transmigration

plural transmigrations

1. countableuncountableDeparture from one's homeland to live in another country; migration.
2. countableuncountableA change from one state of existence to another.

   Any great change is like cold water in winter—one shrinks from the first plunge; and a lover may be excused who shivers a little at the transmigration into a husband.

   1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 109

3. countableuncountableThe movement of a soul from one body to another after death.

   Near-synonyms: metempsychosis, reincarnation (both broadly synonymous)

   2 more examples

   The curioſity of the lady was highly inflamed, to know the hiſtory of the parrot's tranſmigration, which ſhe intreated the bird with all her eloquence to relate; but he preſented a deaf ear to her importunity, and, like a painted nightingale, remained ſilent.

   1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 12

   To the strength and fierceness of barbarians they [the Dacians] added a contempt for life, which was derived from a warm persuasion of the immortality and transmigration of the soul.

   1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol I, ch 1-pt i

   Synonyms: metempsychosis, reincarnation[Appendix:Glossary