What is the Summerland?

In some modern magical traditions, it is believed that the dead cross over into a place called the Summerland. This is a predominantly NeoWiccan concept, and is not typically found in non-Wiccan Pagan traditions. While there may be a similar concept of the afterlife in those traditions, the word Summerlandseems to be generally NeoWiccan in its use.

Wiccan author Scott Cunningham described the Summerland as a place where the soul goes on to live forever. In Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, he says, “This realm is neither in heaven nor the underworld. It simply is — a non-physical reality much less dense than ours. Some Wiccan traditions describe it as a land of eternal summer, with grassy fields and sweet flowing rivers, perhaps the Earth before the advent of humans. Others see it vaguely as a realm without forms, where energy swirls coexist with the greatest…