The Temple subscribes to the Theory of Reincarnation as the primary vehicle for the evolution of the soul (q.v., Section III.6). Each person's immortal soul has moved from incarnation to incarnation, sometimes immediately and sometimes with a delay in the spirit world while selecting the next vehicle.
The Temple does not necessarily believe in the totality of experience doctrines espoused by some groups. Reincarnation serves the True Will (q.v., Section III.4) and to this end a certain diversity may be required (where one must experience different social positions and environments), but it is more likely that one's incarnations will have a focus that causes one to become more and more of what one is in an ultimate sense.
For example one may, by nature, be a philosopher-priest. To that end, one's significant incarnations might be a string of Priest/esses and Counselors. This would be a natural expansion of the Souls nature as a Philosopher-Priest. Other incarnations, both significant and non, would serve to better allow the realization of this Soular Nature1.
Some eyebrows may have risen at noticing the phrase Significant Incarnations. When we incarnate, we either work in accordance with our True Will or not. If we work in accordance with our True Will, the incarnation is considered as having been significant. If we work counter to our Will or fail to work with our Will, the incarnation is considered to have been insignificant. These divisions are subjective and due to the imperfect nature of our understanding of our True Will, an incarnation felt to have been insignificant may turn out to have actually been significant and vice-versus.
When remembering one's past incarnations, beware false attributions of the ego. You may have been a French Nobleman, but it is doubtful that you were Napoleon. Past-life memories are tricky this way, as the mind tends to fill in the gaps with what it knows or expects. Thus we see Napoleonic France and see a fine manor or castle, and have people giving us deferential treatment, and our mind adds that we were short and the king. This is because it would be pretty neat to have been Napoleon in a previous life, but this lust for result will lead to erroneous information and thus a failure to consciously apply the knowledge from a previous life in this one.
Further, the Temple acknowledges that the Soul tends to incarnate along bloodlines, even though it is under no constraint to do so. The working theory is that the bloodline is influenced by the previous incarnations to facilitate the current incarnations desire to fulfill its True Will.
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