by: Rick Johnson 
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
RikJohnson@juno.com
About the only constant among the Wiccan community as to death is the acceptance of reincarnation. That is, the soul, once removed from the physical body, seeks a new life in another person to live again. It is how the individual Witches perceive this concept that the variations come into play.
Many Wiccans, in the absence of Traditional views and training, tend to follow the more public and published Hindu/Druid views of Reincarnation, which are remarkably similar to each other. In this view, the soul attempts to progress from a lower to a higher animal through lessons and hardship until they are born as a human. But wait, there is more! In the Hindu-Druid idea, there are different classes of humans with some more evolved than others. Brahams & Druids are more evolved and so higher people than Warriors which are higher than merchants which are higher than peasants or untouchables and so on.
I, personally, see a few problems with this:
First of all, it states that some beings are “better” than others. Humans are ‘better’ than animals and if so, then can we not use this to justify animal experimentation? Pate? Veal, caged chickens and other horrendous enslavements simply because they are ‘only animals’?
Secondly, some humans are ‘better’ than others. Simply by stating that you are a “Druid” or a “Priest/ess” you are automatically ‘better’ than the rest of the population. It may be a needed ego boost but consider that Western Europe used that same argument to justify the enslavement of the African or the extermination of the American Indian because they were ‘lower’ than the White race.
And finally, this concept is NOT Wiccan. It is Hindu and was accepted by the ancient Druids as a fact without question or thought.
Although we don’t know what our Wiccan ancestors believed, the best we can do is search the oldest existing books and go from there. And the Gardnerian Tradition does make an effort to possess and search out the oldest writings on purely Wiccan beliefs.
So, what do Gardnerians believe as to the post-death experience? Is there a unified Gardnerian belief?
This is a complex question and relates to a number of factors, all intertwined into a web of theology. And no matter what you hear, some other Gardnerian will argue the details, though most accept the general ideas expressed herein.
First of all you must understand that the Horned God has multiple aspects. In His simplest fashion, He is a God of Hunting. He wears the horns of the prey upon which man once lived. Thus in areas where man hunted the Deer, the Horned God was shown with the antlers of the Stag. Where man hunted cattle, He wore the horns of the Bull, where he hunted Goats, so too did the Horned God wear the horns of the Goat and where the bison was hunted, such horns were worn by the Horned God.
When man domesticated these animals for food, the Horned God moved into the pastures also and yet retained the Horns of the animals we raised. The God, as man, was very flexible here.
When man switched from a hunting-gathering existence to a pastoral-farming lifestyle, so too did the Horned God. As we raised corn and grapes and other plants, the Horned God adapted as well and became the Green Man, the Foliate, the Jack-in-the-Green. And yet, though now wearing the greenery of the vegetation upon which we fed, still He retained his Horns. Though now they were often shown as branches and leaves.
The important and widely ignored fact here is that the Horned God is a sacrifical god. He dies so that we may eat. He is the Provider just as His Consort the Mother Goddess is the Nurturer. Without the sacrifice of the Horned God (be it animal or plant) we would starve. All things live at the deaths of others and the Horned God represents and rules over this one vital fact of the balance of nature.
And so the Horned God is also a God of Death, the Grim Reaper who gives rest and comfort to those who can no longer live. The injured, the sick, the aged.
Without the Horned God to remove the soul from the dieing body, life would continue, forever, in pain, in misery, in infirmary. This aspect of the Horned God may seem harsh when one is at the bedside of a loved one, but consider, to a person racked with cancer, ancient with age or suffering after a devastating automobile accident, sometimes death is a blessing that is wished for by the infirm.
And the Horned God gives that grace.
So how does this work in the real world?
You suffer an accident. Perhaps you smoked and developed cancer, perhaps you went swimming and was pulled out to sea, perhaps a bee sting revealed to you a major allergy, perhaps you were thinking of something and didn’t see that bus as you stepped off the curb or maybe desperation caused you to slash your wrists to the bone. What placed you in this position isn’t as important as what happens next.
In most cases, your soul leaves your body, looks around and sees a tunnel to the Summerland, the land of the Gods. Within that tunnel is the horned God, possibly with your loved ones as well for time is irrelevant in the Summerland.
Perhaps you hang on and the Horned God must sever the connection. He approaches and offers you rest and peace. You can accept or reject. If the latter, He leaves and you live on, hopefully to heal. If the former, He pulls your soul from your devastated body and takes it through the Tunnel.
Regardless of how, you find yourself in the Summerland, the land of the Gods, the land of the Dead. And there, perhaps, you meet the Goddess. Whatever happens, you are required to review your life from conception to death. And at each juncture, questions are asked.
Why did you choose those people as parents? How would your life be different had you chosen a different set? Why did you steal that candy from the store? Why date that person and not the other who showed interest? Why that job and not another? And so on.
The Gods do not judge for that is not Their task. We all judge ourselves. All the Gods do is review our lives and ask us to think about what we have done and not done. The ramifications of our choices to ourselves and to those around us.
And when reviewing our entire life, the Gods ask that one vital question that will affect us in so important a manner… “Who do you want as your next set of parents?”
You think of your past lives, hopefully, and consider your future lives, hopefully, and decide. Perhaps you chose poorly without thought and so are in a really miserable life starving in some third world nation. Perhaps you chose well and are in a position to help others. Perhaps you just took what was available and your next life, like your last, is best expressed as mediocre.
That is your decision, your choice, your life.
So, while you are consorting with the Gods and deciding your future, your friends, your loved ones, your coven is making the decision too.
They love you. You are a part of their family. And no one wishes their family to fade away. Despite out propensity of moving across the country when we become adults, we still wish to be close to our loved ones.
And Witches are no different.
To allow you to be reborn at random (or worse, without thought) may lead you to choose parents who are fundamentalist xians and then, how would you experience the joys of the Sabbat? The Love of the Goddess? The Brotherhood of the Coven? Most of us came to the Craft as adults and regretted the years we could not find the Craft. So how can we solve this problem?
Gardnerian Passing Rites (funerary rites to the rest of you) are not what one expects in a xian dominated society. We care not for heaven or hell because for us these do not exist. Rather we are concerned that our loved ones return to us once again. And so Gardnerian’s at the Grave or in Circle, will cast a spell. A Spell to influence the soul of the dead to choose parents that are Gardnerian and live nearby. To ask the Gods to ensure that the soul under Their care chooses wisely and returns to the Craft again.
And isn’t what we all would want? To be Witches in our next life? To know the Gods again, the celebrate Their Mysteries? To know and to love our brothers and sisters of the Craft forever?
To contact me or to request topics to be covered, send to RikJohnson@juno.com
by: Rick Johnson
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
