The Summerland by Rev. Carol A. Ingle AKA Raven

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

The Summerland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Summerland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Summerland.

The Summerland is the name given by Wiccans and other earth-based religions for their conceptualization of an afterlife. The common portrayal of the Summerland is as a place of rest for souls in between their earthly incarnations. Some believe that after one experiences life to its fullest, and has come to know and understand every aspect and emotion of physical human life (usually after many reincarnations), their deity will allow them to stay in the Summerland for an eternal afterlife, although this belief is not universal amongst Neopagans. Another common element is that the soul has little, if any, recollection of the Summerland once it arrives on the mortal plane again. The Summerland is also envisioned as a place for recollection and reunion with deceased loved ones.

As the name suggests, it is often envisaged as a place of beauty and peace, where everything people hold close to their hearts is preserved in its fullest beauty for eternity. It is envisioned as containing wide (possibly eternal) fields of rolling green hills and lush grass. In many ways, this ideology is similar to the Welsh view of Annwn as an afterlife realm. However, the Summerland was also viewed in traditions of Spiritualism, where Wicca got the term itself.

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 1772), respected scientist and theological writer of the 18th century, inspired Andrew Jackson Davis (1826 1910) in his major work The Great Harmonia, to say that Summerland is the pinnacle of human spiritual achievement in the afterlife; that is, it is the highest level, or 'sphere', of the afterlife we can hope to enter.

In modern usage, the term is synonymous with the Wiccan afterlife. While some non-Wiccan Pagans may hold the Summerland to be their afterlife, the majority of people who believe in the Summerland are Wiccan.

The essence of the Summerland is that it is a resting ground where souls can reflect on the life they led, see if they learned the lesson they had intended on learning, and then try again in due course. The Summerland is not seen as a place of judgement, but rather, as a spiritual self-evaluation where a soul is able to review its life and gain an understanding of the total impact its actions had on the world. Some may believe each particular lesson (and hence, life) is chosen and planned out by the soul itself while in Summerland, whereas others may believe that lessons are planned by an external party (deities, spirit guide, etc).

Summerland - An Introduction

Belief in reincarnation or the spiral of life, death, and rebirth is a major part of the Wiccan religion. Every form of Wicca I have ever heard of believes in and accepts the concept of having multiple lives. I know there are a few Witches that aren't thrilled about having to keep coming back, but they believe in it as just a common fact of existence. On this page, I will discuss common Wiccan beliefs about death and reincarnation as well as my personal beliefs. I will tell you what I was taught before you read any further...reincarnation is not something you must teach yourself to believe,
it's something you must know in your heart and believe in without a doubt. Never force yourself to believe in anything, it's what you feel inside that is right for you, no matter what anyone else believes in.

General reincarnation and death beliefs -

All Wiccans believe in something different, that is one of the many things makes this religion and way of life so great. Most factors of Wicca include a basic book type description from which you can base your ideas on. The basic Wiccan belief of reincarnation is that you are energy, a shapeless, sexless form that moves from one body which is no longer needed to the next. You are placed on Earth to learn a lesson. Each incarnation you are born into, you must learn or relearn a different lesson through experiencing a variety of different lifestyles. When you have learned all you need to learn in your present life, you move on, die. Death is not seen as a punishment or
a bad thing, but in a way, it's a good thing. It means you have completed one step on the incarnal ladder. After you die, you are brought to the Summerland which is kind of like the Wiccan equivalent of Heaven, but since we have no devil, we have no Hell. The Summerland is where the spirits that presently do not have an earthly body wait for the right time to return to Earth. It is known by many names and is often referred to as the Land of Eternal Summer and seen as a gorgeous, lush green field, with beauty and trees all around you, with a bright blue sky and a few puffy white clouds, cute little animals... *sigh* Anyway, moving on, when you enter the Summerland after death, you review your life and see what you did right and what you did wrong and need to change. This isn't judgment! You are not
punished, but you are taught through karma what you need to learn.

For example, if in this life you made fun of all overweight people, then in your next life, chances are you'll be an overweight person who is made fun of constantly. This wouldn't be to punish you, but to show you what the people you made fun of went through and how it hurt them. You may not know it in your earthly life why you are being made fun of and it will probably seem unfair, but when you die and reveiw your life, that is where you will be shown, 'this is why that happened. So as you live and die and live again, your soul learns and grows and you become a better person until you acheive your final incarnation...

Then, no one knows what happens. After you have reached enlightenment
and no longer have to return to Earth, then what? Well, no one knows for sure. Many believe it's simply because what happens then is beyond the comprehension of the human mind. We only use ten percent of our brains, knowledge that advanced sure would be pushing our little brains! So everyone has their theory of what happens after the mysterious final incarnation. It's a very fun thing to think about and is a good start into customizing your religious experience. My personal beliefs about reincarnation are in the next section below, but they are just my beliefs, they didn't come from any book and I don't claim them to be in any way an accurate representation of any form of Wicca, other than my own.

The final incarnation in my eyes... I believe in reincarnation in the same way as described above. I also have my own beliefs on what happens after your last incarnation. Reincarnation is something I have always believed in before I discovered I was Wiccan. My belief about how reincarnation works has never changed. Most Wiccans don't believe that humans start out as a rock or animal like some other religions, because we are all equal. In my opinion, all humans, animals, and plants reincarnate as their species. Each rncarnation, you return to Earth as your own species, but in a different situation. You may be a Caucasian female one life, and an African American male next time, but you're always a human. After your final incarnation, you have a choice of what you want to do from there. The options you are given are to return to Earth to begin another round of human incarnations, to return as another species, to stay in the Summerland, or to become a spiritual being such as a spirit guide, angel, or through time something such as an elemental. That's what spirit guides and angels are are souls that have completed their incarnations and are qualified to assist those of us that are still on Earth learning and help us know what we need to learn.

Well, that's my opinion. Summerland All religious systems have a place where the soul ascends (or descends) when the physical body can no longer function. In Craft belief, we call this place the Summerland. This is the resting place- the way station, if you will-for souls to recover, and categorize information and lessons we have learned. We have no Hell, or place of terror or damnation.

Reincarnation- the logical process of living, dying, and living again on the earth plane. Some religions also believe in transmigration, where an individual's soul may enter not only the body of a human, but the body of a plant or animal. In most Witchcraft Traditions, reincarnation is the accepted theology for dealing with the subject of death and rebirth. We move with the seasons, the cycle of the Wheel, the turn of birth, death, and rebirth. That part of it usually isn't questioned because it is logical. What is questioned is the space between the living experiences, the number of lifetimes, and the reasoning for going through each one. Also intriguing is "who we were," with whom, and when. Reincarnation is one of Wicca's most valuable lessons. The knowledge that this life is but one of many, that when the physical body dies we do not cease to exist but are reborn in another body answers many questions, but raises a few more. Wicca teaches that reincarnation is the instrument through which our souls are perfected. one lifetime isn't sufficient to attain this goal; hence, the consciousness (soul) is reborn many times, each life encompassing a different set of lessons, until perfection is achieved.

No one can say how many lives are required before this is accomplished. In Wicca, we seek to strengthen our bodies, minds and souls. We certainly live full, productive earthly lives, and we do so while harming none. The soul is ageless, sexless, non-physical, possessed of the divine spark of the Goddess and God. Each manifestation of the soul (i.e., each body it inhabits on Earth) is different. No two bodies or lives are the same. What happens after death?

Only the body dies. The soul lives on. Some Wiccans say that it journeys to a realm variously known as the Summerlands, Land of the Faerie, the Shining Land, and the Land of the Young. This realm is neither in heaven nor the underworld. It simply is- a non-physical reality much less dense than ours. Some Wiccan traditions describe it as a land of eternal summer, with grassy fields and sweet flowing rivers, perhaps the Earth before the advent of humans. Others see it vaguely as a realm without forms, where energy swirls coexist with the greatest energies- the Goddess and God in their celestial identities. The soul is said to review the past life, perhaps through
some mysterious way with the deities. This isn't a judgment, a weighing of one's soul, but an incarnational review. Lessons learned or ignored are brought to light. After the proper time, when the conditions on Earth are correct, the soul is reincarnated and life begins again. The final question- what happens after the last incarnation? Wiccan teachings have always been vague on this.

Basically, the Wiccans say that after rising upon the spiral of life and death and rebirth, those souls who have attained perfection break away from the cycle forever and dwell with the Goddess and God. Nothing is ever lost. The energies resident in our souls return to the divine source from which they originally emanated. Because of the acceptance of reincarnation, the Wicca don't fear death as a final plunge into oblivion, the days of life on Earth forever behind them.

It is seen as the door to birth. Thus our very lives are symbolically linked with the endless cycles of the seasons which shape our planet. Reincarnation is as real as a plant that buds, flowers, drops its seed, withers and creates a new plant in its image.

Summerland is the Wiccan 'Heaven', you might say. The main difference between Heaven and Summerland, though, is that you don't live on forever in paradise in Summerland - from Summerland, you will most likely get reincarnated back onto Earth. Keep in mind that the description of Summerland below (eternal summer) is the generally accepted one - but you can meditate on it and find out your image of the ideal 'resting place'.

A cornerstone of Wiccan belief is reincarnation – that after we die, we are reborn on Earth in a new form. This process is one through which the soul is ‘perfected’ – a single lifetime is insufficient to learn all the lessons of the Universe, so we are reborn many times over. Each time we are incarnated, we are here to learn (or repeat) a particular lesson or lessons. When you have learned all you need to learn in your present life, you move on - you die. Death is not a punishment or a negative thing - it means you have completed one more step on the cosmic ladder. Nobody knows whether we are able to choose what form we are born into – I don’t believe we do, as that would mean we basically get to choose which lessons we learn. You live and die over and over again, as many times as it takes you to learn the Universe’s lessons.

Nobody knows exactly what happens after death, but it is another Wiccan belief that after you die you arrive in Summerland - where the souls that presently do not have an Earthly body wait for the right time to return to Earth and learn more of the Universe’s lessons. Summerland is the Wiccan afterlife - similar to the Celtic Tir Nan Og, the Islamic Djanna, the Hebrew Sheol, or the Norse Asgard. Summerland is kind of a ‘way station’, where the soul can rest on what is generally thought of as a peaceful plane of eternal summer, with cool groves of trees, clear streams, rolling green hills and sprawling, lush plains under a brilliant blue sky. In Summerland, the soul can visit with loved ones from previous lives and review the accomplishments and failures of its last incarnation. There is no judgement or weighing of the heart against a feather, it is simply a review of your last life on Earth.


As Wicca does not recognise a Devil figure, there is no Wiccan equivalent to Hell and this raises the question of what happens to people that don't really 'deserve' to roam around Summerland. I imagine the consequences for the Hitlers of the world lie in their next incarnation, as do the rewards for the Mother Teresas among us.

Nobody knows what happens after you have learned all the lessons there are to learn, but I believe it’s quite possible that your soul ‘ascends’ to join the energy of the God and Goddess Themselves – the wheel turns full circle and we return to that from whence we came.