The afterlife, the great beyond. For me one of the things that brought me into my path was a disconnect with the christian cosmology of the afterlife. When I was a kid, it just never sat with me. I found the notion of Hell to be wrong. Heaven I could just never wrap my head around. It was going into gaelic polytheism, that gave me peace.
Like most things within Gaelic Polytheism, there is not one set belief about where we go when we die. There is a pluralism of belief. The three most common are: the House of Donn, Sidhe-mounds, and Reincarnation. The thing that they all have in common is the fact that we rejoin with our ancenstors in some fashion or another.
The house of Donn
The house of Donn is the first of the three beliefs. This is also the main view that I have of where I go when I die. Donn was one of the leaders of the Milesians who came to Ireland. In the Lebor Gabala Erenn, Donn angered Eriu and spurned her. She thereby condemned him to die without ever setting foot on Ireland. Thus Donn becomes the keeper of the dead.
His realm, Tech Duinn or House of Donn, is one of the blessed Isles across the Sea. It is not the only isle there, Tir na nog, land of the young is probaly the most famous of the isles. We know about Tech Duinn from the Irish version of Historia Britonum of Nennius. In there is the following stanzas that are imporntant:
51. There was raised for him a cairn with the stone of his race,
Over the broad sea,
An ancient stormy dwelling; and Tech Duinn,
It is called.
52. This was his great testament
To his numerous children,
'To me, to my house, come ye all
After your deaths.'[1]
While the book may not be that accurate for a historical book, this line does give us some evidence of the afterlife. Here, we have a clear and obvious line about the possibility of where some of us go when we die. Another thing is that the House of Donn is for those that are his children, the Irish people. Those who are not Irish, have other halls of their own people with their own ancestors. That is the important part of this whole thing. Going to the Tech Duinn is going back to the ancestors.
Sidhe-Mounds
Of course, Tech Duinn is not the only belief that exists about where we go when we die. Gaelic folklore has beliefs that the Sidhe mounds are homes of both the Sidhe and our ancestors. Or in some tellings, the Sidhe are our ancestors.
Reincarnation
Similarly to the Tech Duinn, There is evidence that reincarnation was the belief of the ancient Irish. A number of stories have heros telling various Saints that they were once Salmon, deer, birds, and people; particularly their own ancestors.
Of course, this was also a motif that was common in medieval Irish literature to give the character's weight to their words. While i believe this was true. This does not take take away from the fact that there is some belief in Reincarnation. We have evidence from classical writers as well who talk about the gauls. Diodorus Siculus in his Library of history said this: the belief of Pythagoras prevails among them, that the souls of men are immortal and that after a prescribed number of years they commence upon a new life, the soul entering into another body.[2]
Conclusion
Thus, in conclusion, there is a plurality of beliefs on what happens to us when we die in Gaelic Polytheism. This difference in belief is part of the Gaelic tradition. The important thing is that we connect with our ancestors. It is also why that they are one of the Sacred three to Honor, so that we keep them in remembrance as we will go to meet them one day.
Source
[1]The Irish version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius[2]Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History
