Living In The Cosmos: Vignette (5): Soul Concepts-B

-THE SOUL AND THE ANCIENT CELTS-

"The Druids, Caesar says, taught that 'souls do not disappear but wander from one body to the other.'" [Gerhard Herm, THE CELTS, St. Martin's Press, 1976, p. 152.]

For the ancient Celt life was "something that could never be forfeited, for it would go on beyond the grave...[Indeed there were reports] that Celtic men would have their throats cut so that they could follow their prince into death, and of course into a new life..." [Ibid, p. 152.]

Another interesting item I found in regard to the Celts related to their fixation upon spiral loops. A prevalent Celtic symbol, found not only in their art, but in their burial chambers, the "curving loops of the great spiral show the journey of the soul moving through death to find rest and rebirth in the central chamber." [John Sharkey, CELTIC MYSTERIES: THE ANCIENT RELIGION, Crossroad, 1981, p. 78.]

Ancient Roman scholars naturally believed that the early Celts must have had access to Pythagoras' ideas of transmigration and simply based their concepts on his doctrine. But modern scholars do *not* believe this to be the case. As one such expert has "pointed out...the Celtic doctrine of immortality...is not in fact Pythagorean in content at all, in that it does not imply a belief in the transmigration of souls through all living things..." [Stuart Piggott, THE DRUIDS, Thames and Hudson, 1975, p. 114.]

Stuart Piggot sums up nicely the Celtic perception of the soul's rebirth in a few poetic lines by Alexander Pope:

"Go, like the Indian, in another life,

Expect thy dog, thy bottle and thy wife."

So it would seem the ancient Celts believed in a form of reincarnation, but what might the "soul" itself have meant to these early people?

Having conversed with a practicing modern Druid, I can only convey his idea that the soul is the individual consciousness of a person. It is apart from the idea of "spirit," which can be likened to the vital force that energizes all of Life.

This modern Druid believes that when the body dies, the soul lives on--and will continue through rebirth until the goal of the soul has been reached. This seems to be an idea not at all far afield from what little we know about the ancient Celts and their consideration of soul.

-THE SOUL FROM A NATIVE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE-

A number of years ago I had occasion to attend a lecture presented by Ed McGaa, Eagle Man--an Oglala Sioux who had recently published a book about the many ceremonies, about the spirituality of his particular tradition. I cannot count the times I have drawn good, straight wisdom from this book. And it will be Eagle Man's work upon which I will draw for at least a sliver of the many and surely deep concepts of "soul" on the part of the Native Americans.

Eagle Man mentions that there is a "Keeping of the Soul Ceremony" amongst his people. "It's a ceremony to release the soul for its journey to the Great Spirit, which may take place a year after death." During this year's duration, time is allowed for giving away the deceased's possessions-- passing them on to family and friends. Not only does this practice promote the memory of the departed soul, but as Eagle Man puts it: it "teaches nonmaterialism." [Ed McGaa, Eagle Man, MOTHER EARTH SPIRITUALITY: NATIVE AMERICAN PATHS TO HEALING OURSELVES AND OUR WORLD, Harper, 1990, p. 7.]

In the Pipe Ceremony Eagle Man notes what the "pipe holder" might say. When the pipe holder faces the west, he addresses the spirit world. To quote:

"Black stands for the spirit world

Which we shall all enter someday.

What we do or do not do upon this earth,

We shall carry with us over into that spirit world.

We shall all join together and either be

Ashamed or proud of how we treated one another,

How we respected or disrespected our Mother Earth,

How we respected or disrespected all living things

That are made by the Great Creator,

Wakan Tanka.

"We will see each other

and yet know each other in the spirit world.

Those we have harmed,

They will remind us for eternity.

Those we have helped,

They will be thankful for eternity.

Therefore, we must walk the path of truth

With one another."

[Ibid, p. 54.]

The Sioux believe that people still living can somehow communicate with the spirit world. There is a special ceremony, the Yuwipi Ceremony, which calls for trained and devout "holy persons" to engage in this communication. Eagle Man asks: "What are the spirits that are called in the yuwipi? Who are they?"

Based on his own experience of the Yuwipi Ceremony, Eagle Man believes that "yuwipi entering spirits are Native American two-leggeds that have gone on into the spirit world. In the Sioux ceremonies, they appear to be Sioux spirits who were once familiar with the ceremonies when they were on their earth journey." [Ibid, p. 102.]

Eagle Man elaborates further: "Spirit people from the spirit world are called on in the Yuwipi. They have a higher realm much freer from the constraints of time and space than that in which we dwell." [Ibid, p. 105.]

In conclusion Ed McGaa, Eagle Man, notes that "Indian people do not like to say that the Great Mystery is exactly this or exactly that, but we do know there is a spirit world that lies beyond. We are allowed to know that through our ceremonies. We know that we will go into a much higher plane beyond." [Ibid, p. 207.]

-THE SOUL IN JUDAISM-

The idea of soul in Judaism takes a very complex path, and it's a path that is far from clear.

To begin, the main Hebrew word for soul is *nephesh.* And this word has a lot of characteristics! To begin, as John Sanford puts it, at first "the *nephesh was so connected to the body and the idea of spirit [being] so lacking in Hebrew thought, that it was not conceivable that the *nephesh* ( could in any way survive death...[indeed] those who have died and gone to Sheol (the place of the departed)...are no longer said to have a *nephesh* but are mere 'shades' of their former selves." [John A. Sanford, SOUL JOURNEY, Crossroad, 1991, p. 78.]

But this is not the end of the story. One has to come to a better grip on the idea of the *nephesh.* Yes, it's considered as a kind of life-force. It's the vitality that powers the body. But the *nephesh* is also considered the seat of the emotions, the passions. Sanford brings forth how, in ancient Judaism, the *nephesh* is also connected very much with love.

This idea of love intimately connected with the *nephesh* involves not only morality but virtually a literal connection. As Sanford noted: "The love that can be extended to God through the soul can also be extended to another human being. To love someone is nothing than to have that person as one's own soul." [Ibid, p. 83.]

It is this particular idea of the *nephesh* that leads to the soul's connection with God. There is a longing, perhaps an intuited understanding, that somehow the *nephesh* is intimately linked with God.

But! As Sanford states, "all of this intimate relationship seems to end at death. The destiny of this *nephesh* that was so important to the ancient Hebrews is not a happy one, for when the *nephesh* left the body at the time of death, it apparently did not survive in Sheol." And what is "worse, it is cut off from Yahweh, for God is the God only of the living." [Ibid, p. 85.]

Yet there were other "strains of thought," as Sanford stresses. "So strong was faith in Yahweh among some of the Hebrews that there was passionate feeling that not even Sheol could separate one from God." [Ibid, p. 88.]

As put in Psalm 49: 15, "But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me."

One modern Jewish writer, the late Abraham Heschel--one of Judaism's great religious scholars and mystics--talks most profoundly of this connection of the soul with God.

"The stirring in man to turn to God is actually a 'reminder by God to man.' It is a call that man's physical sense does not capture, yet the 'spiritual soul' in him perceives the call." [Abraham J. Heschel, BETWEEN GOD AND MAN: AN INTERPRETATION OF JUDAISM, the Free Press, 1959, p. 71.]

Heschel beautifully puts it: "The souls of men are the candles of the Lord, lit on the cosmic way, rather than fireworks produced by the combustion of nature's explosive compositions, and every soul is indispensable to Him. Man is needed, he is *a need of God.*" [Ibid, p. 236.]