What are the general views?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 06 Jun 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Houklani	06 Jun 2002
This may be a slightly boring question, but one that interests me all the same. The religion I was brought up with is basically Christian, though its view on the spirit world, which I have come to accept, are completely different. The closest views on spirit world that I have ever found were of the Latter Day Saints, for those of you who are familiar with that denomination. Anyway, here's my question. What are your general views on the spirit world? How do you believe the spirit world is set up, or if there is a spirit world at all? To help you out, let me relate my own views as briefly as I can. When a person goes to the spirit world, they aren't judged to go into the fiery pits of Hell or the eternal pits of Heaven. Instead, the measure of the person's lifestyle on earth is what determines their lifestyle after death. However, just because a person comes to live in a type of hell in the spiritual world does not mean that they have to stay there. It is possible for them to work through living people the physical world to make up for there own mistakes, and that is where we get the theory of reincarnation. I understand that most people on this board believe in the power of spiritual people, or whatever other name you may give to them, to interfere in the lives of those who choose to open themselves up to that influence. But I could be wrong. Please feel free to state your own beliefs!! I love having my views challenged, and I promise to listen, even if I don't change. -Houklani

HOLMES	06 Jun 2002
that is what i truly bleive and was inspired by my higher power

truthsayer	06 Jun 2002
i believe the other side is a world of love, beauty, and compassion beyond our mortal understanding and our brains ability to translate. mere words are impossible to explain. it's like trying to catch water thru a strainer to describe it. i know to feel such love can be so overwhelming that it hurts b/c here we cast judgements on each other. casting judgements is wounding to our natures. we are here to learn about the deepest nature of love. other things, too but that is the one thing i truly understand about why we are here.

Faerie Lin	06 Jun 2002
Quote: Originally posted by truthsayer mere words are impossible to explain. it's like trying to catch water thru a strainer to describe it. Whoa truthsayer, I love that comparison! I believe in Heaven, everyone is equal, you can choose to have whatever kind of house you want. Be it mansion, logcabin, whatever (because it really doesn't matter, since the perspective of space in Heaven is so unlike ours here). I believe we souls are originally from Heaven and we come down here to earth to learn. And that there are many souls who have never lived a lifetime on earth. That we are considered the brave and bold ones. Anyhow i kinda got off the subject but.... I believe the karma that we pick up in our lives on earth, don't affect us in Heaven (since it is for learning purposes anyhow) but may affect us if we decide to live another lifetime on earth. Lin

wavebreaker	06 Jun 2002
I don't believe in a hell or punishment after death for things you did wrong during your life on earth. I believe that if you've done wrong during your life, you will come back to set it right in a next life and you will keep coming back until everything has been set right and there is no unfinished business left.

meatbox666	06 Jun 2002
I believe in hell and punishment. I sure hope that dealing with the occult is a very fast passing phase of my life and then I'll go back to being a die hard christian. Sure hope i dont die before repenting of my sorceries , divinations and abominations...LOL, Oh boy, that wouldn't be good if I did. I believe in Satan/Lucifer/ whatever name he may be known and all of his wretched minions. It said in the Bible that in the Last days, people are going to depart from the faith ( Christianity)and go after doctrines of Demons. LOL, no lie there, I am guilty but, I will go back to Christianity. LOL, you dont think thats true, weLL, WHAT FAITH WERE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU (everyone looking at this post) before you decided to fall into the Aquarian/Pagan way of thinking with all of the Pagan Gods/Goddesses. Be honest. I am.

Original Destiny	06 Jun 2002
I believe that we return to were we came from...I have no memory of befor, I was born, and I won't have any concept of were I am after I die..therefore I am only here .....now!!..tThe here and now is all:TFOOL

Houklani	06 Jun 2002
Actually, meatbox, now that you've brought up "going back to Christianity," why can't a Christian use tarot cards and the like? I've never considered myself pagan, though now I'm beginning to realiaze how little I know about being pagan, but I've found that using tarot cards to help people, tell the future, communicate with spirits, etc, fits very well into my own semi-Christian upbringing. Because I'm not using the cards to communicate with the devil or whatever people fear. To me they are a tool to use to help others, a means of focusing the energy of the spirits around me. -Houklani

debins	06 Jun 2002
from God, who is our home. Our birth is but a forgetting... (William Wordsworth) For years, I didn't understand what that meant. But after much research into spiritual things I understand the poet's statement to mean we come from "heaven", for lack of a better word, and that we are born not remembering our source because, as others have already stated, we are here to learn and will continue to be reborn until we learn and "realize" our completeness, the latter which can go on for ages and ages, into higher realms and higher states of being. I wasn't raised to believe such. My parents are/were Born Again Christians. My Dad would flip if he were alive. He probably hears me now and knows better. After my beloved died two years ago I read voraciously on death and reincarnation, a subject I hadn't previously considered. It seems the readings helped me to understand and make sense of many things in retrospect. I know the feeling of finding myself deeply attached to someone for no apparent reason. When I first met my former beloved who has already passed on, would you believe he came up from behind and only seemed to touch me, but did not actually physically touch me, and he communicated to me without speaking, "I am here." I asked a tarot reader once what that meant and she said he was from a former life. At the time, I didn't believe in such things. When I met my current husband I immediately "knew" we were going to have a connection beyond the apparent: I came for a job interview. I saw pictures of his two daughters on his desk. He was a bachelor father and I had a feeling the little girls were somehow going to mean something to me. Within a year we were married. I think by marrying a man with two kids already I am making up for a karmic debt in my past life. Yes, I now believe in reincarnation. Too much in life points to it to ignore it. From a non-personal perspective, reincarnation accounts for child prodigies: fantastic classical musicians at age 5. From an ordinary, earth bound perspective it simply isn't possible for a 5 year old to play like a Mozart without supernatural cause: they haven't got the eye-hand co-ordination for one, and they haven't had time to learn despite their ability. I believe that a lot of our blessings, responsiblities and troubles are carry-overs that we are to work on now. Lastly, I have a strange love for things from India: food, silk sareers, incense, Moghul architecture. I've never been to India. As a little girl I would wind cloth around me in the Indian lady fashion BUT I HADN'T NEVER, EVER PREVIOUSLY SEEN SUCH A THING DONE. Anyway, there it is.

VGimlet	07 Jun 2002
I have never been Christian, as I've said before, I grew up with a father that felt organized religion was the worst thing to *ever* happen to humanity. As a child and young adult, I studied many religions, because I found them interesting, but I never found one that touched that spiritual place inside me. I've ended up with an eclectic mix that feels right to me. So, I do think that there is an afterlife. I don't know what it is, if it's just made up of something as basic as our electrical energy, or if we have a more traditional form. I feel as though after we pass to the next level, sometimes we stay there for awhile, before going on. I like the idea of reincarnation (an idea my dad believed in strongly) but am unsure about it. I think there are new souls, and old souls, though.

Malachite	07 Jun 2002
Technically, I go with the Norse version... We reside, physically and spiritually, in one realm (Midgard). Linked to this, are four realms which influence this one, but are neither 'before' or 'after'. Spirits pass either to Asgard or Niflheim, but I percieve those more spiritually, as states of mind. If you are proud or ashamed of your life, once free of the constraints that bind your mind in life... I am not entirely sure about any degree of judgement. I feel that entry to the Hall of a God/Goddess would require their consent, but I don't know about any other limitations... Around these, are the Ljossalfheimr and the Svartalfheimr, where light and dark influences reside, but which are apart from the middle realms... its complicated. I don't pretend to understand it properly myself... ;)

The What are the general views? thread was originally posted on 06 Jun 2002 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.