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Recently I saw a
grave with the inscription, “Gone to the Summerland” and wondered what it
meant.

It seems every
religion has a place where the soul goes when the body dies. For Wiccans that
place is called the Summerland. It’s not like the Christian version of heaven
or hell but more of a crossover place for the soul to await its reincarnation
and a new life.

Wicca and some pagan
religions describe the Summerland as a place with grassy fields and flowing
rivers where it is eternally summer. Others have described it as a swirl of
energies, which coexist with the God and Goddess.

The name Summerland
was coined by the Theosophical Society, which was founded in 1875 in New York
City. The organization remains active in more than 50 countries around the
globe.

Theosophist Charles
Webster Leadbeater taught that if you were a good person in life, you would go
to the Summerland, a place to rest your soul, review the past and reunite with
loved ones, between incarnations. This belief is similar to that held in Buddhism, Hinduism and other Indian
religions.

Most Wiccans believe
in the Summerland and the spiral of life, death and rebirth, but beliefs vary
from group to group just as different denominations of Christianity have
different beliefs.

Once the cycles of
reincarnation are completed, it is believed that the soul goes on to Nirvana; a
divine and blissful existence.

~ Joy