Interesting S&S, I really appreciate reading about the original believes of the Cathars.
This is interesting. As a religion, they are as anthropocentric as the Catholics. I wonder what their story of Creation is.
For people who don't know the meaning of anthropocentrism: it's a point of view that places the human spirit as the center of the Universe. It was all 'made' for us the human spirits to enjoy. Some religions also state that when the humans spiral downwards with their moral standards, this will cause the end of the material World. According to the Cathars, it seems this end game will come as soon as the last human spirit will be freed from the material chains but then anyhow: this World will end.
So, now we are interested to know why we are forced to reincarnate, according to the Cathars. What do they think is the higher purpose of this system? The reward is at the end, a state of bliss/wisdom/angelical existence. Does this mean that we as souls had a lower status at the beginning? Did we start as baby souls?
The text mentions that 'particles of Light' got entrapped in the matter. I bet they thought this was the Devil's work and that the Devil makes us reincarnate over and over again until we are able to free ourselves from this devilish prison by raising vibrations. That would make sense. The Devil as Creator of our World. That's also why they were so fiercely persecuted in the past. The Inquisition thought they were worshippers of the Devil (which in fact they were not) and were eager to extinguish every single bit of the existence of this doctrine.
According some buddhist and hindu scriptures - Soul has to take birth in several animal forms before evolving to become humans.
The main cause of reincarnation is 'desires' , once we have evolved to the level where all of our legitimate desires are satisfied we attain liberation.
Now what happens after liberation is interesting - it is defined as the state of ultimate bliss, consiousness. Imagine the most happiest moment you have in your life - now multiply that 10,000 - thats what happen when the soul meets spirit after liberation.
Check this out - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satcitananda
Pardon me if my English is not good - its a second langauage.