Cemeteries and crossroads are often thought of as a place between the world of the living and the dead. In this light, they are access points to non-material reality. But do the dead actually reside in such places, and if so, how does this reconcile with the idea of reincarnation? To better understand this we need to examine the old teachings. In them we find the belief that the soul enters into each incarnation and dons a persona known as the personality. By analogy, we wear selected clothing when we are at work, or at a formal occasion, and in this light, the soul wears a personality in each physical life. This personality is associated with the physical person in each life, but it is not the soul. The soul is the accumulated experiences of all the personalities it has worn throughout all of its incarnations.
According to the teachings, the personality, its sentient composition, does not continue on with the soul. It is instead absorbed into the "ancestral spirit," where it joins the hive mind and becomes one of the ancestors. The soul retains the life experience and memory of each personality but sheds its sentient connection. This is similar to the idea that at any given age a person is the accumulation of all the experiences she or he has to date. But the woman or man at age twenty-five is not the six-year-old or sixteen-year-old person they once were. However, the experiences of those past personalities have left an imprint.
In accord with the teachings, when we communicate with the dead we are connecting with the ancestral spirit. An exception is someone who has recently died and therefore has not yet joined the ancestors. In rare cases a personality can become bound to a place because of the person's death experience. It simply cannot move on or refuses to leave. This results in certain types of haunting phenomena.
In most cases, after death the soul reenters the cycle of rebirth, and the personality is separated (and enters its own realm). In Old World witchcraft we do not find the concept of the Summerland of Wiccan belief. Instead, the soul is believed to enter the sphere of the moon (represented by the physical moon). In modern terminology this refers to a process more than a place. However, it is still taught that the sphere of the moon (sometimes called the realm of Luna) is a spirit world in which reincarnating souls await rebirth into bodies of flesh.
Another teaching associated with departed souls is related to the Faery Realm. This reflects a very old belief that after death we can enter this realm and become faeries. Such a belief appears in early forms of lore. One example appears in the writings of folklorist Christine Messina. She points out that in the early tale of Cinderella her "Fairy God Mother" is actually the spirit of her dead mother come from the Faery Realm to render aid.61 The mother manifests from a small tree gifted by a fairy woman at the Grotto of the Faeries. In similar ways, the wooden puppet Pinocchio is given life by the Blue Faery who is the departed wife of Gipetto (and with whom he never had a child before she died).
In the following chapters we will explore other beliefs and practices rooted in the Old World or Enchanted World view, but for now let us look at a formal system constructed around the beliefs and practices of Old World witchcraft. It is known as Ash, Birch, and Willow. This will provide an example of how the old and new can come together in a way that does justice to both. We must note that this system is just one of many ways in which to incorporate elements of Old World witchcraft into a structured modern system of ritual practice.
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