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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1864 > April
April
For sale: Imitation of the Gospel According to Spiritism[1]
With the moral maxims of Jesus Christ, their agreement with Spiritism
and their application to the several situations of life
By Allan Kardec
With the following epigraph:
“There is no unbreakable faith but the one that can face reason in all times of humanity.”
We abstain from providing any reflection about the book, with the exception of the below excerpt from its introduction that explains its objective.
“The subjects found in the Gospels may be divided in four parts: the common acts of Jesus’ life, the miracles, the predictions and the moral teaching.[2] If the first was object of controversy the last one remained untouchable. Disbelief itself bends before that divine code: it is the terrain in which every doctrine can meet and the flagship that can accommodate every one, whatever their beliefs may be, for it has never been the subject of religious disputes, always and everywhere raised by issues of dogma.
As a matter of fact the sects would have found their own condemnation had they discussed them because in their majority they were more attached to the mystical than the moral part that requires the reformation of oneself. To mankind, in particular, it is a rule of behavior that embraces every circumstance of life, public or private, the principle of all social relationships based on a strict justice; it is finally and above all the infallible route to future happiness, the tip of the veil that is lifted about our future life. This is the part that constitutes the exclusive objective of this work.
“Everybody admires the evangelical moral. Each one proclaims its sublimity and necessity but many do so based on what they heard or in their faith in some maxims that became proverbial but only a few know them with profundity and even less understand them and deduce their consequences.
The reason for that is due a great deal to the difficulty in reading the Gospels, unintelligible to a large number of people. The allegorical style, the intentional mysticism of the language lead the majority to read it just to relief their consciences and out of duty as they read prayers without understanding them that is without benefit. The moral precepts that are spread here and there, mixed amongst the mass of other reports, go unnoticed. It is then impossible to retain the whole and turn it into the object of a separated reading and meditation.
It is true that treaties of evangelical moral were written but the organization in moral literary style remove the primitive sincerity that at the same gives both its enchantment and authenticity. There are even detached maxims that are reduced to the simplest expression of proverb thus becoming not more than aphorisms that lose part of their value and interest in the absence of the accessories and circumstances in which they were given. To avoid such inconveniences we gathered in this book the verses that may form, in a way, a code of universal moral, without distinction of cult. In the citations we kept everything that could be useful to the development of the idea, eliminating nothing but was strange to the subject. In addition we scrupulously respected the original translation of Sacy,[3] as well as the division of verses.
However, instead of keeping a chronological order that has no real advantage in such a matter we methodically grouped and classified the maxims according to their nature so that and as much as possible some are deduced from others. The reference of chapters and verses are provided if people want to resource to the common classification. All that was only a material effort that alone would have only a secondary utility. The essential was to bring them to the attention of everyone with the explanation of obscure passages and the development of all consequences aiming at their application to the several situations of life. That is what we tried to do with the help of the good Spirits that assist us.
Many points of the Bible, of the Gospels and sacred authors in general are unintelligible and even seem irrational just because they lack the key to understand their true meaning. Such a key is entirely in Spiritism as found by those that have already studied it seriously and as it will be later on better acknowledged.
Spiritism is found everywhere, in antiquity and in all periods of humanity. Its traces are inscribed everywhere, such as in beliefs and monuments. That is why if Spiritism opens up new horizons for the future it also casts a not less shiny light upon the mysteries of the past. As a complement to each precept we added some instructions chosen from those dictated by the Spirits in several countries and through several mediums. Had those instructions come out from a single source they could have suffered a personal influence or that of the environment whereas the diversity of origins demonstrates that the Spirits give their teachings everywhere and that nobody has the privilege of that.
This work is to be used by all. Every person may find there the means of accommodating their behavior to the moral of Jesus Christ. In addition the Spiritists find there the applications that are more specially related to them. Thanks to the communications from now on established in a permanent way between mankind and the invisible world the evangelical law taught in all nations by the Spirits themselves will no longer be dead word because every person will understand it and will be necessarily called upon to practice it by the advice of their own spiritual guides.
The instructions of the Spirits are truly the voices of heavens that come to enlighten mankind and invite us to imitate the Gospels.”
[1] A thick volume, in-12. Didier bookseller, Quai des Grands-Augustins; Ledoyen, Palais-Royal and at the office of the Spiritist Review. Price: 3.5 francs.
[2] Later on Mr. Allan Kardec modified the division into five parts, including the passages that served the Church for the establishment of its dogmas. (TN)
[3] Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy(29 March 1613 – 4 January 1684), a priest of Port-Royal, was a theologian and French humanist. He is best known for his translation of the Bible the most widespread French Bible in the 18th century, also known as the Bible de Port-Royal (TN, Wikipedia)
With the moral maxims of Jesus Christ, their agreement with Spiritism
and their application to the several situations of life
By Allan Kardec
With the following epigraph:
“There is no unbreakable faith but the one that can face reason in all times of humanity.”
We abstain from providing any reflection about the book, with the exception of the below excerpt from its introduction that explains its objective.
“The subjects found in the Gospels may be divided in four parts: the common acts of Jesus’ life, the miracles, the predictions and the moral teaching.[2] If the first was object of controversy the last one remained untouchable. Disbelief itself bends before that divine code: it is the terrain in which every doctrine can meet and the flagship that can accommodate every one, whatever their beliefs may be, for it has never been the subject of religious disputes, always and everywhere raised by issues of dogma.
As a matter of fact the sects would have found their own condemnation had they discussed them because in their majority they were more attached to the mystical than the moral part that requires the reformation of oneself. To mankind, in particular, it is a rule of behavior that embraces every circumstance of life, public or private, the principle of all social relationships based on a strict justice; it is finally and above all the infallible route to future happiness, the tip of the veil that is lifted about our future life. This is the part that constitutes the exclusive objective of this work.
“Everybody admires the evangelical moral. Each one proclaims its sublimity and necessity but many do so based on what they heard or in their faith in some maxims that became proverbial but only a few know them with profundity and even less understand them and deduce their consequences.
The reason for that is due a great deal to the difficulty in reading the Gospels, unintelligible to a large number of people. The allegorical style, the intentional mysticism of the language lead the majority to read it just to relief their consciences and out of duty as they read prayers without understanding them that is without benefit. The moral precepts that are spread here and there, mixed amongst the mass of other reports, go unnoticed. It is then impossible to retain the whole and turn it into the object of a separated reading and meditation.
It is true that treaties of evangelical moral were written but the organization in moral literary style remove the primitive sincerity that at the same gives both its enchantment and authenticity. There are even detached maxims that are reduced to the simplest expression of proverb thus becoming not more than aphorisms that lose part of their value and interest in the absence of the accessories and circumstances in which they were given. To avoid such inconveniences we gathered in this book the verses that may form, in a way, a code of universal moral, without distinction of cult. In the citations we kept everything that could be useful to the development of the idea, eliminating nothing but was strange to the subject. In addition we scrupulously respected the original translation of Sacy,[3] as well as the division of verses.
However, instead of keeping a chronological order that has no real advantage in such a matter we methodically grouped and classified the maxims according to their nature so that and as much as possible some are deduced from others. The reference of chapters and verses are provided if people want to resource to the common classification. All that was only a material effort that alone would have only a secondary utility. The essential was to bring them to the attention of everyone with the explanation of obscure passages and the development of all consequences aiming at their application to the several situations of life. That is what we tried to do with the help of the good Spirits that assist us.
Many points of the Bible, of the Gospels and sacred authors in general are unintelligible and even seem irrational just because they lack the key to understand their true meaning. Such a key is entirely in Spiritism as found by those that have already studied it seriously and as it will be later on better acknowledged.
Spiritism is found everywhere, in antiquity and in all periods of humanity. Its traces are inscribed everywhere, such as in beliefs and monuments. That is why if Spiritism opens up new horizons for the future it also casts a not less shiny light upon the mysteries of the past. As a complement to each precept we added some instructions chosen from those dictated by the Spirits in several countries and through several mediums. Had those instructions come out from a single source they could have suffered a personal influence or that of the environment whereas the diversity of origins demonstrates that the Spirits give their teachings everywhere and that nobody has the privilege of that.
This work is to be used by all. Every person may find there the means of accommodating their behavior to the moral of Jesus Christ. In addition the Spiritists find there the applications that are more specially related to them. Thanks to the communications from now on established in a permanent way between mankind and the invisible world the evangelical law taught in all nations by the Spirits themselves will no longer be dead word because every person will understand it and will be necessarily called upon to practice it by the advice of their own spiritual guides.
The instructions of the Spirits are truly the voices of heavens that come to enlighten mankind and invite us to imitate the Gospels.”
[1] A thick volume, in-12. Didier bookseller, Quai des Grands-Augustins; Ledoyen, Palais-Royal and at the office of the Spiritist Review. Price: 3.5 francs.
[2] Later on Mr. Allan Kardec modified the division into five parts, including the passages that served the Church for the establishment of its dogmas. (TN)
[3] Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy(29 March 1613 – 4 January 1684), a priest of Port-Royal, was a theologian and French humanist. He is best known for his translation of the Bible the most widespread French Bible in the 18th century, also known as the Bible de Port-Royal (TN, Wikipedia)
Universal control of the teachings of the Spirits[1]
We have already discussed this subject in the last issue of the Review regarding a special article (The perfection of the created beings) but that is so important and has consequences of such a magnitude for the future of Spiritism that we find appropriate to analyze it in a more comprehensive way.
If the Spiritist Doctrine were a purely human conception its only guarantee would be the enlightenment of the person that had conceived it. Now, nobody here could have the founded pretension of knowing the absolute truth by themselves. If the Spirits that revealed it had manifested to a single person nothing could guarantee its origin and everyone would have to believe in the word of that person that would have received their teachings. Admitting a total honesty from the part of the person that would have received it the most it could do would be to convince those that lived in the same environment. That person could find followers but never attract everybody.
God wanted the revelation to get to us through the fastest and most authentic path. That is why the Spirits were assigned with the mission of taking it from one pole to the next, manifesting everywhere, not given anybody in particular the exclusive privilege of hearing their words. A person may be mistaken, may deceive others but that could happen when millions of people see and hear the same thing. That is a guarantee to each and every one.
Besides, people can get rid of a single person but cannot do that to the crowds; books can be burnt but the Spirits cannot. Even if all books were destroyed the source of the Doctrine would not be extinguished because it is not on Earth, it shoots everywhere and everybody can enjoy it. In the absence of people to spread it there will be Spirits that reach everyone and that cannot be reached themselves.
In actual fact it is the Spirits that make the propaganda supported by a large number of mediums that are solicited everywhere. I they had a single interpreter, however skilled that medium might be, Spiritism would be hardly known.
That single interpreter, irrespective of the social class, would have felt prevention from all sides and from many people. That medium would not have been accepted by all nations, whereas communicating to all peoples and everywhere, to all sects and parties, the Spirits are accepted by all.
Spiritism has no nationality. It is indifferent to any particular cult; it is not imposed by any social class since everybody may receive communications from relatives and friends from beyond the grave. That was necessary so that Spiritism would invite humanity to fraternity. If not placed in a neutral ground it would have created dissention rather than peace.
Such universality of the teaching of the Spirits constitutes the strength of Spiritism. That is also the cause of its fast propagation while the voice of a single person, even with the support of the press, would have taken centuries to get to everyone’s ears and there we have thousands of voices that are simultaneously heard in all corners of the globe, proclaiming the same principles, transmitting them to the most ignorant as to the wisest person so that nobody may be left behind. It is an advantage not enjoyed by any doctrine so far. If then Spiritism is a truth it fears no bad will of people nor the moral revolutions or the physical cataclysms of the world because none of these things can affect the Spirits.
But that is not the only advantage that results from such an exceptional position. Spiritism finds in that a powerful guarantee against the schisms that could result from the ambition of certain persons or the contradictions of certain Spirits. Such contradictions are undoubtedly an embarrassment but that carries in itself the very remedy to the disease.
It is well-known that the Spirits, by force of the differences in their capacities, are individually far from holding the whole truth; that not all of them are given the right to have access to certain mysteries; that their knowledge is proportional to their depuration; that vulgar Spirits don’t know better than people on Earth and even less than certain persons; that among them as with ourselves there are presumptuous and pseudo-wise Spirits that believe to know what they actually don’t; systematic one that take their ideas by the truth; finally that the Spirits of a more elevated order, those that are completely dematerialized are the only ones that are free from the earthly prejudices.
But it is also well-known that deceiving Spirits have no scrupulous in hiding under borrowed names to have their utopias accepted. From that it follows that anything that is beyond exclusively moral teachings the revelations that anyone can receive have an individual character, without authenticity; that they must be considered as personal opinion from this or that Spirit, and that it would be unwise to accept them and lightheartedly promote them as absolute truths.
The first control is undoubtedly that of reason to which one has to submit, without exception, everything that comes from the Spirits. Any theory that is manifestly in contradiction with common sense, with a rigorous logic and with positive facts that are available, however respectable the signature may be, must be rejected. However such a control is incomplete in many cases due to the lack of knowledge of certain persons and the tendency that many have of making their own judgement as the only referee of truth. In such cases what do the people that do not have much confidence in themselves? Follow the opinion of the majority and that opinion is their guide. That is how it must be with respect to the teaching of the Spirits, and these means we are taught by the Spirits themselves.
Therefore the best control is the agreement in the teaching of the Spirits but that still does need to occur in certain conditions. The least safe is when a medium questions several Spirits about a doubtful point. It is obvious that if the medium is enduring a case of obsession and dealing with the same deceiving Spirit that Spirit can tell her the same thing with different names.
Also the conformity obtained by multiple mediums of the same center is not enough because they may be suffering the same influence. The only serious guarantee that there exist is in the agreement between spontaneous revelations made through mediums of a large number of mediums that are strange to one another and in several regions.
It must be understood that we are not talking about communications of secondary interest here but those that attain to the principles of the Spiritist Doctrine. Experience demonstrates that when a new principle must be learned it is taught spontaneously and in several points at the same time and in identical conditions if not in its form at least in its meaning. Hence if a Spirit wishes to propose an eccentric, based on his own ideas and not necessarily true, we can rest assured that such a system will remain inside a limited circle and will fall down before the unanimous instructions given everywhere, as we have already seen in several examples. It is that unanimity that knocked down all partial systems that were born at the origin of Spiritism when each one explained the phenomena their own way and before the laws that govern the relationships between the visible and invisible world were known.
Such is the foundation on which we base ourselves when formulating a principle of the Doctrine. We do not promote it as true because it is in agreement with our own ideas; we do not put ourselves in place of absolute judges of the supreme truth and we do not tell anyway: “Believe in this because we say so.” Our opinion, before our own eyes, is nothing more than a personal opinion that can be either right or wrong and by the simple fact that we are not more infallible than anybody else. In addition it is not because a principle was taught to us that we believe it to be true but because it received the endorsement of the general agreement. That universal agreement is a guarantee to the future unity of Spiritism and it will nullify all contradictory theories. That is where the criteria of truth will be sought in the future.
The success achieved by both The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book is that every person may receive directly from the Spirits the confirmation of their teachings. If they were contradicted by the Spirits from all sides they would have found long ago the same destiny of the fantastic ideas. Even the support of press would not have saved the wreckage whilst they propagated rapidly without that very support because they counted on the Spirits and they compensated by far the bad will of people. That is how it is going to be with every idea that may come from the Spirits or from mankind that cannot endure the trial of that control that is not in anyone’s hands.
Let us then suppose that certain Spirits decide to dictate a book with a given title and whose principles are contrary to those. Let us even imagine that with the objective of discrediting the Doctrine apocryphal messages were produced by malevolence. What would be the influence of such texts if they are disproved by the Spirits everywhere? One should count on the adhesion of the latter ones before releasing a system in their name. The distance between a system of a single Spirit and that of all Spirits is like the distance between the unity and infinite.
What can all the arguments of the detractors about the general opinion do when millions of friendly voices from space and in all corners of the globe and within the cell of each family come to contradict them? Hasn’t experience already confirmed the theory about that? What happened to all publications that pretended to have come to annihilate Spiritism? Which one has even precluded its march? Up until now this subject had not been faced by that viewpoint, undoubtedly one of the most serious. Each one of them counted on themselves but not on the Spirits.
A capital truth stems from that: Any person that wanted to oppose the flow of the established and endorsed ideas could well cause a small local and momentarily disturbance but never dominate the whole both in the present as well as in the future. It also points out the fact that instructions given by the Spirits about issues that are not clarified yet could not become law while isolated ideas and that consequently must be only accepted with the highest reservation and as informational.
Hence the need to be very careful when publishing them and if judged appropriate their publication then show them as individual opinions more or less likely but that still require confirmation. That is the confirmation that must be expected before a principle is presented as an absolute truth if one does not wish to be accused of light-heartedness or unthoughtful belief. The superior Spirits proceed with extreme wisdom in their revelations. They only gradually touch the great questions of the Doctrine as the intelligence becomes more capable of understanding the truths of a more elevated order and also the circumstances are adequate to a new idea. That is why they have not said everything from the beginning and even today they did not say everything, never yielding to the impatience of hasty persons that are ready to harvest the fruit before its maturation. It would then be useless to try to precipitate the time scheduled by the Providence for each thing because the really serious Spirits would refuse to help. The lighthearted Spirits though give little importance to the truth and respond to everything. That is why there are always contradictory answers to all premature questions. The principles above are not the result of a personal opinion but a forceful consequence of the conditions in which the Spirits manifest. It is clear that if a Spirit says something on one side while millions of others say the opposite elsewhere the presumption of truth cannot be on the side of only one or only a few. The pretension of being the only one to be right from the part of the Spirits is as much illogical as it is to a person. When the truly wise Spirits don’t feel sufficiently clarified about an issue they never resolve it in absolute terms; the openly indicate to be responding according to their personal opinion and even advise to wait for the confirmation.
However beautiful, fair and great an idea may be it is impossible to have the opinion of everybody behind it since the beginning. The resulting conflicts are an inevitable consequence of the general movement that takes place; these are even necessary to highlight the truth and it is useful that they take place in the beginning so that the false ideas be promptly discarded. The Spiritists that have some concern must rest assured. All of the isolated pretenses will fall by the force of things before the great and powerful criteria of the universal control. It is not the opinion of a person that they will follow but the unanimous voice of the Spirits. It is not a man and more importantly not us more than others that will found the Spiritist orthodoxy; it is not a Spirit that will impose upon anybody either; it is the universality of the Spirits, communicating all over Earth and commanded by God. That is the essential character of the Spiritist Doctrine, its strength and authority. God wanted His law to be founded on an unbreakable basis and that is why it was not laid upon the fragile mind of a single person.
It is before such a powerful engine that does not know little groups or envious rivalries nor sects or nations that every opposition will break, as all the ambitions and pretensions to individual supremacy; that we would ourselves be shattered if we wanted to replace the sovereign designs by our own ideas. It is the only one that will solve all the disputes; that will break the dissidences and will give or not give reason to the one that deserves it.
Before such power agreement between all voices of heavens what can the opinion of a single person or Spirit do? Less than the drop of water in the whole ocean. Less than the voice of a child muffled by the storm. The universal opinion that is the supreme judge, the one that has the last word. It is formed by all individual opinions; if one is true it will only have its relative weight on the scale; if it is false it will not be able to succeed against all others. Individuals fade away in that immense assembly and that is a new drawback to human pride.
Such a harmonious horizon is already forming. This century shall not be over before its full resplendence shines out reassuring uncertainties for until then powerful voices would have been assigned the mission of being heard to rank mankind under the same flag as long as the field is sufficiently prepared.
While wait, the one that floats between two opposing systems can observe the direction of the general opinion. That is the correct indication given by the majority of the Spirits about the several points in their communications. It is not a less certain signal about which system will succeed.
[1] This text is item II of the introduction of The Gospel According to Spiritism (TN)
We have already discussed this subject in the last issue of the Review regarding a special article (The perfection of the created beings) but that is so important and has consequences of such a magnitude for the future of Spiritism that we find appropriate to analyze it in a more comprehensive way.
If the Spiritist Doctrine were a purely human conception its only guarantee would be the enlightenment of the person that had conceived it. Now, nobody here could have the founded pretension of knowing the absolute truth by themselves. If the Spirits that revealed it had manifested to a single person nothing could guarantee its origin and everyone would have to believe in the word of that person that would have received their teachings. Admitting a total honesty from the part of the person that would have received it the most it could do would be to convince those that lived in the same environment. That person could find followers but never attract everybody.
God wanted the revelation to get to us through the fastest and most authentic path. That is why the Spirits were assigned with the mission of taking it from one pole to the next, manifesting everywhere, not given anybody in particular the exclusive privilege of hearing their words. A person may be mistaken, may deceive others but that could happen when millions of people see and hear the same thing. That is a guarantee to each and every one.
Besides, people can get rid of a single person but cannot do that to the crowds; books can be burnt but the Spirits cannot. Even if all books were destroyed the source of the Doctrine would not be extinguished because it is not on Earth, it shoots everywhere and everybody can enjoy it. In the absence of people to spread it there will be Spirits that reach everyone and that cannot be reached themselves.
In actual fact it is the Spirits that make the propaganda supported by a large number of mediums that are solicited everywhere. I they had a single interpreter, however skilled that medium might be, Spiritism would be hardly known.
That single interpreter, irrespective of the social class, would have felt prevention from all sides and from many people. That medium would not have been accepted by all nations, whereas communicating to all peoples and everywhere, to all sects and parties, the Spirits are accepted by all.
Spiritism has no nationality. It is indifferent to any particular cult; it is not imposed by any social class since everybody may receive communications from relatives and friends from beyond the grave. That was necessary so that Spiritism would invite humanity to fraternity. If not placed in a neutral ground it would have created dissention rather than peace.
Such universality of the teaching of the Spirits constitutes the strength of Spiritism. That is also the cause of its fast propagation while the voice of a single person, even with the support of the press, would have taken centuries to get to everyone’s ears and there we have thousands of voices that are simultaneously heard in all corners of the globe, proclaiming the same principles, transmitting them to the most ignorant as to the wisest person so that nobody may be left behind. It is an advantage not enjoyed by any doctrine so far. If then Spiritism is a truth it fears no bad will of people nor the moral revolutions or the physical cataclysms of the world because none of these things can affect the Spirits.
But that is not the only advantage that results from such an exceptional position. Spiritism finds in that a powerful guarantee against the schisms that could result from the ambition of certain persons or the contradictions of certain Spirits. Such contradictions are undoubtedly an embarrassment but that carries in itself the very remedy to the disease.
It is well-known that the Spirits, by force of the differences in their capacities, are individually far from holding the whole truth; that not all of them are given the right to have access to certain mysteries; that their knowledge is proportional to their depuration; that vulgar Spirits don’t know better than people on Earth and even less than certain persons; that among them as with ourselves there are presumptuous and pseudo-wise Spirits that believe to know what they actually don’t; systematic one that take their ideas by the truth; finally that the Spirits of a more elevated order, those that are completely dematerialized are the only ones that are free from the earthly prejudices.
But it is also well-known that deceiving Spirits have no scrupulous in hiding under borrowed names to have their utopias accepted. From that it follows that anything that is beyond exclusively moral teachings the revelations that anyone can receive have an individual character, without authenticity; that they must be considered as personal opinion from this or that Spirit, and that it would be unwise to accept them and lightheartedly promote them as absolute truths.
The first control is undoubtedly that of reason to which one has to submit, without exception, everything that comes from the Spirits. Any theory that is manifestly in contradiction with common sense, with a rigorous logic and with positive facts that are available, however respectable the signature may be, must be rejected. However such a control is incomplete in many cases due to the lack of knowledge of certain persons and the tendency that many have of making their own judgement as the only referee of truth. In such cases what do the people that do not have much confidence in themselves? Follow the opinion of the majority and that opinion is their guide. That is how it must be with respect to the teaching of the Spirits, and these means we are taught by the Spirits themselves.
Therefore the best control is the agreement in the teaching of the Spirits but that still does need to occur in certain conditions. The least safe is when a medium questions several Spirits about a doubtful point. It is obvious that if the medium is enduring a case of obsession and dealing with the same deceiving Spirit that Spirit can tell her the same thing with different names.
Also the conformity obtained by multiple mediums of the same center is not enough because they may be suffering the same influence. The only serious guarantee that there exist is in the agreement between spontaneous revelations made through mediums of a large number of mediums that are strange to one another and in several regions.
It must be understood that we are not talking about communications of secondary interest here but those that attain to the principles of the Spiritist Doctrine. Experience demonstrates that when a new principle must be learned it is taught spontaneously and in several points at the same time and in identical conditions if not in its form at least in its meaning. Hence if a Spirit wishes to propose an eccentric, based on his own ideas and not necessarily true, we can rest assured that such a system will remain inside a limited circle and will fall down before the unanimous instructions given everywhere, as we have already seen in several examples. It is that unanimity that knocked down all partial systems that were born at the origin of Spiritism when each one explained the phenomena their own way and before the laws that govern the relationships between the visible and invisible world were known.
Such is the foundation on which we base ourselves when formulating a principle of the Doctrine. We do not promote it as true because it is in agreement with our own ideas; we do not put ourselves in place of absolute judges of the supreme truth and we do not tell anyway: “Believe in this because we say so.” Our opinion, before our own eyes, is nothing more than a personal opinion that can be either right or wrong and by the simple fact that we are not more infallible than anybody else. In addition it is not because a principle was taught to us that we believe it to be true but because it received the endorsement of the general agreement. That universal agreement is a guarantee to the future unity of Spiritism and it will nullify all contradictory theories. That is where the criteria of truth will be sought in the future.
The success achieved by both The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book is that every person may receive directly from the Spirits the confirmation of their teachings. If they were contradicted by the Spirits from all sides they would have found long ago the same destiny of the fantastic ideas. Even the support of press would not have saved the wreckage whilst they propagated rapidly without that very support because they counted on the Spirits and they compensated by far the bad will of people. That is how it is going to be with every idea that may come from the Spirits or from mankind that cannot endure the trial of that control that is not in anyone’s hands.
Let us then suppose that certain Spirits decide to dictate a book with a given title and whose principles are contrary to those. Let us even imagine that with the objective of discrediting the Doctrine apocryphal messages were produced by malevolence. What would be the influence of such texts if they are disproved by the Spirits everywhere? One should count on the adhesion of the latter ones before releasing a system in their name. The distance between a system of a single Spirit and that of all Spirits is like the distance between the unity and infinite.
What can all the arguments of the detractors about the general opinion do when millions of friendly voices from space and in all corners of the globe and within the cell of each family come to contradict them? Hasn’t experience already confirmed the theory about that? What happened to all publications that pretended to have come to annihilate Spiritism? Which one has even precluded its march? Up until now this subject had not been faced by that viewpoint, undoubtedly one of the most serious. Each one of them counted on themselves but not on the Spirits.
A capital truth stems from that: Any person that wanted to oppose the flow of the established and endorsed ideas could well cause a small local and momentarily disturbance but never dominate the whole both in the present as well as in the future. It also points out the fact that instructions given by the Spirits about issues that are not clarified yet could not become law while isolated ideas and that consequently must be only accepted with the highest reservation and as informational.
Hence the need to be very careful when publishing them and if judged appropriate their publication then show them as individual opinions more or less likely but that still require confirmation. That is the confirmation that must be expected before a principle is presented as an absolute truth if one does not wish to be accused of light-heartedness or unthoughtful belief. The superior Spirits proceed with extreme wisdom in their revelations. They only gradually touch the great questions of the Doctrine as the intelligence becomes more capable of understanding the truths of a more elevated order and also the circumstances are adequate to a new idea. That is why they have not said everything from the beginning and even today they did not say everything, never yielding to the impatience of hasty persons that are ready to harvest the fruit before its maturation. It would then be useless to try to precipitate the time scheduled by the Providence for each thing because the really serious Spirits would refuse to help. The lighthearted Spirits though give little importance to the truth and respond to everything. That is why there are always contradictory answers to all premature questions. The principles above are not the result of a personal opinion but a forceful consequence of the conditions in which the Spirits manifest. It is clear that if a Spirit says something on one side while millions of others say the opposite elsewhere the presumption of truth cannot be on the side of only one or only a few. The pretension of being the only one to be right from the part of the Spirits is as much illogical as it is to a person. When the truly wise Spirits don’t feel sufficiently clarified about an issue they never resolve it in absolute terms; the openly indicate to be responding according to their personal opinion and even advise to wait for the confirmation.
However beautiful, fair and great an idea may be it is impossible to have the opinion of everybody behind it since the beginning. The resulting conflicts are an inevitable consequence of the general movement that takes place; these are even necessary to highlight the truth and it is useful that they take place in the beginning so that the false ideas be promptly discarded. The Spiritists that have some concern must rest assured. All of the isolated pretenses will fall by the force of things before the great and powerful criteria of the universal control. It is not the opinion of a person that they will follow but the unanimous voice of the Spirits. It is not a man and more importantly not us more than others that will found the Spiritist orthodoxy; it is not a Spirit that will impose upon anybody either; it is the universality of the Spirits, communicating all over Earth and commanded by God. That is the essential character of the Spiritist Doctrine, its strength and authority. God wanted His law to be founded on an unbreakable basis and that is why it was not laid upon the fragile mind of a single person.
It is before such a powerful engine that does not know little groups or envious rivalries nor sects or nations that every opposition will break, as all the ambitions and pretensions to individual supremacy; that we would ourselves be shattered if we wanted to replace the sovereign designs by our own ideas. It is the only one that will solve all the disputes; that will break the dissidences and will give or not give reason to the one that deserves it.
Before such power agreement between all voices of heavens what can the opinion of a single person or Spirit do? Less than the drop of water in the whole ocean. Less than the voice of a child muffled by the storm. The universal opinion that is the supreme judge, the one that has the last word. It is formed by all individual opinions; if one is true it will only have its relative weight on the scale; if it is false it will not be able to succeed against all others. Individuals fade away in that immense assembly and that is a new drawback to human pride.
Such a harmonious horizon is already forming. This century shall not be over before its full resplendence shines out reassuring uncertainties for until then powerful voices would have been assigned the mission of being heard to rank mankind under the same flag as long as the field is sufficiently prepared.
While wait, the one that floats between two opposing systems can observe the direction of the general opinion. That is the correct indication given by the majority of the Spirits about the several points in their communications. It is not a less certain signal about which system will succeed.
[1] This text is item II of the introduction of The Gospel According to Spiritism (TN)
This instruction is given in particular to persons that do not know the basics of Spiritism and to whom one wishes to provide a succinct idea in a few words. In groups and Spiritists groups in which there are rookie attendees it may be useful as a preamble to the session, according to the needs.
-o-
Persons that are strange to Spiritism and do not understand its means and objectives almost always have a false idea about it. Above all what they miss is the knowledge of the principle, the first key to the phenomena. In the absence of that what is heard or seen brings no benefit or interest to them. It is a demonstrated fact that the simple observation or report about the phenomena is not enough to convince. Someone that witnesses events capable of confounding her remains more astonished than convinced.
The more extraordinary the event the more suspicious it becomes.
The only thing that can lead to conviction is a serious previous study. Frequently that is even enough to change the way people think. In any case such a study is indispensable for the understanding of the phenomena. In the absence of a comprehensive instruction that cannot be given in a few words a succinct summary of the law that governs the manifestations will be enough to help the non-initiated to see things clearly. This is the first guideline that we provide in the short instruction that follows. A previous observation, however, is necessary.
The non-believer tends to suspect the good faith of the mediums, supposing the use of fraudulent means. Besides the fact that such a supposition is insulting to certain persons one must always question what would their interest be by pretending, deceiving or even playing a role in a comedy. The best assurance of honesty is the total lack of interest since charlatanism makes no sense in a place where there is nothing to gain. As for the reality of the phenomena it can be attested by everyone when placed in favorable conditions for the observation of the facts and when showing the necessary patience, perseverance and independence.
1. Spiritism is at the same time a science of observation and a philosophical doctrine. As a practical science it consists on the relationships that can be established with the Spirits; as a philosophy it embraces all the moral consequences that derive from those relationships.
2. The Spirits are not, as sometimes thought, special beings in creation. They are the souls of those that lived on Earth and in other worlds. Hence souls and Spirits are one and the same thing from what follows that anyone that believes in the existence of the soul consequently believes in the existence of the Spirits for that very reason.
3. People generally have a very wrong idea about the state of the Spirits. They are not, like some people think, vague and undefined beings, nor they are flames like foxfires or ghosts like in stories of apparitions. They are people like us, with a body like ours but invisible and vaporous in their normal state.
4. When the soul is united to the body during life it has a double envelope: one that is heavy, dense and destructible like ours; another one fluid, light and indestructible called perispirit. This perispirit is the link between the soul and the body. It is through the perispirit that the soul makes the body act, perceiving the sensations felt by the body.
5. Death is only the destruction of the dense envelope. The soul leaves that envelope behind like we leave behind an old peace of clothes or like the butterfly leaves the chrysalis behind but the soul keeps its fluid body or perispirit. A person is formed by the union between the soul, the perispirit and the material body. The soul and the perispirit form the so called Spirit when separated from the body.
6. The death of the body disengages the Spirit from the envelope that attached it to Earth, making the Spirit suffer. Once released from that load the Spirit only has its ethereal body with which it travels the space and transposes distances with the speed of thought.
7. The fluid that forms the perispirit penetrates all bodies and pass through them like light goes through transparent bodies. There is no material obstacle to that fluid. That is why the Spirits penetrate any environment however hermetic the place may be. The idea that they enter through an aperture or the hole of a lock or chimney is ridiculous.
8. The Spirits populate space. They form the invisible world around us in which we live and are in permanent contact.
9. The Spirits have all the perceptions they had when on Earth but to a higher degree because their sensations now are no longer lessened by matter; have sensations that are unknown to us; see and hear things that our limited senses do not allow us to see or hear. There is no darkness for them except for those whose temporary punishment is to remain in darkness. All of our thoughts reach them and are read by them like in an open book so much so that what we can hide from anyone when alive cannot be hidden from a Spirit.
10. The Spirits preserve the serious affections they had on Earth. They find pleasure in returning to be near the loved ones particularly when attracted by their thoughts and by the kind feelings addressed to them whereas they are indifferent to those that show indifference to them.
11. The Spirits may communicate in many different ways: through sight, hearing, touch, noises, movements of bodies, writing, drawing, music, etc. They manifest through persons that are gifted with a special aptitude for each kind of manifestation and that are designated mediums. That is how there are distinguished mediums clairvoyant, speaker, hearing, sensitive, of physical effects, painter, tiptologist, writing etc. Among the writing mediums there are several types according to the nature of the communications that they are capable of receiving.
12. Although invisible to us in its natural state the perispirit is still an ethereal matter. In certain cases the Spirit may produce a kind of molecular transformation onto the perispirit that makes it visible and tangible. That is how the apparitions are produced. Such a phenomenon is not more extraordinary than that of the vapor that becomes invisible when much too thin and visible when condensed. The Spirits that become visible almost always show up with the appearance they had when alive and by which they can be recognized.
13. The Spirit acts upon the living body through the perispirit. It is still with the help of that fluid that the Spirit manifests acting upon the inert matter, producing noises, motion of tables and other objects that are lifted, knocked down or transported. There is nothing remarkable about such a phenomenon if we consider that the most powerful mechanical principles among us are found in the thinnest fluids like air, vapor and electricity. It is equally with the help of its perispirit that the Spirit makes the medium write, speak or draw. Since the Spirit no longer has a tangible body to act positively the Spirit then utilizes the body of the medium when willing to communicate, making use of the organs as if their own, and all that by embracing the medium with its own fluid.
14. It is by that same process that the Spirit acts upon a table, moving it without a predetermined objective or making it rap intelligently indicating the letters of the alphabet for form words and phrases, a phenomenon called tiptology. In that case the table is not more than an instrument like the pencil that is used to write. The table receives a momentary vitality by the penetration of that fluid but there is no identification between the Spirit and the table. People that are moved by identifying the presence of a beloved one that communicates in that way and kiss the table do something ridiculous because it is absolutely the same as if they were kissing the walking stick of a friend that uses that instrument to make noise or as if the wood had become a Spirit. In the presence of such communications one must imagine the person at the table as if when alive and as the person would be seen if had become visible at that moment. The same applies to written communications. The Spirit would be seen by the side of the medium, directing the medium’s hand or transmitting the thought through a fluid tunnel. When the table is lifted from the ground and floats in space without support the Spirit is not doing that by the strength of the arm but involving and penetrating the object with a kind of fluid atmosphere that neutralizes the effect of gravity like the air does to balloons and kites. When planted on the ground it is in an analogous situation of the vacuum chamber. These are comparisons to show the analogy in the effects and not an absolute similarity of causes. After that it can be understood that to a Spirit lifting a person is not more difficult than a table or to transport an object from a place to another or throw it anywhere. These phenomena are produced by the same law. When the table is chasing someone it is not the Spirit that is running for the Spirit can calmly stay put but give the impulse to the table through a fluid chain through which moves the table at will. When the noises are heard in the table or somewhere else the Spirit is not hitting it with the hand or any other object. The Spirit addresses a beam of fluid to the place from where the noise is heard, producing the effect of an electric shock. The Spirit modifies the noises like we modify the sounds produced by air.
15. From those few words one can see that the Spiritist manifestations, irrespective of their type, have nothing of supernatural or wonderful. Those are phenomena produced according to the law that governs the relationships between the visible and invisible worlds, a natural law like that of electricity, gravitation, etc. Spiritism is the science that teaches us that law like mechanics teaches us the laws of motion and optics those of light. Since the Spiritist manifestations are part of nature they were produced at all times. When the law that governs them is known it explains a number of problems that were looked at as insoluble. It is the key to a number of phenomena that were exploited and amplified by superstition.
16. Keeping the supernatural totally away, there is no longer anything that repulses reason in such phenomena because they know come to take their seat side by side with other natural phenomena. In times of ignorance all the effects whose causes were unknown were named supernatural. Scientific discoveries progressively shrank the circle of the supernatural. The knowledge of this new law comes to shrink it to nothing. Therefore those that accuse Spiritism of having come to resuscitate the supernatural demonstrate for that very reason that they are talking about what they ignore.
17. A more or less widespread idea among those that do not know Spiritism is the belief that just because they are detached from matter the Spirits must know everything and have the supreme wisdom. That is a serious mistake. When the Spirits leave behind their corporeal envelopes they are not immediately freed from their imperfections. It is only with time that they depurate and improve. Since the Spirits are the souls of people and since there are people at all levels of knowledge and ignorance, goodness and malice the same happens to the Spirits. There are among them those that are only lighthearted and jesters; others are liars and deceivers, hypocrite, evil and vindictive; and there are others that on the contrary have the most sublime virtues and knowledge that is unknown on Earth. That diversity in the Spirits’ qualities is one of the most important points to consider for it explains the good or bad nature of the communications that are received. One must be careful in distinguishing them. The consequence of that is that it is far from enough to address any Spirit willing to get a fair answer to each question because each Spirit will respond according to their knowledge and many times will only give their personal opinion that may be right or wrong. A judicious Spirit will confess ignorance about something that is unknown; if lighthearted or liar will answer to everything without any concern with the truth; a proud Spirit will issue a personal idea as if the absolute truth. That is why St. John the Evangelist said: “Beloved, believe not every Spirit, but prove the Spirits, whether they are of God.” Experience demonstrates the wisdom of that advice. Thus, it would be imprudence and lightheartedness to accept everything that comes from the Spirits without control. The Spirits can only respond about what they know and also about what they are allowed to respond because there are things that they must not reveal because it is not time yet for mankind to know everything.
18. The level of the Spirits is known by their language. The really good and superior Spirits always use a dignified, noble, and logical language, exempt from any triviality, foolishness or contradiction; it breathes wisdom, benevolence and modesty; it is concise and free from useless words. The language of the inferior, ignorant or proud Spirits lacks those qualities; the emptiness of the ideas is almost always compensated by an abundance in words.
19. Another point to consider equally important is that the Spirits are free. They communicate with those of their choice and when they wish to do so and also when they can since they have their activities. They are not at the service or caprice of whoever and nobody has the power of making them come against their will or making them say what they do not wish to so much so that nobody can say that a given Spirit will respond to their appeal and come at a given time or respond to this or that question. To say otherwise is to demonstrate the most absolute ignorance about the most elemental principles of Spiritism. It is only charlatanism that has infallible sources.
20. The Spirits are attracted by sympathy, similarity of tastes and characters and by the intension that requires their presence. Superior Spirits do not attend futile gatherings like the earthly scientist would not join a party of foolish youngsters. Simple common sense says so; or, if they sometimes attend is to provide a healthy advice, combat vices and try to guide people in the right direction. If they are not heard they leave. It would be completely wrong to believe that serious Spirits would enjoy giving answers to silly questions that do not demonstrate interest or respect towards them nor the real desire of learning and even less that they could come to give spectacles to entertain curiosity. If they did not did that when alive they will not do it after death.
21. From the above it results that every Spiritist gathering must be serious and respectful as a first condition; that everything must take place in a serious, religious and respectful way, with dignity if the habitual support of the good Spirits is expected. One must not forget that if those elevated Spirits had attended the meeting when alive they would have enjoyed a regard that is even more justifiable after their death. It is useless to argument that certain curious, frivolous and funny experiments are necessary to convince the skeptical; the result is the opposite. The non-believer, already used to make fun of the most sacred beliefs, cannot see something serious in what people have fun with; cannot respect what is shown to them with disrespect. Therefore futile and careless meetings like those in which there is no order, sincerity and reverence always leave a bad impression. What can best convince them is above all the proof of the presence of their loved ones. We see them paling, touched by the solemn and serious words carried with intimate revelations. However, for the very reason that there is more respect, veneration and attachment to the soul that is presented to the skeptical the same person would be shocked by seen a loved one coming to an irreverent assembly among dancing tables and jester Spirits. However skeptical that person may be her conscience totally repeals such an alliance between the serious and the frivolous, between the religious and the profane, a reason for calling everything foolishness and sometimes leaving the meeting less convinced than when arrived. Meetings of that sort always do more harm than good because the keep away from the Doctrine more people than they attract, not to mention the fact that they give rise to the criticism of detractors that find there founded reason for mockery.
22. It is a mistake to transform physical manifestations into entertainment. They may not have the importance of the philosophical teachings but have their utility from the point of view of the phenomena since they are the basis of the science to which they provided the key. Although less necessary today they still help to convince certain persons. But they do not exclude absolutely order and seriousness in the gatherings where they take place. If they were always practiced in a more adequate way they would convince more easily and by all means produce much better results.
23. There is no doubt that these explanations are incomplete and may necessarily provoke many questions but one must keep in mind that this is not a course on Spiritism. They are enough to show the basis upon which Spiritism rests, the character of the manifestations and the degree of confidence that they may inspire according to the circumstances. As for the utility of the manifestations it is huge due to their consequences. Nonetheless even if their only result would be that of allowing us to get to know a new law of nature and materially demonstrate the existence of the soul and its immortality it would already be a lot because it would have opened a wide avenue to philosophy.
Societies of Anvers and Marseille
Antwerp, February 27th, 1864
Dear Master, we have the honor of letting you know about the society that we have just founded in Antwerp named Spiritist Circle Love and Charity. As you will see in the 2nd Article of the regulations we put ourselves under the sponsorship of the central society of Paris as under yours. We consequently declare to be associated to the Doctrine found in The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book. We are strongly committed to follow the path of the true Spiritists and want you to know that charity is the main objective of our meetings. Kindly consult with the spiritual president of your society to be fully convinced about our true feelings. However fragile our efforts may have been so far they were sincere and from that standpoint we are convinced that we are no strangers to him. We have the honor of attaching one of the letters obtained in our circle trough a speaking medium so that you can judge our tendencies, etc.
OBSERVATION: In fact the letter above was followed by an extensive communication that testifies about the good path followed by that society. In the same direction we also received another letter from the Spiritist Society of Marseille.
Marseille, March 21st, 1864
Mr. President, we are glad to let you know about the formation of our new society under the title Marseillaise Society of Spiritist Studies whose authorization has just been granted by Mr. Senator in charge of the administration of the Bouches-du-Rhone Department. Helped by your good advice, dear Master, we will do our best to follow the footstep of our Parisian brothers whose regulations were adopted by us for the organization of sessions. We place ourselves under the flagship of the Parisian Society and we also inscribe in our own flag: There is no salvation but through charity. Dr. C…, our President, will also have the honor of writing to you just after our inauguration. In the interest of the cause, dear Sir, we beg you to kindly give the publicity that you believe to be adequate about our Society so that the sincere followers can join us.
Sincerely, etc.
We have already said that the majority of the societies formed in France and abroad declare to be under the sponsorship of the Parisian Society. All letters that are sent to us about their formation have the same Spirit as the ones above. These spontaneous adhesions testify about the principles that prevail amongst the Spiritists and the Parisian Society cannot stay insensitive to so many signs of sympathy that demonstrate the serious intention of moving forward under the same flagship. That does not mean that others that have not made such an official declaration follow another orientation, far from that. The correspondence that they keep with us is a sufficient guarantee of their feelings and good direction of their studies. A very large number of meetings, in fact, do not have the organization of a society properly speaking and in their majority constitute only simple groups. Outside of societies and regular groups there are family gatherings that only accept family members and those are innumerable and multiply every day particularly in the higher classes.
Antwerp, February 27th, 1864
Dear Master, we have the honor of letting you know about the society that we have just founded in Antwerp named Spiritist Circle Love and Charity. As you will see in the 2nd Article of the regulations we put ourselves under the sponsorship of the central society of Paris as under yours. We consequently declare to be associated to the Doctrine found in The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book. We are strongly committed to follow the path of the true Spiritists and want you to know that charity is the main objective of our meetings. Kindly consult with the spiritual president of your society to be fully convinced about our true feelings. However fragile our efforts may have been so far they were sincere and from that standpoint we are convinced that we are no strangers to him. We have the honor of attaching one of the letters obtained in our circle trough a speaking medium so that you can judge our tendencies, etc.
OBSERVATION: In fact the letter above was followed by an extensive communication that testifies about the good path followed by that society. In the same direction we also received another letter from the Spiritist Society of Marseille.
Marseille, March 21st, 1864
Mr. President, we are glad to let you know about the formation of our new society under the title Marseillaise Society of Spiritist Studies whose authorization has just been granted by Mr. Senator in charge of the administration of the Bouches-du-Rhone Department. Helped by your good advice, dear Master, we will do our best to follow the footstep of our Parisian brothers whose regulations were adopted by us for the organization of sessions. We place ourselves under the flagship of the Parisian Society and we also inscribe in our own flag: There is no salvation but through charity. Dr. C…, our President, will also have the honor of writing to you just after our inauguration. In the interest of the cause, dear Sir, we beg you to kindly give the publicity that you believe to be adequate about our Society so that the sincere followers can join us.
Sincerely, etc.
We have already said that the majority of the societies formed in France and abroad declare to be under the sponsorship of the Parisian Society. All letters that are sent to us about their formation have the same Spirit as the ones above. These spontaneous adhesions testify about the principles that prevail amongst the Spiritists and the Parisian Society cannot stay insensitive to so many signs of sympathy that demonstrate the serious intention of moving forward under the same flagship. That does not mean that others that have not made such an official declaration follow another orientation, far from that. The correspondence that they keep with us is a sufficient guarantee of their feelings and good direction of their studies. A very large number of meetings, in fact, do not have the organization of a society properly speaking and in their majority constitute only simple groups. Outside of societies and regular groups there are family gatherings that only accept family members and those are innumerable and multiply every day particularly in the higher classes.
Instructions by the Spirits
Spontaneous communication
Parisian Society, November 19th, 1864 – medium Mr. Leymarie
The printing press was invented in the XV century. Like many other known and unknown inventions it had to take the chalice and drink the gall. I do not come to you, Spiritists, to tell you about my annoyances and sufferings because in those days of ignorance and sadness when your predecessors had on their chests the nightmare called feudalism and a blind theocracy that was much aware of its own power every person of progress had too much of a head. I only want to tell you a few words about my invention, about its results and the affinity with you, with the elements that make your power expansive.
The mother revolution, the one that carried from behind the way humanity expressed itself, human thoughts moving away from the past, from the symbolical skin, that was the invention of the printing press. Thoughts are mixed in the air in that format, turn spiritual, and becomes indestructible. Master of future centuries, it takes off an intelligent flight to connect all points in space and from that day onwards dominates the old way of speaking.
The primitive peoples needed monuments to represent them, mountains of stones telling those that could read: this is my religion, my law, my hopes and my poetry. In fact, the printing press replaced the hieroglyph. Its language is light and accessible to all. A book only requires a little bit of ink and paper and some hands whilst a cathedral demands many lives of a people and tons of gold.
Allow me a digression here. The alphabet of the first peoples was formed by chips of stones that had not been touched by iron. The stones erected by the Celtic are also found in Siberia and America. They were the confusing human memories written in durable monuments. The Hebrew Galgal, the megaliths, the dolmens, and the tombs later on expressed words. Then came the tradition and the symbols.
Since those first monuments were not enough anymore the edifice was created and architecture became monstrous; it remained like giants telling the new generations about the symbols of the past. Such were the pagodas[1], the pyramids and the temple of Solomon.
It was the edifice that contained the Verb, that mother idea of all nations. Their shape and situation represented a whole thought and that is why that all symbols have their great and magnificent pages in stone.
Freemasonry is the written and intelligent idea belonging to those men that became united by a symbol, taking Iram by their patron and forming the French-Freemasonry so much dishonored and that carried over the embryo of freedom. It knew how to spread its monuments and the symbols of the past all over the world replacing the theocracy of the first civilizations by democracy, that law of freedom. After the theocratic monuments of Egypt and India come their sisters, the Greek-Roman architectures and later the romantic and somber style representing the absolute, the unit and the priest. The crusades bring us the weapon and the Lord wants to share, waiting for the people that will take its place. Feudalism sees the birth of the communes and the face of Europe changes because the warhead dethrones the romantic; the Brickman becomes an artist and adds poetry to matter: it gives it the privilege of freedom in architecture because that was the only way of expressing thoughts those days. How many incitements written on the façades of monuments! That is why the poets, the thinkers, the disinherited and everything that was intelligent covered Europe with cathedrals!
As you see, up until the poor Guttenberg architecture was the universal writing. Printing press, in turn, knocks down the gothic; theocracy is the horror of progress, the mummified preservation of the primitive types; the warhead is the transition from darkness to the twilight zone in which one can easily read and understand the stone but the printing press is day light, destroying the manuscript, demanding more space that since then nothing can stop.
Like the Sun, the printing press will fecund the world with its beneficial rays. Society will no longer be represented by architecture because it will be classic and Renaissance’s and that world of artists breaking away from the past open up large voids in human Theogony to follow the avenue designed by God; it is now tired of being simple artisans of monuments from the Renaissance to become sculptor, painter and musician. The force of harmony wears out in books and already in the XVI century it is so much strong that printing press of Nuremberg that it is the advent of a literary century. It is at the same time Luther, Jean Goujon, Rousseau and Voltaire. The printing press is that slow fight against the old Europe that rebuilds after the destruction. And now that thought is emancipated which power could write the architectural bool of our times? All the millions of our planet would not be enough and nobody could lift up what is in the past and exclusively belongs to the past. Without neglecting the great book of architecture that the past and its teachings are we thank God that knows, at the right time, to give us the strength of such a powerful weapon that becomes the bread to the Spirit, the emancipation of the body, the free-will of mankind, the idea that is common to everyone, science, the foundation that fertilizes Earth and making us better. But if the printing press has emancipated you electricity will make you truly free and will dethrone the printing press of Guttenberg to put in your hands a much more fearful power and that will come soon.
The Spiritist science, that safeguard of humanity, will help you understand the new power that I am talking about. Guttenberg to whom God gave the providential mission will undoubtedly take part in the second one, that is, the one that will guide you in the study of the fluids. You shall soon be ready, dear friends. Nonetheless, it is not only about being eager Spirits. You also need to study so that everything that was taught about electricity and all fluids in general becomes well understood. Nothing is strange to the science of the Spirits. The stronger your intellectual foundation the lesser you shall be surprised by the new discoveries. You must be the initiators of new ways of thinking, strong and reassured of your spiritual skills. I was therefore right to speak about my mission, sister to yours. You are the elected ones in humanity. The good Spirits give you a book that goes around the world but you would do nothing without the printing press. The obsession that wakes the truth of men will disappear. But I insist: be ready and study so that you are worth of the new benefit and more intelligently than others you must be able to spread and make it accepted.
Guttenberg
OBSERVATION: The printing press produced an intellectual revelation that nobody can ignore considering the diffusion of ideas made imperishable and spread on all corners of the world. Because such a result was initially foreseen by some it was called diabolic invention. This is another point in common with Spiritism that Guttenberg did not mention.
If some people were heard it would seem that the devil has the monopoly of every great idea since all of those that push humanity a step forward are attributed to the devil. Jesus himself was accused of acting through the devil that in turn must be proud of having all good and beautiful things removed from God and attributed to him. Wasn’t the devil that inspired Galileo and every scientific discovery that made humanity progress? Following that the devil must be too modest to not consider himself the owner of the universe! Yet what can seem strange is the devil’s inability since there isn’t a single progress in science that has not contributed to the ruin of the devil’s empire. It is a detail about which people have not given enough thought.
If that was the power of such an absolutely material means of propagation how much more wouldn’t be that of the teachings of the Spirits that communicate everywhere even penetrating where books cannot go, being heard even by those that cannot hear! Which human power could resist such force?
The remarkable dissertation above provoked the following reflections from another Spirit at the heart of the Society.
[1] Buddhist religious monuments (TN)
Parisian Society, November 19th, 1864 – medium Mr. Leymarie
The printing press was invented in the XV century. Like many other known and unknown inventions it had to take the chalice and drink the gall. I do not come to you, Spiritists, to tell you about my annoyances and sufferings because in those days of ignorance and sadness when your predecessors had on their chests the nightmare called feudalism and a blind theocracy that was much aware of its own power every person of progress had too much of a head. I only want to tell you a few words about my invention, about its results and the affinity with you, with the elements that make your power expansive.
The mother revolution, the one that carried from behind the way humanity expressed itself, human thoughts moving away from the past, from the symbolical skin, that was the invention of the printing press. Thoughts are mixed in the air in that format, turn spiritual, and becomes indestructible. Master of future centuries, it takes off an intelligent flight to connect all points in space and from that day onwards dominates the old way of speaking.
The primitive peoples needed monuments to represent them, mountains of stones telling those that could read: this is my religion, my law, my hopes and my poetry. In fact, the printing press replaced the hieroglyph. Its language is light and accessible to all. A book only requires a little bit of ink and paper and some hands whilst a cathedral demands many lives of a people and tons of gold.
Allow me a digression here. The alphabet of the first peoples was formed by chips of stones that had not been touched by iron. The stones erected by the Celtic are also found in Siberia and America. They were the confusing human memories written in durable monuments. The Hebrew Galgal, the megaliths, the dolmens, and the tombs later on expressed words. Then came the tradition and the symbols.
Since those first monuments were not enough anymore the edifice was created and architecture became monstrous; it remained like giants telling the new generations about the symbols of the past. Such were the pagodas[1], the pyramids and the temple of Solomon.
It was the edifice that contained the Verb, that mother idea of all nations. Their shape and situation represented a whole thought and that is why that all symbols have their great and magnificent pages in stone.
Freemasonry is the written and intelligent idea belonging to those men that became united by a symbol, taking Iram by their patron and forming the French-Freemasonry so much dishonored and that carried over the embryo of freedom. It knew how to spread its monuments and the symbols of the past all over the world replacing the theocracy of the first civilizations by democracy, that law of freedom. After the theocratic monuments of Egypt and India come their sisters, the Greek-Roman architectures and later the romantic and somber style representing the absolute, the unit and the priest. The crusades bring us the weapon and the Lord wants to share, waiting for the people that will take its place. Feudalism sees the birth of the communes and the face of Europe changes because the warhead dethrones the romantic; the Brickman becomes an artist and adds poetry to matter: it gives it the privilege of freedom in architecture because that was the only way of expressing thoughts those days. How many incitements written on the façades of monuments! That is why the poets, the thinkers, the disinherited and everything that was intelligent covered Europe with cathedrals!
As you see, up until the poor Guttenberg architecture was the universal writing. Printing press, in turn, knocks down the gothic; theocracy is the horror of progress, the mummified preservation of the primitive types; the warhead is the transition from darkness to the twilight zone in which one can easily read and understand the stone but the printing press is day light, destroying the manuscript, demanding more space that since then nothing can stop.
Like the Sun, the printing press will fecund the world with its beneficial rays. Society will no longer be represented by architecture because it will be classic and Renaissance’s and that world of artists breaking away from the past open up large voids in human Theogony to follow the avenue designed by God; it is now tired of being simple artisans of monuments from the Renaissance to become sculptor, painter and musician. The force of harmony wears out in books and already in the XVI century it is so much strong that printing press of Nuremberg that it is the advent of a literary century. It is at the same time Luther, Jean Goujon, Rousseau and Voltaire. The printing press is that slow fight against the old Europe that rebuilds after the destruction. And now that thought is emancipated which power could write the architectural bool of our times? All the millions of our planet would not be enough and nobody could lift up what is in the past and exclusively belongs to the past. Without neglecting the great book of architecture that the past and its teachings are we thank God that knows, at the right time, to give us the strength of such a powerful weapon that becomes the bread to the Spirit, the emancipation of the body, the free-will of mankind, the idea that is common to everyone, science, the foundation that fertilizes Earth and making us better. But if the printing press has emancipated you electricity will make you truly free and will dethrone the printing press of Guttenberg to put in your hands a much more fearful power and that will come soon.
The Spiritist science, that safeguard of humanity, will help you understand the new power that I am talking about. Guttenberg to whom God gave the providential mission will undoubtedly take part in the second one, that is, the one that will guide you in the study of the fluids. You shall soon be ready, dear friends. Nonetheless, it is not only about being eager Spirits. You also need to study so that everything that was taught about electricity and all fluids in general becomes well understood. Nothing is strange to the science of the Spirits. The stronger your intellectual foundation the lesser you shall be surprised by the new discoveries. You must be the initiators of new ways of thinking, strong and reassured of your spiritual skills. I was therefore right to speak about my mission, sister to yours. You are the elected ones in humanity. The good Spirits give you a book that goes around the world but you would do nothing without the printing press. The obsession that wakes the truth of men will disappear. But I insist: be ready and study so that you are worth of the new benefit and more intelligently than others you must be able to spread and make it accepted.
Guttenberg
OBSERVATION: The printing press produced an intellectual revelation that nobody can ignore considering the diffusion of ideas made imperishable and spread on all corners of the world. Because such a result was initially foreseen by some it was called diabolic invention. This is another point in common with Spiritism that Guttenberg did not mention.
If some people were heard it would seem that the devil has the monopoly of every great idea since all of those that push humanity a step forward are attributed to the devil. Jesus himself was accused of acting through the devil that in turn must be proud of having all good and beautiful things removed from God and attributed to him. Wasn’t the devil that inspired Galileo and every scientific discovery that made humanity progress? Following that the devil must be too modest to not consider himself the owner of the universe! Yet what can seem strange is the devil’s inability since there isn’t a single progress in science that has not contributed to the ruin of the devil’s empire. It is a detail about which people have not given enough thought.
If that was the power of such an absolutely material means of propagation how much more wouldn’t be that of the teachings of the Spirits that communicate everywhere even penetrating where books cannot go, being heard even by those that cannot hear! Which human power could resist such force?
The remarkable dissertation above provoked the following reflections from another Spirit at the heart of the Society.
[1] Buddhist religious monuments (TN)
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies – medium Mr. A. Didier
The Spirit of Guttenberg defined very poetically the positive effects and so much universally progressive of the printing press and the future of electricity. Nonetheless I allow myself, as a former builder of castles, towers, terraces and cathedrals, to expose certain theories about the character and objective of the architecture in the middle ages.
Everyone knows and in our days illustrious archeologists taught that religion, the naïve faith, erected with human ingenuity those superb gothic monuments spread all over Europe, and here the idea expressed by Guttenberg is highly appreciated. It is our duty, however, to expose our opinion not against but in favor of his own.
The idea, that light of the soul, a real spark that excites human will and movement, manifests itself in several ways through arts, philosophy, etc. Architecture, the elevated art that perhaps better expresses the nature and genius of a people, was consecrated to worship God and religious ceremonies in religious nations. The middle ages, groundwork of feudalism and belief, had the glory of founding two essentially different arts in their objective and dedication but that perfectly express the status of their civilization: the fortress castle, inhabited by the feudal master or by the king; the abbey, the monastery and the church; in a word the military and religious architectures.
The Romans, essentially administrators, warriors, universal conquerors and colonizers, forced by the extension of their domains, never had an architecture inspired by religious faith. It was only greed, profit and the executive power that made them build those formidable mountains of stones, symbol of their audacity and intellectual capability. Gothic art, at the beginning austere and discretely flowery, was created by the poetry of the north, contemplative, fuzzy and united to the pageantry of the orient. In fact we see in the architecture the realization of religious tendencies and feudal despotism.
Those famous ruins of so many human revolutions still impose themselves by their grandiose and formidable aspects, more than by time. It seems that the century that saw their birth was hard, somber and inexorable with them. But from that one must not conclude that the discovery of the printing press, by any stretch of the mind, simplified art in architecture.
No! Art, part of creativity, will always be religious, political, military, democratic or monarchist. Art and printing press have their own roles. Not willing to be excessively technical, one must not confound the objective of each thing. One must only say that different skills and manifestations of the human mind must not be mixed.
Robert de Luzarches
The Spirit of Guttenberg defined very poetically the positive effects and so much universally progressive of the printing press and the future of electricity. Nonetheless I allow myself, as a former builder of castles, towers, terraces and cathedrals, to expose certain theories about the character and objective of the architecture in the middle ages.
Everyone knows and in our days illustrious archeologists taught that religion, the naïve faith, erected with human ingenuity those superb gothic monuments spread all over Europe, and here the idea expressed by Guttenberg is highly appreciated. It is our duty, however, to expose our opinion not against but in favor of his own.
The idea, that light of the soul, a real spark that excites human will and movement, manifests itself in several ways through arts, philosophy, etc. Architecture, the elevated art that perhaps better expresses the nature and genius of a people, was consecrated to worship God and religious ceremonies in religious nations. The middle ages, groundwork of feudalism and belief, had the glory of founding two essentially different arts in their objective and dedication but that perfectly express the status of their civilization: the fortress castle, inhabited by the feudal master or by the king; the abbey, the monastery and the church; in a word the military and religious architectures.
The Romans, essentially administrators, warriors, universal conquerors and colonizers, forced by the extension of their domains, never had an architecture inspired by religious faith. It was only greed, profit and the executive power that made them build those formidable mountains of stones, symbol of their audacity and intellectual capability. Gothic art, at the beginning austere and discretely flowery, was created by the poetry of the north, contemplative, fuzzy and united to the pageantry of the orient. In fact we see in the architecture the realization of religious tendencies and feudal despotism.
Those famous ruins of so many human revolutions still impose themselves by their grandiose and formidable aspects, more than by time. It seems that the century that saw their birth was hard, somber and inexorable with them. But from that one must not conclude that the discovery of the printing press, by any stretch of the mind, simplified art in architecture.
No! Art, part of creativity, will always be religious, political, military, democratic or monarchist. Art and printing press have their own roles. Not willing to be excessively technical, one must not confound the objective of each thing. One must only say that different skills and manifestations of the human mind must not be mixed.
Robert de Luzarches
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, February 25th, 1864
NOTE: In this session we thanked the Spirit of Guttenberg asking him to take part in our conversations at any time he thought convenient. The presence of several foreign dignitaries of the Freemasonry Order motivated the following question: Which support can Spiritism find in the French-Freemasonry? Several dissertations were given about the subject as below.
I
Mr. President I thank you for your kind invitation. It is the first time that I have one of my communications read at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies and I hope this will not be the last one. You may have perhaps found my considerations a bit too extensive about the printing press, some thoughts that you may not approve completely, but considering the difficulties that we have to face to communicate through the mediums and utilize their faculties I beg you to kindly forgive certain expressions or language structures that are not always dominated by us. Electricity will later on makes its mediumistic revelation and since everything will change with respect to the reproduction of the Spirit’s thoughts you will no longer find those sometimes regrettable blanks, particularly when the communications are read in the presence of strangers.
You mentioned the Freemasonry and you are right about the expectation of finding good elements there. What is asked of any initiated Freemason? The belief in the immortality of the soul and in the Divine Architect; that the initiated be benevolent, devoted, sociable, dignified and humble. Equality is practiced there in the highest level. Hence there is a striking affinity between the two societies. The issue of Spiritism has been placed in the order of the day in several Masonic lodges and here the result: several long reports were read about it but they did not study it in depth, leading to discussions about matters that they did not know, judging from what they had heard about more than by reality. Many Masons, however, are Spiritists and work hard for the propagation of that belief. Everyone listens but if habit says no, reason says yes.
You must wait because time is a recruiter like no other. Through time impressions necessarily change in the vast field of the lodges and the Spiritist study will enter as a complement because it is already in the air. It was laughed at and spoken about but now they mediate about it. You will then have a Spiritist allotment in those essential liberal societies. You will enter through them in the second period that must prepare the promised avenues. The intelligent persons of the Masonry will praise you for the moral of the Spirits will give a body to that compromised and feared sect but that does more good than people think. Everything has a difficult beginning, a mysterious affinity and if that is true with respect to things that disturb society it is even more true to things that lead to the moral progress of the peoples.
Guttenberg, medium Mr. Leymarie
II
My dear brother in doctrine (the Spirit addresses one of the French-Masons and Spiritist that was present) I gladly come to respond to the benevolent appeal that you address to the Spirits that loved and founded the French-Freemasonry institutions.
I shed my own blood twice to cement this generous institution; public places of this city were tinted twice by the blood of the poor Jacques de Molay. Dear brothers, would a third time be needed? I will happily answer: No. You have already been told: the more blood the more despotism and the more executioners! A society of brothers, friends, persons full of good will that only wish to get to know the truth to do good! I had not communicated in this assembly yet. While you spoke about the Spiritist science and philosophy I yielded the space to the Spirits that are more capable of giving you advices about those several points and patiently waited knowing that my time would come. There is a time for everything as there is a time to everyone. I then believe that my time has come. I can now give you my opinion about Spiritism and French-Freemasonry.
The Masonic institutions were a path to happiness for society. In times when liberal ideas were considered crime people needed a force that entirely submitted to the rule of law was not less emancipated by their beliefs, institutions and unity of teachings. In those days religion, instead of a consoling mother, was still a despotic force that ordered, hurt and bent everything by the voice of its ministers. It was reason for fear to anyone that wished to act as a free thinker and take some moral relief to those in suffering. United by the hearts, fortune and charity our temples were the only altars where God had not been ignored; where a man could still see oneself as a man; where a child could find protection and the abandoned friends. Several centuries went by and many added flowers to the Masonic crown. Those were martyrs, educated men, legislators that added to their glory by becoming its defenders and preservers.
In the nineteenth century Spiritism comes with its luminous beam reaching out to the commanders, to the Rosicrucian, and with a thunderous voice say: Let us go, brothers! I am truly the voice that is heard in the orient and to which the occident responds: Glory, honor, victory to the children of men! Still a few days and Spiritism will have transposed the wall that separates the majority from the room of the secrets in the temple and on that very day society will see the most beautiful Spiritist flower sprout in its heart, providing from its falling petals a regenerating seed of the true freedom. Spiritism has made progresses but when it walk hand in hand with the French-Freemasonry all difficulties will be overcome; every obstacle shall be removed; truth will shiny and the greatest moral progress shall be achieved. It will have transposed the first steps of the throne where it will soon reign.
My fraternal and friendly greetings to all.
Jacques de Molay, medium Ms. Béguet
III
I was really glad to mention my participation in this so spiritualistic center and return thanks to Guttenberg as I was attracted by Jacquard the other day. Most of the dissertation given by the great typographer handled the issue from the profession stand point and he did not see in that invention but its practical, material and utilitarian side. Let us broaden the debate and look at the issue from a higher perspective.
It would be a mistake to believe that the printing press came to replace architecture as this one will remain to continue its historical role through characteristic monuments marked by the Spirit of each century, each generation, and each humanitarian revolution. We say out loud that no, the printing press is not here to knock anything down. It came to complement through its great, special and emancipating mission. It came at its right time like all other discoveries that are providentially born here on Earth. Contemporary of the monk that discovered the gun powder, changing the art of war with that, Guttenberg brought a new lever to the expression of ideas. Let us not forget this: the printing press would not have real meaning without the emancipation of the masses and by the intellectual development of individuals. Without that need to satisfy and that engine to fuel, that spiritual manna to distribute, the printing press would remain idle for a long time fighting in the void and would not be considered by a mad dream or a useless utopia. Wasn’t that the case with the first inventors, or even better, with first ones that discovered the properties of steam? Have Guttenberg been born in the Andaman Islands and the printing press would have certainly been aborted. Hence the idea is the essential lever to consider. Without the idea, without the fertilizing work of thinkers and philosophers alike and even those of the dreamer monks of the middle ages, the printing press would have turned into dead word. Guttenberg then lit more than one candle in tribute to the dialectic school that made the idea flourish and depurated intelligences.
The fervent idea around a plastic image in the human brain is and will always be the greatest engine of discoveries and inventions. The creation of a new need at the heart of modern society is like opening a new path to the eternally innovative idea; it is like pushing intelligence to search for the satisfaction of that new necessity of humanity. That is why all over the place where the idea reigns sovereign, where it is received with respect, and where finally the thinkers are honored there is assurance of progress towards God.
The so much bashed French-Freemasonry, against which the Roman Church did not have enough anathemas and still survived, French-Freemasonry had the doors of its temples wide open to the emancipating cult of ideas. All of the most serious issues were discussed in its very heart and before Spiritism had even showed up the venerable and grand-masters knew and professed that the soul was immortal and that the visible and invisible worlds communicated with one another. It was there in the sanctuaries that do not admit the profane that Swedenborg, Pasquali and Saint-Martin obtained striking results. It was there that the great Sofia, that ethereal inspiration, came to teach the firstborn of humanity the liberating dogmas whose generous principles were given in 1789. It was there and much earlier than your contemporary mediums that precursors of your mediumship, unknown persons, had evoked and made appear wise people of antiquity and from the first centuries of this era. It was there… I stop here. The restricted schedule of your sessions do not allow me to elaborate more about this interesting matter as I would like to do. We shall return to that later. All I will say now is that Spiritism will find at the heart of the Mason Lodges a compact phalanx of believers, not ephemeral but serious, resolved and unbreakable believers in their faith.
Spiritism carries out all of the generous and charitable aspirations of the French-Masonry; sanctions the beliefs of the latter by giving irrefutable proofs of the immortality of the soul; leads humanity to the objective that it proposes: union, peace and universal fraternity by the faith in God and in the future.
Wouldn’t that be the case that every sincere Spiritist of all nations, cults and classes look at one another like brothers? Isn’t that a French-Masonry between them with the exception that instead of being secret it is practiced openly? Enlightened men, like the ones it congregates that put their education above the prejudices of cast and silos, they cannot show indifference to the movement produced by this essentially liberating doctrine in the world. Repudiating such a powerful element of moral progress would be like denying their own principles and stand side by side with the retrograde. No, I am certain that they will not allow themselves to veer off and will take care of this serious issue with our influence.
Spiritism is an irresistible chain of ideas that must reach the whole world. It is a matter of time. Well, one would acknowledge ignorance with respect to the character of Masonry by believing that it would represent a negative role in the movement that impels humanity forward; believe that it would extinguish the flame as if it were afraid of light. It must be clear that I speak of the high French-Masonry and not of those lodges created for the illusion where people gather to eat and drink and to make fun of the rookies before their trials rather than discuss moral and philosophical issues. It was even necessary to the French-Masonry to accomplish its mission that from time to time and from place to place temples outside the temple, profane places outside sacred ones, false tabernacles outside the arc. It is in those places that the followers of Spiritism have uselessly tried to make themselves understood.
In short, French-Masonry taught the dogma that precedes yours and secretly professed what you proclaim out loud. I said I would return to this subject if the elevated Spirits that preside over your works allow me. While I wait I attest that the Spiritist Doctrine can perfectly mix with the great Lodges of the Orient.
Now, glory to the Great Architect.
A former French-Mason, Vaucanson, medium Mr. D’Ambel
NOTE: In this session we thanked the Spirit of Guttenberg asking him to take part in our conversations at any time he thought convenient. The presence of several foreign dignitaries of the Freemasonry Order motivated the following question: Which support can Spiritism find in the French-Freemasonry? Several dissertations were given about the subject as below.
I
Mr. President I thank you for your kind invitation. It is the first time that I have one of my communications read at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies and I hope this will not be the last one. You may have perhaps found my considerations a bit too extensive about the printing press, some thoughts that you may not approve completely, but considering the difficulties that we have to face to communicate through the mediums and utilize their faculties I beg you to kindly forgive certain expressions or language structures that are not always dominated by us. Electricity will later on makes its mediumistic revelation and since everything will change with respect to the reproduction of the Spirit’s thoughts you will no longer find those sometimes regrettable blanks, particularly when the communications are read in the presence of strangers.
You mentioned the Freemasonry and you are right about the expectation of finding good elements there. What is asked of any initiated Freemason? The belief in the immortality of the soul and in the Divine Architect; that the initiated be benevolent, devoted, sociable, dignified and humble. Equality is practiced there in the highest level. Hence there is a striking affinity between the two societies. The issue of Spiritism has been placed in the order of the day in several Masonic lodges and here the result: several long reports were read about it but they did not study it in depth, leading to discussions about matters that they did not know, judging from what they had heard about more than by reality. Many Masons, however, are Spiritists and work hard for the propagation of that belief. Everyone listens but if habit says no, reason says yes.
You must wait because time is a recruiter like no other. Through time impressions necessarily change in the vast field of the lodges and the Spiritist study will enter as a complement because it is already in the air. It was laughed at and spoken about but now they mediate about it. You will then have a Spiritist allotment in those essential liberal societies. You will enter through them in the second period that must prepare the promised avenues. The intelligent persons of the Masonry will praise you for the moral of the Spirits will give a body to that compromised and feared sect but that does more good than people think. Everything has a difficult beginning, a mysterious affinity and if that is true with respect to things that disturb society it is even more true to things that lead to the moral progress of the peoples.
Guttenberg, medium Mr. Leymarie
II
My dear brother in doctrine (the Spirit addresses one of the French-Masons and Spiritist that was present) I gladly come to respond to the benevolent appeal that you address to the Spirits that loved and founded the French-Freemasonry institutions.
I shed my own blood twice to cement this generous institution; public places of this city were tinted twice by the blood of the poor Jacques de Molay. Dear brothers, would a third time be needed? I will happily answer: No. You have already been told: the more blood the more despotism and the more executioners! A society of brothers, friends, persons full of good will that only wish to get to know the truth to do good! I had not communicated in this assembly yet. While you spoke about the Spiritist science and philosophy I yielded the space to the Spirits that are more capable of giving you advices about those several points and patiently waited knowing that my time would come. There is a time for everything as there is a time to everyone. I then believe that my time has come. I can now give you my opinion about Spiritism and French-Freemasonry.
The Masonic institutions were a path to happiness for society. In times when liberal ideas were considered crime people needed a force that entirely submitted to the rule of law was not less emancipated by their beliefs, institutions and unity of teachings. In those days religion, instead of a consoling mother, was still a despotic force that ordered, hurt and bent everything by the voice of its ministers. It was reason for fear to anyone that wished to act as a free thinker and take some moral relief to those in suffering. United by the hearts, fortune and charity our temples were the only altars where God had not been ignored; where a man could still see oneself as a man; where a child could find protection and the abandoned friends. Several centuries went by and many added flowers to the Masonic crown. Those were martyrs, educated men, legislators that added to their glory by becoming its defenders and preservers.
In the nineteenth century Spiritism comes with its luminous beam reaching out to the commanders, to the Rosicrucian, and with a thunderous voice say: Let us go, brothers! I am truly the voice that is heard in the orient and to which the occident responds: Glory, honor, victory to the children of men! Still a few days and Spiritism will have transposed the wall that separates the majority from the room of the secrets in the temple and on that very day society will see the most beautiful Spiritist flower sprout in its heart, providing from its falling petals a regenerating seed of the true freedom. Spiritism has made progresses but when it walk hand in hand with the French-Freemasonry all difficulties will be overcome; every obstacle shall be removed; truth will shiny and the greatest moral progress shall be achieved. It will have transposed the first steps of the throne where it will soon reign.
My fraternal and friendly greetings to all.
Jacques de Molay, medium Ms. Béguet
III
I was really glad to mention my participation in this so spiritualistic center and return thanks to Guttenberg as I was attracted by Jacquard the other day. Most of the dissertation given by the great typographer handled the issue from the profession stand point and he did not see in that invention but its practical, material and utilitarian side. Let us broaden the debate and look at the issue from a higher perspective.
It would be a mistake to believe that the printing press came to replace architecture as this one will remain to continue its historical role through characteristic monuments marked by the Spirit of each century, each generation, and each humanitarian revolution. We say out loud that no, the printing press is not here to knock anything down. It came to complement through its great, special and emancipating mission. It came at its right time like all other discoveries that are providentially born here on Earth. Contemporary of the monk that discovered the gun powder, changing the art of war with that, Guttenberg brought a new lever to the expression of ideas. Let us not forget this: the printing press would not have real meaning without the emancipation of the masses and by the intellectual development of individuals. Without that need to satisfy and that engine to fuel, that spiritual manna to distribute, the printing press would remain idle for a long time fighting in the void and would not be considered by a mad dream or a useless utopia. Wasn’t that the case with the first inventors, or even better, with first ones that discovered the properties of steam? Have Guttenberg been born in the Andaman Islands and the printing press would have certainly been aborted. Hence the idea is the essential lever to consider. Without the idea, without the fertilizing work of thinkers and philosophers alike and even those of the dreamer monks of the middle ages, the printing press would have turned into dead word. Guttenberg then lit more than one candle in tribute to the dialectic school that made the idea flourish and depurated intelligences.
The fervent idea around a plastic image in the human brain is and will always be the greatest engine of discoveries and inventions. The creation of a new need at the heart of modern society is like opening a new path to the eternally innovative idea; it is like pushing intelligence to search for the satisfaction of that new necessity of humanity. That is why all over the place where the idea reigns sovereign, where it is received with respect, and where finally the thinkers are honored there is assurance of progress towards God.
The so much bashed French-Freemasonry, against which the Roman Church did not have enough anathemas and still survived, French-Freemasonry had the doors of its temples wide open to the emancipating cult of ideas. All of the most serious issues were discussed in its very heart and before Spiritism had even showed up the venerable and grand-masters knew and professed that the soul was immortal and that the visible and invisible worlds communicated with one another. It was there in the sanctuaries that do not admit the profane that Swedenborg, Pasquali and Saint-Martin obtained striking results. It was there that the great Sofia, that ethereal inspiration, came to teach the firstborn of humanity the liberating dogmas whose generous principles were given in 1789. It was there and much earlier than your contemporary mediums that precursors of your mediumship, unknown persons, had evoked and made appear wise people of antiquity and from the first centuries of this era. It was there… I stop here. The restricted schedule of your sessions do not allow me to elaborate more about this interesting matter as I would like to do. We shall return to that later. All I will say now is that Spiritism will find at the heart of the Mason Lodges a compact phalanx of believers, not ephemeral but serious, resolved and unbreakable believers in their faith.
Spiritism carries out all of the generous and charitable aspirations of the French-Masonry; sanctions the beliefs of the latter by giving irrefutable proofs of the immortality of the soul; leads humanity to the objective that it proposes: union, peace and universal fraternity by the faith in God and in the future.
Wouldn’t that be the case that every sincere Spiritist of all nations, cults and classes look at one another like brothers? Isn’t that a French-Masonry between them with the exception that instead of being secret it is practiced openly? Enlightened men, like the ones it congregates that put their education above the prejudices of cast and silos, they cannot show indifference to the movement produced by this essentially liberating doctrine in the world. Repudiating such a powerful element of moral progress would be like denying their own principles and stand side by side with the retrograde. No, I am certain that they will not allow themselves to veer off and will take care of this serious issue with our influence.
Spiritism is an irresistible chain of ideas that must reach the whole world. It is a matter of time. Well, one would acknowledge ignorance with respect to the character of Masonry by believing that it would represent a negative role in the movement that impels humanity forward; believe that it would extinguish the flame as if it were afraid of light. It must be clear that I speak of the high French-Masonry and not of those lodges created for the illusion where people gather to eat and drink and to make fun of the rookies before their trials rather than discuss moral and philosophical issues. It was even necessary to the French-Masonry to accomplish its mission that from time to time and from place to place temples outside the temple, profane places outside sacred ones, false tabernacles outside the arc. It is in those places that the followers of Spiritism have uselessly tried to make themselves understood.
In short, French-Masonry taught the dogma that precedes yours and secretly professed what you proclaim out loud. I said I would return to this subject if the elevated Spirits that preside over your works allow me. While I wait I attest that the Spiritist Doctrine can perfectly mix with the great Lodges of the Orient.
Now, glory to the Great Architect.
A former French-Mason, Vaucanson, medium Mr. D’Ambel
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, January 17th, 1864
Medium Mrs. Costel
My friends, I come to you the experienced and tested workers in suffering. I come to salute you, brave and worthy workers, in the name of charity and love.
You are my friend Jesus’ beloved ones. Rest assured with the Spiritist belief as I did at the heart of the Divine Messenger. Workers, you are the elected ones in the painful path of trial where you walk with your bleeding feet and discouraged hearts. Wait, brothers! Every suffering carries its own compensation; every laborious day has its night of rest. Believe in the future that will be your reward and do not seek forgetfulness that is sinful. Forgetfulness, my friends, is a selfish and brutal intoxication; it is hunger to your children and tears to your wives. Forgetfulness is cowardice.
What would you think of a worker that pretending fatigue would leave the shop floor and cowardly stopped the initiated task? My friends, life is the journey in eternity. Be brave in accomplishing your task; do not dream about an impossible rest; do not turn the clock forward; everything has its own time: the reward for your courage and the blessings to a touched heart that trusts the eternal justice.
Be Spiritists and you shall become strong and patients for you will learn that that trials are your guarantee of progress and that they will open up the horizons of a happy rest where you shall praise the sufferings that granted you access.
To all of you workers and friends, my blessings. I attend your sessions because you are the loved ones of the one that was.
John, the Evangelist
Medium Mrs. Costel
My friends, I come to you the experienced and tested workers in suffering. I come to salute you, brave and worthy workers, in the name of charity and love.
You are my friend Jesus’ beloved ones. Rest assured with the Spiritist belief as I did at the heart of the Divine Messenger. Workers, you are the elected ones in the painful path of trial where you walk with your bleeding feet and discouraged hearts. Wait, brothers! Every suffering carries its own compensation; every laborious day has its night of rest. Believe in the future that will be your reward and do not seek forgetfulness that is sinful. Forgetfulness, my friends, is a selfish and brutal intoxication; it is hunger to your children and tears to your wives. Forgetfulness is cowardice.
What would you think of a worker that pretending fatigue would leave the shop floor and cowardly stopped the initiated task? My friends, life is the journey in eternity. Be brave in accomplishing your task; do not dream about an impossible rest; do not turn the clock forward; everything has its own time: the reward for your courage and the blessings to a touched heart that trusts the eternal justice.
Be Spiritists and you shall become strong and patients for you will learn that that trials are your guarantee of progress and that they will open up the horizons of a happy rest where you shall praise the sufferings that granted you access.
To all of you workers and friends, my blessings. I attend your sessions because you are the loved ones of the one that was.
John, the Evangelist
Spontaneous essay
Partial instructions about the theory of the fluids
Paris, November 11th, 1863 – medium Ms. A.C.
Progression of all things necessarily leads to the transubstantiation and spiritual mediumship is one of the powers of nature that will help our planet get there faster because like other worlds it must follow the law of transformation and progress. Not only its human contingent but also the minerals, plants and animals, gases and imponderable fluids must progress and transform into more depurated substances. Science that has already worked on the interesting issue of the formation of this planet acknowledges that it was not created by one word, as stated in the Book of Genesis[1] in a sublime allegory, but that it has endured transformations in a long series of centuries that produced mineral layers of several type. Following the evolution of those layers one can see the successive surge and multiplication of vegetables and later on animals indicating that those organized bodies found the appropriate to live in those environments.
In studying the progression of animate beings, as has been done with minerals and vegetables, it is recognized that these beings, first shellfish, gradually rose in the animal scale, and that their progress followed that of the production and treatment of soil; we notice at the same time the disappearance of certain species, as soon as the physical conditions necessary for their life no longer exist. Thus, for example, the great dinosaurs, the monster amphibious and the giant mammals that we only find the fossils, have completely disappeared from the earth with the conditions of existence that the floods had created. Being the floods one of the means of transformation of Earth, they have been almost general; that is to say, during a certain period they have upset the globe and have thus produced different types of vegetation and atmospheric fluids. Mankind, like all organic beings, has appeared on Earth when the conditions necessary to their existence were available.
Here the material creation is stopped by the forces of nature alone; it then begins the role of work of the incarnate Spirit in mankind, for they must concur to the common work; working for oneself everyone must work for the general betterment. So we see that, from the earliest races, mankind cultivating the earth, making it produce for their bodily needs, and thereby bringing about transformations in the soil, its produce, its gases and fluids. The more Earth is populated, the more it is worked, cultivated, and cleansed and the more its products are abundant and varied; the purification of its fluids gradually leads to the disappearance of plant and animal species, poisonous and harmful to mankind and that can no longer exist in a too purified and subtle air for their organization, no longer finding the necessary elements for their survival.
The health condition of the globe has improved significantly since its inception but it is still not enough, indicating that it will be improved further by the work and ingenuity of mankind. It is by design that people are induced to establish themselves in the most inhospitable and unhealthy countries; regions infested by terrible animals and harmful mists have already become habitable; little by little, the transformations on the soil will bring about complete purification.
Through work people learn to know and direct the forces of nature. One can trace in history the thread of discoveries and conquests of the human mind, and the application of that to satisfy their needs. But by following this path, one must also observe that humanity has knocked rough edges and dematerialized; by drawing a parallel between today’s person with the first inhabitants of the globe, we can assess the progress already accomplished; we can see that the more mankind progresses, the more it is excited to progress further, and that evolution itself is in proportion to the already accomplished progress. Progress today advances at a high speed and forcibly drags over those that are still behind. We have just spoken of physical, material, and intelligent progress; but let us now see the moral progress and the influence it must have on the former.
Moral progress was awakened at the same time as the material development, but it has been slower because mankind was placed in the midst of a material creation, having needs and aspirations in harmony with that reality. As humans advanced, they felt the spiritual develop and grow in them and aided by celestial influences, people began to understand the need for the intelligent driving of the Spirit over matter; moral progress continued its development and, at different times, advanced Spirits have come to guide humanity, giving a greater impulse to its ascending march; such are Moses, the prophets, Confucius, the sages of antiquity and Christ, the greatest of all on Earth and also the humblest. Christ gave humanity a greater idea of his own worth, his independence and his spiritual personality. But his followers, being far inferior to him, did not understand the grandiose idea that shines out of all of his teachings; they materialized what was spiritual; hence the kind of moral status quo in which humanity has remained. Scientific and intellectual progress continue their progress and moral progress slowly drags on. Is it not certain that if, since Christ, all who have professed his doctrine had practiced it, humanity would have spared themselves of many evils, and would now be morally more advanced?
Spiritism has come to speed up that progress, unveiling to mankind its destiny and we already see its power by the number of followers and the easiness with which it is understood. It will lead to an active moral transformation and by the multiplicity of the mediumistic communications the heart and minds of all incarnate persons will be worked by friendly Spirits and educators. From that education a new scientific impulse will surge for new avenues will open up to science that will guide its researches towards the new forces of nature that are revealed. The already developed human skills will develop even further through the mediumistic work. Initially welcomed by kind souls, inconsolable before the loss of friends and relatives, Spiritism was later on embraced by the unfortunate ones of this world whose number is large and that were encouraged and sustained in their trials by its Doctrine that is both soothing and reassuring. It then propagated fast and many astonished skeptical, that studied it out of curiosity in the beginning, were convinced by themselves, finding hopes and consolations.
Today scholars are beginning to be touched and some of them that have studied it seriously and admit Spiritism as one natural force unknown up until now, and that apply their intelligence and knowledge to its study will make humanity advance a huge scientific step.
But the Spirits are not limited to scientific instruction. They have a double duty and must above all cultivate the moral advancement. Besides the studies of science they will do, and are already doing now, help you work your own self. The incarnate ones that are intelligent and wish to progress will understand that their dematerialization is the best condition to a progressive study and that their present as well as future happiness are related to that.
OBSERVATION: That is how the world, after having achieved a certain level of intellectual progress, will enter the period of moral progress whose route is opened by Spiritism. Such progress will take place by the force of things and will naturally lead to the transformation of humanity by broadening the circle of the ideas in a spiritual sense and by the intelligent and thoughtful practice of the moral laws taught by Jesus Christ. The speed with which the Spiritist ideas propagated at the very heart of materialism that dominates our times, that is the positive indication of a prompt change in the order of things. All it is needed is the extinction of a generation for the one that stands up already announces much different sponsorship.
[1] Genesis 1 (TN)
Partial instructions about the theory of the fluids
Paris, November 11th, 1863 – medium Ms. A.C.
Progression of all things necessarily leads to the transubstantiation and spiritual mediumship is one of the powers of nature that will help our planet get there faster because like other worlds it must follow the law of transformation and progress. Not only its human contingent but also the minerals, plants and animals, gases and imponderable fluids must progress and transform into more depurated substances. Science that has already worked on the interesting issue of the formation of this planet acknowledges that it was not created by one word, as stated in the Book of Genesis[1] in a sublime allegory, but that it has endured transformations in a long series of centuries that produced mineral layers of several type. Following the evolution of those layers one can see the successive surge and multiplication of vegetables and later on animals indicating that those organized bodies found the appropriate to live in those environments.
In studying the progression of animate beings, as has been done with minerals and vegetables, it is recognized that these beings, first shellfish, gradually rose in the animal scale, and that their progress followed that of the production and treatment of soil; we notice at the same time the disappearance of certain species, as soon as the physical conditions necessary for their life no longer exist. Thus, for example, the great dinosaurs, the monster amphibious and the giant mammals that we only find the fossils, have completely disappeared from the earth with the conditions of existence that the floods had created. Being the floods one of the means of transformation of Earth, they have been almost general; that is to say, during a certain period they have upset the globe and have thus produced different types of vegetation and atmospheric fluids. Mankind, like all organic beings, has appeared on Earth when the conditions necessary to their existence were available.
Here the material creation is stopped by the forces of nature alone; it then begins the role of work of the incarnate Spirit in mankind, for they must concur to the common work; working for oneself everyone must work for the general betterment. So we see that, from the earliest races, mankind cultivating the earth, making it produce for their bodily needs, and thereby bringing about transformations in the soil, its produce, its gases and fluids. The more Earth is populated, the more it is worked, cultivated, and cleansed and the more its products are abundant and varied; the purification of its fluids gradually leads to the disappearance of plant and animal species, poisonous and harmful to mankind and that can no longer exist in a too purified and subtle air for their organization, no longer finding the necessary elements for their survival.
The health condition of the globe has improved significantly since its inception but it is still not enough, indicating that it will be improved further by the work and ingenuity of mankind. It is by design that people are induced to establish themselves in the most inhospitable and unhealthy countries; regions infested by terrible animals and harmful mists have already become habitable; little by little, the transformations on the soil will bring about complete purification.
Through work people learn to know and direct the forces of nature. One can trace in history the thread of discoveries and conquests of the human mind, and the application of that to satisfy their needs. But by following this path, one must also observe that humanity has knocked rough edges and dematerialized; by drawing a parallel between today’s person with the first inhabitants of the globe, we can assess the progress already accomplished; we can see that the more mankind progresses, the more it is excited to progress further, and that evolution itself is in proportion to the already accomplished progress. Progress today advances at a high speed and forcibly drags over those that are still behind. We have just spoken of physical, material, and intelligent progress; but let us now see the moral progress and the influence it must have on the former.
Moral progress was awakened at the same time as the material development, but it has been slower because mankind was placed in the midst of a material creation, having needs and aspirations in harmony with that reality. As humans advanced, they felt the spiritual develop and grow in them and aided by celestial influences, people began to understand the need for the intelligent driving of the Spirit over matter; moral progress continued its development and, at different times, advanced Spirits have come to guide humanity, giving a greater impulse to its ascending march; such are Moses, the prophets, Confucius, the sages of antiquity and Christ, the greatest of all on Earth and also the humblest. Christ gave humanity a greater idea of his own worth, his independence and his spiritual personality. But his followers, being far inferior to him, did not understand the grandiose idea that shines out of all of his teachings; they materialized what was spiritual; hence the kind of moral status quo in which humanity has remained. Scientific and intellectual progress continue their progress and moral progress slowly drags on. Is it not certain that if, since Christ, all who have professed his doctrine had practiced it, humanity would have spared themselves of many evils, and would now be morally more advanced?
Spiritism has come to speed up that progress, unveiling to mankind its destiny and we already see its power by the number of followers and the easiness with which it is understood. It will lead to an active moral transformation and by the multiplicity of the mediumistic communications the heart and minds of all incarnate persons will be worked by friendly Spirits and educators. From that education a new scientific impulse will surge for new avenues will open up to science that will guide its researches towards the new forces of nature that are revealed. The already developed human skills will develop even further through the mediumistic work. Initially welcomed by kind souls, inconsolable before the loss of friends and relatives, Spiritism was later on embraced by the unfortunate ones of this world whose number is large and that were encouraged and sustained in their trials by its Doctrine that is both soothing and reassuring. It then propagated fast and many astonished skeptical, that studied it out of curiosity in the beginning, were convinced by themselves, finding hopes and consolations.
Today scholars are beginning to be touched and some of them that have studied it seriously and admit Spiritism as one natural force unknown up until now, and that apply their intelligence and knowledge to its study will make humanity advance a huge scientific step.
But the Spirits are not limited to scientific instruction. They have a double duty and must above all cultivate the moral advancement. Besides the studies of science they will do, and are already doing now, help you work your own self. The incarnate ones that are intelligent and wish to progress will understand that their dematerialization is the best condition to a progressive study and that their present as well as future happiness are related to that.
OBSERVATION: That is how the world, after having achieved a certain level of intellectual progress, will enter the period of moral progress whose route is opened by Spiritism. Such progress will take place by the force of things and will naturally lead to the transformation of humanity by broadening the circle of the ideas in a spiritual sense and by the intelligent and thoughtful practice of the moral laws taught by Jesus Christ. The speed with which the Spiritist ideas propagated at the very heart of materialism that dominates our times, that is the positive indication of a prompt change in the order of things. All it is needed is the extinction of a generation for the one that stands up already announces much different sponsorship.
[1] Genesis 1 (TN)