Past Life

A Past Life is a different life lived by the same soul. Over time, souls can reincarnate as different people and go through various lifetimes to evolve and grow as individuals. Sometimes a soul follows a certain family line, but this has been shown to not always be the case.

Overview
As people progress through different lives, their souls remain in contact with the same souls in every lifetime. Souls can recognize each other so that they may find each other in each new life. Sometimes a past life will come to haunt a person's present life to warn them of something or to prevent something that occurred in the previous lifetime from occurring again.

Similarly, a witch can have vague recollections of a past life but they will not realize it. For example, Paige remembered events from her life as the Evil Enchantress from childhood but had always assumed it was a story she had invented as a child.

As for witches, the way they use their powers in a Past life determines how they develop and what they are in the next. If abuse them by using them for evil or the like then in the next life the powers regress and change into something else. In short, they lose them. However, if a witch uses her powers for the good well then they become stronger and evolve in the next. A good example of this would be in the past lives of the Charmed/Destined Ones.

In terms of how quickly after one's death they are reborn, it is unknown. Adriel wasn't reborn until the 12th Century, while Priscilla Baxter was able to return only a few years after her death, and Pearl Russell returned years after her death. It is possible that the rebirth time depends on the soul.

List of Past Lives
Current life than past life.
 * Prudence Halliwell -- Phoebe Bowen
 * Piper Halliwell -- Priscilla Baxter
 * Phoebe Halliwell -- Pearl Russell
 * Paige Matthews -- The Evil Enchantress
 * Dan Gordon -- Gordon Johnson
 * Leo Wyatt -- Priscilla Baxter's former lover
 * Wyatt Halliwell -- Uzriel, Marcus, King Arthur, Mikael, Prince George, Thomas, and William Halliwell
 * Chris Halliwell -- Isabelle's Father
 * Melinda Halliwell -- Alice Halliwell
 * Prue Halliwell -- Adriel, Camilla, Guinevere, Rebekah, Princess Tamar, Ruth, and Isabelle Halliwell
 * Tamora Mitchell -- Drusilla
 * Nathaniel Halliwell -- Lancelot and Matthew Halliwell
 * Sebastian Whitmore -- Rufus
 * Melissa Cooper -- Viviana
 * Alex Trudeau -- Alexander the Great

Past Life Spell

 * Remove the chains of time and space
 * And make my spirit soar
 * Let these mortal arms embrace
 * The life that haunts before.

To Switch Bodies With a Past Life

 * In this time and in this place
 * Take this spirit I displace
 * Bring it forth, while I go back
 * To inhabit a soul so black.

Return Spell

 * In this time and in this place
 * Take this spirit I displace
 * Bring me forth, while she goes back
 * To inhabit her soul so black.

Notes and Trivia

 * It is unknown how past lives relate to the existence of spirits. The Charmed/Destined Ones all had at least one past life, while their ancestor Melinda Warren has been a spirit since her death in 1692.
 * Those a spirit is meant to meet will find them in future lives, as shown numerous times throughout Charmed and Destined.
 * Prue and Wyatt Halliwell have the most known past lives, having six each.