Re: CONCULTURE: Xinkùtlan souls and metaphysics

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 18:07:00 +0200, Rodlox <Rodlox@...> wrote:
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> Poster:       Rodlox <Rodlox@...>
> Subject:      =?iso-8859-1?Q?Re:______Re:_CONCULTURE:_Xink=F9tlan_souls_and_met
>              aphysics?=
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> gmail nearly struck again.  :)
>
> Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 1:07 PM
> Subject: Re: CONCULTURE: Xinkùtlan souls and metaphysics
>
> > While we're discussing souls....
>
> > although there's no eternal fire and brimstone type punishment. The
> > soul simply gets delayed from enjoying the pleasures of the afterlife.
>
> delayed for how long?
>
> if Abe kills 5 people, and Bill kills ten, and Adolf kills a few million,
> is there any appreciable difference in how long they have to wait?
>
It depends on the gravity of a person's crimes. Adolf would probably
be considered as a VERY long time resident of the negative part of the
afterlife.You essentially work in the afterlife, serving the lord of
the underworld. It's seen as a sort of debt slavery, and no one knows
how long the lord of the underworld requires wrong doers to serve him.

You also have to define kill. If Abe were participating in a tribal
battle and killed 5 men as a part of an intertribal war, then that
wouldn't be seen as murder. However, Adolf would've been seen as
killing a million people who were not a part of his war, and were
innocents, so Adolf would end up in the underworld. But these days the
Saalangal are modernized, so their views have changed in contrast to
200 years ago when tribal battles were still common (these days tribal
"warfare" is through ritual, festival, and dance)

It's this ambiguousness that keeps the Saalangal from "tempting fate",
so to speak and doing wrong. you don't know how long you'll end up
staying there. But, they do know that after serving time your soul
will progress into more pleasant levels of the afterlife. Merit, and
doing good deeds in the underworld as well as fulfilling your duty can
help you progress much faster out of the underworld*. There is also a
type of intercession whicht he deceased's living relatives can
perform, but I haven't gotten todescribing that yet.


*I'm using underworld here loosely, the Saalangal believe that the
spirit worlds and our world are separate but at the same time they all
"blend at the seams"


--
You can turn away from me
but there's nothing that'll keep me here you know
And you'll never be the city guy
Any more than I'll be hosting The Scooby Show

Scooby Show - Belle and Sebastian