Devachan

Blavatsky

Original sense

The subjective, blissful interlude between incarnations for the higher Ego, after kama-loka has been passed. It is not a place of extra lessons, not a school, and not a reunion hall in any ordinary sense. Duration depends on the spiritual harvest of the last life and may last centuries of our time. The personal memories that cannot rise are dropped.

Devachan is the ‘land of the gods,’ a state of mental bliss… the Ego’s reward and rest, not a place on a map.

She split the afterlife: kama-loka (desire-world, decaying shell) and Devachan (higher Ego’s dream of the unfulfilled spiritual longings). Spiritualist ‘summerland’ she regarded as a misreading of both.

New Age

Later sense

The word itself is uncommon. Its functions were reassigned to ‘the other side,’ ‘soul review,’ ‘between-lives planning’ (a Michael Newton / hypnotherapy idea), and Heaven as a counselling office where you choose your next parents.

Typical use. Life-between-lives sessions; ‘your soul team in the heavenly realms.’