Pagans seem to think that the word soul is the private property of the standard-brand religions. For a thousand years, however, soul, which is not a Latin word and comes from the Teutonic sáwl and the Gothic saiwala, has meant “the principle of life in humans or animals.” Linguists tell us that in English the most basic words are the Anglo-Saxon ones; soul is thus an idea basic to our knowledge of ourselves.

Although All Souls’ Day was created to bring the dead through Purgatory, that’s not one of our articles of faith. Let us instead pray for and bless all the dead people we see on the news so that they may rest awhile and then be reborn into brighter, safer new lives:

Rest now, and sleep in peace,
Forget the terror, bombs, and wars.
When you wake in that
unknown other place,
Release old lessons, set out
for morning stars.