Pagans: How do you see the afterlife?

[Gnostic Seeker]

I personally see my tradition's mythology about the afterlife as metaphorical, and also relating to the now. I think Elysium, Asphodel, and hell are states we can be in right now, and being in them right now would mean we were in them immediately following death if we were to die now.

I think once in the afterlife there are ways of changing states, but its a lot different because our bodies are vehicles of change, so it might take longer and be accomplished by different means. I think reincarnation into another person is also possible.

I was wondering about everyone's personal view. How do you see the afterlife? Do you base your view on your particular tradition/mythology, or do you have some other outlook?

Regards and well wishes...

 

[The Hammer]

I am partial to reincarnation. Just based on the First Law of Thermodynamics, that energy cannot be created nor destroyed.

Therefore the human body may die, but the energy left behind is transmitted elsewhere. Whether that means into the earth itself, or something more mystical I do not know.

But it is for this reason that I believe in Reincarnation.

 

[Riverwolf]

I mostly take a "we'll know when we get there" approach to the afterlife.

 

[mimpibird39]

I believe that there are multiple afterlives and we go to the realm of our faith. So, when I pass on, I will go to Dis Pater's realm. But I also believe that it might be possible to visit multiple afterlife realms and worlds maybe by entering a different state of existence that would allow for such traveling. Maybe we would even be able to come back to this world and reincarnate. At the very least I believe that life is eternal in some way and I will end up in the Roman version of the the afterlife (first).

 

[Jainarayan]

I mostly take a "we'll know when we get there" approach to the afterlife.

Yep, pretty much this. But I'm inclined to believe that we are somehow recycled. Call it reincarnation, rebirth, or what have you. Or simply that my molecules become part of the next sapling that sprouts from an acorn. If the iron in my blood was forged in a supernova explosion, I think it stands to reason that we can reform. That's the physical part. The spiritual or consciousness part? I'll know when I get there. But Stuart Hameroff has a theory of quantum consciousness I tend to agree with.

 

[Aupmanyav]

I think it stands to reason that we can reform. That's the physical part.

Nice post, but I hope you do not mean that Thorbjorn or Aupmanyav will be born again. What constitutes us goes to the furnace again and it comes out with a million new things which have parts of what went into the furnace. For example, recycling plastic, or paper. The same thing cannot come up again, but many (millions) things will have what constituted us. We sort of get distributed, become omni-present, just as we got formed out of the omni-present.

 

[Jainarayan]

Or simply that my molecules become part of the next sapling that sprouts from an acorn. If the iron in my blood was forged in a supernova explosion, I think it stands to reason that we can reform.

Nice post, but I hope you do not mean that Thorbjorn or Aupmanyav will be born again.

Nothing about this body or personality being reborn in my comments. I think it's pretty clear I'm referring to my atoms and molecules taking forms that are

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I personally see my tradition's mythology about the afterlife as metaphorical, and also relating to the now. I think Elysium, Asphodel, and hell are states we can be in right now, and being in them right now would mean we were in them immediately following death if we were to die now.

I think once in the afterlife there are ways of changing states, but its a lot different because our bodies are vehicles of change, so it might take longer and be accomplished by different means. I think reincarnation into another person is also possible.

I was wondering about everyone's personal view. How do you see the afterlife? Do you base your view on your particular tradition/mythology, or do you have some other outlook?

Regards and well wishes...

Hm. I actually haven't thought too much about the afterlife. I am a pagan but I don't follow mythology. The closest from what nature teaches me and what I learn is that everything is circular. We recycle. So, our bodies change form but they do not die nor does our spirit. I always believed that objects hold spirits like ancestor items etc. So, it could be like in the Santeria tradition where the we are part of the Orishas when we die. (If I said that right).I believe we came from the water, so from there I will return. Yemaya is the Orisha of the water, so, I return to her.

I was thinking of practicing Santeria. They have core beliefs that I didn't know I had.

Carlita

 

[Cassandra]

I believe that there are multiple afterlives and we go to the realm of our faith. So, when I pass on, I will go to Dis Pater's realm. But I also believe that it might be possible to visit multiple afterlife realms and worlds maybe by entering a different state of existence that would allow for such traveling. Maybe we would even be able to come back to this world and reincarnate. At the very least I believe that life is eternal in some way and I will end up in the Roman version of the the afterlife (first).

Nice view!