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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1864 > April > Instructions by the Spirits
Instructions by the Spirits
Spontaneous communication
Parisian Society, November 19th, 1864 – medium Mr. Leymarie
The printing press was invented in the XV century. Like many other known and unknown inventions it had to take the chalice and drink the gall. I do not come to you, Spiritists, to tell you about my annoyances and sufferings because in those days of ignorance and sadness when your predecessors had on their chests the nightmare called feudalism and a blind theocracy that was much aware of its own power every person of progress had too much of a head. I only want to tell you a few words about my invention, about its results and the affinity with you, with the elements that make your power expansive.
The mother revolution, the one that carried from behind the way humanity expressed itself, human thoughts moving away from the past, from the symbolical skin, that was the invention of the printing press. Thoughts are mixed in the air in that format, turn spiritual, and becomes indestructible. Master of future centuries, it takes off an intelligent flight to connect all points in space and from that day onwards dominates the old way of speaking.
The primitive peoples needed monuments to represent them, mountains of stones telling those that could read: this is my religion, my law, my hopes and my poetry. In fact, the printing press replaced the hieroglyph. Its language is light and accessible to all. A book only requires a little bit of ink and paper and some hands whilst a cathedral demands many lives of a people and tons of gold.
Allow me a digression here. The alphabet of the first peoples was formed by chips of stones that had not been touched by iron. The stones erected by the Celtic are also found in Siberia and America. They were the confusing human memories written in durable monuments. The Hebrew Galgal, the megaliths, the dolmens, and the tombs later on expressed words. Then came the tradition and the symbols.
Since those first monuments were not enough anymore the edifice was created and architecture became monstrous; it remained like giants telling the new generations about the symbols of the past. Such were the pagodas[1], the pyramids and the temple of Solomon.
It was the edifice that contained the Verb, that mother idea of all nations. Their shape and situation represented a whole thought and that is why that all symbols have their great and magnificent pages in stone.
Freemasonry is the written and intelligent idea belonging to those men that became united by a symbol, taking Iram by their patron and forming the French-Freemasonry so much dishonored and that carried over the embryo of freedom. It knew how to spread its monuments and the symbols of the past all over the world replacing the theocracy of the first civilizations by democracy, that law of freedom. After the theocratic monuments of Egypt and India come their sisters, the Greek-Roman architectures and later the romantic and somber style representing the absolute, the unit and the priest. The crusades bring us the weapon and the Lord wants to share, waiting for the people that will take its place. Feudalism sees the birth of the communes and the face of Europe changes because the warhead dethrones the romantic; the Brickman becomes an artist and adds poetry to matter: it gives it the privilege of freedom in architecture because that was the only way of expressing thoughts those days. How many incitements written on the façades of monuments! That is why the poets, the thinkers, the disinherited and everything that was intelligent covered Europe with cathedrals!
As you see, up until the poor Guttenberg architecture was the universal writing. Printing press, in turn, knocks down the gothic; theocracy is the horror of progress, the mummified preservation of the primitive types; the warhead is the transition from darkness to the twilight zone in which one can easily read and understand the stone but the printing press is day light, destroying the manuscript, demanding more space that since then nothing can stop.
Like the Sun, the printing press will fecund the world with its beneficial rays. Society will no longer be represented by architecture because it will be classic and Renaissance’s and that world of artists breaking away from the past open up large voids in human Theogony to follow the avenue designed by God; it is now tired of being simple artisans of monuments from the Renaissance to become sculptor, painter and musician. The force of harmony wears out in books and already in the XVI century it is so much strong that printing press of Nuremberg that it is the advent of a literary century. It is at the same time Luther, Jean Goujon, Rousseau and Voltaire. The printing press is that slow fight against the old Europe that rebuilds after the destruction. And now that thought is emancipated which power could write the architectural bool of our times? All the millions of our planet would not be enough and nobody could lift up what is in the past and exclusively belongs to the past. Without neglecting the great book of architecture that the past and its teachings are we thank God that knows, at the right time, to give us the strength of such a powerful weapon that becomes the bread to the Spirit, the emancipation of the body, the free-will of mankind, the idea that is common to everyone, science, the foundation that fertilizes Earth and making us better. But if the printing press has emancipated you electricity will make you truly free and will dethrone the printing press of Guttenberg to put in your hands a much more fearful power and that will come soon.
The Spiritist science, that safeguard of humanity, will help you understand the new power that I am talking about. Guttenberg to whom God gave the providential mission will undoubtedly take part in the second one, that is, the one that will guide you in the study of the fluids. You shall soon be ready, dear friends. Nonetheless, it is not only about being eager Spirits. You also need to study so that everything that was taught about electricity and all fluids in general becomes well understood. Nothing is strange to the science of the Spirits. The stronger your intellectual foundation the lesser you shall be surprised by the new discoveries. You must be the initiators of new ways of thinking, strong and reassured of your spiritual skills. I was therefore right to speak about my mission, sister to yours. You are the elected ones in humanity. The good Spirits give you a book that goes around the world but you would do nothing without the printing press. The obsession that wakes the truth of men will disappear. But I insist: be ready and study so that you are worth of the new benefit and more intelligently than others you must be able to spread and make it accepted.
Guttenberg
OBSERVATION: The printing press produced an intellectual revelation that nobody can ignore considering the diffusion of ideas made imperishable and spread on all corners of the world. Because such a result was initially foreseen by some it was called diabolic invention. This is another point in common with Spiritism that Guttenberg did not mention.
If some people were heard it would seem that the devil has the monopoly of every great idea since all of those that push humanity a step forward are attributed to the devil. Jesus himself was accused of acting through the devil that in turn must be proud of having all good and beautiful things removed from God and attributed to him. Wasn’t the devil that inspired Galileo and every scientific discovery that made humanity progress? Following that the devil must be too modest to not consider himself the owner of the universe! Yet what can seem strange is the devil’s inability since there isn’t a single progress in science that has not contributed to the ruin of the devil’s empire. It is a detail about which people have not given enough thought.
If that was the power of such an absolutely material means of propagation how much more wouldn’t be that of the teachings of the Spirits that communicate everywhere even penetrating where books cannot go, being heard even by those that cannot hear! Which human power could resist such force?
The remarkable dissertation above provoked the following reflections from another Spirit at the heart of the Society.
[1] Buddhist religious monuments (TN)
Parisian Society, November 19th, 1864 – medium Mr. Leymarie
The printing press was invented in the XV century. Like many other known and unknown inventions it had to take the chalice and drink the gall. I do not come to you, Spiritists, to tell you about my annoyances and sufferings because in those days of ignorance and sadness when your predecessors had on their chests the nightmare called feudalism and a blind theocracy that was much aware of its own power every person of progress had too much of a head. I only want to tell you a few words about my invention, about its results and the affinity with you, with the elements that make your power expansive.
The mother revolution, the one that carried from behind the way humanity expressed itself, human thoughts moving away from the past, from the symbolical skin, that was the invention of the printing press. Thoughts are mixed in the air in that format, turn spiritual, and becomes indestructible. Master of future centuries, it takes off an intelligent flight to connect all points in space and from that day onwards dominates the old way of speaking.
The primitive peoples needed monuments to represent them, mountains of stones telling those that could read: this is my religion, my law, my hopes and my poetry. In fact, the printing press replaced the hieroglyph. Its language is light and accessible to all. A book only requires a little bit of ink and paper and some hands whilst a cathedral demands many lives of a people and tons of gold.
Allow me a digression here. The alphabet of the first peoples was formed by chips of stones that had not been touched by iron. The stones erected by the Celtic are also found in Siberia and America. They were the confusing human memories written in durable monuments. The Hebrew Galgal, the megaliths, the dolmens, and the tombs later on expressed words. Then came the tradition and the symbols.
Since those first monuments were not enough anymore the edifice was created and architecture became monstrous; it remained like giants telling the new generations about the symbols of the past. Such were the pagodas[1], the pyramids and the temple of Solomon.
It was the edifice that contained the Verb, that mother idea of all nations. Their shape and situation represented a whole thought and that is why that all symbols have their great and magnificent pages in stone.
Freemasonry is the written and intelligent idea belonging to those men that became united by a symbol, taking Iram by their patron and forming the French-Freemasonry so much dishonored and that carried over the embryo of freedom. It knew how to spread its monuments and the symbols of the past all over the world replacing the theocracy of the first civilizations by democracy, that law of freedom. After the theocratic monuments of Egypt and India come their sisters, the Greek-Roman architectures and later the romantic and somber style representing the absolute, the unit and the priest. The crusades bring us the weapon and the Lord wants to share, waiting for the people that will take its place. Feudalism sees the birth of the communes and the face of Europe changes because the warhead dethrones the romantic; the Brickman becomes an artist and adds poetry to matter: it gives it the privilege of freedom in architecture because that was the only way of expressing thoughts those days. How many incitements written on the façades of monuments! That is why the poets, the thinkers, the disinherited and everything that was intelligent covered Europe with cathedrals!
As you see, up until the poor Guttenberg architecture was the universal writing. Printing press, in turn, knocks down the gothic; theocracy is the horror of progress, the mummified preservation of the primitive types; the warhead is the transition from darkness to the twilight zone in which one can easily read and understand the stone but the printing press is day light, destroying the manuscript, demanding more space that since then nothing can stop.
Like the Sun, the printing press will fecund the world with its beneficial rays. Society will no longer be represented by architecture because it will be classic and Renaissance’s and that world of artists breaking away from the past open up large voids in human Theogony to follow the avenue designed by God; it is now tired of being simple artisans of monuments from the Renaissance to become sculptor, painter and musician. The force of harmony wears out in books and already in the XVI century it is so much strong that printing press of Nuremberg that it is the advent of a literary century. It is at the same time Luther, Jean Goujon, Rousseau and Voltaire. The printing press is that slow fight against the old Europe that rebuilds after the destruction. And now that thought is emancipated which power could write the architectural bool of our times? All the millions of our planet would not be enough and nobody could lift up what is in the past and exclusively belongs to the past. Without neglecting the great book of architecture that the past and its teachings are we thank God that knows, at the right time, to give us the strength of such a powerful weapon that becomes the bread to the Spirit, the emancipation of the body, the free-will of mankind, the idea that is common to everyone, science, the foundation that fertilizes Earth and making us better. But if the printing press has emancipated you electricity will make you truly free and will dethrone the printing press of Guttenberg to put in your hands a much more fearful power and that will come soon.
The Spiritist science, that safeguard of humanity, will help you understand the new power that I am talking about. Guttenberg to whom God gave the providential mission will undoubtedly take part in the second one, that is, the one that will guide you in the study of the fluids. You shall soon be ready, dear friends. Nonetheless, it is not only about being eager Spirits. You also need to study so that everything that was taught about electricity and all fluids in general becomes well understood. Nothing is strange to the science of the Spirits. The stronger your intellectual foundation the lesser you shall be surprised by the new discoveries. You must be the initiators of new ways of thinking, strong and reassured of your spiritual skills. I was therefore right to speak about my mission, sister to yours. You are the elected ones in humanity. The good Spirits give you a book that goes around the world but you would do nothing without the printing press. The obsession that wakes the truth of men will disappear. But I insist: be ready and study so that you are worth of the new benefit and more intelligently than others you must be able to spread and make it accepted.
Guttenberg
OBSERVATION: The printing press produced an intellectual revelation that nobody can ignore considering the diffusion of ideas made imperishable and spread on all corners of the world. Because such a result was initially foreseen by some it was called diabolic invention. This is another point in common with Spiritism that Guttenberg did not mention.
If some people were heard it would seem that the devil has the monopoly of every great idea since all of those that push humanity a step forward are attributed to the devil. Jesus himself was accused of acting through the devil that in turn must be proud of having all good and beautiful things removed from God and attributed to him. Wasn’t the devil that inspired Galileo and every scientific discovery that made humanity progress? Following that the devil must be too modest to not consider himself the owner of the universe! Yet what can seem strange is the devil’s inability since there isn’t a single progress in science that has not contributed to the ruin of the devil’s empire. It is a detail about which people have not given enough thought.
If that was the power of such an absolutely material means of propagation how much more wouldn’t be that of the teachings of the Spirits that communicate everywhere even penetrating where books cannot go, being heard even by those that cannot hear! Which human power could resist such force?
The remarkable dissertation above provoked the following reflections from another Spirit at the heart of the Society.
[1] Buddhist religious monuments (TN)
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies – medium Mr. A. Didier
The Spirit of Guttenberg defined very poetically the positive effects and so much universally progressive of the printing press and the future of electricity. Nonetheless I allow myself, as a former builder of castles, towers, terraces and cathedrals, to expose certain theories about the character and objective of the architecture in the middle ages.
Everyone knows and in our days illustrious archeologists taught that religion, the naïve faith, erected with human ingenuity those superb gothic monuments spread all over Europe, and here the idea expressed by Guttenberg is highly appreciated. It is our duty, however, to expose our opinion not against but in favor of his own.
The idea, that light of the soul, a real spark that excites human will and movement, manifests itself in several ways through arts, philosophy, etc. Architecture, the elevated art that perhaps better expresses the nature and genius of a people, was consecrated to worship God and religious ceremonies in religious nations. The middle ages, groundwork of feudalism and belief, had the glory of founding two essentially different arts in their objective and dedication but that perfectly express the status of their civilization: the fortress castle, inhabited by the feudal master or by the king; the abbey, the monastery and the church; in a word the military and religious architectures.
The Romans, essentially administrators, warriors, universal conquerors and colonizers, forced by the extension of their domains, never had an architecture inspired by religious faith. It was only greed, profit and the executive power that made them build those formidable mountains of stones, symbol of their audacity and intellectual capability. Gothic art, at the beginning austere and discretely flowery, was created by the poetry of the north, contemplative, fuzzy and united to the pageantry of the orient. In fact we see in the architecture the realization of religious tendencies and feudal despotism.
Those famous ruins of so many human revolutions still impose themselves by their grandiose and formidable aspects, more than by time. It seems that the century that saw their birth was hard, somber and inexorable with them. But from that one must not conclude that the discovery of the printing press, by any stretch of the mind, simplified art in architecture.
No! Art, part of creativity, will always be religious, political, military, democratic or monarchist. Art and printing press have their own roles. Not willing to be excessively technical, one must not confound the objective of each thing. One must only say that different skills and manifestations of the human mind must not be mixed.
Robert de Luzarches
The Spirit of Guttenberg defined very poetically the positive effects and so much universally progressive of the printing press and the future of electricity. Nonetheless I allow myself, as a former builder of castles, towers, terraces and cathedrals, to expose certain theories about the character and objective of the architecture in the middle ages.
Everyone knows and in our days illustrious archeologists taught that religion, the naïve faith, erected with human ingenuity those superb gothic monuments spread all over Europe, and here the idea expressed by Guttenberg is highly appreciated. It is our duty, however, to expose our opinion not against but in favor of his own.
The idea, that light of the soul, a real spark that excites human will and movement, manifests itself in several ways through arts, philosophy, etc. Architecture, the elevated art that perhaps better expresses the nature and genius of a people, was consecrated to worship God and religious ceremonies in religious nations. The middle ages, groundwork of feudalism and belief, had the glory of founding two essentially different arts in their objective and dedication but that perfectly express the status of their civilization: the fortress castle, inhabited by the feudal master or by the king; the abbey, the monastery and the church; in a word the military and religious architectures.
The Romans, essentially administrators, warriors, universal conquerors and colonizers, forced by the extension of their domains, never had an architecture inspired by religious faith. It was only greed, profit and the executive power that made them build those formidable mountains of stones, symbol of their audacity and intellectual capability. Gothic art, at the beginning austere and discretely flowery, was created by the poetry of the north, contemplative, fuzzy and united to the pageantry of the orient. In fact we see in the architecture the realization of religious tendencies and feudal despotism.
Those famous ruins of so many human revolutions still impose themselves by their grandiose and formidable aspects, more than by time. It seems that the century that saw their birth was hard, somber and inexorable with them. But from that one must not conclude that the discovery of the printing press, by any stretch of the mind, simplified art in architecture.
No! Art, part of creativity, will always be religious, political, military, democratic or monarchist. Art and printing press have their own roles. Not willing to be excessively technical, one must not confound the objective of each thing. One must only say that different skills and manifestations of the human mind must not be mixed.
Robert de Luzarches
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, February 25th, 1864
NOTE: In this session we thanked the Spirit of Guttenberg asking him to take part in our conversations at any time he thought convenient. The presence of several foreign dignitaries of the Freemasonry Order motivated the following question: Which support can Spiritism find in the French-Freemasonry? Several dissertations were given about the subject as below.
I
Mr. President I thank you for your kind invitation. It is the first time that I have one of my communications read at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies and I hope this will not be the last one. You may have perhaps found my considerations a bit too extensive about the printing press, some thoughts that you may not approve completely, but considering the difficulties that we have to face to communicate through the mediums and utilize their faculties I beg you to kindly forgive certain expressions or language structures that are not always dominated by us. Electricity will later on makes its mediumistic revelation and since everything will change with respect to the reproduction of the Spirit’s thoughts you will no longer find those sometimes regrettable blanks, particularly when the communications are read in the presence of strangers.
You mentioned the Freemasonry and you are right about the expectation of finding good elements there. What is asked of any initiated Freemason? The belief in the immortality of the soul and in the Divine Architect; that the initiated be benevolent, devoted, sociable, dignified and humble. Equality is practiced there in the highest level. Hence there is a striking affinity between the two societies. The issue of Spiritism has been placed in the order of the day in several Masonic lodges and here the result: several long reports were read about it but they did not study it in depth, leading to discussions about matters that they did not know, judging from what they had heard about more than by reality. Many Masons, however, are Spiritists and work hard for the propagation of that belief. Everyone listens but if habit says no, reason says yes.
You must wait because time is a recruiter like no other. Through time impressions necessarily change in the vast field of the lodges and the Spiritist study will enter as a complement because it is already in the air. It was laughed at and spoken about but now they mediate about it. You will then have a Spiritist allotment in those essential liberal societies. You will enter through them in the second period that must prepare the promised avenues. The intelligent persons of the Masonry will praise you for the moral of the Spirits will give a body to that compromised and feared sect but that does more good than people think. Everything has a difficult beginning, a mysterious affinity and if that is true with respect to things that disturb society it is even more true to things that lead to the moral progress of the peoples.
Guttenberg, medium Mr. Leymarie
II
My dear brother in doctrine (the Spirit addresses one of the French-Masons and Spiritist that was present) I gladly come to respond to the benevolent appeal that you address to the Spirits that loved and founded the French-Freemasonry institutions.
I shed my own blood twice to cement this generous institution; public places of this city were tinted twice by the blood of the poor Jacques de Molay. Dear brothers, would a third time be needed? I will happily answer: No. You have already been told: the more blood the more despotism and the more executioners! A society of brothers, friends, persons full of good will that only wish to get to know the truth to do good! I had not communicated in this assembly yet. While you spoke about the Spiritist science and philosophy I yielded the space to the Spirits that are more capable of giving you advices about those several points and patiently waited knowing that my time would come. There is a time for everything as there is a time to everyone. I then believe that my time has come. I can now give you my opinion about Spiritism and French-Freemasonry.
The Masonic institutions were a path to happiness for society. In times when liberal ideas were considered crime people needed a force that entirely submitted to the rule of law was not less emancipated by their beliefs, institutions and unity of teachings. In those days religion, instead of a consoling mother, was still a despotic force that ordered, hurt and bent everything by the voice of its ministers. It was reason for fear to anyone that wished to act as a free thinker and take some moral relief to those in suffering. United by the hearts, fortune and charity our temples were the only altars where God had not been ignored; where a man could still see oneself as a man; where a child could find protection and the abandoned friends. Several centuries went by and many added flowers to the Masonic crown. Those were martyrs, educated men, legislators that added to their glory by becoming its defenders and preservers.
In the nineteenth century Spiritism comes with its luminous beam reaching out to the commanders, to the Rosicrucian, and with a thunderous voice say: Let us go, brothers! I am truly the voice that is heard in the orient and to which the occident responds: Glory, honor, victory to the children of men! Still a few days and Spiritism will have transposed the wall that separates the majority from the room of the secrets in the temple and on that very day society will see the most beautiful Spiritist flower sprout in its heart, providing from its falling petals a regenerating seed of the true freedom. Spiritism has made progresses but when it walk hand in hand with the French-Freemasonry all difficulties will be overcome; every obstacle shall be removed; truth will shiny and the greatest moral progress shall be achieved. It will have transposed the first steps of the throne where it will soon reign.
My fraternal and friendly greetings to all.
Jacques de Molay, medium Ms. Béguet
III
I was really glad to mention my participation in this so spiritualistic center and return thanks to Guttenberg as I was attracted by Jacquard the other day. Most of the dissertation given by the great typographer handled the issue from the profession stand point and he did not see in that invention but its practical, material and utilitarian side. Let us broaden the debate and look at the issue from a higher perspective.
It would be a mistake to believe that the printing press came to replace architecture as this one will remain to continue its historical role through characteristic monuments marked by the Spirit of each century, each generation, and each humanitarian revolution. We say out loud that no, the printing press is not here to knock anything down. It came to complement through its great, special and emancipating mission. It came at its right time like all other discoveries that are providentially born here on Earth. Contemporary of the monk that discovered the gun powder, changing the art of war with that, Guttenberg brought a new lever to the expression of ideas. Let us not forget this: the printing press would not have real meaning without the emancipation of the masses and by the intellectual development of individuals. Without that need to satisfy and that engine to fuel, that spiritual manna to distribute, the printing press would remain idle for a long time fighting in the void and would not be considered by a mad dream or a useless utopia. Wasn’t that the case with the first inventors, or even better, with first ones that discovered the properties of steam? Have Guttenberg been born in the Andaman Islands and the printing press would have certainly been aborted. Hence the idea is the essential lever to consider. Without the idea, without the fertilizing work of thinkers and philosophers alike and even those of the dreamer monks of the middle ages, the printing press would have turned into dead word. Guttenberg then lit more than one candle in tribute to the dialectic school that made the idea flourish and depurated intelligences.
The fervent idea around a plastic image in the human brain is and will always be the greatest engine of discoveries and inventions. The creation of a new need at the heart of modern society is like opening a new path to the eternally innovative idea; it is like pushing intelligence to search for the satisfaction of that new necessity of humanity. That is why all over the place where the idea reigns sovereign, where it is received with respect, and where finally the thinkers are honored there is assurance of progress towards God.
The so much bashed French-Freemasonry, against which the Roman Church did not have enough anathemas and still survived, French-Freemasonry had the doors of its temples wide open to the emancipating cult of ideas. All of the most serious issues were discussed in its very heart and before Spiritism had even showed up the venerable and grand-masters knew and professed that the soul was immortal and that the visible and invisible worlds communicated with one another. It was there in the sanctuaries that do not admit the profane that Swedenborg, Pasquali and Saint-Martin obtained striking results. It was there that the great Sofia, that ethereal inspiration, came to teach the firstborn of humanity the liberating dogmas whose generous principles were given in 1789. It was there and much earlier than your contemporary mediums that precursors of your mediumship, unknown persons, had evoked and made appear wise people of antiquity and from the first centuries of this era. It was there… I stop here. The restricted schedule of your sessions do not allow me to elaborate more about this interesting matter as I would like to do. We shall return to that later. All I will say now is that Spiritism will find at the heart of the Mason Lodges a compact phalanx of believers, not ephemeral but serious, resolved and unbreakable believers in their faith.
Spiritism carries out all of the generous and charitable aspirations of the French-Masonry; sanctions the beliefs of the latter by giving irrefutable proofs of the immortality of the soul; leads humanity to the objective that it proposes: union, peace and universal fraternity by the faith in God and in the future.
Wouldn’t that be the case that every sincere Spiritist of all nations, cults and classes look at one another like brothers? Isn’t that a French-Masonry between them with the exception that instead of being secret it is practiced openly? Enlightened men, like the ones it congregates that put their education above the prejudices of cast and silos, they cannot show indifference to the movement produced by this essentially liberating doctrine in the world. Repudiating such a powerful element of moral progress would be like denying their own principles and stand side by side with the retrograde. No, I am certain that they will not allow themselves to veer off and will take care of this serious issue with our influence.
Spiritism is an irresistible chain of ideas that must reach the whole world. It is a matter of time. Well, one would acknowledge ignorance with respect to the character of Masonry by believing that it would represent a negative role in the movement that impels humanity forward; believe that it would extinguish the flame as if it were afraid of light. It must be clear that I speak of the high French-Masonry and not of those lodges created for the illusion where people gather to eat and drink and to make fun of the rookies before their trials rather than discuss moral and philosophical issues. It was even necessary to the French-Masonry to accomplish its mission that from time to time and from place to place temples outside the temple, profane places outside sacred ones, false tabernacles outside the arc. It is in those places that the followers of Spiritism have uselessly tried to make themselves understood.
In short, French-Masonry taught the dogma that precedes yours and secretly professed what you proclaim out loud. I said I would return to this subject if the elevated Spirits that preside over your works allow me. While I wait I attest that the Spiritist Doctrine can perfectly mix with the great Lodges of the Orient.
Now, glory to the Great Architect.
A former French-Mason, Vaucanson, medium Mr. D’Ambel
NOTE: In this session we thanked the Spirit of Guttenberg asking him to take part in our conversations at any time he thought convenient. The presence of several foreign dignitaries of the Freemasonry Order motivated the following question: Which support can Spiritism find in the French-Freemasonry? Several dissertations were given about the subject as below.
I
Mr. President I thank you for your kind invitation. It is the first time that I have one of my communications read at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies and I hope this will not be the last one. You may have perhaps found my considerations a bit too extensive about the printing press, some thoughts that you may not approve completely, but considering the difficulties that we have to face to communicate through the mediums and utilize their faculties I beg you to kindly forgive certain expressions or language structures that are not always dominated by us. Electricity will later on makes its mediumistic revelation and since everything will change with respect to the reproduction of the Spirit’s thoughts you will no longer find those sometimes regrettable blanks, particularly when the communications are read in the presence of strangers.
You mentioned the Freemasonry and you are right about the expectation of finding good elements there. What is asked of any initiated Freemason? The belief in the immortality of the soul and in the Divine Architect; that the initiated be benevolent, devoted, sociable, dignified and humble. Equality is practiced there in the highest level. Hence there is a striking affinity between the two societies. The issue of Spiritism has been placed in the order of the day in several Masonic lodges and here the result: several long reports were read about it but they did not study it in depth, leading to discussions about matters that they did not know, judging from what they had heard about more than by reality. Many Masons, however, are Spiritists and work hard for the propagation of that belief. Everyone listens but if habit says no, reason says yes.
You must wait because time is a recruiter like no other. Through time impressions necessarily change in the vast field of the lodges and the Spiritist study will enter as a complement because it is already in the air. It was laughed at and spoken about but now they mediate about it. You will then have a Spiritist allotment in those essential liberal societies. You will enter through them in the second period that must prepare the promised avenues. The intelligent persons of the Masonry will praise you for the moral of the Spirits will give a body to that compromised and feared sect but that does more good than people think. Everything has a difficult beginning, a mysterious affinity and if that is true with respect to things that disturb society it is even more true to things that lead to the moral progress of the peoples.
Guttenberg, medium Mr. Leymarie
II
My dear brother in doctrine (the Spirit addresses one of the French-Masons and Spiritist that was present) I gladly come to respond to the benevolent appeal that you address to the Spirits that loved and founded the French-Freemasonry institutions.
I shed my own blood twice to cement this generous institution; public places of this city were tinted twice by the blood of the poor Jacques de Molay. Dear brothers, would a third time be needed? I will happily answer: No. You have already been told: the more blood the more despotism and the more executioners! A society of brothers, friends, persons full of good will that only wish to get to know the truth to do good! I had not communicated in this assembly yet. While you spoke about the Spiritist science and philosophy I yielded the space to the Spirits that are more capable of giving you advices about those several points and patiently waited knowing that my time would come. There is a time for everything as there is a time to everyone. I then believe that my time has come. I can now give you my opinion about Spiritism and French-Freemasonry.
The Masonic institutions were a path to happiness for society. In times when liberal ideas were considered crime people needed a force that entirely submitted to the rule of law was not less emancipated by their beliefs, institutions and unity of teachings. In those days religion, instead of a consoling mother, was still a despotic force that ordered, hurt and bent everything by the voice of its ministers. It was reason for fear to anyone that wished to act as a free thinker and take some moral relief to those in suffering. United by the hearts, fortune and charity our temples were the only altars where God had not been ignored; where a man could still see oneself as a man; where a child could find protection and the abandoned friends. Several centuries went by and many added flowers to the Masonic crown. Those were martyrs, educated men, legislators that added to their glory by becoming its defenders and preservers.
In the nineteenth century Spiritism comes with its luminous beam reaching out to the commanders, to the Rosicrucian, and with a thunderous voice say: Let us go, brothers! I am truly the voice that is heard in the orient and to which the occident responds: Glory, honor, victory to the children of men! Still a few days and Spiritism will have transposed the wall that separates the majority from the room of the secrets in the temple and on that very day society will see the most beautiful Spiritist flower sprout in its heart, providing from its falling petals a regenerating seed of the true freedom. Spiritism has made progresses but when it walk hand in hand with the French-Freemasonry all difficulties will be overcome; every obstacle shall be removed; truth will shiny and the greatest moral progress shall be achieved. It will have transposed the first steps of the throne where it will soon reign.
My fraternal and friendly greetings to all.
Jacques de Molay, medium Ms. Béguet
III
I was really glad to mention my participation in this so spiritualistic center and return thanks to Guttenberg as I was attracted by Jacquard the other day. Most of the dissertation given by the great typographer handled the issue from the profession stand point and he did not see in that invention but its practical, material and utilitarian side. Let us broaden the debate and look at the issue from a higher perspective.
It would be a mistake to believe that the printing press came to replace architecture as this one will remain to continue its historical role through characteristic monuments marked by the Spirit of each century, each generation, and each humanitarian revolution. We say out loud that no, the printing press is not here to knock anything down. It came to complement through its great, special and emancipating mission. It came at its right time like all other discoveries that are providentially born here on Earth. Contemporary of the monk that discovered the gun powder, changing the art of war with that, Guttenberg brought a new lever to the expression of ideas. Let us not forget this: the printing press would not have real meaning without the emancipation of the masses and by the intellectual development of individuals. Without that need to satisfy and that engine to fuel, that spiritual manna to distribute, the printing press would remain idle for a long time fighting in the void and would not be considered by a mad dream or a useless utopia. Wasn’t that the case with the first inventors, or even better, with first ones that discovered the properties of steam? Have Guttenberg been born in the Andaman Islands and the printing press would have certainly been aborted. Hence the idea is the essential lever to consider. Without the idea, without the fertilizing work of thinkers and philosophers alike and even those of the dreamer monks of the middle ages, the printing press would have turned into dead word. Guttenberg then lit more than one candle in tribute to the dialectic school that made the idea flourish and depurated intelligences.
The fervent idea around a plastic image in the human brain is and will always be the greatest engine of discoveries and inventions. The creation of a new need at the heart of modern society is like opening a new path to the eternally innovative idea; it is like pushing intelligence to search for the satisfaction of that new necessity of humanity. That is why all over the place where the idea reigns sovereign, where it is received with respect, and where finally the thinkers are honored there is assurance of progress towards God.
The so much bashed French-Freemasonry, against which the Roman Church did not have enough anathemas and still survived, French-Freemasonry had the doors of its temples wide open to the emancipating cult of ideas. All of the most serious issues were discussed in its very heart and before Spiritism had even showed up the venerable and grand-masters knew and professed that the soul was immortal and that the visible and invisible worlds communicated with one another. It was there in the sanctuaries that do not admit the profane that Swedenborg, Pasquali and Saint-Martin obtained striking results. It was there that the great Sofia, that ethereal inspiration, came to teach the firstborn of humanity the liberating dogmas whose generous principles were given in 1789. It was there and much earlier than your contemporary mediums that precursors of your mediumship, unknown persons, had evoked and made appear wise people of antiquity and from the first centuries of this era. It was there… I stop here. The restricted schedule of your sessions do not allow me to elaborate more about this interesting matter as I would like to do. We shall return to that later. All I will say now is that Spiritism will find at the heart of the Mason Lodges a compact phalanx of believers, not ephemeral but serious, resolved and unbreakable believers in their faith.
Spiritism carries out all of the generous and charitable aspirations of the French-Masonry; sanctions the beliefs of the latter by giving irrefutable proofs of the immortality of the soul; leads humanity to the objective that it proposes: union, peace and universal fraternity by the faith in God and in the future.
Wouldn’t that be the case that every sincere Spiritist of all nations, cults and classes look at one another like brothers? Isn’t that a French-Masonry between them with the exception that instead of being secret it is practiced openly? Enlightened men, like the ones it congregates that put their education above the prejudices of cast and silos, they cannot show indifference to the movement produced by this essentially liberating doctrine in the world. Repudiating such a powerful element of moral progress would be like denying their own principles and stand side by side with the retrograde. No, I am certain that they will not allow themselves to veer off and will take care of this serious issue with our influence.
Spiritism is an irresistible chain of ideas that must reach the whole world. It is a matter of time. Well, one would acknowledge ignorance with respect to the character of Masonry by believing that it would represent a negative role in the movement that impels humanity forward; believe that it would extinguish the flame as if it were afraid of light. It must be clear that I speak of the high French-Masonry and not of those lodges created for the illusion where people gather to eat and drink and to make fun of the rookies before their trials rather than discuss moral and philosophical issues. It was even necessary to the French-Masonry to accomplish its mission that from time to time and from place to place temples outside the temple, profane places outside sacred ones, false tabernacles outside the arc. It is in those places that the followers of Spiritism have uselessly tried to make themselves understood.
In short, French-Masonry taught the dogma that precedes yours and secretly professed what you proclaim out loud. I said I would return to this subject if the elevated Spirits that preside over your works allow me. While I wait I attest that the Spiritist Doctrine can perfectly mix with the great Lodges of the Orient.
Now, glory to the Great Architect.
A former French-Mason, Vaucanson, medium Mr. D’Ambel
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, January 17th, 1864
Medium Mrs. Costel
My friends, I come to you the experienced and tested workers in suffering. I come to salute you, brave and worthy workers, in the name of charity and love.
You are my friend Jesus’ beloved ones. Rest assured with the Spiritist belief as I did at the heart of the Divine Messenger. Workers, you are the elected ones in the painful path of trial where you walk with your bleeding feet and discouraged hearts. Wait, brothers! Every suffering carries its own compensation; every laborious day has its night of rest. Believe in the future that will be your reward and do not seek forgetfulness that is sinful. Forgetfulness, my friends, is a selfish and brutal intoxication; it is hunger to your children and tears to your wives. Forgetfulness is cowardice.
What would you think of a worker that pretending fatigue would leave the shop floor and cowardly stopped the initiated task? My friends, life is the journey in eternity. Be brave in accomplishing your task; do not dream about an impossible rest; do not turn the clock forward; everything has its own time: the reward for your courage and the blessings to a touched heart that trusts the eternal justice.
Be Spiritists and you shall become strong and patients for you will learn that that trials are your guarantee of progress and that they will open up the horizons of a happy rest where you shall praise the sufferings that granted you access.
To all of you workers and friends, my blessings. I attend your sessions because you are the loved ones of the one that was.
John, the Evangelist
Medium Mrs. Costel
My friends, I come to you the experienced and tested workers in suffering. I come to salute you, brave and worthy workers, in the name of charity and love.
You are my friend Jesus’ beloved ones. Rest assured with the Spiritist belief as I did at the heart of the Divine Messenger. Workers, you are the elected ones in the painful path of trial where you walk with your bleeding feet and discouraged hearts. Wait, brothers! Every suffering carries its own compensation; every laborious day has its night of rest. Believe in the future that will be your reward and do not seek forgetfulness that is sinful. Forgetfulness, my friends, is a selfish and brutal intoxication; it is hunger to your children and tears to your wives. Forgetfulness is cowardice.
What would you think of a worker that pretending fatigue would leave the shop floor and cowardly stopped the initiated task? My friends, life is the journey in eternity. Be brave in accomplishing your task; do not dream about an impossible rest; do not turn the clock forward; everything has its own time: the reward for your courage and the blessings to a touched heart that trusts the eternal justice.
Be Spiritists and you shall become strong and patients for you will learn that that trials are your guarantee of progress and that they will open up the horizons of a happy rest where you shall praise the sufferings that granted you access.
To all of you workers and friends, my blessings. I attend your sessions because you are the loved ones of the one that was.
John, the Evangelist
Spontaneous essay
Partial instructions about the theory of the fluids
Paris, November 11th, 1863 – medium Ms. A.C.
Progression of all things necessarily leads to the transubstantiation and spiritual mediumship is one of the powers of nature that will help our planet get there faster because like other worlds it must follow the law of transformation and progress. Not only its human contingent but also the minerals, plants and animals, gases and imponderable fluids must progress and transform into more depurated substances. Science that has already worked on the interesting issue of the formation of this planet acknowledges that it was not created by one word, as stated in the Book of Genesis[1] in a sublime allegory, but that it has endured transformations in a long series of centuries that produced mineral layers of several type. Following the evolution of those layers one can see the successive surge and multiplication of vegetables and later on animals indicating that those organized bodies found the appropriate to live in those environments.
In studying the progression of animate beings, as has been done with minerals and vegetables, it is recognized that these beings, first shellfish, gradually rose in the animal scale, and that their progress followed that of the production and treatment of soil; we notice at the same time the disappearance of certain species, as soon as the physical conditions necessary for their life no longer exist. Thus, for example, the great dinosaurs, the monster amphibious and the giant mammals that we only find the fossils, have completely disappeared from the earth with the conditions of existence that the floods had created. Being the floods one of the means of transformation of Earth, they have been almost general; that is to say, during a certain period they have upset the globe and have thus produced different types of vegetation and atmospheric fluids. Mankind, like all organic beings, has appeared on Earth when the conditions necessary to their existence were available.
Here the material creation is stopped by the forces of nature alone; it then begins the role of work of the incarnate Spirit in mankind, for they must concur to the common work; working for oneself everyone must work for the general betterment. So we see that, from the earliest races, mankind cultivating the earth, making it produce for their bodily needs, and thereby bringing about transformations in the soil, its produce, its gases and fluids. The more Earth is populated, the more it is worked, cultivated, and cleansed and the more its products are abundant and varied; the purification of its fluids gradually leads to the disappearance of plant and animal species, poisonous and harmful to mankind and that can no longer exist in a too purified and subtle air for their organization, no longer finding the necessary elements for their survival.
The health condition of the globe has improved significantly since its inception but it is still not enough, indicating that it will be improved further by the work and ingenuity of mankind. It is by design that people are induced to establish themselves in the most inhospitable and unhealthy countries; regions infested by terrible animals and harmful mists have already become habitable; little by little, the transformations on the soil will bring about complete purification.
Through work people learn to know and direct the forces of nature. One can trace in history the thread of discoveries and conquests of the human mind, and the application of that to satisfy their needs. But by following this path, one must also observe that humanity has knocked rough edges and dematerialized; by drawing a parallel between today’s person with the first inhabitants of the globe, we can assess the progress already accomplished; we can see that the more mankind progresses, the more it is excited to progress further, and that evolution itself is in proportion to the already accomplished progress. Progress today advances at a high speed and forcibly drags over those that are still behind. We have just spoken of physical, material, and intelligent progress; but let us now see the moral progress and the influence it must have on the former.
Moral progress was awakened at the same time as the material development, but it has been slower because mankind was placed in the midst of a material creation, having needs and aspirations in harmony with that reality. As humans advanced, they felt the spiritual develop and grow in them and aided by celestial influences, people began to understand the need for the intelligent driving of the Spirit over matter; moral progress continued its development and, at different times, advanced Spirits have come to guide humanity, giving a greater impulse to its ascending march; such are Moses, the prophets, Confucius, the sages of antiquity and Christ, the greatest of all on Earth and also the humblest. Christ gave humanity a greater idea of his own worth, his independence and his spiritual personality. But his followers, being far inferior to him, did not understand the grandiose idea that shines out of all of his teachings; they materialized what was spiritual; hence the kind of moral status quo in which humanity has remained. Scientific and intellectual progress continue their progress and moral progress slowly drags on. Is it not certain that if, since Christ, all who have professed his doctrine had practiced it, humanity would have spared themselves of many evils, and would now be morally more advanced?
Spiritism has come to speed up that progress, unveiling to mankind its destiny and we already see its power by the number of followers and the easiness with which it is understood. It will lead to an active moral transformation and by the multiplicity of the mediumistic communications the heart and minds of all incarnate persons will be worked by friendly Spirits and educators. From that education a new scientific impulse will surge for new avenues will open up to science that will guide its researches towards the new forces of nature that are revealed. The already developed human skills will develop even further through the mediumistic work. Initially welcomed by kind souls, inconsolable before the loss of friends and relatives, Spiritism was later on embraced by the unfortunate ones of this world whose number is large and that were encouraged and sustained in their trials by its Doctrine that is both soothing and reassuring. It then propagated fast and many astonished skeptical, that studied it out of curiosity in the beginning, were convinced by themselves, finding hopes and consolations.
Today scholars are beginning to be touched and some of them that have studied it seriously and admit Spiritism as one natural force unknown up until now, and that apply their intelligence and knowledge to its study will make humanity advance a huge scientific step.
But the Spirits are not limited to scientific instruction. They have a double duty and must above all cultivate the moral advancement. Besides the studies of science they will do, and are already doing now, help you work your own self. The incarnate ones that are intelligent and wish to progress will understand that their dematerialization is the best condition to a progressive study and that their present as well as future happiness are related to that.
OBSERVATION: That is how the world, after having achieved a certain level of intellectual progress, will enter the period of moral progress whose route is opened by Spiritism. Such progress will take place by the force of things and will naturally lead to the transformation of humanity by broadening the circle of the ideas in a spiritual sense and by the intelligent and thoughtful practice of the moral laws taught by Jesus Christ. The speed with which the Spiritist ideas propagated at the very heart of materialism that dominates our times, that is the positive indication of a prompt change in the order of things. All it is needed is the extinction of a generation for the one that stands up already announces much different sponsorship.
[1] Genesis 1 (TN)
Partial instructions about the theory of the fluids
Paris, November 11th, 1863 – medium Ms. A.C.
Progression of all things necessarily leads to the transubstantiation and spiritual mediumship is one of the powers of nature that will help our planet get there faster because like other worlds it must follow the law of transformation and progress. Not only its human contingent but also the minerals, plants and animals, gases and imponderable fluids must progress and transform into more depurated substances. Science that has already worked on the interesting issue of the formation of this planet acknowledges that it was not created by one word, as stated in the Book of Genesis[1] in a sublime allegory, but that it has endured transformations in a long series of centuries that produced mineral layers of several type. Following the evolution of those layers one can see the successive surge and multiplication of vegetables and later on animals indicating that those organized bodies found the appropriate to live in those environments.
In studying the progression of animate beings, as has been done with minerals and vegetables, it is recognized that these beings, first shellfish, gradually rose in the animal scale, and that their progress followed that of the production and treatment of soil; we notice at the same time the disappearance of certain species, as soon as the physical conditions necessary for their life no longer exist. Thus, for example, the great dinosaurs, the monster amphibious and the giant mammals that we only find the fossils, have completely disappeared from the earth with the conditions of existence that the floods had created. Being the floods one of the means of transformation of Earth, they have been almost general; that is to say, during a certain period they have upset the globe and have thus produced different types of vegetation and atmospheric fluids. Mankind, like all organic beings, has appeared on Earth when the conditions necessary to their existence were available.
Here the material creation is stopped by the forces of nature alone; it then begins the role of work of the incarnate Spirit in mankind, for they must concur to the common work; working for oneself everyone must work for the general betterment. So we see that, from the earliest races, mankind cultivating the earth, making it produce for their bodily needs, and thereby bringing about transformations in the soil, its produce, its gases and fluids. The more Earth is populated, the more it is worked, cultivated, and cleansed and the more its products are abundant and varied; the purification of its fluids gradually leads to the disappearance of plant and animal species, poisonous and harmful to mankind and that can no longer exist in a too purified and subtle air for their organization, no longer finding the necessary elements for their survival.
The health condition of the globe has improved significantly since its inception but it is still not enough, indicating that it will be improved further by the work and ingenuity of mankind. It is by design that people are induced to establish themselves in the most inhospitable and unhealthy countries; regions infested by terrible animals and harmful mists have already become habitable; little by little, the transformations on the soil will bring about complete purification.
Through work people learn to know and direct the forces of nature. One can trace in history the thread of discoveries and conquests of the human mind, and the application of that to satisfy their needs. But by following this path, one must also observe that humanity has knocked rough edges and dematerialized; by drawing a parallel between today’s person with the first inhabitants of the globe, we can assess the progress already accomplished; we can see that the more mankind progresses, the more it is excited to progress further, and that evolution itself is in proportion to the already accomplished progress. Progress today advances at a high speed and forcibly drags over those that are still behind. We have just spoken of physical, material, and intelligent progress; but let us now see the moral progress and the influence it must have on the former.
Moral progress was awakened at the same time as the material development, but it has been slower because mankind was placed in the midst of a material creation, having needs and aspirations in harmony with that reality. As humans advanced, they felt the spiritual develop and grow in them and aided by celestial influences, people began to understand the need for the intelligent driving of the Spirit over matter; moral progress continued its development and, at different times, advanced Spirits have come to guide humanity, giving a greater impulse to its ascending march; such are Moses, the prophets, Confucius, the sages of antiquity and Christ, the greatest of all on Earth and also the humblest. Christ gave humanity a greater idea of his own worth, his independence and his spiritual personality. But his followers, being far inferior to him, did not understand the grandiose idea that shines out of all of his teachings; they materialized what was spiritual; hence the kind of moral status quo in which humanity has remained. Scientific and intellectual progress continue their progress and moral progress slowly drags on. Is it not certain that if, since Christ, all who have professed his doctrine had practiced it, humanity would have spared themselves of many evils, and would now be morally more advanced?
Spiritism has come to speed up that progress, unveiling to mankind its destiny and we already see its power by the number of followers and the easiness with which it is understood. It will lead to an active moral transformation and by the multiplicity of the mediumistic communications the heart and minds of all incarnate persons will be worked by friendly Spirits and educators. From that education a new scientific impulse will surge for new avenues will open up to science that will guide its researches towards the new forces of nature that are revealed. The already developed human skills will develop even further through the mediumistic work. Initially welcomed by kind souls, inconsolable before the loss of friends and relatives, Spiritism was later on embraced by the unfortunate ones of this world whose number is large and that were encouraged and sustained in their trials by its Doctrine that is both soothing and reassuring. It then propagated fast and many astonished skeptical, that studied it out of curiosity in the beginning, were convinced by themselves, finding hopes and consolations.
Today scholars are beginning to be touched and some of them that have studied it seriously and admit Spiritism as one natural force unknown up until now, and that apply their intelligence and knowledge to its study will make humanity advance a huge scientific step.
But the Spirits are not limited to scientific instruction. They have a double duty and must above all cultivate the moral advancement. Besides the studies of science they will do, and are already doing now, help you work your own self. The incarnate ones that are intelligent and wish to progress will understand that their dematerialization is the best condition to a progressive study and that their present as well as future happiness are related to that.
OBSERVATION: That is how the world, after having achieved a certain level of intellectual progress, will enter the period of moral progress whose route is opened by Spiritism. Such progress will take place by the force of things and will naturally lead to the transformation of humanity by broadening the circle of the ideas in a spiritual sense and by the intelligent and thoughtful practice of the moral laws taught by Jesus Christ. The speed with which the Spiritist ideas propagated at the very heart of materialism that dominates our times, that is the positive indication of a prompt change in the order of things. All it is needed is the extinction of a generation for the one that stands up already announces much different sponsorship.
[1] Genesis 1 (TN)