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The Summerland is the name given bySpiritualists,Wiccans, and othercontemporary pagan religions to their conceptualization of anafterlife.[1][2]
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) inspiredAndrew Jackson Davis (1826–1910), in his major workThe Great Harmonia, to say that Summerland is the pinnacle of human spiritual achievement in the afterlife; that is, it is the highest level, or 'sphere', of the afterlife we can hope to enter. Summerland was a secular concept, which was appealing to some non-religious spiritualists.[3]
InNeo-Theosophy, the term "Summerland" is used without the definite article "the". Summerland, also called theAstral plane Heaven, is depicted as wheresouls who have been good in their previous lives go between incarnations.
Neo-Theosophists believe[citation needed]the Summerlands are maintained by hosts ofplanetary angels servingSanat Kumara, analien fromVenus who Neo-Theosophists believe[citation needed] is the governingdeity of Earth and leader of theSpiritual Hierarchy of Earth. Sanat Kumara is believed to rule over our planet from thefloating city ofShamballa, believed by Neo-Theosophists to exist on the etheric plane (a plane between thephysical plane and the astral plane), about five miles (8 km) above theGobi Desert.
Neo-Theosophists also believe[citation needed] there is another higher level of heaven calledDevachan, also called the Mental plane Heaven, which some but not all souls reach between incarnations — only those souls that are more highly developedspiritually reach this level, i.e., those souls that are at the first, second, and third levels of initiation.
The final permanent eternal afterlife heaven to which Neo-Theosophists believe[citation needed] most people will go millions or billions of years in the future, after our cycle of reincarnations in this Round is over, is calledNirvana, and is located beyond this physicalCosmos. In order to attain Nirvana, it is necessary to have attained the fourth level of initiation or higher, meaning one is anarhat and thus no longer needs to reincarnate.
C.W. Leadbeater, a Theosophist, also taught that those who were good in their previous earthlyincarnation went to a place called Summerland between incarnations.[4]
