Reincarnation, Transmigration of Souls, and Methempsicose
Transmigration of Souls
Transmigration of Souls or Methempsicose is a philosophical doctrine, whose birth is registered in India and believed to have migrated to Egypt, from where Pythagoras[1] adopted the conceptual system and later brought it to life in Greece.
In his mythical dissertation about the transmigrations of the wandering souls, Pythagoras tells the story of a myriad of wandering souls, each migrating from body to body along a path of recurrence amid the becoming of the All. Yet, for the Pythagoreans, this story does not describe the passive revolution of a circle, but a pathway for an active exploration of the All and return to the Divine, or, in other words, the various Manifestations of All That Is. This endeavor is strenuous as it occurs amidst a suspension within the double bind of nativity and fatality, again and again to be born and to die, and to be reborn as still another being. The thread of the narrative, of reminiscence, is always severed with each demise amid the labyrinth of mortal existence. Yet, as the narrative that composes the lives of a soul is a rope of many threads, the persistent re-articulation of the narrative instigates a mnemopoiesis of remembrance that transcends the individual mortal life amid the broader travels of the soul.[2]
It is said that his disciples taught that through Methempsicose, it was possible for a soul, after having a brief or long period in the kingdom of souls, to return to inhabit another physical human body or even an animal body, and to proceed with its period of learning and purification until it is time again to return cleansed and ascended to the Original Source of all life.