Other Times, Other Lives
My belief in prior lives is a source of entertainment for some of my friends, and a source of chills-up-the-spine for others. My strong sense is that I have lived at least two other times:
A life in a medieval court, probably as a low-level noblewoman.
And I know I lived during World War II, a Jew rounded up for transport, and that I died suffocated in a boxcar, en route to a camp.
[I've also been told I was once a queen in Egypt. That one I have a hard time swallowing. (Stop grinning. It's not polite.) I had been told about that one when I consulted a channeler. I do believe she found her way to some other plane -- I felt the entities she was channeling -- I just couldn't believe what they were telling me.]
And what's the point? Validation of a sort, I suppose. Within an absolute faith that I have no real concept of what God is doing, and why, I believe life cycles upward.
We choose each of our lives before we enter them, for the lessons we're hopeful of learning. Evolutionary lessons ... and, ideally, we operate on sequentially higher levels as we advance through each of our lives.
Here you have the reason for straightening up and flying right: you can pay now or you can pay later, but you do pay. Not through consignment to hell, but by being held at a particular level of mortality until you get it.
Either learn the lessons you were intended to learn in this life, or look forward to repeating your mistakes and learning from them in the next. Your choice.
Not to say I haven't made mistakes, of free volition, because I wanted to, or couldn't resist, or rationalized it well, or was too weak or tired or angry.
But I do know what the results will be. I fail to learn the lesson, the soul suffers ...
and the lesson will be waiting for me next time.**
Today's Fragrance: L'Artisan's Voleur de Roses "Rose Thief." A sharp rose, nearly astringent. Notes of plum, patchouli and rose energize rather than comfort. I love it for its invigorating strangeness.
*the photo caption is absolutely tongue in cheek.
**Yes, Shirley McLaine has a much-guffawed-about philosophy involving reincarnation. Hey, all roads to eternity must cross at some point.
posted by mireille at 10:52 AM
9 Comments:
Well, hell. I'm just trying to take each day as it comes and not look to any of my many pasts for causes. Sufficient unto the day and all that.
xoxo,
L
1:43 PM
I take that photo of Sophie Marceau (slap slap!) as a personal insult. LOL!
I'm with Berkeley: the world only exists through my perception of it. At the moment of my death it'll vanish. I'm told that I can't possibly believe that because I've made a will, but I truly do. So no lessons, no other lives, nothing. But your vision is interesting, M. xxx
4:44 PM
You're channeling Shirley Mclane there but whatever gets you through the night. I think we make our own reality and if you believe in heaven and hell then they exist, believe in ghosts then there are ghosts. I try to live life as if Karma really did exist - good thoughts, good actions have good effect. Doesn't always work but makes me feel good. Oh and Stella Intense is about to be posted. And the Rose Thief is definitely next.
5:54 PM
This is giving me the willies, M!
My mother, who is here with me know until after the funeral, and wearing out her welcome, believes in prior lives. She has been talking about them to me. At this moment, I am having difficulty dealing with this life, at least for today.
8:34 PM
I'm not sure about past lives either, but I have a friend who does and she swears that we were married slaves who were freed after the Civil War and lived in poverty with 3 children during the reconstruction.
She has all kinds of details about it but I have no memory of it at all, much to her dissapointment.
It is interesting though.
If I were to believe in it, I would say that maybe I was a herbalist type old woman who lived alone by a seacoast in one of my lives.
One thing I think is interesting is how you can feel such a total connection with some people as soon as you meet them. It does seem as though they are "old freinds" right from the start...
Who knows? :-)
2:28 AM
Another piece of writing by you that simply enchants me! I have some vestiges of beliefs in reincarnation. In fact, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became fashionable to attend all sorts of lectures on past lives, life after death, etc. I remember having some sort of star reading done and discovering that in my past life I were a man living in India. I was an engineer building bridges. I take with a grain of salt, but my mom recalls that, for some reason, when I was 5, I kept saying that my father is Indian!
My mom herself believes that she was an Italian princess, which is why I want her to meet N. :)
4:15 AM
I love Voleur de Roses; I wish it was more talked about these days. I am afraid to wear it right now because sadly patchouli has become irritating to me in a major way---sharp headaches etc. It is a fantastic scent!
thalia
6:02 AM
I believe in prior lives too, and I got goosebumps when you mentioned the boxcar...wonder if we knew each other then. I had a dream once, all in black and white, about that time period and a strange "flashback" another time, sitting waiting for a train to pass. Terrifyingly real and vividly remembered still.
I was told that I was a madam in a past life, running my very own whorehouse. And an architect working on the palace of Versailles; a pirate or sailor who died at sea; some other stuff. Had a couple of weird experiences in Europe - similar "flashbacks" to another time. But I grew up believing in this stuff, as the house I grew up in was (still is) haunted by a benevolent pair of ghosts and my dad can tell some rather convincing stories about connections to his past lives.
ITA on the evolutionary lessons, and I also believe important relationships in our lives - both good and not so good - continue into other lives as well. It definitely explains why we can feel so connected to somebody we've recently met.
Love to sit down and talk to you about this M. Thanks for a thought-provoking post!
6:29 AM
I, too, believe in reincarnation/past lives. Of course, I have no empiracle evidence, simply an intuition. It is often difficult for me to reconcile my rational side with my intuitive, spiritual side. But I take some comfort in knowing that this philosophical conversation between the materialists and metaphysicians has gone on for centuries and will likely go on for centuries more.
I am facinated about your Holocaust comment. I have a strong sense, no call it a belief, that in a past life I was a child who died during the Holocaust. Does my being Jewish have anything to do with this? Who knows?
That's the essential question of all philosophical inquiry: Who knows?
8:44 AM
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