Different
cultures and traditions had different ways of accounting for what
happened after death. Most mythologies around the world believed
in the presence of souls within the human body. They believed
that for every human body, was an exact invisible duplicate, which
was able to move about independent of the human body after death.
Some others believed in similar spiritual models, differing only
in some of the details.
After death,
these souls would travel to the realm of the dead, which most
cultures referred to as the underworld. The underworld traditionally
was located far away from the mortal world. In the case of the
Greeks, the underworld was situated at the end of the Earth,
where one had to pay his way across the river, on the boat of
Charon. The Norse believed that the realm of the dead was at
one of the roots of the world tree, Yggdrasil, while the Chinese
believed in an underworld with no exact real world location,
just that it was far below the surface of the Earth.
From there
on, myths generally split in two directions, the first towards
reincarnation, whilst the second towards an eternal life after
death. Either way, there traditionally had always been a screening
process, where the deceased were judged, to decided their outcome.
Judgement
in a culture that subscribed to reincarnation often involved
the idea of karma, the amount of good or evil a person has done
in his life. This karma would decide the deceased's punishment,
and even the outcome of his reincarnation. A classical example
of this system was the one found in Chinese mythology. Chinese
mythology, was similar to Japanese mythology, where there were
eighteen varying levels of hell in the Chinese system, whilst
there were sixteen in the Japanese.
The unique thing about the Chinese underworld was that it did
not only serve humans, but also animals. Thus, when the creature
had kept a good record throughout his life, he would be reincarnated
to a higher levelled creature, and perhaps to a wealthy social
caste. Conversely, if he was condemned, he would be reincarnated
to a lower level of creatures.
Cultures
that do not believe in reincarnation usually believe in some
form of eternal life.
The judgement process is carried out in a similar fashion to
that of the Chinese, and eventually the deceased is accessed.
It is then determined which path he would take: the path towards
eternal life and bliss in a place such as heaven if he had been
good, and torture and even death such as in hell if he had too
many transgressions to save his soul.
In Egyptian
mythology, for example, the deceased's heart was weighed against
a feather, and if the heart tilted the balance, then the person
would be sent to be devoured by a monster, thus ending his afterlife.
However, if he passed the screening, he would join the ranks
of the gods to fight the evil serpent Apep.
This idea
is very similar to the idea of Norse mythology, where the Norse
believed that the only way of afterlife came in the form of
being chosen by the Valkyries, to be a part of Odin's army for
Ragnarok, the end of the world. In Slavic mythology, heaven
itself is situated in the East, beyond the sunrise, where the
people depart for, if they pass judgement.
Besides
death, many ancient cultures also believed in other ways the
spirit left the body, such as in dreams. Although it does not
have an effect as great as that of death, the leaving of the
soul from the body temporarily allowed for exploitation by those
skilled in the black arts. They were able to exploit this time
to steal the body, which requires great skill from a shaman
to remedy.
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The
End of the World >>
