Me either Mel, I first encountered the word in HPB.s
Isis Unveiled some years ago and didn't fully understand the import at that time. Since then, I have encounered it numerous times. The meaning finally registered. How liberating. Very intelligent/knowing lady.
Columbia Encyclopedia: transmigration of souls
or
metempsychosis (
mətĕm'səkō'sĭs) [Gr.,=change of soul], a belief common to many cultures, in which the soul passes from one body to another, either human, animal, or inanimate.
Metempsychosis is a
fundamental doctrine of several religions originating in India. In
Hinduism, the individual soul enters a new existence after the death of the body. The sum total of past moral conduct, or
karma, determines the condition of the soul and the quality of its rebirth. The cycle of rebirth is eternal unless the soul is released by knowledge or arduous effort (see
yoga). This release (
moksha or
mukti) is a form of salvation, and is possible only for the most devout. Buddhist doctrine does not accept the soul or transmigration as such, treating both as illusory. Rather, there is an eternal, undifferentiated stream of being (
samsara). Out of this, existences are produced and prolonged according to karma, or past actions. The individual is not a separate entity, but rather a grouping of elements. They revert to the original primal stream when desire, the cause of the transmigratory cycle, ceases. Only devout Buddhists or saints (i.e., those who abandon all desire) are able to realize this oneness.
http://www.answers.com/metempsychosi...0.609&method=3
I always knew you were
special Mel. =-)
Like honey from my lips the sweet nectar of ambrosia,
Love ya.