The other day, when I was listening to a lecture on reincarnation from the theosophical institute, by, i think John Algeo, he concluded his lecture by reading the closing of a poem by somebody named John Carpenter. The poem is called The Secret of Time and Satan, which is a great title for a poem, i think. If you’re not interested in reading the whole thing, I recommend scrolling down to the closing, part 6, which is really the best part, and can easily be read as its own unit.

Anyway, there is this awesome line in it, which i quoted above: “And the pains which I endured in one body were powers which I wielded in the next.” Totally radical. Yeah, so I was just thinking right now, about video games, right. And how I remember as a little kid, sitting around the dinner table, talking with my brother or my dad or something about how I had died a certain number of times in the game before I got it right and defeated the boss character of a certain level. The fact that I was talking about dieing multiple times I remember ruffled my mother a bit, who I suppose, was extrapolating possibly that the game was secretly teaching me about reincarnation. And abstractly, yes it probably was. And she didn’t like that. Cause you’re only supposed to die once, and then go up and hang out with Jesus and stuff.

But that stinks, cause if you get defeated by the boss character, and then you die and you can’t even come back, how are you supposed to get to the next level? I suppose you’re not. I suppose Catholics don’t believe that there are any other levels. I’m more inclined to believe in the direction of reincarnation now though. But I don’t believe that it’s a perfectly clean, and tidy affair, where you just transit from one body to the next, and are more or less the same thing. My belief in reincarnation is more influenced by the idea that the molecules that make up your body were once rearranged in some other patterns, and have coalesced to form you. Like part of my butt might have been a dinosaur brain, or my toes might have a few molecules of dust from a rock that fell from outer space. So yeah, I do like the idea that there may be things about you which translate and transform, and rearrange themselves through the cosmic soup into some other new and interesting patterns.

I’m also inclined to believe that the possibility exists to transition more fully from one body-matrix to the next. You know, certain people are just more coherent than others, and maybe when they die, they don’t get all blown apart, but have constellated a bunch of things around a certain core element of soul, and that inhabits something new. I’m also keen on the ideas of Dane Rhudyar in this area too, who may or may not have been a Theosophist, actually, I have to look into that. Anyway, I remember him saying in this one essay something about how people are created in response to a need in the universe. And basically, you can fulfill this need, or miss it. And if you don’t achieve it, the universe might create somebody else in your place to complete that mission. And that person becomes basically the next person to “hold office,” and that like all official positions, you inherit problems (energy patterns) from the last person who held that position. And that’s what karma is. I actually love that description actually. It makes sense in a way that no other description of reincarnation that I have seen makes sense. Plus it just feels right.

So it’s like, if the last person who was playing the game got defeated by the boss character on level 3, thats the same thing that you’re going to be struggling against when you start playing the game. And if you don’t learn and evolve, then you’re gonna bite it too.

Theres a cool reference to this idea in the first Sandman graphic novel, Preludes and Nocturnes (though I don’t know if he had the same source). There’s a part where Dream is trapped inside that crystal cell in that dude’s basement, and everything in the world outside is getting all fucked up, cause dreams are like out of control and stuff. The panel says something to the effect of “The universe knows someone is missing, and slowly, it attempts to replace him.” And there is this regular guy who sort of becomes a stand-in for Dream, going out and putting bad guys to sleep with gas, and stuff. Like he’s just some regular schmoe, who doesn’t know what’s going on, but sort of impulsively follows these urges, so that he can fulfill a need in the universe.

I like to think that’s what I’m doing now… not that I’m being tapped on the shoulder by the universe to fill in for the Sandman, but that I am sort of coming into something, assuming my ancestral role. Actually, one day last week, I found this online I Ching thing, and it gave me virtually that same response through Hexagram 59 - Huan:

The king goes to his ancestral temple, and it will be advantageous to cross the great stream. It will be advantageous to be firm and correct. The topmost line, undivided, shows its subject disposing of what may be called its bloody wounds, and going and separating himself from his anxious fears. There will be no error. The situation is evolving slowly and yin is gaining ground.