“You are in on the secret. Safety now lies in knowledge.” — Spoilers for Devil in the Details follow.
When a soul went on after death and was reborn in a new body, or incarnation.
General[]
Reincarnation was a process that started when a person died. In the normal case the soul either went to Heaven or Hell, based on their actions in life. Time in Heaven was used to rest or reflect, while time in Hell is spent in punishment. If they chose, after a period in Heaven the soul is moved to a queue for rebirth, and was then reborn on the mortal plane; it is unknown what the equivalent process in Hell would have been. The guardian angels played an important part in the start of this process, and possibly also later on.[1][2][3]
The soul seemed to hold some influence on the bodies. Souls could be reborn in both male and female bodies, though all of Alex’s known incarnations had been men.[4][5] It is implied that some of them had been bi- or homosexual.[6]
It is unclear how people without guardian angels—like Practitioners—are handled in this process.
Certain curses could follow a soul through several incarnations and impact future lives.[7] In some cases, memories and experiences from past lives could remain subconsciously and shaped the active incarnation.
Not all souls are going through the reincarnation process. Some stay on the mortal plane. In some cases this is through outside intervention, like vampires or ghosts like Greg Fisher.[8] In other cases the mechanism is unknown, like with Katerina Sorrow or the group of ghosts in Las Vegas.[9][10]
Known reincarnations[]
See Alex’s past lives, Onyx’s past lives, and the Family. Tokol, Zafirah’s former lover, lived in Brazil.[11]
Effects of returned memories[]
There are three known models for the return of past memories to a living person.
Alex was given a huge dose of a potion based on the water of the river Lethe, meant to sharpen and awaken memories.[12] The effect was an uncontrolled awakening of a huge amount of past memories and emotions. This was likely complicated by that Alex’s past lifes were generally violent and unhappy, Donald’s frequent interventions, and that Alex spent a limited time in Heaven between incarnations.[1] Molly and Onyx called the long-term effects of this a Post Traumatic Reincarnation Disorder.[13] Their ritual to alleviate this had the effect of moderating the emotional impact and intensity of the memories; the memories themselves and the associated knowledge and skills still remained.[14] The past memories were largely integrated and under control afterwards, though meeting people he knew from his past lives or stressful situations could still trigger flashbacks.[15]
The Family used a spell that reinstated the original personality of the soul from the rise of the Family, and made it ascendant. They referred to this as a “reawakening”. The memories of past incarnations appeared too, and the memories of the current life also remained. This process appeared to be relatively swift and non-traumatic, at least for the original and now ascendant personality.[4]
Onyx was an original member of the Family, and was impacted by the above spell as well. However, she was warded at the time, and the result was only a partial reawakening of her past memories and her current personality remained ascendant. The result was traumatic in the short term, but the awakened memories didn’t seem to carry much emotional long-term trauma with them.[16]
Theories[]
Various theories on reincarnation and gaps in knowledge.
Clustering[]
There seemed to be a clustering effect in place for reincarnated souls. Onyx and Alex encountered each other in their past lives in 1945 with a symbolically and magically meaningful interaction, and Alex was then reborn relatively close in time and place to her. Onyx believed that Elena cast a spell to make sure they would meet again.
Three of Alex’s most recent past lives had their origin in the USA, and he was also reincarnated as the grandson of a man he died to save. The Family had little control over when and where their reincarnations happened, but could still manage to locate each other geographically in enough cases that they could keep themselves together.[7]
Some basic personality traits seemed to follow the soul through incarnations. However, it is likely that Alex and Onyx were extreme examples of shared personality traits over reincarnations, due to permanent supernatural influence on the process and their lives.
Time between reincarnations[]
The time between reincarnations vary widely. The only known real data there is for Alex, where the time between the deaths of Aidan, Simon, and Will can be estimated as 25–30 years, assuming Aidan died in 1915 and Will died in 1970. Simon is known to have died in 1945. Assuming they were between 20 and 25 at death, that does not give much time for time in Heaven, relatively speaking. On the other hand, the time between Will’s death and the Alex’s birth was at least 20 years. This might be another example on how Alex was struggling to break free from Donald’s influence. This can be compared to the case of Onyx, where the time between Elena’s death in 1945 and Onyx’s birth was at least 45 years.
People without guardians[]
As evidenced by Onyx, people without guardian angels can also be reincarnated. At the same time, Heaven seems to be the domain of the angels. One possibility is that there is a third soul-processing plane or domain, beside Heaven and Hell. For now, such a plane can be termed Purgatory.
It is also possible that some souls might simply be absorbed into the mortal plane after death. Ghosts would then be a soul which fades away or is absorbed very slowly.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Good Intentions, chapter 13
- ↑ Natural Consequences, chapter 18
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 27
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Past Due, chapter 4
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 26
- ↑ “Legitimacy”
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Past Due, chapter 10
- ↑ “More Than Friends”
- ↑ Devil in the Details, chapter 17
- ↑ Devil in the Details, chapter 19
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 28
- ↑ Good Intentions, chapter 16
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 3
- ↑ Natural Consequences, chapter 19
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 1
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 20