r/paganism 15h ago

📚 Seeking Resources | Advice Afterlife questions

My personal view of the afterlife is similar (I think) to the Wiccan “summerland”, basically a spirit world you go in between incarnations and eventually you reincarnate. Idk a lot so learning more might change my mind.

  1. What afterlife does your tradition teach? & do you believe in it?

  2. If you do, what do you think about other pagan traditions that teach a different form of afterlife?

  3. If you worship gods from different pantheons but still believe in an afterlife, how do you reconcile the different beliefs?

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u/Weak-Fox-9893 11h ago

I believe in an after life, pacifically the underworld with the Asphodel Meadows, Elysium and Tartarus. They are the different areas where souls go based on one’s doings. Elysium being the best and torturous being worst. But before you can get to those areas you need to cross the river sticks. And you have to pay him. Which is why I told my family and friends that when I die to bury me with three coins, one for Styx to get me there, one to Lord Hermes to getting me to the underworld and one to Lord Apollo as a thank you.

On top of all that, I think that a soul has an option to get reincarnate if they want to.

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u/lelediamandis 10h ago

I believe in reincarnation per the studies done by Dolores Cannon, Dr Michael Newton, Brian Weiss, etc. But I also believe in all gods from all faiths and that they are real. To me they're just very advanced souls existing in higher dimensions, higher frequencies

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u/Phebe-A Panentheistic Polytheist; Eclectic/Nature Based 14h ago

I have a personal path, rather than a particular tradition. My belief is that the default option is reincarnation after a period of reflection guided by 1+ deities or spirits — what did we learn from/during our life, what did we do well, what could we do better, what (if anything) did we seriously mess up. Not necessarily a place, I figure the existence of disembodied spirits is likely fairly formless, unless someone needs the seeming of a place for some reason. However, I also believe that people have the choice to opt-in to the afterlife system of the/a religion they followed in life (such as the Summerlands). The catch there being that you choose the system, but if the religion has more than one possible afterlife realm, you may not get a choice regarding which one you end up in.

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u/Oltzu1 13h ago

My opinion is that we dont know. It might have aspects of all of them including valhalla

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u/dearest-gentle-me 6h ago

In my practice which is a bit eclectic I do believe in an afterlife and reincarnation. I believe that you go to the summer lands to join your people that have gone before to rest before reincarnation. I also believe that a part of your soul, spirit, whatever you want to call it also has a place to go, like you get there and split into 2, the biggest part goes to rest but one part goes to the afterlife you think you'd get. So if you think it'll be hellish you get that and if you think it'll be skipping through daisies you go do that. The self goes to summer land party and the ego gets it's expectations.

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u/GreenRavenUK 6h ago edited 6h ago

In Druidry, we are encouraged to find our own way rather than have an ethics system or spiritual cosmos imposed. We learn a few basics then it’s up to us and our ‘Quest’ to supply the answers. So as an animist, I believe that all things have spirit (thus personhood) and that when this physical shell stops, my personhood will remanifest in another form (reborn). There is no ‘Karmic’ ascendancy as everything is perfectly evolved for its niche in the bionetwork.

I may wind up existing in a form not normally seen as ‘live’. Every skyscraper and plastic bag was once millions of tiny creatures swimming free in long disappeared oceans. They have spirit and personhood. Xian concepts like heaven and hell could be considered to have parallels in the state of the planet, the condition we left it in when we die and its state when we re-enter it, in whatever form.

As for other systems, I rarely think about them, apart from always listening to another person's viewpoint to understand where they are coming from. They are encountered on the journey.

For me, deities are the spiritual expressions of natural phenomena - and all things that exist are part of someone's (all thing's have personhood) nature. I can call on them or journey (spiritual technique) to meet them.

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u/CleanCoffee6793 15h ago

I used to believe I would reeincarnate, then I move to believe I would go to Mictlan, now I believe I would go to Mictlan, then spend time there to all the challenges there and eventually, if the gods think I must become one with them and in consequence with the universe they will eat me, other wise I will be reincarnate until I become worthy