It was a warm, summer day and I was mowing my parents' lawn, the roar of the mower and the rhythmic passes back and forth across the grassy expanse defining my afternoon. As I stopped to empty a fresh load of clippings into a waiting wheelbarrow, a Vietnam-era "Huey" helicopter used by the local National Guard unit flew overhead on maneuvers. I stopped, watching as it approached our home at the edge of the suburbs before it slowly banked, turning out into the countryside.
But I wasn't the only person who watched its flight path.
A young boy, no older than three years old, stood transfixed, watching the helicopter as it drew nearer. Suddenly he raised his hands in the air, crossing and uncrossing his arms above his head in the classic "x" pattern that those on the ground use to signal on-coming aircraft. As the helicopter slowly banked in the air, flying away from our neighborhood, the young boy, still in diapers, ran after it.
He began to frantically scream, "Come back! Come back! Don't leave me behind! I'm still alive! Don't leave me here! Come back! I'm still alive! I'm still alive!"
And as the helicopter flew out of sight, the boy crumpled to his lawn, sobbing hysterically.
Most pagans believe in reincarnation, the concept that we live more than one lifetime. Major studies have been undertaken by researchers such as the late Dr. Ian Stevenson who published the book, "Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation," that support the validity of past lives and the continuation of the soul into a new lifetime. The vast majority of spiritual paths that I've studied, from Buddhism to Judaism to indigenous beliefs found around the world, also embrace this concept in one form or another. I was born remembering significant portions of several past lives with enough clarity that I've begun finding the dates and locations associated with those memories. My children, Bear and Sparrow, speak openly of how this is their first lifetime and the process involved in choosing our family and the order of their birth.
Even among those of us who embrace the concept of reincarnation, we often draw a clearly defined line between one lifetime and the next. There's our current incarnation and then there’s our past lives. We approach them as if the connection between them is tenuous, as if we were speaking of movies we had watched over the years rather than a process of spiritual growth.
The concept of looking at the entire expanse of our lifetimes as a process of spiritual growth is key when approaching the concept of reincarnation. Rabbi Yaakov Feldman of Project Genesis sums it up, writing, "The implications of living several lives are astounding. Among other things, it indicates that our ultimate spiritual station will be a product of what we were and what we did in the course of a full range of lives. Not just this one."
The implication there is clear. With each lifetime, we're given the opportunity to approach lessons that will allow us to spiritually grow and evolve. To put that in simple terms, it's the "Earth School" concept. Experiencing life from the perspective of a physical being allows us to embrace lessons that are difficult to fully embrace on other levels of existence. Think about that for a moment. If you were to look only at the physical challenges we face and the emotional and psychological processes behind them, we have astounding opportunities for personal growth on this level of existence. Eating disorders. Fear of physical harm. Poverty. The loss of someone close to us that we love. The list is as endless as our personal experiences and perspectives. While it may seem cruel from a broader perspective to have anyone endure that sort of journey, anyone who has gone through those types of experiences and truly embraced the lessons that are presented there, will openly speak of them as a transformative process. They will tell you how they grew and changed for the better. How, even though those experiences were unbelievably challenging, even though they would never wish them upon someone else, they are thankful for them because they wouldn't be the person they are today had they not lived through those experiences.
How do I know? I'm one of those people. As I've eluded to here before, my own path has been extraordinarily difficult. My childhood was dark and tragic. I've been lied to, abused, violated, and betrayed by everyone in my world who found themselves in a position of power in my life. However, if I had not experienced those things, had I not lived through them, I would not be the kind of father I am today. I wouldn't have the capacity for love that I possess. And I wouldn't be able to teach and freely give of myself to the pagan community.
The concept is simple. Think of yourself as an athlete. You head for the gym and are capable of lifting twenty pounds, ten times. This is your workout and it allows you to compete at a comfortable level in your chosen sport. One day, when you go to the gym, there's a personal trainer waiting for you. They think you're capable of more and have you lift thirty pounds. It's tough, but you're able to lift it, gritting your teeth and pushing out the last repetition. Instead of congratulating you, they add another ten pounds and you lift to the point of failure, that moment where your muscles are shaking and you simply can't lift any more.
When you arrive at the gym the next day, the trainer is still there, making you push yourself more. You're sore and tired and the last thing you want to do is work as hard as you did the day before. But you're an athlete. You understand the importance of pushing your limits, so you dig a little deeper. You push a little harder. And you make it through another day.
After a week, you realize that you're no longer lifting twenty pounds. You're lifting twice that amount. Not only are the workouts coming easier, but your performance in your sport is improving by leaps and bounds. You're stronger and faster. You have more endurance. And under the guidance of your trainer, who continues to push you, you not only continue to excel, but you continue to push your limits, redefining yourself as an athlete.
Spiritual growth works exactly the same way. We're presented with challenges, lessons that stand in the face of our weaknesses, that give us the opportunity to grow stronger, to grow more adept at our own processes, to spiritually evolve. The lessons aren't always easy, but they'd have no value if they were simple for us to embrace. To truly grow, we need to have our boundaries pushed. We need to move beyond our comfort level. We need to be pushed to the point when we have to dig deep to find the things that we need to keep moving forward on our path.
What we need to remember is that this process extends beyond the boundaries of a single lifetime. To use the American public school system as an example, our goal isn’t to become the best third grade student that has ever walked this mortal coil. Our scholastic career is the sum of our years in school, not a single class or a single grade. The process that we go through in our spiritual growth and evolution is similar. While it’s completely appropriate for us to focus on the lessons that are presented to us in this moment, in this lifetime, it’s also useful for us to remember that this life is a single incarnation in the journey of our soul.
Just as most of us have lived before, most of us will live again. That doesn’t take any of the magic and wonder away from a single lifetime. Those of us who have slowed down the pace of our lives, who welcome the dawn and the coming night each day with each rotation of our planet, also know the beauty of a single sunrise, of a single sunset. They are beautiful because Nature will never be expressed in exactly the same way again. Our lifetimes are the same way. There is a wonder to who you are in this incarnation that is totally appropriate to embrace and honor. But if we lose sight of the larger process, if we forget that this lifetime is only a single step in our journey, then we run the risk of allowing our lessons to grow bigger than they are and completely erase the beauty of who we are, not only in an eternal sense, but even from the perspective of this single lifetime.
A student once asked me, "If reincarnation is all about spiritual growth, why don't we have large numbers of ascended masters wandering around, teaching us? After all, given enough lifetimes, you'd think that a lot of people would have achieved that status."
From what I've seen doing shamanic work coupled with what I remember of the place we exist between lifetimes, there's one small problem with that theory. Once again, let's think of this as Earth School. If you use your own experiences in primary school as an example, you were presented with daily lessons to help you grow and reach the next grade. Your teacher was present in the class. Perhaps there was also a teacher's aide to answer questions or a student from a higher grade level to assist with learning how to read. You didn't, however, have a teacher at your side, answering all of your questions, guiding you daily through the process. As much as we often long for such a presence in our world, having someone in that role would have stunted our education, not enhanced it.
It's also important to remember that those who have achieved the level of an ascended master have potentially come close enough to realizing the limit of the lessons that they can embrace in a physical that there is no reason for them to return and experience life from a physical perspective. They have their own lessons to embrace and their own role to play, even at the level they've achieved. Physical incarnation is only part of the process. Growth continues, as does the journey of our soul, even when we’re not a part of this life.
Guiding others through their growth on the physical plane is left to spiritual teachers and, trust me, we're a significant distance away from achieving any sort of mastery. Teaching, just like every other path, has its lessons to teach. We’re students too, just like you are.
Every now and then, someone who has achieved a certain degree of growth will come back for a single lifetime in order to add a significant amount of energy to the flow of reality. Sometimes it's a spiritual teacher that presents lessons that echo long beyond their lifetime. Siddhartha Gautama, who became Buddha, would be an example of this. Sometimes, they take on a less spiritual path. For instance, one of the great American generals of World War II, George S. Patton, not only believed in reincarnation, but remembered fighting the Romans as a Carthaginian. There are others who agree to come back to help someone with a single, difficult lesson. What we need to remember is as soon as we’ve defined what a process is, we’ve also limited what it can be. And spirituality, even the process of incarnation, tends to defy limitations.
It may seem as if we're being abandoned to this lifetime, but we can draw a very simple parallel and remember that our children also attend classes at their school on their own. Physical incarnation is a similar process. What we lose sight of is that this lifetime is not the sum of our existence. From the perspective of a spiritual existence, it's nothing greater than a year in a boarding school. At the end of the school year, we'll return home, we'll see our family and friends, and we'll live a little before returning for another year of school. Eventually, we'll graduate and it won't be necessary for us to go to Earth School any more. The cycle of reincarnation draws to a close and we embrace our lessons on other levels of existence.