When a soul goes on after death and is reborn in a new body, or incarnation.
General[]
Reincarnation is a process that starts when a person dies. They either go to Heaven or Hell, based on their actions in life. Time in Heaven is used to rest or reflect, while time in Hell is spent in punishment. If they choose, after a period there the soul is moved to a queue for rebirth, and is then reborn on the mortal plane. The guardian angels play an important part in the start of this process, and possibly also later on.[1][2][3]
The soul seems to hold some influence on the bodies. Souls can be reborn in both male and female bodies, though all of Alex’s known incarnations have been men.[4][5] It is implied that some of them have been bi- or homosexual.[6]
It is unclear how Practitioners are handled in this process, since they lack guardian angels.
Certain curses can follow a soul through several incarnations and impact future lives.[7] In some cases, memories and experiences from past lives can remain subconsciously and shape the current incarnation.
Known reincarnations[]
See Alex’s past lives, Onyx’s past lives, and the Family. There is also Tokol, Zafirah’s former lover, currently living in Brazil.[8]
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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] The past memories are now largely integrated and under control, though meeting people he knew from his past lives can still trigger flashbacks.[12]
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 appear too, and the memories of the current life also remains. This process appears 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.[13]
Theories[]
There seems 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 believes 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 seem to follow the soul through incarnations. However, it is likely that Alex and Onyx are extreme examples of shared personality traits over reincarnations, due to permanent supernatural influence on the process and their lives.
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 is 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.
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
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 28
- ↑ Good Intentions, chapter 16
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 3
- ↑ Natural Consequences, chapter 19
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 1
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 20