The

Rosicrucian

Digest

January

1979

were concomitant with illuminated mystical and philosophical beliefs.

Theoretically, Buddhism teaches neither the existence of reincarnation nor, in fact, the soul of man. However, it does refer to a “stream of existence.” There can be in Buddhistic doctrine a continual renewal of births. This “turning of the wheel,” or rebirth, is dependent upon man’s deeds on Earth. Rebirth, in the strict sense of the Buddhist interpretation of this word, is actually an act of retribution, a punishment for not having attained a certain state of consciousness and moral values.

Rebirth is a retributive act of karma, the consequence of certain human deeds. Therefore, in effect, Buddhism conforms to the doctrine of reincarnation. In fact, Buddhism in some of its literature relates how certain persons remember their former lives. Buddha, it is related, said that this recalling was one of the supernormal attainments of Buddhistic sainthood.

The ancient Celts had a definite belief in reincarnation, but not transmigration in that word’s true meaning. The soul after death was thought to await its reincarnation. It continued to live during this interval, but in a manner quite unlike that on earth. After such a period of waiting and purgation, the soul passed into another human body. The Druids so firmly believed that man reincarnated into human form that their burial rites required that they burn and bury with the dead the things that could be used again in this new life.

There is a Jewish type of esoteric mysticism that includes references that can definitely be construed as pertaining to reincarnation. It is believed that the ideas are syncretic, that is, borrowed from early Egyptian and Indian teachings. This mysticism seems to be based on the following abstractions: “God is the creator of everything; therefore, souls are his creation. But does God continue an act of creation? Does he create souls as soon as men are born?”

This system of thought contends that God does not create new souls. He ceased creation at the end of the sixth day. Souls of the dead, it is implied, after a certain peregrination in paradise, return again to the lower world. However, from this system of thought there would appear to be, in addition, a

reservoir of unborn souls. More souls were created by God than there were human forms at first. This paradise to which the souls go after death is a kind of world in which there is a realization of the glory of the Divine. There they remain with those souls who are created but have not yet been born. It is also said that “Moses in ascent to heaven sees the souls of the great and pious and those who lived on earth. . . and those who are to come to life hereafter.”

Greek Ideas

Herodotus, the celebrated Greek historian, says that the Greeks (Pythagoras, for example) gained their ideas of reincarnation and transmigration from the Egyptians. The Orphic school of Greece taught that the soul is imprisoned in the body as in a dungeon. It continues to return to earthly imprisonment until it finally attains the virtue of perfection. Plato, in his Dialogues, makes reference to this notion.

The myth of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, related that she sent souls back to earth from the underworld in the ninth year when they were purified. After three such incarnations on Earth, they continued an immortal existence “in the island of the blest.” A purified soul is said to have remarked, “I have flown out of the sorrowful weary wheel; I have passed with eager feet to the circle desired.” The wheel refers to the mystical wheel of fortune. Its revolution symbolizes the cycle of successive lives, the termination being the end of incarnations.

Heraclides Ponticus says that Pythagoras was permitted to retain the memory of his previous incarnations. It is related that he proved this on the occasion of a visit to the Heraeum at Argolis. There Pythagoras identified as his own the shield of Euphorbus before seeing the inscription upon it. Pythagoras implied that he had been Euphorbus, who had been killed before the walls of Troy.

It is also indicated from ancient writings that Pythagoras apparently believed in transmigration. Once he took pity on a dog being beaten, exclaiming, “Beat him no more; for his soul is my friend’s, as I recognized when I heard his voice.” Pythagoras also declared that the essence of soul is in animals, but

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