalist. Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.

What happens after we die doesn’t matter. There’s no way of knowing and focusing on it doesn’t get us any closer to an answer. It frightens me, like I’m sure it does most people. I’m not frightened of my life ending, of no longer existing or being reborn, but the thought of an afterlife makes me sick to my stomach.

The idea that my soul gets caught up in some spirit world, even a pleasant one, makes me entirely uncomfortable. I’ve spent time in the spirit realm in my spiritual practice and always with the comfort of knowing I have a body to return to. The idea of an afterlife sounds like journeying to the Otherland and not being able to get back.

I’m much more comfortable with the thought of my soul dissipating or being immediately reborn. If death is the end, well there’s nothing I can do about it so why worry? Why not make the most of life? If I am reborn, which I think is likely since the Universe wastes nothing, then I return to the earth I adore. What could be more pleasant than that? Water fills many vessels and even turns into steam and cloud, suspended in the air, but it’s always water. Just the same, the soul is always the soul. It bumps about with other souls, and even leaves the body occasionally, but it is always the soul. I just hope the turnover rate on reincarnation is quick.

Star Foster, Wiccan, Pagan Portal Manager at Patheos.

To submit your response to our next question, and maybe end up on our homepage, send me (sfoster@patheos.com) the following question with a one sentence bio and a picture. Responses need to be under 250 words.

Does Prayer Really Make a Difference?

Before the football game, the two opposing quarterbacks both pray for victory. One team wins, the other loses.  The winning quarterback thanks God for helping his team win.

Did prayer have anything to do with the outcome? Do prayers really make a difference? Can prayer (or meditation) change the outcome of an event? Or are we just talking to ourselves?

Filed Under: Paganism Tagged With: , , , ,

A Challenge For October

September 29, 2010 By krasskova

In a few days, September will be over and we will have entered the month of Samhain, the month in which some of us celebrate Winter Nights, the month immediately preceding the Day of the Dead, the month which is, in so much of Paganism given over to honoring the ancestors. I think this is good. Granted, I think it is even better to honor the ancestors consistently throughout the year but I am glad we have a holy tide centering around celebrating those who came before us. It’s all too easy to forget about them in a world constantly obsessed with the young, the new, the up and coming.

So I want to suggest a challenge to all my readers. The goal of this challenge is to give people the opportunity to consciously deepen their own ancestral practices. That connection is important. There is a Lukumi proverb that says “we stand on the shoulders of our dead,” because, as another proverb states, “the knife cannot carve its own handle.” We are part of a line of men and women, connected to us by blood, or perhaps only by heart and spirit (for spiritual ancestors are as important as our physical ones) stretching back to the beginning of our world. That is a tremendous amount of strength, wisdom, and luck supporting us, a tremendous reservoir of power upon which we can draw; because our ancestors want us to succeed, to be happy, whole, successful beings. They’re in our corner, so to speak.

The only thing they ask in return is recognition. Those that were part of our family line remain part of our family line corporeality not withstanding. Learning to properly and consistently honor them is a very important piece in the puzzle of one’s spirituality. It’s foundational. One doesn’t have to know the names of one’s ancestors to honor them. They know us, because they are connected to us by an unbreakable bond. It’s only necessary to call them, collectively if that is the absolute best one can do. Beyond a certain point, we must all issue that collective call because I doubt any of us can trace our ancestral lines back to pre-history! Those that are adopted have four lines: maternal, paternal, adopted maternal, adopted paternal upon which they can call, not to mention most of us have spiritual kin, those people who have guided and mentored, supported, and taught us but who are not related to us by blood. They’re ancestors of a type too.

If one’s immediate family was malicious or hurtful, they need not be honored. Go further back. For everyone, there is a point in one’s line where the dead will be supportive. You might have to reach far, far back generations upon generations, but it’s worth doing. Nor does honoring one’s dead take a tremendous amount of effort. I always recommend setting up and maintaining an ancestral shrine: a table or shelf that is given over only to them. I admit, that living as I do in a spacious home, that for some this might be a luxury. As nice as it is, to have an ancestor altar, it’s not absolutely necessary. Those for whom this is an impossibility can still honor their dead. The act of honoring comes from the mind and heart after all; what we do physically is an external outgrowth of that mindfulness. The ways in which we can honor our dead are endless.

With that in mind, my challenge for October is this: each and every day of this month, do something to honor your ancestors. It doesn’t matter what it is, but celebrate them. Instead of just giving them one ritual at the end of October, give them every day of the entire month. Talk about them. Share their stories. Give them offerings. Do things in their honor. Put up their pictures. Maybe, if you can, set up an altar. Visit graves and make sure they’re clean and maybe bring flowers, maybe share a meal with your dead. I’m sure that folks can come up with ideas for celebrating their dead that I haven’t even considered and I encourage you to share those ideas here. Moreover share their stories every chance you can. But honor them, commit an entire month, thirty one days, to living in mindful, ongoing partnership with your dead. That is my challenge, and it’s something I’ll be doing myself as this month progresses. One day, whether we have choose to have children or not, we will be ancestors. Let’s do for them now, what we might wish done for us: let us keep them in living memory, in celebration and honor.

Hail to the dead,

and to the Gods who guard them.

Hail to those who have come before us.

Hail to those who stand behind us.

Hail to those upon whose strength and sacrifices,

successes and failures we feed.

Hail to our ancestors.

Hail them.

Filed Under: community, meditation, Paganism, passings, ritual, values Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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