Messages on this site begin March 23, 2014. You may read some of Suzy's previous messages at her Blog site.

Monday, April 12, 2021

Resurrection as a Concept in Religious Traditions - April 11, 2021

This is the outline for the meeting of Brigid in the Desert UAIC that took place on Sunday, April 11. Please note that:

I am not an expert in the doctrine of resurrection in belief systems.

The intent is to elicit conversation around the idea of resurrection; what do various people understand, believe, and know

Everything here is a simplification of the various actual beliefs, as it is impossible to go into great depth in the time we have together.

This covers just a very small bit of the variation of belief around the world and over time

CHRISTIANITY

·         Jesus died when crucified, was dead and in his tomb (or, sometimes, that he descended to hell and ‘saved’ the souls of those who died in the great flood), bodily rose again on the third day, walked among his followers and others, then visibly ascended to heaven. (Some Christians believe he spiritually rose again rather than bodily or physically).

·         Some believe that at the end of days after a great judgement by God, all who have been ‘saved’ will be bodily resurrected from the dead to live in eternity with God.

·         Some believe that there is a spiritual resurrection soon after death, immediately into a new life either in heaven or hell.

·         Some believe that there is a spiritual resurrection and all go to heaven.

·         Some believe that there is a spiritual resurrection and all become part of God.

·         Some believe in some form of reincarnation

JUDAISM

·         During the Messianic age the dead will be brought back to life in their bodies as the Temple is rebuilt in Israel.

·         This belief is related to but distinct from the belief in the immortality of the soul

·         Some teachings say that all the resurrected dead will be brought back to Israel

·         There is a teaching that all who are not in Israel will be rolled through underground tunnels, which is spiritually painful. This is apparently why some people want to be buried in Israel.

·         At least two sources say that the righteous will be resurrected wearing the clothing they died in

·         Jewish mysticism includes a belief in reincarnation if the soul has not completed their mission on earth and that at resurrection, pieces of the soul will inhabit the bodies of all the earthly lives. This further goes on to say that the part of the soul that completed the mission in life will inhabit that body

·         This is not to be on this earth, but on another plane of existence

·         For some the belief in the resurrection is metaphor, for some it is literal

ISLAM

·         When life on earth comes to an end, all people who ever lived will be raised from the dead and judged by God

·         All souls will be “paid in full” for their deeds

·         This is a quote from one of the sources I read, a website called Al-Islam: “When the deceased are buried their souls will accompany their physical body to the grave. The soul will then be questioned therein by two angels concerning their lifetime actions, deeds, and faith. The soul will then remain buried alongside the body. Although the body will perish, the soul will remain living until the time of one's resurrection on the Day of Judgment.”

HINDUISM

·         After death, souls are reincarnated into new bodies

·         Bodies are temporary, limiting, and a source of suffering, though they are believed to be aspects of God.

·         The soul, or self, is eternal. The goal of the soul is to be liberated from the cycle of rebirth by practicing spirituality, austerity, and righteousness.

·         When the soul has achieved liberation, they are no longer born into new bodies, but become part of Brahman, living in bliss.

·         God returns to earth many times, in a physical mortal form to either destroy evil or uphold dharma. When finished, God simply returns to the other realm.

·         There are some instances of bodily resurrection from the dead in Hindu scripture as well.

o   Lord Shiva resurrected Ganesha after beheading him, giving him the elephant head

o   Lord Shiva resurrected Daksha after killing him, giving him a goat’s head

o   Brahma resurrected himself, after sacrificing his own body in a ritual at the time of creation

o   Hindu scriptures suggest a lost science of reviving the dead with mystic healing practices

o   A quote from a site called hinduwebsite: “Lastly, we believe that gods have an inseparable connection with humans. Each time we wake up from deep sleep or we take rebirth in the mortal world, not only our souls but also the gods of heaven are resurrected in our microcosms or bodies.”

NATIVE AMERICAN TRADITIONS

·         There is no one traditional belief among Native Americans, because the each tribe has – or had – depending upon their circumstances, their own belief system

·         Today, many Native Americans are some variety of Christian and may or may not have beliefs that combine their handed down tradition with what they are taught in church, which may differ depending upon denomination

·         Some Native traditions believe the souls of the dead go to a spirit world, and can still sometimes communicate with the living through dreams or through medicine people

·         Other tribes believe in a land of the dead, sometimes ruled by a god of death or other supernatural being.

·         In some tribes dead people are believed to become stars or part of the earth unless they are disturbed and turned into ghosts by grave robbing or other unnatural acts

·         In other tribes, there is a belief in reincarnation

·         Among Native nations in Massachusetts there was a belief that after death, the soul would go on a journey to the southwest. Eventually, the soul would arrive at a village where it would be welcomed by the ancestors.

·         In Rhode Island, the Narragansett believed that at the time of death, the soul would leave the body and join the souls of relatives and friends in the world of the dead, somewhere to the southwest.

BUDDHISM

·         Each Buddhist sect has its own belief about death, though there are general overlapping concepts

·         When a person dies, they are reincarnated, with the goal of achieving enlightenment and ending the cycle of rebirth

·         Some Buddhists believe, as do Hindus, that you can be reincarnated into the body of an animal

·         What a person does in their lifetime determines what happens to them in their next life

·         In general, resurrection in the terms of a person rising from the dead into the same body or existence is not a concept in Buddhism, but I read about two instances when something similar was said to happen

o   It is said that one Bodhidarma was seen three years after he had died, walking on the road carrying one shoe. Bodhidarma told the person who saw him not to mention it, but when the man arrived at the monestary, he told those he saw that he had encountered Bodhidarma on the road. They told him this was impossible, because Bodhidarma was dead and buried. They went to the grave, dug up the coffin, and found it empty except for one shoe.

o   Another was Puhua (or, Fuke in Japanese), who predicted his death for three days until nobody believed him anymore. He then walked by himself to his coffin and got in, asking someone to nail the coffin shut. When the town folk heard about it, they opened the coffin, only to find it empty. At that point, they heard Puhua’s ritual bell ringing in the sky.

NEOPAGANISM

·         Neopaganism is influenced by Eastern traditions, 19th Century Occultism (which was highly influenced by Eastern traditions, contemporary ideas about what ancient tribal traditions might have been (i.e., Celtic, Norse, Hellenic, and other pre-Christian beliefs), and, in spite of the denial of many, Christianity and Judaism.

·         Look at old “mythologies” to find the stories that resonate with them

·         Some neopagans profess to believe in the actual existence of the gods/goddesses as polytheists

·         Wiccans in general have been dualists who believe in a god and goddess; some see this as two separate entities, others as two sides of one deity and all gods and goddesses as aspects of that duality

·         Some Wiccans and pagans see the deities as Jungian archetypes representing the subconscious of humanity

·         Stories of “dying and rising gods” that reflect a connection to nature and the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth throughout the “wheel of the year”

·         Some of the gods and goddesses who have either been said to have died and come back to life in some way or whose stories have them going to the underworld and returning to the land of the living, who are honored by various Wiccan/Pagan groups and solitary practitioners are:

o   Persephone

o   Dionysus

o   Osiris

o   Dumuzi/Tammuz

o   Innana/Ishtar

·         Christopagans practice and believe in a syncretized religion that takes into account both paganism and Christianity as legitimate perspectives; these practitioners are likely to see the resurrection of Jesus as metaphor for enlightenment, or finding new life in an awakened spirituality

ANCIENT GREEKS

·         There are many tales about how Dionysus (God of the vine) died and was resurrected into a new body, often by complicated means

·         Adonis spent time in the underworld and returned to the living

·         Asclepius, son of Apollo, was said to be a skilled physician. In one account, he raised some people from the dead. Because of this, Hades accused him of stealing his subjects and complained to Zeus, who then became afraid Asclepius would teach this ability to others, so he killed him. Later, Apollo got Zeus to bring his son back to life, and he was given a place on Mount Olympus.

·         Hercules, killed in a fire, was said to have been resurrected and ascended to heaven.

·         Persephone was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the underworld. Her mother Demeter grieved for her so much the world’s vegetation died. Zeus sent Hermes, his messenger, to the underworld to make Hades let Persephone return to the earth. However, since she had eaten one pomegranate seed in the underworld, she was bound to stay there. A bargain was struck, and Persephone was allowed to spend a third of the year in the underworld and the other two-thirds with her mother in the world. Whether or not this is an actual death is debated.

·         These are just a few examples, of course.

ANCIENT NORSE

·         Because the ancient Norse traditions were oral traditions, most of what we think we know was written by Christians. However, there is some knowledge beyond these writings due to archaeological finds with runic writings in burials, etc.

·          The best resurrection tale in Norse tradition is that of Odin. He is a good example of a death and resurrection. Following the direction of the three wise women known as the Norns, he plucked out an eye, allowed himself to be be pierced by a spear, and spent nine days hanging upside down on Yggdrasil, the World Tree. After nine days, he returned to life, bringing with him the gift of the runes and poetry.

·         There is evidence that the tribal Norse peoples may have believed in reincarnation

·         They believed that a person’s soul consisted of 4 parts, which created the whole person

o   Hamr – one's physical appearance which, however, would and could change. The hamr could be manipulated for shape-shifting, for example, or could change color after death.

o   Hugr – one's personality or character which continued on after death.

o   Fylgja – one's totem or familiar spirit which was unique to an individual and mirrored their hugr; a shy person might have a deer as their fylgja while a warrior would have a wolf.

o   Hamingja – one's inherent success in life, seen as a quality (or protective spirit) which was both caused by a person's hugr and formed it; one's hamingja would be passed down through a family, for good or ill.

·         All parts of the soul except the Fylgja were believed to continue in some way after death, including possibly haunting the living. The Hamingja stayed with the family.

·         There was no judgment involved in where a person’s soul would go after death; a soul just went wherever it went, which could be:

o   Valhalla (the only possible variant from the “judgment” idea, since this was the place where warriors and those who died a sacrificial death (including women))

o   Folkvangr

o   Hel

o   The Realm of Rán

o   The Burial Mound


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