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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > January > Do Women Have a Soul?
Do Women Have a Soul?
Do women have a soul? It is well-known that this has not always been considered a certainty, and from what we hear, it was voted on during a Council. Its denial is still a principle of faith to certain peoples. It is also well-known the degree of degradation that such a belief has reduced women in most regions of the Orient. Even considering that the matter is settled today, in the civilized world, in their favor, the prejudice regarding their intellectual inferiority persisted, to the point that a writer from the last century, whose name escapes me, defined a woman like this: “An instrument of pleasures to man”, a more Muslim than Christian definition. From that prejudice came her legal inferiority, still not erased from our legal codes. Due to the power of habit, they have accepted such enslaving condition for a long time, as a natural thing. That is what happens to those that are submitted to remain servants from father to son, believing in the end that their nature is different from that of their masters.
Progress, nonetheless, has elevated the concept of women. They have, many times, imposed themselves by intelligence or genius, and the law, despite the fact of still considering them inferior, gradually let up the laces of tutorship. They can be considered morally emancipated, if not legally. The latter shall be, one day, the result, by the force of things.
A short while ago we could read in the papers that a young lady had just successfully graduated with a bachelor’s degree in a Montpellier’s college. It was said that it was the fourth bachelor’s diploma awarded to a woman. It was not long ago that such a discussion about awarding women that kind of degree was possible or not. Although this can sound like a monstrous anomaly to some, it was acknowledged that the regulations about the matter did not mention women, and therefore they were not legally excluded. After the acknowledgement that they have a soul, came the conquest of the degrees of science, and that is already something. But this partial liberation only results from the development of civility, depuration of habits, or if you wish, of a more accurate sense of justice. It is a kind of concession made to women, and we must say that there is as much haggling as possible.
It would be ridiculous today to discuss if a woman has a soul or not, but another much more serious issue, from another point of view, presents itself here, and whose solution will only be established if the social equality between man and women is established as a natural right or conceded by men. Notice, in passing, that if it is only a concession by men out of condescendence, something that is given today may be retrieved tomorrow, and given the superior physical strength, with some individual exceptions, as a whole men will always have advantage, whereas if the equality is in nature, its acknowledgement will be the result of progress, and once it is recognize it becomes imprescriptible.
Has God created male and female souls and made the former inferior to the latter? That is the whole question. If that is so, then women inferiority is in God’s designs and no human law could interfere with that. If, on the contrary, God created them equal, the inequalities based on ignorance and brute force will disappear with progress and the rule of law.
People can only establish more or less rational hypothesis about that, and these are always controversial. Nothing in the visible world could provide a material proof of how correct or mistaken their opinions are. To be enlightened one would have to return to the source, to the arcane of the extra corporeal world, that was still unknown. Spiritism had the task to solve the issue, no longer through reasoning, but through the facts, be it by the revelations from beyond the grave, be it through the study that is done daily about the condition of the soul, after death. Now, it is very important to mention that such studies are not the works of a single person, neither the revelations come from a single Spirit, but the product of many identical observations, done on a daily basis by thousands of people in all countries, thus providing the powerful sanction of the universal control, upon which all theories of the Spiritist Science are based. Well, here is the result of such observations:
The souls, or Spirits, have no gender. The affections that unite them have nothing of carnal, and for that reason are long lasting, for they are founded on a true sympathy and not subordinated to the vicissitudes of matter. The souls incarnate, that is, are temporarily dressed by a carnal envelope, that to them seems like a heavy garment, from which they are disentangled by death. Through that material envelope the souls contribute to the material progress of the world where there live; the work that they are forced to execute, be it for the conservation of life or the search for their wellbeing, helps their intellectual and moral advancement. The soul arrives more developed at each new incarnation; bring new ideas and the knowledge acquired in its previous existences. That is how the progress of peoples take place. The civilized people of today are the same that lived in the Middle Ages and in barbarian times, having progressed since then; those that are going to live in future centuries are those that live here today, but more advanced intellectually and morally.
Sexual organs only exist in the physical organization. They are necessary to the reproduction of material beings. But since the Spirits are God creation, they do not reproduce through one another, and that is the reason why sexual organizations would be useless in the spiritual world.
The Spirits evolve by the work that they carry out and by the trials that they must endure, like the worker that perfects his art through his own work. Such trials and tasks vary according to their social position. Since the Spirits must evolve in everything and acquire all the knowledge, each one is called to contribute to the many tasks and to go through different kinds of trials. That is why thy are reborn alternatively poor or rich, masters of servants, professionals of thoughts or matter.
Therefore, the principle of equality is based on the very laws of nature, because the one that was great yesterday may return as a little one the next day, and vice-versa. The principle of fraternity is a consequence of that, because we find former acquaintances in our social relationships and the miserable that reaches out to us could be a friend or relative. It is the same reason why the Spirits incarnate in both sexes. The one that was a man may return as a woman and the one that was a woman may return as a man, so that the Spirit may experience the duties of each condition, and be submitted to the respective trials.
Nature created the feminine sex weaker than the other because their duties do not require the same kind of muscular strength and would even be incompatible with masculine rudeness. The feminine body enjoys the gentleness of forms and sensations, remarkably appropriate to the care of maternity. Men and women have special duties that are equally important in the general order of things; they are two elements that complement one another.
By suffering the influence of the physical organization, the character of the Spirit modifies according to the circumstances, yielding to the needs and requirements imposed by that very organization. Such influence does not disappear immediately after the destruction of the material envelope, as the Spirit does not lose immediately their terrestrial likes and habits. Furthermore, it may happen that the Spirit will live several existences in the same sex, leading to the preservation of the mark of one sex or the other.
It is only when the Spirit has achieved a certain degree of advancement and dematerialization that the influence of matter completely fades away, and with that the personality of the sexes. Those that come to us as men or women do so to help us remember the existences in which we knew them. If the influence of material life affects the spiritual one, the same happens when the Spirit moves from the spiritual to the corporeal life. In a new incarnation, the Spirit will bring the character and tendencies that had as a Spirit; if he were advanced, he will be an advanced man; if he were inferior, will be an inferior man. By changing sex, therefore, and in a new incarnation, the Spirit may preserve the tastes, inclinations and the character inherent to the sex that had just been left. That explain certain apparent anomalies observed in the personality of certain men and women. Hence, the only difference between men and women is in the physical organization, that disappears with the death of the body. But there is no such a difference with respect to the soul, the Spirit, the essential being, because there aren’t two species of souls. That is what God wanted in justice to all creatures. Since all have the same principle, God established the true equality.
The inequality only exists temporarily, given the degree of progress; but everyone has the right to the same destiny, that everyone will reach by their own effort because God has not favored anyone to the expenses of others.
Materialism places women in a natural state of inferiority, from which they can only leave by the good will of men. According to that doctrine, there is no soul or if there is any soul it vanishes with death or is lost in the universal whole, what is the same thing. Consequently, the only resource that women have is their weakness placed at the feet of the stronger one. The superiority of some women is a simple exception, bizarre nature, a game of organisms that would not lead to a law.
The common spiritualist doctrine acknowledges the existence of the individual and immortal soul, but it is powerless to demonstrate that there is no difference between men and women, and consequently, there is no natural superiority of one upon the other.
With the Spiritist Doctrine, women’s equality is no longer a speculative theory; it is no longer a concession from the powerful to the weak, but it is a full-right based on the very laws of nature. By revealing these laws, Spiritism opens a new era for the emancipation of women, as it opens to equality and fraternity.
Progress, nonetheless, has elevated the concept of women. They have, many times, imposed themselves by intelligence or genius, and the law, despite the fact of still considering them inferior, gradually let up the laces of tutorship. They can be considered morally emancipated, if not legally. The latter shall be, one day, the result, by the force of things.
A short while ago we could read in the papers that a young lady had just successfully graduated with a bachelor’s degree in a Montpellier’s college. It was said that it was the fourth bachelor’s diploma awarded to a woman. It was not long ago that such a discussion about awarding women that kind of degree was possible or not. Although this can sound like a monstrous anomaly to some, it was acknowledged that the regulations about the matter did not mention women, and therefore they were not legally excluded. After the acknowledgement that they have a soul, came the conquest of the degrees of science, and that is already something. But this partial liberation only results from the development of civility, depuration of habits, or if you wish, of a more accurate sense of justice. It is a kind of concession made to women, and we must say that there is as much haggling as possible.
It would be ridiculous today to discuss if a woman has a soul or not, but another much more serious issue, from another point of view, presents itself here, and whose solution will only be established if the social equality between man and women is established as a natural right or conceded by men. Notice, in passing, that if it is only a concession by men out of condescendence, something that is given today may be retrieved tomorrow, and given the superior physical strength, with some individual exceptions, as a whole men will always have advantage, whereas if the equality is in nature, its acknowledgement will be the result of progress, and once it is recognize it becomes imprescriptible.
Has God created male and female souls and made the former inferior to the latter? That is the whole question. If that is so, then women inferiority is in God’s designs and no human law could interfere with that. If, on the contrary, God created them equal, the inequalities based on ignorance and brute force will disappear with progress and the rule of law.
People can only establish more or less rational hypothesis about that, and these are always controversial. Nothing in the visible world could provide a material proof of how correct or mistaken their opinions are. To be enlightened one would have to return to the source, to the arcane of the extra corporeal world, that was still unknown. Spiritism had the task to solve the issue, no longer through reasoning, but through the facts, be it by the revelations from beyond the grave, be it through the study that is done daily about the condition of the soul, after death. Now, it is very important to mention that such studies are not the works of a single person, neither the revelations come from a single Spirit, but the product of many identical observations, done on a daily basis by thousands of people in all countries, thus providing the powerful sanction of the universal control, upon which all theories of the Spiritist Science are based. Well, here is the result of such observations:
The souls, or Spirits, have no gender. The affections that unite them have nothing of carnal, and for that reason are long lasting, for they are founded on a true sympathy and not subordinated to the vicissitudes of matter. The souls incarnate, that is, are temporarily dressed by a carnal envelope, that to them seems like a heavy garment, from which they are disentangled by death. Through that material envelope the souls contribute to the material progress of the world where there live; the work that they are forced to execute, be it for the conservation of life or the search for their wellbeing, helps their intellectual and moral advancement. The soul arrives more developed at each new incarnation; bring new ideas and the knowledge acquired in its previous existences. That is how the progress of peoples take place. The civilized people of today are the same that lived in the Middle Ages and in barbarian times, having progressed since then; those that are going to live in future centuries are those that live here today, but more advanced intellectually and morally.
Sexual organs only exist in the physical organization. They are necessary to the reproduction of material beings. But since the Spirits are God creation, they do not reproduce through one another, and that is the reason why sexual organizations would be useless in the spiritual world.
The Spirits evolve by the work that they carry out and by the trials that they must endure, like the worker that perfects his art through his own work. Such trials and tasks vary according to their social position. Since the Spirits must evolve in everything and acquire all the knowledge, each one is called to contribute to the many tasks and to go through different kinds of trials. That is why thy are reborn alternatively poor or rich, masters of servants, professionals of thoughts or matter.
Therefore, the principle of equality is based on the very laws of nature, because the one that was great yesterday may return as a little one the next day, and vice-versa. The principle of fraternity is a consequence of that, because we find former acquaintances in our social relationships and the miserable that reaches out to us could be a friend or relative. It is the same reason why the Spirits incarnate in both sexes. The one that was a man may return as a woman and the one that was a woman may return as a man, so that the Spirit may experience the duties of each condition, and be submitted to the respective trials.
Nature created the feminine sex weaker than the other because their duties do not require the same kind of muscular strength and would even be incompatible with masculine rudeness. The feminine body enjoys the gentleness of forms and sensations, remarkably appropriate to the care of maternity. Men and women have special duties that are equally important in the general order of things; they are two elements that complement one another.
By suffering the influence of the physical organization, the character of the Spirit modifies according to the circumstances, yielding to the needs and requirements imposed by that very organization. Such influence does not disappear immediately after the destruction of the material envelope, as the Spirit does not lose immediately their terrestrial likes and habits. Furthermore, it may happen that the Spirit will live several existences in the same sex, leading to the preservation of the mark of one sex or the other.
It is only when the Spirit has achieved a certain degree of advancement and dematerialization that the influence of matter completely fades away, and with that the personality of the sexes. Those that come to us as men or women do so to help us remember the existences in which we knew them. If the influence of material life affects the spiritual one, the same happens when the Spirit moves from the spiritual to the corporeal life. In a new incarnation, the Spirit will bring the character and tendencies that had as a Spirit; if he were advanced, he will be an advanced man; if he were inferior, will be an inferior man. By changing sex, therefore, and in a new incarnation, the Spirit may preserve the tastes, inclinations and the character inherent to the sex that had just been left. That explain certain apparent anomalies observed in the personality of certain men and women. Hence, the only difference between men and women is in the physical organization, that disappears with the death of the body. But there is no such a difference with respect to the soul, the Spirit, the essential being, because there aren’t two species of souls. That is what God wanted in justice to all creatures. Since all have the same principle, God established the true equality.
The inequality only exists temporarily, given the degree of progress; but everyone has the right to the same destiny, that everyone will reach by their own effort because God has not favored anyone to the expenses of others.
Materialism places women in a natural state of inferiority, from which they can only leave by the good will of men. According to that doctrine, there is no soul or if there is any soul it vanishes with death or is lost in the universal whole, what is the same thing. Consequently, the only resource that women have is their weakness placed at the feet of the stronger one. The superiority of some women is a simple exception, bizarre nature, a game of organisms that would not lead to a law.
The common spiritualist doctrine acknowledges the existence of the individual and immortal soul, but it is powerless to demonstrate that there is no difference between men and women, and consequently, there is no natural superiority of one upon the other.
With the Spiritist Doctrine, women’s equality is no longer a speculative theory; it is no longer a concession from the powerful to the weak, but it is a full-right based on the very laws of nature. By revealing these laws, Spiritism opens a new era for the emancipation of women, as it opens to equality and fraternity.