|Prophecies|Legends|Mythology|Hidden Histories|Investigations|Sacred Places|Herbal Remedies|Earth Changes|  

Earth Mother Crying - Native Prophecy Netcenter - The Journal of Prophecies of Native Peoples Worldwide Click here for
EarthMotherCrying
Wallpaper

Afterlife Myths part two

Search this site or the web       
 


  Site search Web search

powered by FreeFind

|Home|Sitemap|
Home
WOVOCA!
SHOPPING?

400+ of the webs best stores!

Please Vote!

 Login to your free Wovoca! Mail Account here

Join our discussion email list! Enter your email address below, then click the 'Join List' button:
unsubscribe anytime
Powered by ListBot


Join our Discussion Forums and Chat!



Hundreds of Native American Indian Links in 98 categories!!



Viruses, Human Error, Disk Crashes! Protect your computer files before it's too late. Try @Backup FREE today. Click HereWeather Category - Buttons -

EAGLESPRING WATER FILTERS: More than anything, you will need water WHEN, not if, government infrastructures 
break down, so
click for cheap emergency water filtration as seen in
Popular Mechanics Magazine

Afterlife Myths part two

Hebrew

The soul may have difficulty separating from the physical body at death and may experience a loss of identity. To prevent this, Dumah (Silence), guardian angel of the dead, asks each soul for its Hebrew name. If the soul in life has learned a Torah verse that begins with its Hebrew name and ends with the last letter of its name, it will remember its name in death.

The newly dead soul may be unable to silence all the sensory images and noise that cling to if from this world. Two angels stand at each end of the world and toss the soul back and forth to get rid of this earthly static. Otherwise, the lost soul would wander in the world of Tohu (Confusion and Emptiness), perhaps for hundreds of years.

After death the impure soul goes to Gehenna (Gehinnom). It is located beneath the land and sea and has entrances at both places. It is immeasurably large and cold, but within it are rivers of fire. Here the soul is purged of all defilement that it has accumulated during its lifetime. Punishments may consist of being cast into fire and snow or being hanged from different limbs of the spirit body. The thoroughly wicked remain here in everlasting disgrace. The ordinary soul need stay no more than a year, during which time it can be helped by prayers and sacrifices made by the living. Gehenna is emptied on the Sabbath, and the souls are given a glimpse of the light of Paradise.

Now the soul is ready to enter Gan Eden, where it will be bathed in a River of Light to cleanse away all lingering earthly illusions. First it goes to the lower Gan Eden, the heaven of emotional fervor. It will revel in benign emotions extended toward God and other souls. Souls with common interests form heavenly societies at which they serve God according to their area of specialization.

Ascending to the higher Gan Eden, the soul will once again bathe in the River of Light, this time to forget the tumultuous emotions of the lower Eden. Here the goal is to gain understanding of the divine mind. Each midnight God Himself visits upper Gan Eden to share His wisdom with those who have attained it.

Once the soul has gained all the understanding of which it is capable in heaven, it will be permitted to strive for further perfection on earth through reincarnation, a process which is repeated until the soul has built a complete spiritual body through good deeds.

After the number of souls meant to be created has been achieved, God will bring about the reunion of souls and bodies. At this time, the Messiah, an ideal ruler of an earthly Kingdom of God, will summon all humankind to dwell in peace and righteousness under divine sovereignty. The resurrection of the dead will take place; the spiritual body will be reunited with the physical body it formerly inhabited. Or, alternatively, the resurrection will be a materialization of the level of spiritual body that the soul has attained through many incarnations. these materialized souls will then perform the remaining deeds required of them to complete their spiritual bodies in a world free of death and evil.

After a time the earthly rule of the Messiah will end and the Last Judgment will take place. God, garbed in white raiment with hair like pure wool, will site upon a throne of fiery flames to judge all people in one another’s presence. The wicked will be doomed and the righteous will be transported to a newly created heavenly or earthly paradise.

Hindu

The early Indians did not believe in reincarnation. Souls went to a world of bliss shared with the Gods if they were good, and to punishment in Hell if they were evil. This was a fusion of Aryan, non-Aryan and Sumerian influences.

The Aryans, a nomadic tribal group from Europe, invaded northern India between 1700 and 1200 BCE. Their religion was based on sky worship, which included Gods similar to Greek and Roman deities. Around 3500 BCE, the Sumerians settled in Babylonia and initiated a cultural revolution which formed the blueprint for social structure through to modern times. Each settlement had its own individual deity. In time, this created a large pantheon of Gods with complex interrelationships. Hinduism, which grew out of all this, introduced a hierarchy of Gods, who were in turn facets of a unitary principle, a force that is said to exist throughout nature and in all men. Here, God is believed to be in every living thing. The Indian religions are the only ones which postulate that after death the soul loses its individuality and merges with a greater being.

Hinduism has no founder, but it does have a body of texts known as the Veda (a word meaning "wisdom" or "knowledge"). The Veda set down the belief in rebirth and transmigration, the idea that souls may be reborn in the body of other animals. The reason for rebirth is one facet of the law of Karma -- that a soul must keep returning to mortal existence until it has learned all the lessons of spiritual evolution.

All space is located within the Cosmic Egg, which contains the seven heavens and the seven netherworlds. Between these two regions lies the earth. In addition, there are as many as 8,4000,000 hells, located in a lower realm.

The individual soul can never die but must constantly be reborn. A human soul evolves gradually from lower forms, starting with minerals and vegetables, then progressing upward through lower animals and then higher animals before attaining the human state. This state, highest of all, is the only one that allows escape from the everlasting round of births and deaths. When the soul can eliminate desire and become aware of the unity of the self with Brahman, rebirth will cease. This is not the end of being, but perfect bliss. All will attain it in time.

When a person dies, the soul goes to the land of the dead, ruled over by Yama, the first of mortals to die and enter that other world. Yama is green in color, wears red robes, and has a flower in his hair. He rides a buffalo and carries a lasso. Yama does not judge; he is merely an executor who assigns the region in the hells or heaves where the soul is to stay for varying lengths of time and where the fruits of its past actions (karma) will determine its state or situation. It is karma itself which constitutes an unceasing judgment within each person.

The soul assigned to a heaven may reap the rewards of its good actions, but many sages, given a choice, refuse to enter heavens because they are mere way stations on the path to the Infinite. Eventually the soul will return to the earthly plane to resume its spiritual labors.

If the soul needs to be punished for evil actions (such as neglect of family obligations, lack of respect for teachers, and incorrect bodily habits, as well as murder, theft, lying, etc.), it may be assigned to one of the various hells. Punishments may include being boiled in oil, pecked at by birds, encircled by snakes, and worse. After the required time in hell, the soul returns to earth in a lowlier status than before. If the crimes were serious, it is sent back to be reincarnated as a worm, insect, cockroach, rat, or bird. If it has committed a crime causing defilement, it returns as an untouchable. If it has been a criminal of the worst sort, it must return as a plant.

Islamic

Allah, a supreme, personal, and inscrutable God, will punish those who turn to other Gods and fail to recognize his chosen messenger, Mohammed. A drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a night spent in his defense, is of more avail than praying and fasting. Whoever falls in battle will be forgiven for his sins.

At death, the soul in the tomb is visited by the Examiners, Munkar and Nakir, two black angels with breath like violent storms and eyes like lightning flashes. They question the terrified soul concerning its faith. If its answers are satisfactory, sweet breezes from paradise will blow upon the soul and its tomb will be filled with light until the Final Judgment. (Souls of prophets and martyrs are admitted to Paradise directly.) But it its answers are unsatisfactory, the walls of the tomb will close in to crush the soul; it shall await the Final Judgment while being stung by scorpions and beaten with an iron mace.

On the day of the Final Judgment, the angel Israfil will blow a warning blast upon his trumpet. At a second blast all creatures will die, and the material world will melt. At a third blast the souls of all humankind will issue from his trumpet like a swarm of bees to be reunited with their bodies made new. They will stand before the divine tribunal, waiting in silence before Allah as He sits in judgment, for no one may speak without Allah’s permission. Mohammed, advancing immediately to the front of the assemblage, will be permitted to speak for those who profess Islam.

The angel Gabriel will hold up an enormous scale, half of it covering Paradise, the other half covering Hell. Every person’s deeds will be weighed, and exact justice will be done. To each person will be given a book, the record of her or his life. Those whose books are placed in their right hands are blessed, while those whose books are placed in their left hands are damned. They await sentencing in shoes of fire, their skulls boiling like pots. At last, Allah passes sentence upon the righteous and the wicked.

Now all the souls must cross the Bridge of Sirat, which spans the distance from Earth to Paradise, passing directly over Hell. Although this bridge is hair-thin and razor-sharp, it will broaden out beneath the steps of the faithful. Infidels will lose their balance and topple into the abyss.

Hell has seven levels. The first and mildest is for sinners among the true believers, who will enter Paradise after purification. The second is for Jews, the third for Christians, the fourth for Sabians, the fifth for Magians, the sixth for abandoned idolators, and the seventh and worst for hypocrites of all religions. In Hell the damned will suffer various tortures. True believers, lying on couches in Paradise, will see the damned suffer and laugh at them scornfully.

Dividing Hell and Heaven is an impassable wall, al Araf, covered with contemptible beings whose good works exactly cancel out their evil ones, thus fitting them for neither place.

In Paradise every desire of soul and body shall be satisfied.

Roman

(From: On the Republic by Cicero)

The Dream of Scipio is the conclusion of Cicero's treatise On the Republic, probably written in 54 BCE The dialogue is assumed to have taken place during the Latin holidays in 129 BCE, in the garden of Scipio Africanus the Younger. Scipio relates a dream in which he saw his grandfather, Scipio Africanus the Elder. "When I recognized him, I trembled with terror, but he said, 'Courage, Scipio, do not be afraid, but remember carefully what I am to tell you.'"

"By this time I was thoroughly terrified, not so much fearing death as the treachery of my own kind. Nevertheless, I inquired of Africanus whether he himself was still alive, and also whether my father Paulus was, and also the others whom we think of as having ceased to be.

"'Of course they are alive,' he replied. 'They have taken their flight from the bonds of the body as from a prison. Your so-called life [on earth] is really. death. Do you not see your father Paulus coming to meet you?' At the sight of my father I broke down and cried. But he embraced me and kissed me and told me not to weep.

As soon as I had controlled my grief and could speak, I began, 'Why, O best and saintliest of fathers, since here [only] is life worthy of the name, as I have just heard from Africanus, why must I live a dying life on earth? Why may I not hasten to join you here?'

"'No indeed,' he replied. 'Unless that God whose temple is the whole visible universe releases you from the prison of the body, you cannot gain entrance here. For men were given life for the purpose of cultivating that globe, called Earth, which you see at the center of this temple. Each has been given a soul, [a spark] from these eternal fires which you call stars and planets, which are globular and rotund and are animated by divine intelligence, and which with marvelous Velocity revolve in their established orbits. Like all god-fearing men, therefore, Publius, you must leave the soul in the custody of the body, and must not quit the life on Earth unless you are summoned by the one Who gave it to you; otherwise, you will be seen to shirk the duty assigned by God to man.

"'But Scipio, like your grandfather here, like myself, who was your father, cultivate justice and the sense of duty [pietas], which are of great importance in relation to parents and kindred but even more in relation to one's country. Such a life [spent in the service of one's country] is a highway to the skies, to the fellowship of those who have completed their earthly lives and have been released from the body and now dwell in that place which you see yonder (it was the circle of dazzling brilliance which blazed among the stars), which you, using a term borrowed from the Greeks, call the Milky Way. Looking about from this high vantage point, everything appeared to me to be marvelous and beautiful. There were stars which we never see from the Earth, and the dimensions of all of them were greater than we have ever suspected. The smallest among them was the one which, being farthest from Heaven and nearest the Earth, shone with a borrowed light [the Moon]. The size of the stars, however, far exceeded that of the Earth. Indeed, the later seemed so small that I was humiliated with our empire, which is only a point where we touch the surface of the globe...

"'You must use you best efforts,' he replied, 'and be sure that it is not you who are mortal, but only your body, nor is it you whom your outward form represents. Your spirit is your true self, not that bodily form that can be pointed out with the finger. Know yourself, therefore, to be a God -- if indeed a God is a being that lives, feels, remembers, and foresees, that rules, governs, and moves the body over which it is set, just as the supreme God above us rules this world. And just as that eternal God moves the universe, which is partly mortal, so an eternal spirit moves the fragile body.'"

Shinto

Shinto, the native Japanese religion, is concerned with the veneration of nature and with ancestor worship; it does not have saints according to the standards of ethical perfection or of exceptionally meritorious performance. According to Shinto belief, every person after death becomes a kami, a supernatural being who continues to have a part in the life of the community, nation, and family. Good individuals become good and beneficial kamis; the bad become pernicious ones. Being elevated to the status of a divine being is not a privilege peculiar to those with saintly qualities, for evil men also become kamis. There are in Shinto, however, venerated mythical saints -- such as Okuni-nushi (Master of the Great Land) and Sukuma-Bikona (a dwarf deity) -- who are considered to be the discoverers and patrons of medicine, magic, and the art of brewing rice.

Vodun

[The above link will take you to another web site. Bookmark before continuing. There is much information at the Vodun site, and you might become absorbed in reading and thus find it hard to retrace your steps back to this site.]

Zoroastrian

A major personality in the history of the religions of the world, Zoroaster has been the object of much attention for two reasons. On the one hand, he became a legendary figure believed to be connected with occult knowledge and magical practices in the Near Eastern and Mediterranean world in the Hellenistic Age (c. 300 BCE -- c. CE 300). On the other hand, his monotheistic concept of God has attracted the attention of modern historians of religion, who have speculated on the connections between his teaching and Judaism and Christianity.

Almost every passage contains some reference to the fate awaiting men in the afterlife. Each act, speech, and thought is viewed as being related to an existence after death. The earthly state is connected with a state beyond, in which the Wise Lord will reward the good act, speech, and thought and punish the bad. This motive for doing good seems to be the strongest available to Zoroaster in his message. After death, the soul of man must pass over the Bridge of the Requiter (Cinvat), which everyone looks upon with fear and anxiety. After judgment is passed by Ahura Mazda, the good enter the kingdom of everlasting joy and light, and the bad are consigned to the regions of horror and darkness. Zoroaster, however, goes beyond this, announcing an end phase for the visible world, "the last turn of creation." In this last phase, Ahriman will be destroyed, and the world will be wonderfully renewed and be inhabited by the good, who will live in joy. Later forms of Zoroastrianism teach a resurrection of the dead, a teaching for which some basis may be found in the Gathas. Through the resurrection of the dead, the renewal of the world bestows a last fulfillment on the followers of the Wise Lord.


Back To Afterlife Myths of the Lands of the Eastern Sea or to more Afterlife Myths of Turtle Island.

Or to more Worldwide Myths.


Click on the graphic to vote for this
page as a Starting Point Hot Site
 Please? Only takes 10 seconds! Wado!

400 of the worlds best stores....

[Image] [Image]

[Image] 


Journey to WOVOCA!© to view the site's main page for
a complete index of this Native American Links Encyclopaedia [tm].

©1996-2000 William Scott Anderson, BlueOtter All rights reserved.