Could I have your opinion to use for a book I'm writing? I need to know if there really is a hell, and if so, have there been reports from spirits of what it's like there? If not, then where does this idea come from? I would love to have your views on the afterlife. Thank you so much for your help!
- Amanda
Astrea:
Years ago I was asked by a friend to write an astrology column for her newsletter about quilting. I had a ball doing it, but then about a week after I handed it over, her partner approached me in their fabric store and nonchalantly said, You know you're going to hell for writing that, right?
I was positively speechless!
Over the years I've thought of dozens of clever retorts for that woman that my tongue couldn't find that day. I was so angry that someone who was supposedly a wonderful Christian
would pass judgment on me and tell everyone I was going to hell.
With the kind of connection I feel to the Universal Good, how dare someone say that to me? Who did she think she was: God's anointed selector of people who don't merit a happy afterlife?
While most of us get our descriptions of hell from Dante or Revelations in the Bible, I know when I'm there, and it's not underground or on another planet. I don't have to hear from tormented spirits to know that it's right here on Earth in what we create for ourselves when we make ourselves unhappy with poor choices.
Renaissance artists depicted hell as a fiery furnace for sinners where they suffer endlessly and are tormented and tortured by demons. If you want a good scare, Google Dante or Anton Doree. Certainly an all-loving, all-knowing God would never create such a place.
With our own free will, we create plenty of hell right here! Whatever deity you believe in doesn't punish us; we do enough of that with guilt and worry.
The concept of hell has changed over the years for the Christians. To me they don't seem quite so eager to bring it up as they did in the past. It's not that anyone is behaving any better; it's that our overall views seem to soften as technology takes over our lives and New Age thinking seeps into our consciousness.
When I was a kid growing up in East Texas, at least half of us were going to hell; now I would say it's only about a fourth. Are we evolving? Sure we are! We're learning about the Divine in new and better ways. For those of us who chase the Light, it's going to be Light before, during and after we die.
Depression is hell. Sadness is hell. Grief is hell. Loss is hell. We all experience these feelings. Hell is HERE whenever we put ourselves through it.
After much contemplation, here is what I should have said to that woman that day: You bet, Beverly. I'm going straight to Hell, where I'll save you a seat for judging me. You won't be able to miss me: I'll be the one in the red dress partying with all the other sinners!
*****
Susyn:
The question of the reality of the places we call heaven and hell has been pondered throughout the ages. These concepts first appeared in ancient Babylonia and among the Greeks centuries before Christianity took the matter up.
The Greeks believed that heaven was in the sky, and was a place where the many varied gods of their world resided. They also believed that hell was located beneath the ground, buried deep in the earth.
Based on the high volcanic and earthquake activity of that ancient time, the idea of a massive pit of burning fire probably came naturally, and was formed from people's experience with the powerful destructive forces of nature all around them.
Over the centuries, these ideas became powerful tools of control for religious leaders, who tried to convince the masses of the benefits of joining, contributing to, and allowing themselves to be directed by religious sects.
Today we possess a clearer concept of the words heaven and hell, along with the knowledge that we create our own heavens and hells right here on Earth.
Metaphysically, we bring hell into our lives when we defer to ego and move away from a spiritually sound base. As we practice the art of self-will, we create more and more problems for ourselves.
This is a natural human hurdle in the art of maturing. When we reach maturity, we realize that we have choices and can make decisions to move away from the things in our lives that keep us cut off from our own higher nature and personal truths.
On that same note, we humans also enjoy the experience of heaven when we have wonderful things come into our lives that are in sync with our dreams and desires. If we don't treat these gifts with spiritual maturity, however, they are destined to go away until we learn that our choices and appreciation for the gifts in our life will dictate whether what we desire will be heavenly or eventually turn into a living hell. We carry heaven and hell within ourselves.
The demonic spirits that roam the earth tend to spread pain, chaos, fear and rage wherever they go. Spirit possessions, haunted houses, and the obvious degradation of society's character all represent versions of hell that are contained not so much in one place but in people's actions, thoughts, feelings and choices.
The more we evolve in our spiritual lives, the easier it is to recognize these ideas, images and stories of hell as tools that illustrate the inner turmoil we all pass through on our quest for self-actualization as opposed to tangible places we may one day find ourselves in.
Astrea:
Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.
Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!
While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!
I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!
As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.
I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.
You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!
Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.
A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.
You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.