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Furthermore...
Animal Worship & Reincarnation:
Some of the foregoing discussion prompted me to do a bit more research into the idea of souls reincarnating and into human vs. animal souls. Here are the results from a variety of cross references:
1. The term “animism” comes from the Lat. “anima” (breath or soul)and it signifies the belief in spiritual beings. This term was coined by the German physician Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1634) to describe his theory that the soul is the VITAL PRINCIPAL responsible for ORGANIC development. This term later became associated with anthropology and a primitive form of religion. According to Sir Edward B. Tylor in his book “Primitive Culture”, primitive peoples (defined as those without written traditions) believed that spirits or souls are the cause of life in human beings; “they picture souls as phantoms, resembling vapors or shadows, which can transmigrate from person to person, from the dead to the living, and from PLANTS, ANIMALS, AND LIFELESS OBJECTS.” Tylor’s chief opponent was anthropologist Robert R. Marett who claimed preimitive peoples who were not INTELLECTUAL enough to have these ideas – Marett rejected the idea that primitive peoples regarded ALL objects as animate. Primitive man, according Marett, “treated” the objects they considered animate as if they had life, feeling, and a will of their own, but did not make a distinction between the body of an object and a soul that could enter or leave it.
2. Animal Worship is a belief in the superhuman qualities of animals. Primitive beings attributed to the animal power of courage beyond his own, as well as a SOUL like his own. The animal’s soul was believed to exist after death, and could distinguich good from evil. Homage to animals was a common practice in ancient Egypt. Every common animal was scared in some part of the country – the falcon and ibis were most venerated, and the bull Apis at Memphis was worshipped as the actual INCARNATION of the god.
3. Funk & Wagnals defines soul in much the same way as Webster, maintaining that it is the cause, principle, or immaterial substance conceived as or credited with actuating, animating, or forming the essence of life, both individually and in GENERAL. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks and more primitive people, soul has been conceived as anagolous to some especially refined of ethereal substance such as breath, or a species of fire, or ether. Later RELIIOUS conceptions such as found in Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, caused the soul to be regarded as “partaking of a divine nature and to ascribed to the gods or to God as a divine gift. Once the body is deceased this “gift” of God (soul) separates from the body and continues a separate existence. Among the ancient Hebrews, however, soul was equivelant to the VITAL LIFE PRINCIPLE, as embodied in ALL LIVING CREATURES, and this meaning is continued throughout the Old Testament. In more recent Biblical writings, spirit and soul are differentiated.
4. Transmigration is a term that defines the passing of the soul at death into a NEW BODY or NEW FORM OF BEING. Transmigration and Reincarnation of the rebirth of a soul in a body are roughly synonymous. Metamorhosis and Resurrection however are not synonymous with transmigration. Metamorphosis is transformation of a living being into another form or substance of life – suggested as “a man into a tree”. Resurrection is the rising again to life of the same body after death. The transmigration of soul was a common belief of the ancient Egyptians -- hence the practice of embalmment, so that the body might accompany the “Ka” (soul or animating force)into the next world. The teachings of the Greek philosopher, Pythagoras (c. 600 BCE)helped to promote the idea of soul transmigration and gave us the notion of Karma or a series of rebirths (after a purification period in the Underworld). Plato believed this as well, but differed somewhat by stating the soul becomes impure through associations with bodily passions! “If the soul has a good character it is allowed to return to the state of pure being… If its character has continually deteriorated in its transmigrations,it ends in Tartarus (place of eternal damnation).” The idea of transmigration of soul was never adopted into ortodox Christianiy or Judaism, but among the earlu Christian GNOSTICS and Jewish Cabalists the notion of transmigration was upheld until they were declared heretics. Many of the ideas of the Gnostics were imported into the modern beliefs of the Theosophists of which Steinerism is an offshoot.
5. In the Eastern religions belief in transmigration of soul did not begin until a later date – after the Aryan invasions of India. It then appears in the Upandishads under the Sanskrit name of “samsara”. Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism also follow this belief system. According to modern popular Hinduism, the state in which the soul is reborn is predetermined by the good or bad deeds (karma) one perfoms in former lives – the souls of the evil-doers (to use a Bushism) are believed to be reborn in lower states such as animals, and insects. The release from transmigration and Karma is attained when atonement for the bad deeds is made and regcognition that the INDIVIDUAL SOUL (Atman) and the UNIVERSAL SOUL (Brahman) are one and the same.
Hopefully this information will enlighten us a bit and make discussion on this topic a little easier.
In peace, Roy
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