RETRIBUTION

Along with reincarnation go thoughts of Karma.

Karma is usually thought of as a reward-and-punishment system stretching throughout all lifetimes: if you do evil in one life you will have to pay for it in the next. However, it seems that there is always talk of “karmic debts” and “karmic punishments” but seldom of “karmic rewards”. The Witchcraft view seems to make more sense.

First of all there is a Wiccan belief in retribution within each life. In other words, rather than being rewarded and punished after death, for what you have done in life (the traditional Christian view), Witches believe that you get your rewards and punishments during this lifetime, according to how you live it. Do good and you will get back good. But do evil and evil
will return. More than that, though, it is a three-fold retribution. Do good and you will get back three times the good; do evil and you will receive three times the evil. Obviously there is here no inducement for you to ever harm anyone. Of course it is not a literal threefold return. If you were to punch someone in the eye, it does not mean that you will get punched in the eye yourself three times. No. But, sometime in the future, you may “just happen” to break a leg … something which might be considered three times as bad as being punched in the eye.

In the Witchcraft belief, then, one lifetime’s experiences are not dependent on the previous one’s. For example, if you suffer physical abuse in this life, it does not necessarily mean that you were an abuser in your previous life. It is possible you were, yes. But it is just as possible that you were not but are going to be in the next life. In other words, it is a case of experiencing all things—being both the abuser and the abusee, but one is not necessarily dependent on the other. Several lifetimes could even take place between the one experience and its apparent correlative.

Just because you have chosen a particular lifetime and are to undergo the set experiences does not mean that you can just sit back and say “Everything is preordained. I’m just along for the ride.” The God and the Goddess will make sure that you do get all the particular experiences but your job is to progress; to strive your hardest towards perfection. YOU CREATE YOUR OWN REALITY. Whatever you want, you can achieve. But always remember the Wiccan Rede: “An’ it harm none, do what thou wilt.”

Whenever possible, help those less fortunate than yourself. By “help” I do not mean “interfere”. Help can be given by simply offering advice; by showing compassion; even, sometimes, by actually refusing direct assistance. For, in this latter case, it is sometimes of the greatest help and to the other’s benefit to make them give a little more effort: to make them think for
themselves.

BETWEEN LIVES

The length of time spent between lives may vary, depending on your study of the lessons learned and their integration with previous lessons; also on the necessary preparation for the next “semester”.

While between lives you might also become involved in helping some other spirit here on earth. Just as there is development and advancement in this life, so there is in “the between times”. You may have heard of such things as “Guardian Angels” and “Spirit Guides” and wondered if they really exist. In a sense they do. It means that a spirit is always watching over a less developed spirit here on earth. Since time does not exist in the between-times (it is a human-made concept, for the sake of reference only) then to watch over an earth-bound spirit for its whole earthly lifetime would not actually hinder the watcher’s progress. In fact, it would add to it in the sense of gaining “student-teacher” experience.

Witches always hope that they will be reborn in the next life with those they have known and loved in this one. From psychic experiences, etc., it seems that this is often the case. Many times a couple will stay together throughout a number of lifetimes, in different relationship
roles (e.g. lovers; husband-wife; brother-sister; mother-daughter).

Source

Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft

REINCARNATION

Reincarnation is an ancient belief. It is part of many religions (Hinduism and Buddhism, for example) and was even one of the original Christian tenets, until condemned by the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. It is believed that the human spirit, or soul, is a fragment of the divine and eventually it will return to its divine source. But, for its own evolution, it is
necessary that the soul experience all things in life.

It seems the most sensible, most logical, explanation of much that is found in life. Why should one person be born into a rich family and another into poverty? Why should one be born crippled, another fit and strong?…if not because we must all eventually experience all things. Reincarnation seems the most logical explanation of child prodigies. A musical genius, composing concertos at the age of five (as did Mozart), is obviously carrying-over knowledge from one lifetime into the next. This does not usually happen, but it can. In the same way, homosexuality might well be explained through reincarnation: a person male in one lifetime and then female in the next (or vice versa) might have carried over feelings and preferences from one life to the next.

For someone who does not believe in reincarnation, it is difficult to understand the death of a child. What was the point of the child living at all, if only for a few short years? For the reincarnationist it is obvious that the child had learned all that had been set to be learned
in that particular lifetime and so was moving on. A very good simile for this is the grades of a school. You enter school in a low grade and learn the basics. When you have mastered these you graduate, take a short vacation, then come back into a higher grade to learn and
experience more things. So it is in life. In each life you have a certain amount to learn and to experience. When you have done that, you graduate (i.e. you die). To come back into a higher grade you are reborn in a new body. Occasionally remembrance of previous lives, or parts of them, is experienced but more generally you do not remember (it is possible, of course, through such procedures as hypno-regression, to go back to previous lives and bring them once more to the surface). Perhaps one of the most common of occult experiences is that
of deja-vu—the feeling that something has happened before—so often attributed to reincarnation (though by no means is reincarnation the only possible explanation of all cases of deja-vu); the feeling being a brief flash of memory of something that happened in a previous life.

In what form do we return to the earth? Some believe (the Hindus, for example) that it is not necessarily in human form each time. Certain Hindu sects teach that the soul may be reborn as a plant or an animal. However, such beliefs are not generally held in Western civilization. Some say there is a progression from the lowest life-forms to the highest— putting humans at the top. But then who is to say the order? Is a dog higher than a cat, or a cat higher than a dog? Is a centipede higher or lower than an earwig? Does this mean, when every soul has finally passed up the scale and graduated, that in the afterlife there will be no plant, animal or insect life? It seems unlikely. In Witchcraft the belief is that all things have souls. In Saxon Witchcraft, for example, it is believed that a dog will go through many incarnations, but always as a dog; a cat always as a cat; a human always as a human. There is reason for all things to be here … what we term the “balance of Nature”. It seems we certainly have a choice, within our species, of being either male or female, in order to experience and appreciate the different aspects.

One argument often put forward by non-rein-carnationists is “If what you say is true, how
do you explain the fact that the world population is continuously growing?” Of course it is! So is the population of souls/spirits. There are not simply x number of souls who all started their development together. New souls are being introduced all the times. So we have so-called “new souls”—those on their first incarnations—and “old souls”—those who have been through a large number of lives. It is possible that eventually, when the gods decide enough souls
have been introduced, there will be a stabilizing of the population followed later by a decline, as old souls in their final incarnations make their graduations. There is yet another thought that might be considered here … where do these souls originally come from and where do they go after that final graduation? One possibility, of course, is that we not only experience lives here on Earth, but also on other planets and in other reality systems. Who knows? …
perhaps we go through the cycle here having already been through it a dozen times or more on other worlds. There is obviously much food for thought, very little (if any) proof of preferences and great scope for new tenets.

Source

Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft

THE POWER WITHIN

There are many people who seem, very obviously, to have some sort of “psychic power” (for want of a better term). They are the sort who know that the telephone is going to ring before it actually does, and who is on the other end of the line before they pick up the receiver. People like Uri Geller are able to demonstrate this power in more dramatic ways, by bending keys and teaspoons without physical contact. Others have “visions” or seem to be able to make things happen. Often these people have a peculiar affinity with animals.

You may not be like this. You may.well feel somewhat envious of such people. Yet you shouldn’t feel that way, for the power that these people have—and it is a very real power—is inherent in all of us. To be sure, that power comes out quite naturally in some, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be brought out in others. The aura (which will be dealt with extensively in a later lesson) is a visible manifestation of this power. Those able to see the aura—and you will become one of these—can see it around everyone; again demonstrating that the power is within everyone. Witches have always had the power and used it. Most of them seem to have it naturally, but not all by any means. For that reason the Witches have their own ways of drawing it out; ways that are especially effective.

In the magazine Everyday Science and Mechanics, for September 1932, appeared the following report:

Human Tissues Produce Deadly Radiations

“Rays emitted from human blood, fingertips, noses and eyes, kill yeast and other micro-organisms, according to Professor Otto Rahn, working at Cornell University. Yeast, such as used in making bread, was killed in five minutes merely by the radiation from the fingertips of one person. When a quartz plate, Vz inch thick, was interposed it took fifteen minutes for the yeast to die. In tests of fingers it was found that the right hand was stronger than the left, even in left-handed persons.”

Professor Rahn continued his experiments and published results in Invisible Radiations Of Organisms (Berlin, 1936). Speaking at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he explained how the “rays” seemed to come out most strongly from the fingertips, the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, the armpits, the sex organs and—in women only—the breasts. Dr. Harold S. Burr, of Yale University, spoke of similar experiments and conclusions when addressing the Third International Cancer Congress.

Witches have always believed in this power coming from the body and have developed ways to increase it, collect it and use it to do what we term magick. Professors Rahn and Burr showed the destructive use of this power, but it can be used equally effectively constructively.

Here is a simple experiment you can try with a friend. Have the friend strip to the waist and sit with his back to you. Now, extend your hand, with the palm down and fingers together, straight out to point at his (or her) back. Keep the tips of the fingers an inch or so away from the surface of the skin. Now slowly move your hand up and down along the line of his spine. Try to keep your arm straight and concentrate your thoughts on sending all your energies out along your arm and into your hand and fingers. You will probably get quite a reaction from your friend as your power makes contact. He might feel a strong tingling sensation, heat, or even what seems like a cool breeze … but he will feel something.

Experiment. Try with the left hand; with the fingers together; at different distances from his back. See if he knows where your hand is. Does he feel it moving up when it is moving up; down when moving down? You will find that the intensity of the power varies dependant upon your physical health and also upon the time of the day and the day of the month. Keep records and note when it is the best time for you to “generate”.

Source:

Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft