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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > August
August
Muhammad and Islamism
Prayer for the Spirits
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, May 4th, 1866 – medium Mr. V…
There are sometimes, opinions in which we believe and that move on to the state of accepted ideas, about people and things, however erroneous they may be, because we believe it to be more convenient to accept them ready and finished. That is the case with Muhammad and his religion, from which one knows almost only the legendary side. The antagonism of beliefs, be it by the spirit of party or ignorance, thought to be appropriate to point out to the points that are more susceptible to criticism, many times and on purpose leaving in the shadow the most favorable parts.
As for the impartial and disinterested public, one must say in their favor that they missed the necessary elements to judge by themselves. The books that could have enlightened them, written in a language only known to scientists, were inaccessible to them; and since the public had no direct interest, they took the word for what they were told, without asking. It resulted that many times people made a false or ridicule idea about the founder of Islamism, based on prejudices that found no contradiction in the discussion.
The perseverant and conscientious works of some wise modern orientalists, such as Caussin de Perceval, in France, Dr. W. Muir, in England, G. Weil and Sprenger, in Germany, today allow the question to be faced by its true prism.[1] Thanks to them, Muhammad is shown completely different from the popular tales. The considerable place that his religion occupies today in humanity, and its political influence today, make this study a necessity. The diversity of religions was, for a long time, one of the main causes of antagonism among the peoples. At the moment when they have a manifest tendency to come together, making the barrier that separate them disappear, it is useful to know what, in their beliefs, can favor or delay the application of the great principle of universal fraternity. From all religions, Islamism is, at first glance, the one that seems to contain the greatest obstacles to the approximation. From that point of view, as it can be seen, this subject should not be indifferent to the Spiritists, and that is the reason why we believe it to be necessary to be treated here.
We always misjudge a religion when we take our personal beliefs as our exclusive starting point, because then it is difficult to keep ourselves away from a feeling of partiality in the appreciation of the principles. To understand its strong and weak points it is necessary to see it from a more elevated point of view, embracing all its causes and effects. If we refer to the environment where it originated, we will almost always find there, if not a complete justification, at least a reason for being. Above all, it is necessary to penetrate the first thought of the founder and the motives that guided him. Far from us the intention of absolving Muhammad from all his faults, as well as his religion that hurts the most vulgar common sense; but we owe it to the truth that it would also be as little logical to judge that religion based on what fanaticism made out of it, as it would be to judge Christianity for the way some Christians practice it. It is quite certain that if the Muslims followed in spirit the Koran that the Prophet gave them as a guide, they would be, in more than one aspect, quite different from what they are. However, this book, so sacred to them that they only touch it with respect, it is read and read again incessantly; enthusiasts even know it by heart. But how many understand it? The comment it, but from the point of view of preconceived ideas, from which they make it a matter of conscience to deviate; so, they only see what they want to see. In fact, the figurative language allows to find there all that one wants and the priests that, there as elsewhere, rule with a blind faith, do not seek what could bother them. It is not, therefore, the doctors of the law that must be inquired about the spirit of the law of Muhammad.
Christians also have the Gospel, much more explicit than the Koran, as a moral code, something that did not preclude them from torturing and burning thousands of victims, in the name of this very Gospel, converting a law full of charity into a weapon of intolerance and persecution. Can we demand that semi barbaric people make a healthier interpretation of sacred scriptures than civilized Christians do?
To appreciate the works of Muhammad it is necessary to go back to the source, get to know the man and the people he had assigned himself the mission of regenerating, and only then we will understand that for the environment where he lived, his religious code was a real progress.
Let us look at the region first.
In immemorial times, Arabia[2] was inhabited by several tribes, almost all nomadic, eternally at war against each other, supplementing with plunder the little wealth provided by painful work in a scorching climate. The herds were their main resources; some dedicated to commerce made by caravans that originated in the South, going to Syria of Mesopotamia. Since the center of the peninsula was almost inaccessible, the caravans hardly moved away from the coast; the main ones went to Hijaz, a region that forms, in the shores of the Red Sea, a narrow strip of five hundred leagues long, separated from the center by a mountain chain, an extension of that of Palestine. The Arabic word “hidjaz” means barrier, and it was said of the chain of mountains that separate this region from the rest of Arabia. Hijaz and Yemen, to the South, are the most fertile regions; the center is an almost vast desert.
Those tribes had established markets to which all parts of Arabia converged. Common businesses were regulated there; enemy tribes exchanged their war prisoners, and many times resolved their differences by arbitration. Strangely enough, these tribes barbarous as they were, loved poetry. In these meeting places, during their leisure time in the intervals between meetings, there were challenges between the most skillful poets of each tribe. The contest was judged by the crowds and it was a great honor for the tribe to conquer victory. The poetry of exceptional merit was transcribed in golden letters and fixated on the sacred walls of Kaaba, in Mecca, that originated the name “Moudhahabat” or golden poems.
As it took some time to go to these markets and return safely, there was four months in the year when fighting was forbidden, and caravans and travelers could not be disturbed. Fighting in those reserved months was regarded as a sacrilege that resulted in the most terrible retaliations. The check points to the caravans, where there was water and trees, gradually became cities, and the main ones in Hedjaz are Mecca and Yathrib, today Medina.
Most of the tribes claimed to be descendent of Abraham. This patriarch, therefore, was highly considered among them. Their language, given the similarity with Hebrew, truly attested an identity of origin between the Arabic and the Jewish people. But it does no appear less certain that the south of Arabia had its indigenous inhabitants.
Among those populations there was a belief, held to be true, that the famous Zamzam well, in the Mecca valley, was the one that gushed out the angel Gabriel, when Hagar, lost in the desert, was about to die of thirsty with her son Ismael. Tradition also held that Abraham, coming to see his exiled son, had built with his own hands, not far from that well, the Kaaba, a nine-room squared house, nine cubits[3] high, by thirty two cubits long and thirty two cubits wide. This house, that was religiously maintained, became a place of devotion and a duty to visit, and transformed into a temple. The caravans stopped there naturally, and the pilgrims took advantage of their company to travel more safely. Thus, pilgrimages to Mecca have existed since immemorial times. Muhammad just consecrated them and turned compulsory an already established custom. For that he had a political objective that we will see later.
In one of the external angles of the temple was encrusted the famous black stone, brought from heavens by the angel Gabriel, as it is said, to mark the starting point of the seven turns that the pilgrims must make around the Kaaba. It is claimed that, originally, that stone was dazzlingly white, but it was blackened by the touch of the sinners. In the words of the travelers that saw it, it is not more than six inches high by eight inches long. It would appear that it is a simple piece of basalt, or perhaps an aerolite[4], that would explain its celestial origin, according to popular beliefs.
Built by Abraham, the Kaaba had no closing door and was at the ground level. It was destroyed by the eruption of a torrent around the year 150 of the Christian era, and reconstructed and elevated above ground level, to have it sheltered from similar incidents. About fifty years later, a tribal chief from Yemen covered it with a precious fabric and had it fitted with a door and a lock, to keep safe the precious gifts constantly accumulated by the pity of the pilgrims.
The veneration of the Arabs for the Kaaba and the territory that surrounded it was so great that they had not dared building houses there. That much respected area, called the Haram, embraced the whole valley of Mecca, whose circumference is about fifteen leagues. The honor of keeping this revered temple was much envied; the tribes competed for it and frequently such attribution was a conquered right. In the fifth century, Cossayy, chief of the Coraychites tribe, fifth predecessor of Muhammad, then became the Lord of Haram, invested of religious and civil power, and had a palace built around the Kaala, allowing those of his tribe to establish there. That is how the city of Mecca was founded. It seems that he was the first one to place a wooden covering on top of the Kaaba. Today the Kaaba is in the area of a Mosque, and Mecca is a city of about forty thousand inhabitants, after having had a hundred thousand, as it is said.
In the beginning, the religion of the Arabs consisted on the adoration of a unique God, whose will man must thoroughly submit to. Such religion, that was that of Abraham, was called Islam, and those that professed it were called Muslims, that is, submitted to the will of God. But, little by little pure Islam degenerated in pure idolatry; each tribe had their own gods and idols that were excessively defended with arms, to demonstrate the superiority of their power. These were frequently the causes or pretexts of long and bitter wars among them. The faith of Abraham had, therefore, disappeared among those peoples, despite the respect that they preserved of his memory, or at least, it had been disfigured so much that, in reality, it no longer existed.
The veneration towards the objects considered sacred had gone down to the most absurd fetishism; the worship of matter had replaced that of the spirit. Supernatural powers were attributed to the most vulgar objects, consecrated by superstition to an image, a statue; having thought abandoned the principle by its symbol, piety became only a serious of meticulous exterior practices, the slightest violation of which was regarded as a sacrilege.
Nonetheless, in certain tribes there were still some worshipers of the only God, men of piety that practiced the most complete submission to the supreme will and condemned the cult of the idols. They were called Hanyfes. These were the true Muslims, that had preserved the pure faith of Islam. But they were in small numbers and had little influence upon the minds of the masses.
Long ago Jewish colonies had established in the Hejaz and had conquered a certain number of proselytes to Judaism, mainly among the Hanyfes. Christianity also had its representatives and propagators there in the first centuries of our era, but neither of these beliefs produced profound and lasting roots there. Idolatry had become the dominant religion. It suited better for its diversity, turbulent independence, and the infinite division of tribes, that practiced it with the most violent fanaticism. To triumph over this political and religious anarchy it was necessary a man of genius, capable of imposing himself by his energy and determination, skillful enough to take into account the social mores and character of those peoples, and whose mission was raised to their eyes by the prestige of his qualities of prophet. That man was Muhammad.
Muhammad was born in Mecca, on August 27th, 570 of the Christian era, in the so called year of the elephant. He was not, as commonly thought, a man of obscure condition. On the contrary, he belonged to a powerful and considered family of the Coraychite tribe, one of the most important in Arabia and one that then dominated in Mecca. He comes down from a direct line of Ismael, son of Abraham and Agar. His last predecessors, Cossayy, Abd-Menab, Hachim and Abd-el-Moutalib, his grandfather, had distinguished themselves by excellent qualities and high functions that they had fulfilled. His mother, Amina, was from a noble Coraychite family, and also descended from Cossayy. His father, Abd-Allah, died two months before his birth; he was then raised with much love by his mother that left him orphan when he was six years old; then by his grandfather Abd-el-Moutalib who loved him very much and often liked to predict high destinies for him; he died two years later. Despite the position that his family had occupied, Muhammad spent his infancy and youth much close to misery; his mother had left him, as the only inheritance, a flock of sheep, five camels and a faithful black slave, that had taken care of him and to whom he maintained a strong attachment. After the death of his grandfather, he was taken in by his uncles whose flocks he shepherded until the age of twenty; he also followed them in their fighting expeditions against other tribes; however, being of a kind a pacific mood, he did not take an active part in them, without, however, fleeing or being afraid of danger, limiting himself to collect the arrows. When he reached to heights of his glory, he liked to remember that Moses and David, both prophets, had also been shepherds like him.
He had a meditative and dreamy spirit; his character was a premature strength and maturity, of extreme righteousness, of a perfect selflessness and irreproachable morals, that gave his comrades such a trust in him that he was nicknamed El-Amin, “the sure man, the faithful man”. Although young and poor, he was summoned to the assemblies of the tribe for the most important businesses. He took part of an association formed by the most important Coraychite families, to prevent disorders of war, protect the weak and making them do justice. He always prided himself for having contributed with that, and in the last years of his life he always saw himself bound by the oath he had taken on this subject in his youth. He used to say that he was always ready to respond to the appeal of the most obscure man in the name of that oath, and that he did not want, even for the most beautiful horses of Arabia, to fail in the faith that he had sworn. By this oath, the associates swore, before a vengeful deity, that they would take the defense of the oppressed, and that they would seek the punishment of the guilty, as long as there was a drop of water in the ocean.
Physically, Muhammad was a little above average height, of strong built; his head was large; his physiognomy was pleasant, but not beautiful; he had an air of calm and tranquility, marked by a smooth seriousness.
At the age of twenty-five he married his cousin Khadidja, a rich widow that was at least fifteen years older than him; he conquered her trust for the intelligence and integrity with which he had conducted in one of his caravans. She was a superior woman. It was a constantly happy marriage that only ended with her death at the age sixty-four. Muhammad was then forty-nine years old and that loss was the cause of profound pain to him. His habits changed after Khadida’s death. He married several women; he had twelve or thirteen legitimate marriages, leaving nine widows after his death. This was, incontestably, a capital mistake, whose consequences we will see later.
Until he was forty years old, nothing sticks out from his pacific life. There was only one single fact that brought him out of obscurity. He was then thirty fives years old. The Coraychites decided to rebuild the Kaaba that risked collapsing. It took a lot of work to appease the differences that arouse from family rivalries, through a division of work for their desired participation. Those conflicts reappeared with extreme violence when time had come to reinstall the famous black stone. Nobody wanted to yield to their rights. The works had been interrupted and they rushed to arms from all sides. They agreed on a proposal by the oldest man to rely on the decision of the first person that would come into the room of deliberations: it was Muhammad. When they saw him, everybody shouted: “El Amin”, “El Amin” – the firm and faithful man; they waited for his assessment. By his presence of mind, he resolved the issue. He spread his mantle on the ground and placed the stone on it, then asked the four main chiefs of tribes to each hold a corner of the mantle and raise it, all together, up to the height that the stone should occupy, that is four or five feet above ground. He then took it and placed it with his own hands. The assistants declared satisfied and peace was restored.
Muhammad liked to walk around Mecca, and every year, during the sacred months of truce, he used to retire to mount Hira, in a small cave, where he indulged in meditation. He was forty years old when in one of his retreats he had a vision in his sleep. The angel Gabriel appeared to him, showing him a book that he was advised to read. Muhammad resisted that order three times, only agreeing to read to escape the embarrassment that he felt. When he woke up, he felt, he said, that “a book had been written in his heart.” The meaning of this expression is obvious. It means that he had received the inspiration of a book. Later, however, it was taken literally, as it often happens to things that are said in figurative language.
Another event demonstrates to what errors of interpretation ignorance and fanaticism may lead. Somewhere in the Koran, Muhammad says: “Have we not opened your heart and lifted the burden from your shoulders?” These words, related to an accident that happened when Muhammad was still a boy, gave rise to a fable propagated among the believers and taught by the priests, as a miraculous fact, that two angels opened the belly of the child and removed a black spot from his heart, a sign of the original sin. Should Muhammad be accused for this absurd or those that did not understand him?
So, it is with a host of ridiculous tales on which he is accused of having based his religion. That is why we do not hesitate to say that an enlightened and impartial Christian is better able to give a sound interpretation of the Koran than a fanatic Muslim.
Be that as it may, Muhammad was profoundly disturbed by his vision, that he promptly told his wife. On returning to mount Hira, in a very agitated state, he thought to be possessed by evil Spirits and to avoid the danger he dreaded he would jump from the top of a rock, when he heard a voice that seemed to come from heavens, that said: “O Muhammad, you are the messenger of God; I am the angel Gabriel!” Then, he raised his eyes and saw the angel, in a human form, that gradually disappeared in the horizon. That new sight only increased his confusion. He told Khadidja who tried to calm him down; but, unsure herself, she sought her cousin Varaka, an old man, famous for his wisdom and converted to Christianity who said to her: “If what you are telling me is true, your husband was visited by the great Nâmous, that once visited Moses, and he will be a prophet to this people. Announce it to him and calm him down.” Sometime later Varaka, having met Muhammad, had him telling his visions, and repeated the words he said to his wife, adding: “They will treat you as an impostor and will chase you away; they will fight you violently. May I live up to that time so that I can assist you in that struggle!”
What results from this and many other facts is that Muhammad’s mission was not a premeditated calculation from his part; it was confirmed by others before it was confirmed by him. It took him a long time to be convinced, but from the time he was persuaded he took it very seriously. He wished for a new apparition o the angel to be convinced, and that took two years according to some, and six months, according to others. This interval of uncertainty and hesitation is called “fitreh” by the Muslims. During that whole period his mind was taken by the liveliest perplexities and tremors. He thought he was about to lose his mind and that was also the opinion of some of those around him. He was subjected to lapses and syncop that modern writers, without other proofs beyond their personal opinion, attributed to epileptic attacks and that could rather be effect of an ecstatic, cataleptic or spontaneous somnambulistic state. In these moments of extracorporeal lucidity, as it is known, strange phenomena were frequently produced, phenomena that Spiritism perfectly accounts for.
To the eyes of certain persons, he would be crazy; others saw in those phenomena, singular to them, something of supernatural that placed man above humanity. When the action of the Providence is admitted in human affairs, says Mr. Barthelemy Sainte-Hilaire (page 102), one must not refuse to find it in these dominating intelligences that appear from time to time to enlighten and guide the rest of men.”
The Koran is not a book written by Muhammad with a cool head and in a continual manner, but the register made by his friends of the words he said when he was inspired. In those moments, in which he was not the master, he fell on an extraordinary and scary state; sweat flown from his forehead; hi eyes turned bloody red; he moaned and the crises often ended by a syncope that lasted more or less long, and that sometimes happened amidst the crowd, and even when riding his camel or at home. The inspiration was irregular and instantaneous, and he could not foresee when he would be seized.
From what we know today of this state, from a number of analogous examples, it is likely that, particularly in the beginning, he was not aware of what he said, and that if his word had not been collected, they would have been lost. Later, however, when he took the role of reformer seriously, it is obvious that he spoke with more knowledge of cause, and that he had mixed the product of his own thoughts with the inspirations, according to the places and circumstances, the passions or feelings that agitated him, given the objective that wanted to achieve, perhaps in good faith believing that he spoke in the name of God.
These detached fragments, collected at various times, adding up to 114, form in the Koran the chapters called “suratas”. They remained scattered during his life, and only after his death is that they were gathered in an official body of doctrine, by the care of Abu-Becr and Omar. From those sudden inspirations, collected as they occurred, resulted an absolute lack of order and method. The most diverse subject matters are treated there without any order, sometimes in the same surata, and present such a confusion and numerous repetitions that a sequential reading is painful and tedious, to whoever that is not a faithful.
According to the vulgar belief, which has become an article of faith, the pages of the Koran were written in heaven and brought ready-made to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel, because in a passage it is said: "Your Lord is mighty and merciful, and the Koran is a revelation from the master of the universe. The faithful Spirit (the angel Gabriel) brought it from above, and placed it in your heart, O Muhammad, that you may become an apostle.” Muhammad expresses himself in the same way with regard to the book of Moses and the Gospel; he says (sura III, verse 2): “He sent down the Pentateuch and the Gospel from above, to serve as guidance for men”; Meaning by that that these two books had been inspired by God to Moses and to Jesus, as He had inspired him the Koran.
His first sermons were secret for two years, and in that period he was associated to about fifty followers among family and friends. The first ones converted to the new faith were Khadidja, his wife, Ali, his adopted child for ten years, Zeid Varaka and Abu-Becr, his closest friend that should be his successor. He was forty-three years old when he started preaching publicly, and from that moment on the prediction made by Varaka came true. His religion, founded on the unity of God and the reform of certain abuses, and being the collapse of idolatry and of those that lived on that, the Corayshites, guardians of the Kaaba and the national cult, rose up against him. First, they treated him as deranged; then they accused him of sacrilege and stirred up the people. He was persecuted and the persecution became so violent that his followers had to seek refuge in the Abyssinia on two occasions. Nevertheless, he always opposed the attacks with calm, cold-blood, and moderation. His sect grew and his adversaries, seeing that they could not eliminate it by force, decided to discredit it by slander. He was not spared by mockery and ridicule. As it was seeing, there were many poets among the Arabs; they handled satire very well and their verses were read with eagerness. It was the means employed by malevolent criticism, and they did not fail to use it against him. Since he resisted it all, his enemies finally resourced to a plot to kill him, and he just escaped the danger that threatened him by fleeing. It was when he sought refuge in Yathrib, later called Medina (Medinet-en-Nabi, the city of the prophet), in 622, and the Hegira or the era of the Muslims dates from that time. He had sent all of his followers from Mecca to that city, in anticipation and in small groups to avoid suspicion, being the last one to leave with Abu-Becr and Ali, his most devoted disciples, when he learned that the others were safe.
At that time a new phase begins in the life of Muhammad. From a simple prophet that he was, he was forced to become a warrior.
(continues in the next issue)
[1] Mr. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, from the Institute, summarized these works in an interesting book entitled Muhammad and the Koran, I volume in-12, price 3.5 francs, Didier Bookstore.
[2] The name Saud Arabia was established in 1932 only (T.N.)
[3] One cubit is equivalent to about 45 cm. It is one of the oldest units of measurement, based on the distance between the elbow and the tip of the fingers.
[4] A stony meteorite (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, T.N.)
Prayer for the Spirits
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, May 4th, 1866 – medium Mr. V…
There are sometimes, opinions in which we believe and that move on to the state of accepted ideas, about people and things, however erroneous they may be, because we believe it to be more convenient to accept them ready and finished. That is the case with Muhammad and his religion, from which one knows almost only the legendary side. The antagonism of beliefs, be it by the spirit of party or ignorance, thought to be appropriate to point out to the points that are more susceptible to criticism, many times and on purpose leaving in the shadow the most favorable parts.
As for the impartial and disinterested public, one must say in their favor that they missed the necessary elements to judge by themselves. The books that could have enlightened them, written in a language only known to scientists, were inaccessible to them; and since the public had no direct interest, they took the word for what they were told, without asking. It resulted that many times people made a false or ridicule idea about the founder of Islamism, based on prejudices that found no contradiction in the discussion.
The perseverant and conscientious works of some wise modern orientalists, such as Caussin de Perceval, in France, Dr. W. Muir, in England, G. Weil and Sprenger, in Germany, today allow the question to be faced by its true prism.[1] Thanks to them, Muhammad is shown completely different from the popular tales. The considerable place that his religion occupies today in humanity, and its political influence today, make this study a necessity. The diversity of religions was, for a long time, one of the main causes of antagonism among the peoples. At the moment when they have a manifest tendency to come together, making the barrier that separate them disappear, it is useful to know what, in their beliefs, can favor or delay the application of the great principle of universal fraternity. From all religions, Islamism is, at first glance, the one that seems to contain the greatest obstacles to the approximation. From that point of view, as it can be seen, this subject should not be indifferent to the Spiritists, and that is the reason why we believe it to be necessary to be treated here.
We always misjudge a religion when we take our personal beliefs as our exclusive starting point, because then it is difficult to keep ourselves away from a feeling of partiality in the appreciation of the principles. To understand its strong and weak points it is necessary to see it from a more elevated point of view, embracing all its causes and effects. If we refer to the environment where it originated, we will almost always find there, if not a complete justification, at least a reason for being. Above all, it is necessary to penetrate the first thought of the founder and the motives that guided him. Far from us the intention of absolving Muhammad from all his faults, as well as his religion that hurts the most vulgar common sense; but we owe it to the truth that it would also be as little logical to judge that religion based on what fanaticism made out of it, as it would be to judge Christianity for the way some Christians practice it. It is quite certain that if the Muslims followed in spirit the Koran that the Prophet gave them as a guide, they would be, in more than one aspect, quite different from what they are. However, this book, so sacred to them that they only touch it with respect, it is read and read again incessantly; enthusiasts even know it by heart. But how many understand it? The comment it, but from the point of view of preconceived ideas, from which they make it a matter of conscience to deviate; so, they only see what they want to see. In fact, the figurative language allows to find there all that one wants and the priests that, there as elsewhere, rule with a blind faith, do not seek what could bother them. It is not, therefore, the doctors of the law that must be inquired about the spirit of the law of Muhammad.
Christians also have the Gospel, much more explicit than the Koran, as a moral code, something that did not preclude them from torturing and burning thousands of victims, in the name of this very Gospel, converting a law full of charity into a weapon of intolerance and persecution. Can we demand that semi barbaric people make a healthier interpretation of sacred scriptures than civilized Christians do?
To appreciate the works of Muhammad it is necessary to go back to the source, get to know the man and the people he had assigned himself the mission of regenerating, and only then we will understand that for the environment where he lived, his religious code was a real progress.
Let us look at the region first.
In immemorial times, Arabia[2] was inhabited by several tribes, almost all nomadic, eternally at war against each other, supplementing with plunder the little wealth provided by painful work in a scorching climate. The herds were their main resources; some dedicated to commerce made by caravans that originated in the South, going to Syria of Mesopotamia. Since the center of the peninsula was almost inaccessible, the caravans hardly moved away from the coast; the main ones went to Hijaz, a region that forms, in the shores of the Red Sea, a narrow strip of five hundred leagues long, separated from the center by a mountain chain, an extension of that of Palestine. The Arabic word “hidjaz” means barrier, and it was said of the chain of mountains that separate this region from the rest of Arabia. Hijaz and Yemen, to the South, are the most fertile regions; the center is an almost vast desert.
Those tribes had established markets to which all parts of Arabia converged. Common businesses were regulated there; enemy tribes exchanged their war prisoners, and many times resolved their differences by arbitration. Strangely enough, these tribes barbarous as they were, loved poetry. In these meeting places, during their leisure time in the intervals between meetings, there were challenges between the most skillful poets of each tribe. The contest was judged by the crowds and it was a great honor for the tribe to conquer victory. The poetry of exceptional merit was transcribed in golden letters and fixated on the sacred walls of Kaaba, in Mecca, that originated the name “Moudhahabat” or golden poems.
As it took some time to go to these markets and return safely, there was four months in the year when fighting was forbidden, and caravans and travelers could not be disturbed. Fighting in those reserved months was regarded as a sacrilege that resulted in the most terrible retaliations. The check points to the caravans, where there was water and trees, gradually became cities, and the main ones in Hedjaz are Mecca and Yathrib, today Medina.
Most of the tribes claimed to be descendent of Abraham. This patriarch, therefore, was highly considered among them. Their language, given the similarity with Hebrew, truly attested an identity of origin between the Arabic and the Jewish people. But it does no appear less certain that the south of Arabia had its indigenous inhabitants.
Among those populations there was a belief, held to be true, that the famous Zamzam well, in the Mecca valley, was the one that gushed out the angel Gabriel, when Hagar, lost in the desert, was about to die of thirsty with her son Ismael. Tradition also held that Abraham, coming to see his exiled son, had built with his own hands, not far from that well, the Kaaba, a nine-room squared house, nine cubits[3] high, by thirty two cubits long and thirty two cubits wide. This house, that was religiously maintained, became a place of devotion and a duty to visit, and transformed into a temple. The caravans stopped there naturally, and the pilgrims took advantage of their company to travel more safely. Thus, pilgrimages to Mecca have existed since immemorial times. Muhammad just consecrated them and turned compulsory an already established custom. For that he had a political objective that we will see later.
In one of the external angles of the temple was encrusted the famous black stone, brought from heavens by the angel Gabriel, as it is said, to mark the starting point of the seven turns that the pilgrims must make around the Kaaba. It is claimed that, originally, that stone was dazzlingly white, but it was blackened by the touch of the sinners. In the words of the travelers that saw it, it is not more than six inches high by eight inches long. It would appear that it is a simple piece of basalt, or perhaps an aerolite[4], that would explain its celestial origin, according to popular beliefs.
Built by Abraham, the Kaaba had no closing door and was at the ground level. It was destroyed by the eruption of a torrent around the year 150 of the Christian era, and reconstructed and elevated above ground level, to have it sheltered from similar incidents. About fifty years later, a tribal chief from Yemen covered it with a precious fabric and had it fitted with a door and a lock, to keep safe the precious gifts constantly accumulated by the pity of the pilgrims.
The veneration of the Arabs for the Kaaba and the territory that surrounded it was so great that they had not dared building houses there. That much respected area, called the Haram, embraced the whole valley of Mecca, whose circumference is about fifteen leagues. The honor of keeping this revered temple was much envied; the tribes competed for it and frequently such attribution was a conquered right. In the fifth century, Cossayy, chief of the Coraychites tribe, fifth predecessor of Muhammad, then became the Lord of Haram, invested of religious and civil power, and had a palace built around the Kaala, allowing those of his tribe to establish there. That is how the city of Mecca was founded. It seems that he was the first one to place a wooden covering on top of the Kaaba. Today the Kaaba is in the area of a Mosque, and Mecca is a city of about forty thousand inhabitants, after having had a hundred thousand, as it is said.
In the beginning, the religion of the Arabs consisted on the adoration of a unique God, whose will man must thoroughly submit to. Such religion, that was that of Abraham, was called Islam, and those that professed it were called Muslims, that is, submitted to the will of God. But, little by little pure Islam degenerated in pure idolatry; each tribe had their own gods and idols that were excessively defended with arms, to demonstrate the superiority of their power. These were frequently the causes or pretexts of long and bitter wars among them. The faith of Abraham had, therefore, disappeared among those peoples, despite the respect that they preserved of his memory, or at least, it had been disfigured so much that, in reality, it no longer existed.
The veneration towards the objects considered sacred had gone down to the most absurd fetishism; the worship of matter had replaced that of the spirit. Supernatural powers were attributed to the most vulgar objects, consecrated by superstition to an image, a statue; having thought abandoned the principle by its symbol, piety became only a serious of meticulous exterior practices, the slightest violation of which was regarded as a sacrilege.
Nonetheless, in certain tribes there were still some worshipers of the only God, men of piety that practiced the most complete submission to the supreme will and condemned the cult of the idols. They were called Hanyfes. These were the true Muslims, that had preserved the pure faith of Islam. But they were in small numbers and had little influence upon the minds of the masses.
Long ago Jewish colonies had established in the Hejaz and had conquered a certain number of proselytes to Judaism, mainly among the Hanyfes. Christianity also had its representatives and propagators there in the first centuries of our era, but neither of these beliefs produced profound and lasting roots there. Idolatry had become the dominant religion. It suited better for its diversity, turbulent independence, and the infinite division of tribes, that practiced it with the most violent fanaticism. To triumph over this political and religious anarchy it was necessary a man of genius, capable of imposing himself by his energy and determination, skillful enough to take into account the social mores and character of those peoples, and whose mission was raised to their eyes by the prestige of his qualities of prophet. That man was Muhammad.
Muhammad was born in Mecca, on August 27th, 570 of the Christian era, in the so called year of the elephant. He was not, as commonly thought, a man of obscure condition. On the contrary, he belonged to a powerful and considered family of the Coraychite tribe, one of the most important in Arabia and one that then dominated in Mecca. He comes down from a direct line of Ismael, son of Abraham and Agar. His last predecessors, Cossayy, Abd-Menab, Hachim and Abd-el-Moutalib, his grandfather, had distinguished themselves by excellent qualities and high functions that they had fulfilled. His mother, Amina, was from a noble Coraychite family, and also descended from Cossayy. His father, Abd-Allah, died two months before his birth; he was then raised with much love by his mother that left him orphan when he was six years old; then by his grandfather Abd-el-Moutalib who loved him very much and often liked to predict high destinies for him; he died two years later. Despite the position that his family had occupied, Muhammad spent his infancy and youth much close to misery; his mother had left him, as the only inheritance, a flock of sheep, five camels and a faithful black slave, that had taken care of him and to whom he maintained a strong attachment. After the death of his grandfather, he was taken in by his uncles whose flocks he shepherded until the age of twenty; he also followed them in their fighting expeditions against other tribes; however, being of a kind a pacific mood, he did not take an active part in them, without, however, fleeing or being afraid of danger, limiting himself to collect the arrows. When he reached to heights of his glory, he liked to remember that Moses and David, both prophets, had also been shepherds like him.
He had a meditative and dreamy spirit; his character was a premature strength and maturity, of extreme righteousness, of a perfect selflessness and irreproachable morals, that gave his comrades such a trust in him that he was nicknamed El-Amin, “the sure man, the faithful man”. Although young and poor, he was summoned to the assemblies of the tribe for the most important businesses. He took part of an association formed by the most important Coraychite families, to prevent disorders of war, protect the weak and making them do justice. He always prided himself for having contributed with that, and in the last years of his life he always saw himself bound by the oath he had taken on this subject in his youth. He used to say that he was always ready to respond to the appeal of the most obscure man in the name of that oath, and that he did not want, even for the most beautiful horses of Arabia, to fail in the faith that he had sworn. By this oath, the associates swore, before a vengeful deity, that they would take the defense of the oppressed, and that they would seek the punishment of the guilty, as long as there was a drop of water in the ocean.
Physically, Muhammad was a little above average height, of strong built; his head was large; his physiognomy was pleasant, but not beautiful; he had an air of calm and tranquility, marked by a smooth seriousness.
At the age of twenty-five he married his cousin Khadidja, a rich widow that was at least fifteen years older than him; he conquered her trust for the intelligence and integrity with which he had conducted in one of his caravans. She was a superior woman. It was a constantly happy marriage that only ended with her death at the age sixty-four. Muhammad was then forty-nine years old and that loss was the cause of profound pain to him. His habits changed after Khadida’s death. He married several women; he had twelve or thirteen legitimate marriages, leaving nine widows after his death. This was, incontestably, a capital mistake, whose consequences we will see later.
Until he was forty years old, nothing sticks out from his pacific life. There was only one single fact that brought him out of obscurity. He was then thirty fives years old. The Coraychites decided to rebuild the Kaaba that risked collapsing. It took a lot of work to appease the differences that arouse from family rivalries, through a division of work for their desired participation. Those conflicts reappeared with extreme violence when time had come to reinstall the famous black stone. Nobody wanted to yield to their rights. The works had been interrupted and they rushed to arms from all sides. They agreed on a proposal by the oldest man to rely on the decision of the first person that would come into the room of deliberations: it was Muhammad. When they saw him, everybody shouted: “El Amin”, “El Amin” – the firm and faithful man; they waited for his assessment. By his presence of mind, he resolved the issue. He spread his mantle on the ground and placed the stone on it, then asked the four main chiefs of tribes to each hold a corner of the mantle and raise it, all together, up to the height that the stone should occupy, that is four or five feet above ground. He then took it and placed it with his own hands. The assistants declared satisfied and peace was restored.
Muhammad liked to walk around Mecca, and every year, during the sacred months of truce, he used to retire to mount Hira, in a small cave, where he indulged in meditation. He was forty years old when in one of his retreats he had a vision in his sleep. The angel Gabriel appeared to him, showing him a book that he was advised to read. Muhammad resisted that order three times, only agreeing to read to escape the embarrassment that he felt. When he woke up, he felt, he said, that “a book had been written in his heart.” The meaning of this expression is obvious. It means that he had received the inspiration of a book. Later, however, it was taken literally, as it often happens to things that are said in figurative language.
Another event demonstrates to what errors of interpretation ignorance and fanaticism may lead. Somewhere in the Koran, Muhammad says: “Have we not opened your heart and lifted the burden from your shoulders?” These words, related to an accident that happened when Muhammad was still a boy, gave rise to a fable propagated among the believers and taught by the priests, as a miraculous fact, that two angels opened the belly of the child and removed a black spot from his heart, a sign of the original sin. Should Muhammad be accused for this absurd or those that did not understand him?
So, it is with a host of ridiculous tales on which he is accused of having based his religion. That is why we do not hesitate to say that an enlightened and impartial Christian is better able to give a sound interpretation of the Koran than a fanatic Muslim.
Be that as it may, Muhammad was profoundly disturbed by his vision, that he promptly told his wife. On returning to mount Hira, in a very agitated state, he thought to be possessed by evil Spirits and to avoid the danger he dreaded he would jump from the top of a rock, when he heard a voice that seemed to come from heavens, that said: “O Muhammad, you are the messenger of God; I am the angel Gabriel!” Then, he raised his eyes and saw the angel, in a human form, that gradually disappeared in the horizon. That new sight only increased his confusion. He told Khadidja who tried to calm him down; but, unsure herself, she sought her cousin Varaka, an old man, famous for his wisdom and converted to Christianity who said to her: “If what you are telling me is true, your husband was visited by the great Nâmous, that once visited Moses, and he will be a prophet to this people. Announce it to him and calm him down.” Sometime later Varaka, having met Muhammad, had him telling his visions, and repeated the words he said to his wife, adding: “They will treat you as an impostor and will chase you away; they will fight you violently. May I live up to that time so that I can assist you in that struggle!”
What results from this and many other facts is that Muhammad’s mission was not a premeditated calculation from his part; it was confirmed by others before it was confirmed by him. It took him a long time to be convinced, but from the time he was persuaded he took it very seriously. He wished for a new apparition o the angel to be convinced, and that took two years according to some, and six months, according to others. This interval of uncertainty and hesitation is called “fitreh” by the Muslims. During that whole period his mind was taken by the liveliest perplexities and tremors. He thought he was about to lose his mind and that was also the opinion of some of those around him. He was subjected to lapses and syncop that modern writers, without other proofs beyond their personal opinion, attributed to epileptic attacks and that could rather be effect of an ecstatic, cataleptic or spontaneous somnambulistic state. In these moments of extracorporeal lucidity, as it is known, strange phenomena were frequently produced, phenomena that Spiritism perfectly accounts for.
To the eyes of certain persons, he would be crazy; others saw in those phenomena, singular to them, something of supernatural that placed man above humanity. When the action of the Providence is admitted in human affairs, says Mr. Barthelemy Sainte-Hilaire (page 102), one must not refuse to find it in these dominating intelligences that appear from time to time to enlighten and guide the rest of men.”
The Koran is not a book written by Muhammad with a cool head and in a continual manner, but the register made by his friends of the words he said when he was inspired. In those moments, in which he was not the master, he fell on an extraordinary and scary state; sweat flown from his forehead; hi eyes turned bloody red; he moaned and the crises often ended by a syncope that lasted more or less long, and that sometimes happened amidst the crowd, and even when riding his camel or at home. The inspiration was irregular and instantaneous, and he could not foresee when he would be seized.
From what we know today of this state, from a number of analogous examples, it is likely that, particularly in the beginning, he was not aware of what he said, and that if his word had not been collected, they would have been lost. Later, however, when he took the role of reformer seriously, it is obvious that he spoke with more knowledge of cause, and that he had mixed the product of his own thoughts with the inspirations, according to the places and circumstances, the passions or feelings that agitated him, given the objective that wanted to achieve, perhaps in good faith believing that he spoke in the name of God.
These detached fragments, collected at various times, adding up to 114, form in the Koran the chapters called “suratas”. They remained scattered during his life, and only after his death is that they were gathered in an official body of doctrine, by the care of Abu-Becr and Omar. From those sudden inspirations, collected as they occurred, resulted an absolute lack of order and method. The most diverse subject matters are treated there without any order, sometimes in the same surata, and present such a confusion and numerous repetitions that a sequential reading is painful and tedious, to whoever that is not a faithful.
According to the vulgar belief, which has become an article of faith, the pages of the Koran were written in heaven and brought ready-made to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel, because in a passage it is said: "Your Lord is mighty and merciful, and the Koran is a revelation from the master of the universe. The faithful Spirit (the angel Gabriel) brought it from above, and placed it in your heart, O Muhammad, that you may become an apostle.” Muhammad expresses himself in the same way with regard to the book of Moses and the Gospel; he says (sura III, verse 2): “He sent down the Pentateuch and the Gospel from above, to serve as guidance for men”; Meaning by that that these two books had been inspired by God to Moses and to Jesus, as He had inspired him the Koran.
His first sermons were secret for two years, and in that period he was associated to about fifty followers among family and friends. The first ones converted to the new faith were Khadidja, his wife, Ali, his adopted child for ten years, Zeid Varaka and Abu-Becr, his closest friend that should be his successor. He was forty-three years old when he started preaching publicly, and from that moment on the prediction made by Varaka came true. His religion, founded on the unity of God and the reform of certain abuses, and being the collapse of idolatry and of those that lived on that, the Corayshites, guardians of the Kaaba and the national cult, rose up against him. First, they treated him as deranged; then they accused him of sacrilege and stirred up the people. He was persecuted and the persecution became so violent that his followers had to seek refuge in the Abyssinia on two occasions. Nevertheless, he always opposed the attacks with calm, cold-blood, and moderation. His sect grew and his adversaries, seeing that they could not eliminate it by force, decided to discredit it by slander. He was not spared by mockery and ridicule. As it was seeing, there were many poets among the Arabs; they handled satire very well and their verses were read with eagerness. It was the means employed by malevolent criticism, and they did not fail to use it against him. Since he resisted it all, his enemies finally resourced to a plot to kill him, and he just escaped the danger that threatened him by fleeing. It was when he sought refuge in Yathrib, later called Medina (Medinet-en-Nabi, the city of the prophet), in 622, and the Hegira or the era of the Muslims dates from that time. He had sent all of his followers from Mecca to that city, in anticipation and in small groups to avoid suspicion, being the last one to leave with Abu-Becr and Ali, his most devoted disciples, when he learned that the others were safe.
At that time a new phase begins in the life of Muhammad. From a simple prophet that he was, he was forced to become a warrior.
(continues in the next issue)
[1] Mr. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, from the Institute, summarized these works in an interesting book entitled Muhammad and the Koran, I volume in-12, price 3.5 francs, Didier Bookstore.
[2] The name Saud Arabia was established in 1932 only (T.N.)
[3] One cubit is equivalent to about 45 cm. It is one of the oldest units of measurement, based on the distance between the elbow and the tip of the fingers.
[4] A stony meteorite (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, T.N.)
Prophets of the Past
There are sometimes,
A work entitled The Prophets of the Past, by Mr. Barbey d'Aurévilly, contains the praise of Joseph de Maistre and Bonald, because they remained ultramontane[1] all their life, while Chateaubriand is blamed and Lamennais insulted and presented in a hateful manner. The following passage shows the mindset in which the book was conceived.
“In this world, where the spirit and the body are united by an indissoluble mystery, the corporeal punishment has its spiritual reason of being, because man is not responsible for duplicating the creation. Now, instead of burning the writings of Luther, whose ashes fell on Europe like a seed, if they had burned Luther himself the world would be saved, at least for a century. Burned Luther, they will scream, but I am not essentially attached to the stake, as long as the error is suppressed in its momentary manifestation and in its continuous manifestation, that is, the man that said it and wrote it and that calls it the truth. It is too much for the lambs of anarchy that only freedom bleats! A man of genius, the most positive since Machiavelli, and that was not absolutely Catholic, but on the contrary, somewhat liberal, used to say with the brutality of a necessary decision: “My policy is that of killing two men when necessary to save three.” Well, killing Luther it would not be three saved to the price of two; it would be thousands of men to the price of only one. Moreover, there is more than saving the blood of men, there is respect to the conscience and intelligence of mankind. Luther distorted both. Then, when there is a teaching and a social faith – it was Catholicism then – it is necessary to protect and defend it or perish one day or another as a society. Hence the courts and institutions to identify crimes against faith and teachings. The inquisition is, therefore, a logical necessity of any society.”
If the principles that we have just mentioned were not more than the personal opinion of the author, they would not need more concern than many other eccentricities, but he does not speak in his name only, and the party for which he is the spokesperson does not reproach him, giving at least a tacit approval. As a matter of fact, this is not the first time that these doctrines are preconized publicly in our days, and it is very certain that still today they constitute the opinion of a certain class of people. If people are not touched enough it is because society has much conscience of its strength to be afraid.
Everybody understands that such anachronisms are harmful, before anything else, to those that practice them, because the dig up a more profound abyss between past and present; enlighten the masses and keep them alert.
As it can be seen, the author does not disguises his thoughts and is not cautionary on his speech; here he goes straight to the point, without subterfuges: “Luther should have been burnt; all the authors of heresies should have been burnt for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of religion.” He is clear and precise.
It is sad that a religion has such an expedient as the basis of its authority and stability; it is a demonstration of little confidence in its moral ascendency. If its basis is the absolute truth, it must challenge all the contrary arguments; like with the Sun, it must suffice to show up to dissipate darkness. Every religion that comes from God has nothing to fear from the caprice or malice of men; its strength comes from reasoning, and if a man had the power to overthrow it, it would be one of two things, either that it would not be the work of God or that man would be more logical than God, so that his arguments would prevail against those of God.
The author would rather have burnt Luther than his books, because, he says, their ashes fell on Europe like a seed. He agrees, therefore, that the auto-da-fé of the books benefit more than harm the idea that one wants to destroy. This is a great and profound truth attested by experience. Thus, burn the man seems more efficient to him, because, in his opinion, it is to stop the evil at the source. But, does he believe that the ashes of the man are less fecund than those of the books? Has he given any thought to all the offspring produced by four hundred thousand heretics burnt by the Inquisition, not accounting for the even greater number of those that perished in other tortures? Burnt books only give ashes but human victims yield blood that produce indelible stains that fall on those who spill it. It was that blood that fed the fever of incredulity that torments our century, and if the faith is extinguished, it is because they wanted to cement it by blood and not by the love of God. How to love a God that has his children burnt? How can we believe in his goodness if the smoke of the victims is an incense that pleases him? How to believe in his infinite power if he needs the arm of man to make his authority prevail by destruction?
It is not religion, they will say, but abuse. In fact, if this were the essence of Christianity three would be nothing to envy Paganism, even regarding human sacrifice, and the world would not have gained much with the exchange. Yes, it is certainly abuse; but when the abuse is the works of leaders that have authority, that turn it into a law and present it as the most holy orthodoxy, it is not surprising that the poorly educated masses will later on confound everything in the same disapproval. However, it was precisely the abuse that gave rise to the reforms, and those that advocated them are reaping what they sowed.
It is remarkable that ninety percent of the three hundred and sixty something sects that divided Christianity since its origin had the objective of coming closer to the principles of the Gospels, from which it is rational to conclude that if they had not distanced themselves from them, these sects would not have been formed. Which weapons were used? Always by iron, fire, proscriptions, and persecutions. Sad and poor means of convincing! It was in blood that we wanted to suffocate them. In the absence of reasoning, force may overpower individuals, destroy, and disperse them, but it cannot annihilate the idea. That is why we see them reappearing incessantly, with some variants, with other names and other leaders.
The author of this book, as we saw, is in favor of heroic remedies. However, since he is afraid that the idea of burning may lead to “screaming” in our century, declaring “I am not essentially attached to the stake, as long as the error is suppressed in its momentary manifestation and in its continuous manifestation, that is, the man that said it and wrote it and that calls it the truth.” Thus, as long as the man disappears, it does not matter how.
We know that resources are not lacking; the end justifies the means. So much for the manifestation of the moment; but to have the error destroyed in its continuous manifestation, it is necessary to eliminate all the followers that are not willing to surrender willingly. We can see that this takes us far. Moreover, if the means is hard, it is infallible to get rid of any opposition.
Such ideas, in the present century, can only be imports and reminisces of previous existences. As for the lambs bleating freedom, that is an anachronism, a memory of the past. In fact, in the past the lambs could only bleat, but today the lambs became rams; they no longer bleat freedom: they take it.
However, let us see if burning Luther, they would have stopped the movement of which he had been the instigator. The author does not seem to be quite sure about it, since he says: “The world was saved, at least for a century.” A century of respite, that is all that would have been gained! And why? Here is the answer:
If the reformers only expressed their personal opinions, they would reform absolutely nothing at all because they would not find echoes. A man alone is powerless to move the masses if the masses are inert and do not feel any fiber vibrating in them. It is noticeable that the great social renovations never arrive suddenly; like volcanic eruptions, they are preceded by precursor symptoms. The new ideas germinate, boil in many heads; society is agitated by a kind of frisson, that has it in the expectation of something. That is the time when the true reformers arrive, that are then seeing not as a representative of an individual idea, but of a vague, collective idea to which the reformer gives a precise and concrete shape, and he only succeeds because he finds the minds ready to receive it.
That was the position of Luther. But Luther was neither the first nor the only promoter of the reform. Before him there were apostles like John Wycliffe, Jean Huss, Jerome of Prague. The two latter ones were burnt by the order of the Council of Constance; the Hussites were persecuted after a ferocious war, defeated, and massacred. The men were destroyed but not the idea that was later retaken with another form and modified in some details by Luther, Calvino, Zwingli, and others, from what we can conclude that if Luther had been burnt this would not have served any purpose, and not even given a century of break because the idea of reform was not only in Luther’s mind, but in thousands of others, from which men were to emerge, capable of sustaining it. It would have been only one more crime, without benefit to the cause that had provoked it. This is so much true that when a current of ideas crosses the world, nothing can stop it.
By reading those words, one would believe that they were written during the fever of religious wars, and not in times when doctrines are judged with the calm of reason.
[1] Advocating supreme Papal authority in matters of faith and discipline (T.N.)
A work entitled The Prophets of the Past, by Mr. Barbey d'Aurévilly, contains the praise of Joseph de Maistre and Bonald, because they remained ultramontane[1] all their life, while Chateaubriand is blamed and Lamennais insulted and presented in a hateful manner. The following passage shows the mindset in which the book was conceived.
“In this world, where the spirit and the body are united by an indissoluble mystery, the corporeal punishment has its spiritual reason of being, because man is not responsible for duplicating the creation. Now, instead of burning the writings of Luther, whose ashes fell on Europe like a seed, if they had burned Luther himself the world would be saved, at least for a century. Burned Luther, they will scream, but I am not essentially attached to the stake, as long as the error is suppressed in its momentary manifestation and in its continuous manifestation, that is, the man that said it and wrote it and that calls it the truth. It is too much for the lambs of anarchy that only freedom bleats! A man of genius, the most positive since Machiavelli, and that was not absolutely Catholic, but on the contrary, somewhat liberal, used to say with the brutality of a necessary decision: “My policy is that of killing two men when necessary to save three.” Well, killing Luther it would not be three saved to the price of two; it would be thousands of men to the price of only one. Moreover, there is more than saving the blood of men, there is respect to the conscience and intelligence of mankind. Luther distorted both. Then, when there is a teaching and a social faith – it was Catholicism then – it is necessary to protect and defend it or perish one day or another as a society. Hence the courts and institutions to identify crimes against faith and teachings. The inquisition is, therefore, a logical necessity of any society.”
If the principles that we have just mentioned were not more than the personal opinion of the author, they would not need more concern than many other eccentricities, but he does not speak in his name only, and the party for which he is the spokesperson does not reproach him, giving at least a tacit approval. As a matter of fact, this is not the first time that these doctrines are preconized publicly in our days, and it is very certain that still today they constitute the opinion of a certain class of people. If people are not touched enough it is because society has much conscience of its strength to be afraid.
Everybody understands that such anachronisms are harmful, before anything else, to those that practice them, because the dig up a more profound abyss between past and present; enlighten the masses and keep them alert.
As it can be seen, the author does not disguises his thoughts and is not cautionary on his speech; here he goes straight to the point, without subterfuges: “Luther should have been burnt; all the authors of heresies should have been burnt for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of religion.” He is clear and precise.
It is sad that a religion has such an expedient as the basis of its authority and stability; it is a demonstration of little confidence in its moral ascendency. If its basis is the absolute truth, it must challenge all the contrary arguments; like with the Sun, it must suffice to show up to dissipate darkness. Every religion that comes from God has nothing to fear from the caprice or malice of men; its strength comes from reasoning, and if a man had the power to overthrow it, it would be one of two things, either that it would not be the work of God or that man would be more logical than God, so that his arguments would prevail against those of God.
The author would rather have burnt Luther than his books, because, he says, their ashes fell on Europe like a seed. He agrees, therefore, that the auto-da-fé of the books benefit more than harm the idea that one wants to destroy. This is a great and profound truth attested by experience. Thus, burn the man seems more efficient to him, because, in his opinion, it is to stop the evil at the source. But, does he believe that the ashes of the man are less fecund than those of the books? Has he given any thought to all the offspring produced by four hundred thousand heretics burnt by the Inquisition, not accounting for the even greater number of those that perished in other tortures? Burnt books only give ashes but human victims yield blood that produce indelible stains that fall on those who spill it. It was that blood that fed the fever of incredulity that torments our century, and if the faith is extinguished, it is because they wanted to cement it by blood and not by the love of God. How to love a God that has his children burnt? How can we believe in his goodness if the smoke of the victims is an incense that pleases him? How to believe in his infinite power if he needs the arm of man to make his authority prevail by destruction?
It is not religion, they will say, but abuse. In fact, if this were the essence of Christianity three would be nothing to envy Paganism, even regarding human sacrifice, and the world would not have gained much with the exchange. Yes, it is certainly abuse; but when the abuse is the works of leaders that have authority, that turn it into a law and present it as the most holy orthodoxy, it is not surprising that the poorly educated masses will later on confound everything in the same disapproval. However, it was precisely the abuse that gave rise to the reforms, and those that advocated them are reaping what they sowed.
It is remarkable that ninety percent of the three hundred and sixty something sects that divided Christianity since its origin had the objective of coming closer to the principles of the Gospels, from which it is rational to conclude that if they had not distanced themselves from them, these sects would not have been formed. Which weapons were used? Always by iron, fire, proscriptions, and persecutions. Sad and poor means of convincing! It was in blood that we wanted to suffocate them. In the absence of reasoning, force may overpower individuals, destroy, and disperse them, but it cannot annihilate the idea. That is why we see them reappearing incessantly, with some variants, with other names and other leaders.
The author of this book, as we saw, is in favor of heroic remedies. However, since he is afraid that the idea of burning may lead to “screaming” in our century, declaring “I am not essentially attached to the stake, as long as the error is suppressed in its momentary manifestation and in its continuous manifestation, that is, the man that said it and wrote it and that calls it the truth.” Thus, as long as the man disappears, it does not matter how.
We know that resources are not lacking; the end justifies the means. So much for the manifestation of the moment; but to have the error destroyed in its continuous manifestation, it is necessary to eliminate all the followers that are not willing to surrender willingly. We can see that this takes us far. Moreover, if the means is hard, it is infallible to get rid of any opposition.
Such ideas, in the present century, can only be imports and reminisces of previous existences. As for the lambs bleating freedom, that is an anachronism, a memory of the past. In fact, in the past the lambs could only bleat, but today the lambs became rams; they no longer bleat freedom: they take it.
However, let us see if burning Luther, they would have stopped the movement of which he had been the instigator. The author does not seem to be quite sure about it, since he says: “The world was saved, at least for a century.” A century of respite, that is all that would have been gained! And why? Here is the answer:
If the reformers only expressed their personal opinions, they would reform absolutely nothing at all because they would not find echoes. A man alone is powerless to move the masses if the masses are inert and do not feel any fiber vibrating in them. It is noticeable that the great social renovations never arrive suddenly; like volcanic eruptions, they are preceded by precursor symptoms. The new ideas germinate, boil in many heads; society is agitated by a kind of frisson, that has it in the expectation of something. That is the time when the true reformers arrive, that are then seeing not as a representative of an individual idea, but of a vague, collective idea to which the reformer gives a precise and concrete shape, and he only succeeds because he finds the minds ready to receive it.
That was the position of Luther. But Luther was neither the first nor the only promoter of the reform. Before him there were apostles like John Wycliffe, Jean Huss, Jerome of Prague. The two latter ones were burnt by the order of the Council of Constance; the Hussites were persecuted after a ferocious war, defeated, and massacred. The men were destroyed but not the idea that was later retaken with another form and modified in some details by Luther, Calvino, Zwingli, and others, from what we can conclude that if Luther had been burnt this would not have served any purpose, and not even given a century of break because the idea of reform was not only in Luther’s mind, but in thousands of others, from which men were to emerge, capable of sustaining it. It would have been only one more crime, without benefit to the cause that had provoked it. This is so much true that when a current of ideas crosses the world, nothing can stop it.
By reading those words, one would believe that they were written during the fever of religious wars, and not in times when doctrines are judged with the calm of reason.
[1] Advocating supreme Papal authority in matters of faith and discipline (T.N.)
Fantastic Creations of Imagination
Visions of Mrs. Cantianille B…
“L’Evenement” from February 19th contains the following article:
“Strange and still inexplicable events took place last year in Auxerre, shaking the population. The followers of Spiritism saw in them manifestations of their doctrine, and the clergy considered them as new examples of possession. They spoke of exorcism, as if returned to the beautiful times of the Ursulines of Loudun. The person in the center of all that uproar was Cantianille B… A priest from the Cathedral of Sens, Father Thorey, authorized by his bishop, witnessed those apparent breaches of the natural laws. Today that priest publishes the result of his observations with the title Marvelous Relationships of Mrs. Cantianille B… with the Supernatural World. He brings us a proof of his work and we gladly point out to a passage that is curious on various aspects.
In the preface, after having exposed the plan of the book, the author adds:
May the reader, after browsing these pages, do not rush their judgement. These facts will undoubtedly seem incredible to you, but I beg you to remember that both, Cantianille and I, have affirmed the truthfulness of these facts under oath. In the report below there is no exaggeration or invented at will; everything there is perfectly accurate. Besides, those events, those prodigious manifestations of the superior world, repeat everyday and every time I wish, and we ask not to be believed based on our simple statement. On the contrary, we insistently ask to have them studied; that competent men may meet with the sole wish of truth and prepared to seek it with loyalty. All these marvelous things will be reproduced before their eyes and as many times are necessary to convince them. We commit ourselves.
May the Spirits with broad ideas consider this book as good news!
In the book Mrs. Cantianille B… tells how she became a member and president of a society of Spirits in 1840, during her passage through a religious monastery: - Ossian, a Spirit of second order, came to pick me up in the monastery, as usual, and I soon saw myself transported to the middle of a meeting. He placed me on a throne where my apparition was welcomed by the nosiest applause. They made me take the ordinary oath: - I swear to offend God through all possible means and do not step back before anything to make hell defeat heavens. I love Satan. I hate God. I want the fall of heavens and the kingdom of hell!...
After that, each one came to congratulate and encourage me, to be strong before the trials that I had to go through. I promised.
Those screams, that uproar, the interest of each one, the music and the rays of light that illuminated the room, everything electrified me, intoxicated me!... I then screamed in a strong voice: - I am ready; I am not afraid of your trials; go and see if I am worthy to be among you.
Soon the noise stopped, the light disappeared. – Go, said a voice. I moved without hesitation through a narrow corridor, for I felt each side as a strong wall, and those walls seemed to get closer and closer. I thought I would be smashed, and I became terrified. I wanted to go back but at the same time I felt on Ossian’s arms. He exerted such a strong pressure upon my whole body that I screamed. – Shut up, he said, or you are dead. Danger brought my courage back… No, I will not shout any more, I will not back down.
And making a superhuman effort I cover that corridor like a bolt, that became narrower and darker at every step. Despite my efforts, my fear redoubled, and I would perhaps flee, when suddenly earth gave way under my feet and I fell on an abyss whose depth I could not appreciate. I was momentarily stunned by that fall, without being discouraged though. An infernal thought had just crossed my mind. – Ah they want to terrify me!... They will see if I am afraid of demons… I then stood up to seek an exit. But then… flames showed up from all sides!... They approached me as if to burn me… and amidst that fire the Spirits screaming, howling, so terrifying!
-What do you want from me? I asked Ossian.
-I want you to be the president of our association… I want you to help us hate God; I want you to swear to be ours, for us and with us, everywhere and forever!
As soon as I promised that, the fire was suddenly out.
-Do not run away from me, he said, I bring you happiness and greatness. Look.
I saw myself surrounded by the associates, in the middle of the room that they had decorated even more in my absence. A sumptuous feast was served. Then, I was given the place of honor, and in the end, when everybody was warmed by the wine and liquors, and super excited by the music, I was appointed president.
The one that had delivered me pointed out, in a few words, the courage that I had shown in those terrible trials, and amidst a thousand bravos, I accepted the fatal title of president. I was, therefore, heading thousands of people that were attentive to the minor signal. I only had one thought: deserve their trust and submission. Unfortunately, I was too successful.”
The author is right when he says that the followers of Spiritism may see manifestations of their doctrine in these facts. That is because, in fact, Spiritism for those that studied it elsewhere, and not in the school of Messrs. Davenport and Robin, is a revelation of a new principle, a new law of nature, that gives us the reason for something that, in the absence of a better explanation, was conventionally attributed to imagination. That principle is in the extra corporeal world, intimately connected with our existence. The one that does not admit the individual soul, and independent from matter, rejecting the a priori cause, cannot understand its effects. However, these effects jump incessantly before our eyes, innumerable and positive.
Following them step by step in their succession, one can get to the source. That is what Spiritism does, always proceeding through observation, going back from the effect to the cause, and never through a preconceived theory.
This is a point of paramount importance, on which we cannot stress enough. Spiritism has not adopted the existence of the Spirits as a starting point, nor that of the invisible world, as a gratuitous supposition, except to proof that existence later, but on the observation of the fact, and from the observed facts it concluded the theory. Such observation led it not only to acknowledge the existence of the soul as a principal being, since the intelligence and sensations reside in it and it survives the body, but also that phenomena of a particular order take place in the sphere of activities of the soul, incarnate or discarnate, beyond the perception of the senses. Since the action of the soul is essentially connected to the action of the organism during life, it is a vast and new field of exploration, open to psychology and physiology, and in which science will find what it uselessly seek for so long.
Spiritism, therefore, found a fecund principle, but it does not follow that it can explain everything. The knowledge of the laws of electricity gave the explanation of the effects of lightning. Nobody treated this matter with more know-how and lucidity than Arago, however, in the so common phenomenon of lightning there are effects that he declares, knowledgeable as he is, that he cannot explain, like for example of the forked lightning. Does he deny them, because of that? No, because he has much common sense, and as a matter of fact, one cannot deny a fact. What does he do? He says: Let us observe and wait to be more advanced. Spiritism does not act differently. It confesses ignorance about something that it does not know, and expecting to know, it seeks and observes.
The visions of Mrs. Cantianille belong to that category of questions about which, in a certain way, one can only, until more ample information, try an explanation. We believe to find it in the principle of the fluidic creations by thought.
When the object of the visions is a positive, real thing, whose existence is verified, its explanation is very simple: the soul sees, by the effect of its radiation, what the eyes of the body cannot see. Had Spiritism explained only this, and it would already have lifted the veil of many mysteries. But the issue gets complicated when the visions, like those of Mrs. Cantianille, are purely fantastic. How can the soul see what does not exist? Where do those images come from that for those that see them, they have the thorough appearance of reality? They say it is the effect of imagination. Be it, but these effects have a cause. What does such a power of imagination consist of? How and upon what does it act? If a fearful person hears the noise of mice at night, she is terrified and imagine to hear the steps of thieves; if she takes a shadow or a vague form by a living being that chases her, there we have the true effects of imagination.
But in the visions of the kind that are handled here, there is something else, because it is no longer just a false idea, it is an image with its forms and colors, so clear and accurate that could be drawn. However, they are no more than delusion! Where does it come from? To understand what happens in such circumstance, it is necessary to move away from our exclusively material point of view and penetrate the incorporeal world through our thought; identify ourselves with its nature and the special phenomena that must take place in an environment that is completely different from ours. Down here we are like the spectator that gets surprised by a scenic effect because he cannot understand its mechanism, but if he goes behind the scenes, everything will be understood. Everything is tangible matter in our world; in the invisible world, everything is intangible matter, if we can say so, that is, intangible to us since we can only perceive through material organs, but tangible to the beings of that world, that perceive through spiritual senses.
Everything is fluidic in that world, people and things, and fluidic things are also real there as the material ones are real to us. This is a first principle.
The second principle is in the modifications that thought imprint onto the fluidic element. We can say that it models it at will, as we model some clay and from that we make a statue. The difference is in the fact that since matter is compact and resistant, to manipulate it one needs a strong instrument, whereas the ethereal matter suffers the action of one’s mind, effortlessly. Under such an action, it is susceptible to take all forms and appearances. That is how we see Spirits that are not much dematerialized presenting themselves with objects in their hands that they had when alive; dressing with the same clothes; wearing the same ornaments and taking the same appearance at will. The Queen of Oude, whose communication we published in the Spiritist Review, March 1858 issue, always saw herself with her jewelry and used to say that they had not left her. One thought is enough for that, and frequently they are not aware of the way it happens, as with the living ones that lots of people walk, see, and hear without being able to say how and why. The same happened to the Zouave of Magenta (Spiritist Review, August 1859), that said to wear the same outfit, and when asked where he had gotten it, since it had been left in the battle field, he answered: that is with my tailor.
We cited many facts of that kind, among them the man with the snuffing box (August 1859), and Pierre Legay (November 1864) that paid for his bus ticket. These fluidic creations may, sometimes, take momentarily visible and tangible appearances to the living ones, because, in reality, they are due to a transformation of the ethereal matter. The principle of the fluidic creations seems to be one of the most important laws of the incorporeal world.
By partially enjoying the faculties of a free Spirit in moments of emancipation, the incarnate soul may produce analogous effects. That could be the cause of the so-called fantastic visions. When the Spirit is strongly focused on an idea, its thought may create a corresponding fluidic image, that for him has all the appearances of reality, as in the case of Pierre Legay’s money, although the thing itself does not exist.
That is, undoubtedly, the case that happened to Mrs. Cantianille. As she worried about the descriptions that she had heard being made about hell, the demons and their temptations, the pacts through which they take over the souls, the tortures of the disgraced ones, her thoughts created a fluidic image that was only real to her. We can place the visions of Sister Elmerich in the same category, when affirmed to have seen all the scenes of the Passion, and found the chalice in which Jesus had drunk, as well as other objects similar to the ones used in the present day mass, that certainly did not exist in those days, and that she provided a detailed description. When she said that she had seen all that, she acted in good faith, because she had really seen them, by the eyes of the soul, but a fluidic image, created by her thought.
All visions have their principle in the perceptions of the soul, as the corporeal sight has its own in the sensitivity of the optical nerve. But they vary in their cause and objective. The more underdeveloped the soul, the more susceptible it is to create delusion about what it sees. Their imperfections make them susceptible to error. The more dematerialized are those whose perceptions are more expanded and accurate. But however imperfect they may be, these faculties are not less useful to the study.
If this explanation does not offer an absolute certainty, at least it has the evident character of probability. It demonstrates one thing, above all, that the Spiritists are not as credulous as their detractors pretend them to be, and do not agree with everything that seems wonderful. All visions are, therefore, far from being articles of faith to them; but irrespective of what they are, delusion or reality, they are effects that cannot be denied. They have them studied and try to understand them, without the pretension of knowing everything, and explaining everything. They only affirm something when it is demonstrated by evidence, for it would be as much inconsequent to accept everything as it would be to deny it.
“Strange and still inexplicable events took place last year in Auxerre, shaking the population. The followers of Spiritism saw in them manifestations of their doctrine, and the clergy considered them as new examples of possession. They spoke of exorcism, as if returned to the beautiful times of the Ursulines of Loudun. The person in the center of all that uproar was Cantianille B… A priest from the Cathedral of Sens, Father Thorey, authorized by his bishop, witnessed those apparent breaches of the natural laws. Today that priest publishes the result of his observations with the title Marvelous Relationships of Mrs. Cantianille B… with the Supernatural World. He brings us a proof of his work and we gladly point out to a passage that is curious on various aspects.
In the preface, after having exposed the plan of the book, the author adds:
May the reader, after browsing these pages, do not rush their judgement. These facts will undoubtedly seem incredible to you, but I beg you to remember that both, Cantianille and I, have affirmed the truthfulness of these facts under oath. In the report below there is no exaggeration or invented at will; everything there is perfectly accurate. Besides, those events, those prodigious manifestations of the superior world, repeat everyday and every time I wish, and we ask not to be believed based on our simple statement. On the contrary, we insistently ask to have them studied; that competent men may meet with the sole wish of truth and prepared to seek it with loyalty. All these marvelous things will be reproduced before their eyes and as many times are necessary to convince them. We commit ourselves.
May the Spirits with broad ideas consider this book as good news!
In the book Mrs. Cantianille B… tells how she became a member and president of a society of Spirits in 1840, during her passage through a religious monastery: - Ossian, a Spirit of second order, came to pick me up in the monastery, as usual, and I soon saw myself transported to the middle of a meeting. He placed me on a throne where my apparition was welcomed by the nosiest applause. They made me take the ordinary oath: - I swear to offend God through all possible means and do not step back before anything to make hell defeat heavens. I love Satan. I hate God. I want the fall of heavens and the kingdom of hell!...
After that, each one came to congratulate and encourage me, to be strong before the trials that I had to go through. I promised.
Those screams, that uproar, the interest of each one, the music and the rays of light that illuminated the room, everything electrified me, intoxicated me!... I then screamed in a strong voice: - I am ready; I am not afraid of your trials; go and see if I am worthy to be among you.
Soon the noise stopped, the light disappeared. – Go, said a voice. I moved without hesitation through a narrow corridor, for I felt each side as a strong wall, and those walls seemed to get closer and closer. I thought I would be smashed, and I became terrified. I wanted to go back but at the same time I felt on Ossian’s arms. He exerted such a strong pressure upon my whole body that I screamed. – Shut up, he said, or you are dead. Danger brought my courage back… No, I will not shout any more, I will not back down.
And making a superhuman effort I cover that corridor like a bolt, that became narrower and darker at every step. Despite my efforts, my fear redoubled, and I would perhaps flee, when suddenly earth gave way under my feet and I fell on an abyss whose depth I could not appreciate. I was momentarily stunned by that fall, without being discouraged though. An infernal thought had just crossed my mind. – Ah they want to terrify me!... They will see if I am afraid of demons… I then stood up to seek an exit. But then… flames showed up from all sides!... They approached me as if to burn me… and amidst that fire the Spirits screaming, howling, so terrifying!
-What do you want from me? I asked Ossian.
-I want you to be the president of our association… I want you to help us hate God; I want you to swear to be ours, for us and with us, everywhere and forever!
As soon as I promised that, the fire was suddenly out.
-Do not run away from me, he said, I bring you happiness and greatness. Look.
I saw myself surrounded by the associates, in the middle of the room that they had decorated even more in my absence. A sumptuous feast was served. Then, I was given the place of honor, and in the end, when everybody was warmed by the wine and liquors, and super excited by the music, I was appointed president.
The one that had delivered me pointed out, in a few words, the courage that I had shown in those terrible trials, and amidst a thousand bravos, I accepted the fatal title of president. I was, therefore, heading thousands of people that were attentive to the minor signal. I only had one thought: deserve their trust and submission. Unfortunately, I was too successful.”
The author is right when he says that the followers of Spiritism may see manifestations of their doctrine in these facts. That is because, in fact, Spiritism for those that studied it elsewhere, and not in the school of Messrs. Davenport and Robin, is a revelation of a new principle, a new law of nature, that gives us the reason for something that, in the absence of a better explanation, was conventionally attributed to imagination. That principle is in the extra corporeal world, intimately connected with our existence. The one that does not admit the individual soul, and independent from matter, rejecting the a priori cause, cannot understand its effects. However, these effects jump incessantly before our eyes, innumerable and positive.
Following them step by step in their succession, one can get to the source. That is what Spiritism does, always proceeding through observation, going back from the effect to the cause, and never through a preconceived theory.
This is a point of paramount importance, on which we cannot stress enough. Spiritism has not adopted the existence of the Spirits as a starting point, nor that of the invisible world, as a gratuitous supposition, except to proof that existence later, but on the observation of the fact, and from the observed facts it concluded the theory. Such observation led it not only to acknowledge the existence of the soul as a principal being, since the intelligence and sensations reside in it and it survives the body, but also that phenomena of a particular order take place in the sphere of activities of the soul, incarnate or discarnate, beyond the perception of the senses. Since the action of the soul is essentially connected to the action of the organism during life, it is a vast and new field of exploration, open to psychology and physiology, and in which science will find what it uselessly seek for so long.
Spiritism, therefore, found a fecund principle, but it does not follow that it can explain everything. The knowledge of the laws of electricity gave the explanation of the effects of lightning. Nobody treated this matter with more know-how and lucidity than Arago, however, in the so common phenomenon of lightning there are effects that he declares, knowledgeable as he is, that he cannot explain, like for example of the forked lightning. Does he deny them, because of that? No, because he has much common sense, and as a matter of fact, one cannot deny a fact. What does he do? He says: Let us observe and wait to be more advanced. Spiritism does not act differently. It confesses ignorance about something that it does not know, and expecting to know, it seeks and observes.
The visions of Mrs. Cantianille belong to that category of questions about which, in a certain way, one can only, until more ample information, try an explanation. We believe to find it in the principle of the fluidic creations by thought.
When the object of the visions is a positive, real thing, whose existence is verified, its explanation is very simple: the soul sees, by the effect of its radiation, what the eyes of the body cannot see. Had Spiritism explained only this, and it would already have lifted the veil of many mysteries. But the issue gets complicated when the visions, like those of Mrs. Cantianille, are purely fantastic. How can the soul see what does not exist? Where do those images come from that for those that see them, they have the thorough appearance of reality? They say it is the effect of imagination. Be it, but these effects have a cause. What does such a power of imagination consist of? How and upon what does it act? If a fearful person hears the noise of mice at night, she is terrified and imagine to hear the steps of thieves; if she takes a shadow or a vague form by a living being that chases her, there we have the true effects of imagination.
But in the visions of the kind that are handled here, there is something else, because it is no longer just a false idea, it is an image with its forms and colors, so clear and accurate that could be drawn. However, they are no more than delusion! Where does it come from? To understand what happens in such circumstance, it is necessary to move away from our exclusively material point of view and penetrate the incorporeal world through our thought; identify ourselves with its nature and the special phenomena that must take place in an environment that is completely different from ours. Down here we are like the spectator that gets surprised by a scenic effect because he cannot understand its mechanism, but if he goes behind the scenes, everything will be understood. Everything is tangible matter in our world; in the invisible world, everything is intangible matter, if we can say so, that is, intangible to us since we can only perceive through material organs, but tangible to the beings of that world, that perceive through spiritual senses.
Everything is fluidic in that world, people and things, and fluidic things are also real there as the material ones are real to us. This is a first principle.
The second principle is in the modifications that thought imprint onto the fluidic element. We can say that it models it at will, as we model some clay and from that we make a statue. The difference is in the fact that since matter is compact and resistant, to manipulate it one needs a strong instrument, whereas the ethereal matter suffers the action of one’s mind, effortlessly. Under such an action, it is susceptible to take all forms and appearances. That is how we see Spirits that are not much dematerialized presenting themselves with objects in their hands that they had when alive; dressing with the same clothes; wearing the same ornaments and taking the same appearance at will. The Queen of Oude, whose communication we published in the Spiritist Review, March 1858 issue, always saw herself with her jewelry and used to say that they had not left her. One thought is enough for that, and frequently they are not aware of the way it happens, as with the living ones that lots of people walk, see, and hear without being able to say how and why. The same happened to the Zouave of Magenta (Spiritist Review, August 1859), that said to wear the same outfit, and when asked where he had gotten it, since it had been left in the battle field, he answered: that is with my tailor.
We cited many facts of that kind, among them the man with the snuffing box (August 1859), and Pierre Legay (November 1864) that paid for his bus ticket. These fluidic creations may, sometimes, take momentarily visible and tangible appearances to the living ones, because, in reality, they are due to a transformation of the ethereal matter. The principle of the fluidic creations seems to be one of the most important laws of the incorporeal world.
By partially enjoying the faculties of a free Spirit in moments of emancipation, the incarnate soul may produce analogous effects. That could be the cause of the so-called fantastic visions. When the Spirit is strongly focused on an idea, its thought may create a corresponding fluidic image, that for him has all the appearances of reality, as in the case of Pierre Legay’s money, although the thing itself does not exist.
That is, undoubtedly, the case that happened to Mrs. Cantianille. As she worried about the descriptions that she had heard being made about hell, the demons and their temptations, the pacts through which they take over the souls, the tortures of the disgraced ones, her thoughts created a fluidic image that was only real to her. We can place the visions of Sister Elmerich in the same category, when affirmed to have seen all the scenes of the Passion, and found the chalice in which Jesus had drunk, as well as other objects similar to the ones used in the present day mass, that certainly did not exist in those days, and that she provided a detailed description. When she said that she had seen all that, she acted in good faith, because she had really seen them, by the eyes of the soul, but a fluidic image, created by her thought.
All visions have their principle in the perceptions of the soul, as the corporeal sight has its own in the sensitivity of the optical nerve. But they vary in their cause and objective. The more underdeveloped the soul, the more susceptible it is to create delusion about what it sees. Their imperfections make them susceptible to error. The more dematerialized are those whose perceptions are more expanded and accurate. But however imperfect they may be, these faculties are not less useful to the study.
If this explanation does not offer an absolute certainty, at least it has the evident character of probability. It demonstrates one thing, above all, that the Spiritists are not as credulous as their detractors pretend them to be, and do not agree with everything that seems wonderful. All visions are, therefore, far from being articles of faith to them; but irrespective of what they are, delusion or reality, they are effects that cannot be denied. They have them studied and try to understand them, without the pretension of knowing everything, and explaining everything. They only affirm something when it is demonstrated by evidence, for it would be as much inconsequent to accept everything as it would be to deny it.
Questions and problems
Children, Spiritual Guides of their ParentsHaving lost a seven-year-old child, and having become a medium, the mother had that very child as a guide. One day she asked him the following question:
- Dear and beloved son, a Spiritist friend of mine does not understand and does not admit that you can be the spiritual guide of your mother, because she existed before you and, undoubtedly, must have had a guide, even if that was during the time that we were fortunate to have you by our side. Can you give us some explanations?
Answer from the Spirit of the child – Why do you want answers for everything that seems incomprehensible to you? The one that seems the most advanced to you in Spiritism is just in the first steps of the doctrine, and does not know more than this one or that one that seems capable of everything and capable of giving you explanations. I existed much long before my mother, and in another existence, I had an eminent position due to my intellectual capability. But I was taken by an immense pride, and during several consecutive existences I was submitted to the same trial, without being able to succeed, until I got to this life by your side. However, since I was already advanced, my departure should serve your advancement, to you, so much late in the spiritual life. God called me before the end of my career, considering my mission more beneficial to you as a Spirit than as an incarnate.
During my latest staying on Earth my mother had her guardian angel by her side, but temporarily, for God knew that I was supposed to be her spiritual guide, and that I would lead her more efficiently to the path from which she was so much distant. The guide that she had then was called to another mission when I came to take his place by her side. Ask those that you know are more advanced than you if this explanation is logical and good, because it is possible that, being my opinion, I may be mistaken. Finally, this will be clarified if you ask. Many things are still hidden from you and will be clarified later. Do not wish to go too deep because the confusion in your thoughts arises from this constant concern. Be patient, because as with a mirror that gets foggy with a slight breath and clears up bit by bit, your tranquil and calm Spirit will achieve that degree of understanding necessary to your advancement. Courage, then, good parents; march with confidence and one day you will praise the time of the terrible trial that brought you to the path of the eternal happiness, without which you would still have many unfortunate existences to live.
Observation: This boy had a rare premature intelligence for his age. Although in good health, he seemed to foresee his near end. He used to be happy in cemeteries and without ever having heard about Spiritism, in which his parents did not believe, he often asked if, when he was dead, he would be able to come back to the loved ones. He aspired death with happiness and used to say that when he died, his mother should not suffer because he would return to her side. In fact, it was the death of three children in a few days that led the parents to seek consolation in Spiritism. They found plenty of consolation and their faith was rewarded by the possibility of talking to their children all the time because the mother became an excellent medium in a very short time, having her own son as a guide, a Spirit that reveals a great superiority.
- Dear and beloved son, a Spiritist friend of mine does not understand and does not admit that you can be the spiritual guide of your mother, because she existed before you and, undoubtedly, must have had a guide, even if that was during the time that we were fortunate to have you by our side. Can you give us some explanations?
Answer from the Spirit of the child – Why do you want answers for everything that seems incomprehensible to you? The one that seems the most advanced to you in Spiritism is just in the first steps of the doctrine, and does not know more than this one or that one that seems capable of everything and capable of giving you explanations. I existed much long before my mother, and in another existence, I had an eminent position due to my intellectual capability. But I was taken by an immense pride, and during several consecutive existences I was submitted to the same trial, without being able to succeed, until I got to this life by your side. However, since I was already advanced, my departure should serve your advancement, to you, so much late in the spiritual life. God called me before the end of my career, considering my mission more beneficial to you as a Spirit than as an incarnate.
During my latest staying on Earth my mother had her guardian angel by her side, but temporarily, for God knew that I was supposed to be her spiritual guide, and that I would lead her more efficiently to the path from which she was so much distant. The guide that she had then was called to another mission when I came to take his place by her side. Ask those that you know are more advanced than you if this explanation is logical and good, because it is possible that, being my opinion, I may be mistaken. Finally, this will be clarified if you ask. Many things are still hidden from you and will be clarified later. Do not wish to go too deep because the confusion in your thoughts arises from this constant concern. Be patient, because as with a mirror that gets foggy with a slight breath and clears up bit by bit, your tranquil and calm Spirit will achieve that degree of understanding necessary to your advancement. Courage, then, good parents; march with confidence and one day you will praise the time of the terrible trial that brought you to the path of the eternal happiness, without which you would still have many unfortunate existences to live.
Observation: This boy had a rare premature intelligence for his age. Although in good health, he seemed to foresee his near end. He used to be happy in cemeteries and without ever having heard about Spiritism, in which his parents did not believe, he often asked if, when he was dead, he would be able to come back to the loved ones. He aspired death with happiness and used to say that when he died, his mother should not suffer because he would return to her side. In fact, it was the death of three children in a few days that led the parents to seek consolation in Spiritism. They found plenty of consolation and their faith was rewarded by the possibility of talking to their children all the time because the mother became an excellent medium in a very short time, having her own son as a guide, a Spirit that reveals a great superiority.
Communications with the loved ones
Why all mothers that cry for their children and would be happy to communicate with them, cannot do it? Why their vision is denied, even in dreams, despite their wishes and fervent prayers?
Besides the lack of special gift that, as it is known, is not given to everybody, there are sometimes other reasons whose utility the wisdom of Providence appreciates better than we do. Such communications could have inconvenient to highly impressionable individuals; certain persons could abuse them and pledge to them with an excess that would be harmful to their health. Pain, in similar cases, is undoubtedly natural and legitimate; but sometimes it takes to an unreasonable point. Such communications frequently revive the pain in persons of weak character, instead of appeasing them, and for that matter they are not always allowed to receive them, even by other mediums, until they became calmer and controlled to dominate their emotion. The lack of resignation, in such cases, is almost always a cause of delay.
Moreover, it is necessary to say that the impossibility of communicating with the Spirits that we love the most, when we can do it with others, is frequently a test of faith and perseverance, and in certain cases a punishment. The one that has such a favor denied must tell oneself that it is undoubtedly deserved. One must seek the cause in oneself and not attribute it to indifference or forgetfulness of the loved one. Finally, there are temperaments that, despite the moral strength, could suffer through the exercise of mediumship with certain Spirits, even if sympathetic, according to the circumstances.
Let us admire the solicitude of the Providence in everything, watching the minimum details, and let us know to submit to His will without moaning, because the Providence knows better than we do what is useful and what is harmful. It is like a good father that does not give the son everything that he wishes.
The same reasons apply to the dreams. The dreams are the memories of what the soul saw in a state of detachment during the sleep. Now, such a memory may be blocked. But what we do not remember is not lost to the soul, for that fact. The sensations felt during the excursions of the soul, in the invisible world, leave vague impressions when we wake up, and we remember thoughts and ideas, whose origins are many times unsuspected. We could, therefore, have seen the loved ones during the sleep, had spent time with them, but we do not keep the memory. We then say that we did not dream. But, if the bereaved being cannot manifest in any positive way, he or she will not be less close to those that attract them by their sympathetic thoughts. They see and hear their words, and their presence is often guessed through a kind of intuition, an intimate sensation, and sometimes even through certain physical impressions. The certain that the person is not in the void; that is not lost in the depth of space or in the abyss of hell; that the person happier, now free from the corporeal sufferings and the tribulations of life; that they will be seen, after a momentary separation, more beautiful, more resplendent, under their imperishable spiritual envelope, and not under their carnal carapace, that is the immense consolation that is denied by those that believe that everything ends with life; that is what Spiritism gives.
In reality one cannot understand the enchantment that can be found in the idea of the nothingness for oneself and for the loved ones, and in the obstinacy of certain persons in rejecting even the hope that it can be different, and the means of acquiring its proof. Tell an agonizing patient: “Tomorrow you will be cured; you will still live many years, happy and healthy”, and that person will accept the foreboding with joy. Isn’t the thought of a limitless spiritual life, exempt from diseases and the concerns of life, much more satisfactory?
Well, Spiritism does not give only hopes about it, but a certainty. That is why the Spiritists see death in a completely different way from the skeptical.
Besides the lack of special gift that, as it is known, is not given to everybody, there are sometimes other reasons whose utility the wisdom of Providence appreciates better than we do. Such communications could have inconvenient to highly impressionable individuals; certain persons could abuse them and pledge to them with an excess that would be harmful to their health. Pain, in similar cases, is undoubtedly natural and legitimate; but sometimes it takes to an unreasonable point. Such communications frequently revive the pain in persons of weak character, instead of appeasing them, and for that matter they are not always allowed to receive them, even by other mediums, until they became calmer and controlled to dominate their emotion. The lack of resignation, in such cases, is almost always a cause of delay.
Moreover, it is necessary to say that the impossibility of communicating with the Spirits that we love the most, when we can do it with others, is frequently a test of faith and perseverance, and in certain cases a punishment. The one that has such a favor denied must tell oneself that it is undoubtedly deserved. One must seek the cause in oneself and not attribute it to indifference or forgetfulness of the loved one. Finally, there are temperaments that, despite the moral strength, could suffer through the exercise of mediumship with certain Spirits, even if sympathetic, according to the circumstances.
Let us admire the solicitude of the Providence in everything, watching the minimum details, and let us know to submit to His will without moaning, because the Providence knows better than we do what is useful and what is harmful. It is like a good father that does not give the son everything that he wishes.
The same reasons apply to the dreams. The dreams are the memories of what the soul saw in a state of detachment during the sleep. Now, such a memory may be blocked. But what we do not remember is not lost to the soul, for that fact. The sensations felt during the excursions of the soul, in the invisible world, leave vague impressions when we wake up, and we remember thoughts and ideas, whose origins are many times unsuspected. We could, therefore, have seen the loved ones during the sleep, had spent time with them, but we do not keep the memory. We then say that we did not dream. But, if the bereaved being cannot manifest in any positive way, he or she will not be less close to those that attract them by their sympathetic thoughts. They see and hear their words, and their presence is often guessed through a kind of intuition, an intimate sensation, and sometimes even through certain physical impressions. The certain that the person is not in the void; that is not lost in the depth of space or in the abyss of hell; that the person happier, now free from the corporeal sufferings and the tribulations of life; that they will be seen, after a momentary separation, more beautiful, more resplendent, under their imperishable spiritual envelope, and not under their carnal carapace, that is the immense consolation that is denied by those that believe that everything ends with life; that is what Spiritism gives.
In reality one cannot understand the enchantment that can be found in the idea of the nothingness for oneself and for the loved ones, and in the obstinacy of certain persons in rejecting even the hope that it can be different, and the means of acquiring its proof. Tell an agonizing patient: “Tomorrow you will be cured; you will still live many years, happy and healthy”, and that person will accept the foreboding with joy. Isn’t the thought of a limitless spiritual life, exempt from diseases and the concerns of life, much more satisfactory?
Well, Spiritism does not give only hopes about it, but a certainty. That is why the Spiritists see death in a completely different way from the skeptical.
Perfectibility of the Spirits
Paris, February 3rd, 1866. Group of Mr. Lat…, medium Mr. Desliens
Question: If the Spirits or souls improve indefinitely, according to Spiritism, they must become infinitely perfected or pure. Why aren’t they like God when they get to that point? That is not in line with justice.
Answer: Man is a singular creature! Always finds his horizon very limited. Wants to understand everything, grasp everything, and know everything! Wants to penetrate the unfathomable, neglecting the study of what is of immediate reach; wants to understand God, judge His actions, making Him fair or unfair; says how he wants God to be, unsuspecting that God is all that and much more!... But, miserable worm, have you ever understood absolutely what surrounds you? Do you know the law that has the flower colored and perfumed by the vivifying kisses of the sun? Do you know how you are born, how you live and why your body dies?... You see facts but the causes remain surrounded by a veil that is impenetrable to you, and you wanted to judge the principle of all things, the primary cause, and finally God! There are many other studies much more necessary to the development of your being, that deserve all your attention!...
When you solve a problem of algebra you go from the known to the unknown, and to understand God, this insoluble problem of so many centuries, you want to address Him directly! Do you have all the necessary elements to establish the equation? Aren’t you lacking a document to judge your Creator in the last instance? Will you ever believe that the universe is limited to this little grain of sand lost in the immensity of spaces, where you move more imperceptible than the tiniest infusoria where the universe is a drop of water? However, let us reason and see why, according to your current knowledge, God would be unfair by not allowing himself to be ever achieved by His creature.
In all sciences there are axioms or irrefutable truths, that are admitted as fundamental basis. The mathematical sciences, and all sciences in general, are based on the axiom that the part can never equal the whole. Man, a creature of God, according to this principle, can therefore never, according to this principle, reach the one that created him.
Suppose that an individual must travel a road of infinite length; an infinite length, weigh that expression carefully. There you have the position of man with respect to God, considered as his objective. However little we walk, you will say, the sum of the years and centuries in the march will allow us to reach the end. It is a mistake! Whatever you do in one year, one century, in one million centuries will always be a finite quantity; another similar stretch and we can only add a finite quantity, and so forth. Now, for the most novice mathematician, the sum of finite quantities will never be an infinite quantity. The contrary would be absurd because in such a case the infinite could be measured, and this would lead to infinity losing its property of infinite. Man will always and incessantly progress but always in a finite quantity; the sum of his progress will only be a finite perfection, that could not reach God, the infinite in everything. There isn’t, therefore, an injustice from the part of God because His creatures can never equal Him. The nature of God is an unsurpassable obstacle to such an objective of the Spirit; His justice could not allow it for that fact that if a given Spirit was equal to God that Spirit would be God Himself. If there are two Spirits with the same infinite power in all senses and one is identical to the other, they will combine into only one and there will be only one God. One of them, therefore, should lose their individuality, and that would be a more evident injustice than that of not being able to achieve an end that is infinitely distant, approaching it constantly. God knows well what He does, and man is too small to allow himself to question His decisions.
Moki
Observation: If there is an unfathomable mystery to man, that is the principle and the end of all things. The vision of infinity gives him vertigo. To understand it there is the need of knowledge, intellectual and moral development that he is still far from having, despite the pride that makes him believe that he has gotten to the top of human scale. Regarding certain ideas, he is in the position of a child that wanted to do differential and integral calculus, before knowing the four operation. As he advances towards perfection, his eyes will open to light, dissipating the fog that has them covered. By working his betterment in the present, he will arrive earlier than if getting lost in conjectures.
Answer: Man is a singular creature! Always finds his horizon very limited. Wants to understand everything, grasp everything, and know everything! Wants to penetrate the unfathomable, neglecting the study of what is of immediate reach; wants to understand God, judge His actions, making Him fair or unfair; says how he wants God to be, unsuspecting that God is all that and much more!... But, miserable worm, have you ever understood absolutely what surrounds you? Do you know the law that has the flower colored and perfumed by the vivifying kisses of the sun? Do you know how you are born, how you live and why your body dies?... You see facts but the causes remain surrounded by a veil that is impenetrable to you, and you wanted to judge the principle of all things, the primary cause, and finally God! There are many other studies much more necessary to the development of your being, that deserve all your attention!...
When you solve a problem of algebra you go from the known to the unknown, and to understand God, this insoluble problem of so many centuries, you want to address Him directly! Do you have all the necessary elements to establish the equation? Aren’t you lacking a document to judge your Creator in the last instance? Will you ever believe that the universe is limited to this little grain of sand lost in the immensity of spaces, where you move more imperceptible than the tiniest infusoria where the universe is a drop of water? However, let us reason and see why, according to your current knowledge, God would be unfair by not allowing himself to be ever achieved by His creature.
In all sciences there are axioms or irrefutable truths, that are admitted as fundamental basis. The mathematical sciences, and all sciences in general, are based on the axiom that the part can never equal the whole. Man, a creature of God, according to this principle, can therefore never, according to this principle, reach the one that created him.
Suppose that an individual must travel a road of infinite length; an infinite length, weigh that expression carefully. There you have the position of man with respect to God, considered as his objective. However little we walk, you will say, the sum of the years and centuries in the march will allow us to reach the end. It is a mistake! Whatever you do in one year, one century, in one million centuries will always be a finite quantity; another similar stretch and we can only add a finite quantity, and so forth. Now, for the most novice mathematician, the sum of finite quantities will never be an infinite quantity. The contrary would be absurd because in such a case the infinite could be measured, and this would lead to infinity losing its property of infinite. Man will always and incessantly progress but always in a finite quantity; the sum of his progress will only be a finite perfection, that could not reach God, the infinite in everything. There isn’t, therefore, an injustice from the part of God because His creatures can never equal Him. The nature of God is an unsurpassable obstacle to such an objective of the Spirit; His justice could not allow it for that fact that if a given Spirit was equal to God that Spirit would be God Himself. If there are two Spirits with the same infinite power in all senses and one is identical to the other, they will combine into only one and there will be only one God. One of them, therefore, should lose their individuality, and that would be a more evident injustice than that of not being able to achieve an end that is infinitely distant, approaching it constantly. God knows well what He does, and man is too small to allow himself to question His decisions.
Moki
Observation: If there is an unfathomable mystery to man, that is the principle and the end of all things. The vision of infinity gives him vertigo. To understand it there is the need of knowledge, intellectual and moral development that he is still far from having, despite the pride that makes him believe that he has gotten to the top of human scale. Regarding certain ideas, he is in the position of a child that wanted to do differential and integral calculus, before knowing the four operation. As he advances towards perfection, his eyes will open to light, dissipating the fog that has them covered. By working his betterment in the present, he will arrive earlier than if getting lost in conjectures.
Varieties
Queen Victoria and Spiritism
Le Salut Public, Lyon July 3rd, 1866, in the news from Paris, reads:
“Lord Granville, during his stay in Paris, told a few friends that Queen Vitoria seemed more concerned than she had ever been seen any time in her life, due to the Austro-Prussian conflict. The honorable Lord, President of the private council of her British Majesty, added that the Queen believed to obey the voice of the deceased Prince Albert, sparing nothing to avoid a war that would throw the whole Germany in the bonfire. It was under that constant impression that she wrote several times to the King of Prussia, as well as to the Emperor of Austria, and that she would have written an autograph letter to the Empress Eugenia, begging her to join her efforts in favor of peace.”
This fact confirms what we published in the Spiritist Review, March 1864 with the title A Queen that was a medium. There it was said, according to a correspondence form London, reproduced by several newspapers, that Queen Victoria communicated with the Spirit of Prince Albert, and used to take his advices in certain circumstances, as she did when he was alive. We refer to that article for the details of the fact, and for the reflections that it aroused. Moreover, we can affirm that Queen Victoria is not the only crowned head or near the crown that sympathizes with the Spiritist ideas, and every time we said that the doctrine had followers in the highest degrees of the social scale, we did not exaggerated.
It was frequently asked why the sovereigns, convict of the truth and the existence of this doctrine, did not consider it to be a duty to openly support it, with the authority of their names. The sovereigns are perhaps the least free men; more than simple individuals, they are submitted to the demands of the world, and obliged, for reasons of State, to certain maneuvers. We would not allow ourselves to cite Queen Victoria, regarding Spiritism, if other newspapers had not taken the initiative, and because the fact was not belied, nor there was any complaint, then we assessed we could do it without inconveniences. There will certainly come a day when the sovereigns will confess to be Spiritists, as they confess to be Protestant, Greek or Roman Catholic. While we wait, their sympathy is not as sterile as one would believe, because in certain countries, if Spiritism is not officially blocked and persecuted, as Christianity was in Rome, it owes it to high influences. Before it is officially protected, it must be happy for being tolerated, by accepting what is given and do not ask much or take the risk of receiving nothing. Before being an oak, it is just a reed, and if the reed does not break, it is for the fact that it folds with the wind.
“Lord Granville, during his stay in Paris, told a few friends that Queen Vitoria seemed more concerned than she had ever been seen any time in her life, due to the Austro-Prussian conflict. The honorable Lord, President of the private council of her British Majesty, added that the Queen believed to obey the voice of the deceased Prince Albert, sparing nothing to avoid a war that would throw the whole Germany in the bonfire. It was under that constant impression that she wrote several times to the King of Prussia, as well as to the Emperor of Austria, and that she would have written an autograph letter to the Empress Eugenia, begging her to join her efforts in favor of peace.”
This fact confirms what we published in the Spiritist Review, March 1864 with the title A Queen that was a medium. There it was said, according to a correspondence form London, reproduced by several newspapers, that Queen Victoria communicated with the Spirit of Prince Albert, and used to take his advices in certain circumstances, as she did when he was alive. We refer to that article for the details of the fact, and for the reflections that it aroused. Moreover, we can affirm that Queen Victoria is not the only crowned head or near the crown that sympathizes with the Spiritist ideas, and every time we said that the doctrine had followers in the highest degrees of the social scale, we did not exaggerated.
It was frequently asked why the sovereigns, convict of the truth and the existence of this doctrine, did not consider it to be a duty to openly support it, with the authority of their names. The sovereigns are perhaps the least free men; more than simple individuals, they are submitted to the demands of the world, and obliged, for reasons of State, to certain maneuvers. We would not allow ourselves to cite Queen Victoria, regarding Spiritism, if other newspapers had not taken the initiative, and because the fact was not belied, nor there was any complaint, then we assessed we could do it without inconveniences. There will certainly come a day when the sovereigns will confess to be Spiritists, as they confess to be Protestant, Greek or Roman Catholic. While we wait, their sympathy is not as sterile as one would believe, because in certain countries, if Spiritism is not officially blocked and persecuted, as Christianity was in Rome, it owes it to high influences. Before it is officially protected, it must be happy for being tolerated, by accepting what is given and do not ask much or take the risk of receiving nothing. Before being an oak, it is just a reed, and if the reed does not break, it is for the fact that it folds with the wind.
Spiritist Poetry
Méry, the dreamerGroup of Mr. L…, July 4th, 1866 – medium Mr. Vavasseur
Still a newborn on your shores
I heard an attentive woman
Say while watching my awakening:
Do not disturb his sweet sleep,
He's dreaming; and I was barely born!
A little later, when in the prairie,
Stripping the leaves of a flowering clover,
It was said that Joseph Méry
Was dreaming, and when my poor mother
Sat me on the white stone
That guarded the edge of the stream,
She also said: Dream again,
My child. Later, in college,
Out of hatred or contempt, what do I know!
All my friends were running away,
And left me alone, in a corner,
Dreaming. And when the mad drunkenness
Pleasures troubled my youth,
The crowd pointed at me
Saying: It is Méry, yes,
Still dreaming. And when, wiser,
Almost halfway through the journey,
I was judged as a writer,
They said of me: It's in vain
That he evokes poetry
In his verses, it's dream
That comes to his call. Méry,
Whatever he does, will be Méry.
And when the last prayer
Had blessed my cold dust,
Attentive under my shroud,
I heard one word, only one:
Dreamer! Well! yes, I dreamt
On Earth. Why silence, then,
A dream that is not over,
And that I start again here!
Joseph Méry
Prayer of death for the dead
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, July 13th, 1866 – medium Mr. Vavasseur
The centuries rolled over the abyss of time
Without pity, flowers, fruits, cold winters, sweet springs,
And death passed without knocking
On the door that hides the treasure she secretly takes away.
Life, o death! The hand that your hand guides,
Tired of knocking, can’t you tomorrow
Suspend the blows a little? Does she still want
To disturb the banquet of life?
But if you keep coming, every time of the day,
Seeking the dead among us to fill up your stay,
The universe is too little for your deep chasms,
Or your vortex is bottomless to the poor victims.
O death! You see the virgin weep without crying,
You wither the flowers that were to adorn her,
Not allowing the forehead to be encircled by the crown
Of roses and lilies given by her spouse,
O death! You do not hear the screams of the poor child,
And come mercilessly to harm her at birth,
Not allowing her eyes to know the mother
That gave her heavens by giving her Earth.
O death! You do not hear the wishes of this old man,
Begging the favor, at the time of departure,
Of kissing the son and blessing the daughter,
To fall asleep faster and die more peacefully.
But, cruel! Tell me what happens to the dead
That leave our banks and go to your shores?
Would they still suffer the pains of earth
In this eternity of time, and the prayer,
Couldn’t she at least alleviate them one day?
And death responded: “In this somber space
Where, free, I fixed my dark empire,
Prayer is powerful and it is God that inspire
My subjects and me. When I come, in the evening,
On my bloody throne, pompously sitting,
I look at the skies and I am the first
To quietly recite the prayer for my dead.
Listen child, listen: “O almighty God,
From heavens, on them, on me, casually fling
A look of pity. May a ray of hope
Finally illuminate the places where pain is weeping.
Show us, Oh God, the land of forgiveness,
This borderless shore, this beach, nameless,
The land of the elected, the eternal homeland,
Where you created the eternal life for all.
Make each one of us, in front of your will,
Bow with respect; before the majesty
Of your secret designs, bend and worship;
Curve before your name and stand up still,
In exclamation: Lord! If you banned me
From the home of the living, if you punished me
In the abode of the dead, before you I confess
Having deserved more; knock, knock and don’t stop,
I will suffer without ever moaning,
And my eyes can never cry enough
To wash the indelible stain of the past,
always shamelessly attached to the present.
I will take your blows, I will carry my cross,
Not cursing, for a single day, your fair laws,
And when you believe my ordeal is over,
Lord, if you make my shadow pale,
The goods it lost when in prison,
The breeze, the sun, the clean air, the freedom,
Rest and peace, before you I pledge
To pray on my side, in my new shore,
For the brothers yielding to the weight of the chains,
That keep them nailed to the bottom of their hells, in pain;
Their weeping shadows, on the borders of the other side, sheer
Silence, looking at mine, fleeting,
Running away, saying: courage friends,
I will keep in heavens what I promised here.
Casimir Delavigne
We have already published poetry received by this medium in the issues of June and July with the title To your book and The prayer for the Spirits. Mr. Vavasseur is literally a medium of verses, for he very rarely receives communications in prose, and although very educated and knowledgeable about the rules of poetry, he has never created it himself.
People will ask what do we know about it, and who can tell that what is said to be supposedly mediumistic is not the product of his personal composition? We believe, first of all, because he says so and we consider him incapable of deceiving, and second, because mediumship for him is completely disinterested, there wouldn’t be any reason for him to do a useless work and represent a comedy that is unworthy of an honest character.
There is no doubt that it would be more evident, and above all more extraordinary, if he were completely illiterate, as it is found in certain mediums, but the knowledge that he has would not produce his faculty, since it is demonstrated by other means.
How to explain, for example, the fact that if he wants to compose something from his own, a simple sonnet, he obtains nothing, whereas without seeking it, and without a premeditated intention, he writes texts of significant length, suddenly, and more rapidly and more correctly than we would write prose, about an improvised subject, in which nobody thought about? Which poet is capable of such endeavor, that is renewed almost daily? We could not doubt it, because the excerpts that we cited, and many others, were written before our eyes, at the Society or in different groups, in the presence of a sometimes-large assembly.
May all the jugglers that intend to discover the supposed wires of the mediums, imitating some more or less rough physical effects, come therefore to challenge certain writing mediums, treating even through simple prose, instantaneously and without preparation or correction, the first subject matter that shows up and the most abstract questions! It is a test to which no detractor has ever submitted to.
Apropos, we remember that six or seven years ago a writer and journalist, whose name sometimes appears in the press and among the scorners of Spiritism, came to us, disguised as an intuitive writing medium, offering his support to the Society. We told him that before accepting his kind offer, we needed to get to know the extent and nature of his faculty. We then invited him to a private session of exercise, in which we had four or five mediums. These just took the pencil and started writing in a speed that stunned him. He doodled three or four lines, with many erasures, and complained of a headache that disturbed his faculty. He promised to come back, but we never saw him again. As it seems, the Spirits only assist him with a fresh head and in his office.
It is true that improvisers showed up, like the deceased Eugène de Pradel, that captivated the listeners for their facility. People were surprised that they did not publish anything. The reason is very simple. What seduced hearing was not bearable for reading; they were just an arrangement of words coming out of an abundant source, where a few witty traces shined exceptionally, but whose content was empty of serious and profound ideas and strewn with revolting errors. That is not the reproach that can be made of the verses that we quoted, although obtained as much fast as those of verbal improvisation. If the were the result of a personal work, it would be a singular humility from the part of the author to attribute the merit to someone else, depriving oneself of the honor that could come out of it.
Although the mediumship of Mr. Vavasseur is recent, he already has an important collection of poetry of real merit, that he intends to publish. We promptly announced that work before it comes out, and we have no doubt, it will be read with great interest.
Without pity, flowers, fruits, cold winters, sweet springs,
And death passed without knocking
On the door that hides the treasure she secretly takes away.
Life, o death! The hand that your hand guides,
Tired of knocking, can’t you tomorrow
Suspend the blows a little? Does she still want
To disturb the banquet of life?
But if you keep coming, every time of the day,
Seeking the dead among us to fill up your stay,
The universe is too little for your deep chasms,
Or your vortex is bottomless to the poor victims.
O death! You see the virgin weep without crying,
You wither the flowers that were to adorn her,
Not allowing the forehead to be encircled by the crown
Of roses and lilies given by her spouse,
O death! You do not hear the screams of the poor child,
And come mercilessly to harm her at birth,
Not allowing her eyes to know the mother
That gave her heavens by giving her Earth.
O death! You do not hear the wishes of this old man,
Begging the favor, at the time of departure,
Of kissing the son and blessing the daughter,
To fall asleep faster and die more peacefully.
But, cruel! Tell me what happens to the dead
That leave our banks and go to your shores?
Would they still suffer the pains of earth
In this eternity of time, and the prayer,
Couldn’t she at least alleviate them one day?
And death responded: “In this somber space
Where, free, I fixed my dark empire,
Prayer is powerful and it is God that inspire
My subjects and me. When I come, in the evening,
On my bloody throne, pompously sitting,
I look at the skies and I am the first
To quietly recite the prayer for my dead.
Listen child, listen: “O almighty God,
From heavens, on them, on me, casually fling
A look of pity. May a ray of hope
Finally illuminate the places where pain is weeping.
Show us, Oh God, the land of forgiveness,
This borderless shore, this beach, nameless,
The land of the elected, the eternal homeland,
Where you created the eternal life for all.
Make each one of us, in front of your will,
Bow with respect; before the majesty
Of your secret designs, bend and worship;
Curve before your name and stand up still,
In exclamation: Lord! If you banned me
From the home of the living, if you punished me
In the abode of the dead, before you I confess
Having deserved more; knock, knock and don’t stop,
I will suffer without ever moaning,
And my eyes can never cry enough
To wash the indelible stain of the past,
always shamelessly attached to the present.
I will take your blows, I will carry my cross,
Not cursing, for a single day, your fair laws,
And when you believe my ordeal is over,
Lord, if you make my shadow pale,
The goods it lost when in prison,
The breeze, the sun, the clean air, the freedom,
Rest and peace, before you I pledge
To pray on my side, in my new shore,
For the brothers yielding to the weight of the chains,
That keep them nailed to the bottom of their hells, in pain;
Their weeping shadows, on the borders of the other side, sheer
Silence, looking at mine, fleeting,
Running away, saying: courage friends,
I will keep in heavens what I promised here.
Casimir Delavigne
We have already published poetry received by this medium in the issues of June and July with the title To your book and The prayer for the Spirits. Mr. Vavasseur is literally a medium of verses, for he very rarely receives communications in prose, and although very educated and knowledgeable about the rules of poetry, he has never created it himself.
People will ask what do we know about it, and who can tell that what is said to be supposedly mediumistic is not the product of his personal composition? We believe, first of all, because he says so and we consider him incapable of deceiving, and second, because mediumship for him is completely disinterested, there wouldn’t be any reason for him to do a useless work and represent a comedy that is unworthy of an honest character.
There is no doubt that it would be more evident, and above all more extraordinary, if he were completely illiterate, as it is found in certain mediums, but the knowledge that he has would not produce his faculty, since it is demonstrated by other means.
How to explain, for example, the fact that if he wants to compose something from his own, a simple sonnet, he obtains nothing, whereas without seeking it, and without a premeditated intention, he writes texts of significant length, suddenly, and more rapidly and more correctly than we would write prose, about an improvised subject, in which nobody thought about? Which poet is capable of such endeavor, that is renewed almost daily? We could not doubt it, because the excerpts that we cited, and many others, were written before our eyes, at the Society or in different groups, in the presence of a sometimes-large assembly.
May all the jugglers that intend to discover the supposed wires of the mediums, imitating some more or less rough physical effects, come therefore to challenge certain writing mediums, treating even through simple prose, instantaneously and without preparation or correction, the first subject matter that shows up and the most abstract questions! It is a test to which no detractor has ever submitted to.
Apropos, we remember that six or seven years ago a writer and journalist, whose name sometimes appears in the press and among the scorners of Spiritism, came to us, disguised as an intuitive writing medium, offering his support to the Society. We told him that before accepting his kind offer, we needed to get to know the extent and nature of his faculty. We then invited him to a private session of exercise, in which we had four or five mediums. These just took the pencil and started writing in a speed that stunned him. He doodled three or four lines, with many erasures, and complained of a headache that disturbed his faculty. He promised to come back, but we never saw him again. As it seems, the Spirits only assist him with a fresh head and in his office.
It is true that improvisers showed up, like the deceased Eugène de Pradel, that captivated the listeners for their facility. People were surprised that they did not publish anything. The reason is very simple. What seduced hearing was not bearable for reading; they were just an arrangement of words coming out of an abundant source, where a few witty traces shined exceptionally, but whose content was empty of serious and profound ideas and strewn with revolting errors. That is not the reproach that can be made of the verses that we quoted, although obtained as much fast as those of verbal improvisation. If the were the result of a personal work, it would be a singular humility from the part of the author to attribute the merit to someone else, depriving oneself of the honor that could come out of it.
Although the mediumship of Mr. Vavasseur is recent, he already has an important collection of poetry of real merit, that he intends to publish. We promptly announced that work before it comes out, and we have no doubt, it will be read with great interest.
Bibliographic News
Spiritist Cantata
Lyrics by Mr. Herczka and music by Mr. Armand Toussaint, from Brussels, followed by piano. This piece is not considered mediumistic product, but the works of an artist inspired by his Spiritist faith. Competent persons that heard its execution, agree to confer it a real merit, worth of the subject. We have said many times that a well understood Spiritism will be a fecund source to arts, where poetry, painting, sculpture and music will gather new inspirations. There will be the Spiritist Art as there was the Pagan Art and the Christian Art.
(sale in benefit of the poor – price 1.5 francs, paid postage to France. On sale in Brussels, at the headquarters of the Spiritist Society, rue de la Montagne, 51; in Paris, in the office of the Spiritist Review.)
Lyrics by Mr. Herczka and music by Mr. Armand Toussaint, from Brussels, followed by piano. This piece is not considered mediumistic product, but the works of an artist inspired by his Spiritist faith. Competent persons that heard its execution, agree to confer it a real merit, worth of the subject. We have said many times that a well understood Spiritism will be a fecund source to arts, where poetry, painting, sculpture and music will gather new inspirations. There will be the Spiritist Art as there was the Pagan Art and the Christian Art.
(sale in benefit of the poor – price 1.5 francs, paid postage to France. On sale in Brussels, at the headquarters of the Spiritist Society, rue de la Montagne, 51; in Paris, in the office of the Spiritist Review.)