The following is a response I gave to the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer's religion page, when he asked me about Wiccan eschatology and our beliefs about life after death, and the sources for our beliefs. I actually wrote Janet and Stewart Farrar to verify the background of the Descent of the Goddess, and responded to the editor with the following:
Wicca does have belief in life after death, although like most Wiccan common beliefs it is loosely held, personally interpreted, and can be discarded in favor of individual beliefs. However, now that I've given my standard disclaimer, Wiccan eschatology comes primary from a liturgical piece in British Traditional Wicca called "The Descent of the Goddess". I actually had to do some research when you asked this, because while I was certainly familar with the myth and how it is generally interpreted, I didn't know where the myth is supposed to have come from. I contacted Janet and Stuart Farrar, two of the foremost writers in British Traditional Wicca, and they confirmed what I suspected, that it seems to be a myth based on the Persephone myth, the Sumerian 'Decent of Inanna', and some personal interpretation by Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, the two people responsible for most of the 'traditional' parts of modern Wicca.
The belief in reincarnation is common to many religions, obviously - the spin that Wicca specifically puts on this is noted near the end of the myth, when it describes that we will "meet, and remember, and love them again". Wiccans believe that reincarnation is a tool to personal growth, that spiritual and emotional development is the meaning of life, and that our special gift from the Goddess is that we are allowed to be reincarnated together with people we love, and remember them in future lives. This is tied in with the Wiccan Law of Three - "whatsoever you do shall return to you threefold". While Wiccans look primarily to the here-and-now in most things, it is generally believed that any 'imbalances of the karmic ledger' will balance out in future lives. Wiccan belief in 'karma' is viewed less as a system of reward or punishment, and more a simple description that all actions have consequences, since most Wiccans believe in the concept of interconnectedness, much like Native American beliefs.
Where the soul goes once it is 'perfected' is left vague. The Celts believed the soul goes to a place called the Summerland, a 'heaven' that acts as a resting place between incarnations. Whether a perfected soul gets to stay in the Summerland, or moves on to something beyond our understanding, or whether spiritual enlightenment leads the person to believe that the act of living is its own reward, the concept of constant growth is at least a practical guide to conduct that uses positive reward rather than a negative such as guilt.
My favorite quote about this is actually from a fiction novel, but one written by a Wiccan Priestess, Patricia Kenneally, in her novel _The Silver Branch_: "We shall be judged then not by the depths to which we have fallen, but by the heights to which we have climbed, and we are judged then not by the gods alone, but by our own higher selves.... Some of those heights will be higher than others, for a time, for a time only. But in the end, all shall reach them: this is the promise of the Mother to all her children."
And remember Thalia's favorite line...
Life is too important to be taken seriously!
© 1996 cecylyna@oocities.com
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