From: SL500000@brownvm.brown.edu (Robert Mathiesen)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Only Witches Reincarnated?
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 13:27:27 EDT
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Last week Bill asked for the references from Charles G. Leland on the sub-
ject of limited reincarnation (for witches and wizards only).  The material
is on pp. 198-202 of his _Etruscan Roman Remains_ (reprinted as _Etruscan
Occult Remedies_), first published in 1892.  It's too long to transcribe
here, but I'll summarize with an occasional brief quote:

Leland begins by remarking that witchcraft, as his Italian witch sources
view it, is "like an endowment," which one may acquire, but is not for
everyone.  Once you have it, you cannot die until you pass it on to some-
one else, however much you may long for death.  "But what is most remark-
able of all is the belief that very great witches and wizards when they die
become great spirits, who sweep over the country in clouds or vapors or
storms, or wander on earth disguised as mortals."  ...  "Those who are
specially of the strega [witch] faith die, but reappear again in human
forms.  This is a rather obscure esoteric doctrine, known in witch
families but not much talked about."  This rebirth is usually in the
same family, but that is up to the witch; he may choose to be born under
other circumstances.  [Here Lelqand quotes at length a folktale which
makes the same point, while implying that such rebirth is exceptional,
and not everyone's lot.]  Thus one sees how "the witch or sorcerer, by
being reborn, becomes more powerful, and passes to the higher stage of a
spirit" [in the tale, this "spirit" is reborn as a child].
Take a look at the original when you have a chance.  It's too long to
cite here, as I said, but repays a closer look.

Here, now, is what Kelly wrote on the same subject (_Crafting the Art of
Magic, Book I_, p. 16):

"Witches, in contrast [to Theosophists and others], believe that
reincarnation is *not* automatic, that it is controlled by the gods and
is the *reward* of the initiates.  They believe 'that you will be reborn
among those you love, and that you will remember them and love them
again'; the reward is for being on the side of the gods.  I have
observed that Witches also tend to believe that there probably are two
kinds of souls, both mortal and immortal; that all souls begin as
mortal, but can be transformed into immortal sould by certain kinds of
initiatory experiences and spiritual growth (specifically, that provided
by the training and initiations of the Craft); and that when the
unitiated die, their mortal souls simply cease to exist."

This seems to me pretty close to what Leland reproted from Italy, and is
so uncommon a teaching that one must think either of a borrowing from
Leland or of a remote common source -- it doesn't come, as Kelly sees,
from the run-of-the-mill Western forms of Hindu or Buddhist reincarnation
theories.  What I would like is factual information from people on the list
able to confirm or deny that Kelly has accurately reported the beliefs of
at least *some* witches out there ....  Any feedback?  -- Robert

Robert Mathiesen, Brown University, SL500000@BROWNVM