Summerland (ritual, Earth, incarnation, soul, evolution)

[Master Hoomer]

WHat IS summerland...please define it for me...

thank you..... :goodjob:

[Green Gaia]

The afterlife, where you go after your body dies. I think most pagans have their own idea what this is.

Perhaps someone else can elaborate further....

[Rex]

here is what I found:


Summerland
The pagan transition of the soul is not instantaneous, but rather occurs after a brief rest in the spiritual realm of Summerland. Within this concept of belief, Summerland is the first of three realms on the spiritual or ethereal plane. Here the soul embarks on a restful plane of self-created reality, where the soul can review it's accomplishments, and failures, without the emotional or physical pains that went along with the events of the physical life.

Eventually, the soul moves to the next level of the ethereal plane where it prepares for the next steps of spiritual evolution. Upon this plane, a soul can decide if it wants to return now to a new incarnation, or if it would rather perform spiritual service on this plane of existence for a brief time. You can think of this plane as the Land of Spiritual Guardians. Those spiritual beings who work with those in physical incarnations as personal spiritual guides, or teachers.
The last realm of the pagan ethereal world is the plane of divine energies. When a soul has reached it's pinnacle of spiritual evolution where it no longer needs to return to the physical world, it has the option of moving to the divine plane of existence.

[Master Hoomer]

Um summerland is Wiccan....not pagan..
hence my question.....

Pagans have the Underworld...wiccans do not!

[Green Gaia]

Wiccans are Pagans. And while not all Pagans are Wiccan, some still believe in the idea of a "Summerland" to contrast the idea of Heaven and Hell in other religions.

And what do you mean by the Underworld?

Please remember that is difficult to make broad generalizations about what all Pagans believe.

[Master Hoomer]

the underworld..that which is within and under the earth...
hades..hell.......... anwynn.. ...hel....


the place of the Goddess...

the UNDERWORLD.......


:roll: but ok wiccans are "pagan".....

yet dont have the underworld..most confusing...

So sumerland is basically like a way station? a train stop ?

[Master Hoomer]

Underworld
by Micha F. Lindemans
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Among many religions the lowest part of the world, usually represented as the realm of the god or goddess of the dead. It is here that the spirits of the deceased stay. The underworld is seperated from the world of the living by an impassable abyss or river (such as the Styx). The entrance to this realm is often guarded by a huge monster, such as the Greek Cerberus and the Norse Garm. The Greeks and the Romans had their Hades; the Egyptians Duat; in the ancient Indian mythology eggshaped worldview Brahmanda it was called Naraka; the Germans called it Helheim; the Incas called it Uca Pacha; the Aztec referred to the underworld as Mictlan; and the Maya believed in Mitnal.

[Master Hoomer]

Annwn
by Brian Edward Rise
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An underground Netherworld region found in Welsh legend. Surviving from pre-Christian Celtic mythology, it's immortal inhabitants are the fair folk, demons or thinly disguised deities depending on the viewpoint. Neither Heaven nor Hell in the Christian sense, humans can enter spiritually or corporeally.

Annwn, or Annwfn, is ruled by Gwyn ap Nudd or Gwyn, son of Nodons, a briton god whose temple was at Lydney in the forest of Dean. He often appears among mortals to meddle in their affairs. Found at Arthur's court in Culhwch and Owen, where God is said to have given him dominion over the demons, "lest this world be destroyed." Folklore transforms him into the leader of the Wild Hunt, riding through the clouds raising human shades, along with the red-eared hounds of Annwn and occasionally by the undead Arthur himself.

There are various entry points into Annwn, namely Lundy Island and Glastonbury Tor. There is a legend of an itenerant Welsh saint named Collen entering Gwyn's palace within the Tor in order to banish him by sprinkling holy water around.

Contained within the alleged Book of Taleisin is "The Spoils of Annwn," an obscure, inauthentic Welsh poem dating from perhaps the tenth century. It is the tale of a raid on the part of Arthur and his knights through the underworld, questing for a magical, talismanic cauldron in the custody of nine maidens. Only seven survive this perilous expedition. Due to the pagan substance of the poem, it has been claimed to be a foreshadowing of later Grail Quests.The number nine relates to real groups of nine priestesses in pre-Christian, Celtic society. Geoffrey of Monmouth tells of a sisterhood of nine led by Morgan le Fay in his poetic Vita Merlini. The coven was located on the Isle of Apples, or Avalon, another otherworld sometimes identified with Annwn.

[Runt]

Originally Posted by Master Hoomer

Um summerland is Wiccan....not pagan..

I've studied Wicca and participated in Wiccan ceremonies for the last six years, and although I have seen some Wiccans REFER to Summerland, it is not originally a Wiccan belief but a pagan belief that Wiccans adopted. Celtic pagan, to be precise.

Celtic Beliefs In Summerland:

After death the soul went to the Summerland for renewal while awaiting rebirth. Consider it a resting place for souls preparing to "live" again.

Summerland was often used synonomously with "Tir Na nOg" (the Otherworld/land of the Tuatha De Danann). The Tuatha De Danann (kind of like a mixture of the modern ideas of pagan Gods, sorcerors, and faeries) and it was a

Supposedly mortals COULD venture to Summerland, but it was much more difficult for them than it was for the dead. To get there, one must cross a large stretch of water, walking UNDER the waves.

Like many concepts similar to "Heaven", Summerland is a Paradise--trees full of fruit and blossoms. Honey and wine. Feasts, playing and drinking. Silver and jewels. Time passes differently there. Associated with swans.

Also has some frightening aspects. Pure white hounds with red ears are harbingers of death....yet also have healing qualities. And when the hero Cu Chulainn ventures into Tir Na nOg in the "Tain Bo Cuailnge" (kind of like an Irish "Iliad"... but better :P), he sees severed heads.

[painted wolf]

Interesting tid-bit....
Navajo and other south west natives believed that the origional world was undergound and that humans came from there, climbing up into this world. So, rather than being the home of dead, the underworld was the place from wich life sprang.

Many natives had the spirits living in the same world as our own, but oposite, with our night being thier day... et. cet... Likewise the spirit world could only be seen and eaven visited, at night,.

wa:-do