Lesson
Karma & Reincarnation
by Sagewoman
3/10/2000

Have you ever gone somewhere or experienced certain events and all of a
sudden had the feeling that you've done this before.  Deja Vu?  You've
heard that phrase many times before.  Deja vu is the French term for
"already seen."  Some folks have the experience and just pass it off
without giving it much thought, or they ignore it all together because
of previous religious conditioning.  Others gauge their entire lives on
it, running here and there trying to find out who they were before.

Sometimes our sojourn here can be difficult and painful.  there can be
days when we are so overwhelmed that we can hardly get out of bed and
open the curtains.  We ask ourselves, "just what is all this for
anyway?"  Sometimes, for a fleeting moment, when we are feeling like we
just can't take anymore, we might entertain thoughts like, "I wish I
were never born" or "I wish I would die".  Some poor souls will even
take their own lives during difficult times, before they've given
themselves the chance to conquer the situation and feel good about
themselves and life again.  Then there are people who seem to have it
all.  Everything they could ever want is theirs for the taking.  They
never lack for anything and the world is theirs to command.  They are
not counted among those who wonder where their next meal will come
from, or if all the bills will be paid this month or if they'll be able
to afford to take the kids on that family vacation this year.

Have you wondered why one person seems to have everything and another
person nothing? Have you cringed at the images of starving, naked
children covered with flies on late night television wondering how such
tragedies can exist in the world today?  I sure have!  Sometimes it
feels like everything is so unevenly distributed on this earth, but
what if it really isn't?  Is it possible that everything has its
reason?  I have recounted the old Judy Collins song over and over again
on many occasions..."To everything turn, turn, turn; there is a
season...and a time for every purpose under heaven."

Reincarnation is one of the tenets (beliefs) of Wicca.  It isn't a new
concept by any stretch of the imagination.  Usually people attribute it
to eastern philosophies such as Buddhism or Hinduism, but as
witches/pagans, we have believed in it since the roots of our
existence.  We believe that each individual has a soul and that it is
reborn again and again until it is able to free itself from the wheel
of rebirth and remain in the spiritual dimension.  Some belief systems
such as Hinduism believe a person can be reborn as an animal such as a
pig if in a previous human existence they were guilty of overindulgence
and eating certain types of meat.  Buddhists believe you can be reborn
in various forms, but it is easier for you to attain Buddhahood if you
are born as a man and not a woman.  As Wiccans, we believe that a
person is born again and again because of lessons that need to be
learned and also that once you become a witch, you are reborn as a
witch in each successive lifetime, each time with increased wisdom and
power.  Also, we do not look at being born a burden overcome, with an
attitude of escapism as so many other religions do, but as a gift of
the gods, and something to be held sacred.  Life is a gift of the
Goddess, a precious jewel and we should strive to preserve it at all
costs.

A major factor in our cycle of birth and rebirth is what is known as
Karma.  Karma is usually though of as some sort of payback system for
wrongs done.  Well, yes, there are consequences to everything we do in
life, whether for good or ill, but there's more to it than that.
Sometimes negative circumstances come our way, not as a punishment, but
as a teaching device, a preparation for what is to come.  It could be
soon or much later, but for some reason we need the experience to build
our characters.  Karma can also serve as a reward system, allowing us
to experience positive benefits of past actions.  Karma is also a
source of wisdom.  We know that some people are very good with finances
and others are not.  Take a look a the multi-millionaires of this world
and all of the good they do acting as the benefactors of hospitals,
schools and other charitable organizations.  They know how to take what
they have and increase it, not only for their own benefit or so they
can enjoy the tax benefits, but so that the less fortunate will benefit
from their generosity.  Would everyone be able to do this if they had
the money?  We'd like to think so, but the truth is, if we've never in
all of our lifetimes had the experience of managing such large sums of
money, we wouldn't be able to if we were to come into a fortune
suddenly.  What about the lottery winners?  What about them?  Some have
managed what they have won wisely, some have squandered it, but believe
me, they are learning just like the rest of us.  Life is a continual
learning process and we keep returning until we've mastered ours and
can in turn help the world.

Remembering Past Lives

There's lots of info out there today on past lives and past life
regression (remembering past lives).  If we have lived before then why
can't we remember them under normal circumstances?  Well, I have a
couple of thoughts on this.  First, we are born into different bodies
each time with different cells…that includes our brain cells.  Memories
are stored in those cells, and can only remember what is happening now
in this lifetime; however, our sub consciousnesses are a different
story.  By deep meditation, usually guided via hypnosis, there have
been breakthroughs in being able to recall past lives; however,
sometimes, our subconscious will leak a memory through to us while we
are sleeping.

When I was about 10 years old I had a very vivid dream.  I dreamed
about a parking lot and trees and riding in some type of vehicle with
no windows or doors.  A few days later my dad took the family on one of
our special rides where he didn't tell us where we were going.  After
traveling quite a distance, low and behold we came to a very familiar
looking place.  It had a huge parking lot and beyond it I saw trees.
Once we were inside of the main gate, we took a ride on a windowless,
doorless vehicle…a sightseeing bus!  It replayed before my eyes just
like a movie.  This was my first trip to the Bronx Zoo.  I had never
had an experience like that before, but have had several since.  What
was the explanation for this phenomenon?   Some would just make light
of it, but I know it had to be a memory.

The following is a meditation that I came across a while ago that you
might like to try.
Past Lives Meditation
By Alyse Morris (email: morri-@ican.net)
This should be done with a partner, in case you get into such a deep
trance, or you get upset and you need someone to help pull you out.
1. First off you must perform a cleansing and grounding ritual/spell.
2. Lay down
3. Make sure you either tape your experience and/or have your partner
write down what you say.
4. (This can be said out loud by your partner or you can do this
internally; But, if your partner is saying it out loud, you must
visualise this scenario.
5. Picture a huge beautifully architecture library. (let your
imagination run wild)
6. In front there are 10 giant steps leading up to the front door.
7. Very slowly climb up the stairs counting each one. (your partner may
want   to count you through this) This is the meditative steps to put
you into the  mental state to accept the information.
8. When you get to the top of the stairs, Imagine a huge door, with a
giant knocker.
9. Knock on the door.
10. Someone will answer the door, - this is your spirit guide.
11. Tell him/her what it is you would like to see (as in a certain past
life, or something in general)
12. At this point you may or may not have a lengthy conversation with
your guide, s/he might be concerned with how you are going to handle
this information etc.
13. Next, Ask your guide to lead you to where you can get this
information.
14. Picture another door behind the guide, and have the guide walk you
through here.
15. S/he will lead you into another room, and sit you down.
16. At this point - whether you are audio, visual, or written comes
into play (or any combination)
17. You might take down a book, and start to read the story of a past
life - Look at pictures like a photo album - Watch a movie - listen to
someone narrate the story - or like I said, any combination.
18. When you are done, thank your guide very much.
19. Open the main door to go back down the stairs, and count your way
back down. - this will lead you back out of the trance.
20. Play back the tape, or read what your partner has written - you may
or may not remember what it is you have just experienced and/or said
out loud.


Notes from L.Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology and Dianetics.

Past lives, or times we have lived before, are suppressed by the
painfulness of the memory of those former existences.
     The memory is contained in mental image pictures which, on close
viewing, are capable of developing a reality "more real" than present
time.
     Where a person has been tortured or killed without adequate
reason, the injustice of it causes him or her to protest by holding in
suspension in time the picture.
     To restore the memory of one's whole existence, it is necessary to
bring one up to being able to confront such experiences.
     A person with amnesia is looked upon as ill. What of a person who
can remember only this life? Is this then not a case of amnesia on a
grand scale?
     Psychosomatic illnesses such as arthritis, asthma, rheumatism,
heart trouble, and on and on for a total of 70 percent of man's
ills—and women's too—are the reaction of the body against a painful
mental image picture or engram. When this picture is cleared away—if it
is the right picture—the illness usually abates.
     Actual fevers and pain, etc., can turn on just by restimulation of
mental pictures in a person.
     The recovery of whole memory could be said to be a goal of
processing.
     Past lives are "incredible" only to those who dare not confront
them. In others, the fact of former existence can be quickly
established subjectively.
     There are many interesting cases on record since Dianetics gave
impetus to Bridey Murphy. One was a case of a young girl, about five,
who, hanging back at church, confided to her clergyman that she was
worried about her "husband and children." It seems she had not
forgotten them after "dying out of" another life five years before.
     The clergyman did not at once send for the chaps in white coats.
Instead, he questioned the truly worried child closely.
     She told him she had lived in a nearby village, and what her name
had been. She said where her former body was buried, gave him the
address of her husband and children and what all their names were, and
asked him to drive over and find out if they were all right.
     The clergyman made the trip. Much to his astonishment, he
discovered the grave, the husband, the children and all the current
news.
     The following Sunday he told the little five-year-old girl that
the children were all well, that the husband had remarried pleasantly
and that the grave was well kept.
     She was very satisfied and thanked the clergyman very much—and the
following Sunday could not recall a thing about it!
     Past lives are not the same as the theory which has been called
"reincarnation" in Hinduism. That is a complex theory compared to
simply living time after time, getting a new body, eventually losing it
and getting a new one.
     The facts of past lives, if you care to pursue them, are best seen
from a preclear's viewpoint in the hands of a competent auditor. The
hypnotic handling of such is not advised. Only by higher levels of
awareness does one learn, not deeper levels of unconsciousness.
     An amusing sidelight on past lives is the "famous person"
fixation. This more than anything else has discredited having lived
before. There is always some madman "who was Napoleon," always some
girl "who was Catherine the Great." This evidently means that the
person, living a contemporary life to a famous figure, was so
unsuccessful that he or she "dubbed in" the great personage. An auditor
who runs into "Beethoven," after the preclear has run it for a while,
finds the preclear was really the handler of a street piano in that
life—not Beethoven!
     But all rules have exceptions, and an auditor once found a
preclear who claimed to have been Jim Bowie, the famous frontiersman
who died at the doubly famous Alamo in Texas. And after much work and
great skepticism found he really did have Jim Bowie!
     People have also been animals and perhaps some animals have been
people. There evidently is no gradient scale of advance, as in the
theories of reincarnation, but there are cases on record of preclears
who got well after a life as a dog or other animal was run out by an
auditor.
     One case, a psychotic girl, recovered when a life as a lion who
ate his keeper was fully run out!
     And we have also known horses and dogs of "human intelligence."
Perhaps they had just been generals or ministers of state and were
taking it easy for a life or two to cure their ulcers!
     Viewing children in the light of knowledge of past lives causes us
to revise our estimations of causes of child behavior.
     Evidently the newborn child has just died as an adult. Therefore
he or she, for some years, is prone to fantasy and terror and needs a
great deal of love and security to recover a perspective of life with
which he or she can live.

Past lives, karma and reincarnation always make for an interesting
conversation.  The views on these subjects are endless, but no matter
what we believe, we should always live as if this were the only life
we'll have and treat it with respect and honor it as the precious gift
it is.

Hail and Farewell.
Sage