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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > April > The Awakening of the Lord of Cosnac
The Awakening of the Lord of Cosnac
Mr. Leymarie, our colleague from the Parisian Society, recently traveled to Corrèze, where he frequently spoke about matters of Spiritism, receiving several mediumistic communications, among which the one below, and that certainly could not be in his thoughts, considering that he had never heard about an individual called Cosnac in this world. This communication is remarkable because it shows the singular position of a Spirit that after two and half centuries after his death, did not believe to be alive, but was under the impression of the ideas and visions of things of his time, not realizing how much they had changed since then.
Tulle, March 7th, 1866
Two and half centuries ago, unconscious of my position, I constantly saw the fortified castle of my ancestors, the deep moats, the Lord of Cosnac always linked to his King, to his name, to his memories of greatness; there was pages and valets everywhere; men-at-arms leaving for a secret expedition. I follow all that movement, all the noise; I hear the outcry of the prisoners and colonists, of the fearful servants that humbly pass in front of the master’s house; it is all just a dream!...
My eyes opened today, to see everything contrary to my century old dream! I see a large bourgeoise home, but without the lines of defense; everything is calm. The big trees disappeared; one could say that a fairy hand transformed the feudal home and the woodlands that surround it. Why such a change?... Has the name that I carry disappeared then, and with that the good old times?... Ah It is necessary to let my dreams go, my desires, my fictions, because a new world has just been revealed to me. Formerly a bishop, proud of my titles, of my alliances, counselor to the King, I only admitted our personalities, a God creating privileged races, to whom the world belonged, in its own right, a name that should perpetuate, and as the basis of such a system, tyranny and suffering for the servant and the worker.
A few words were enough to wake me up!... An involuntary attraction (in the past I would have called it diabolic) brought me to this one that is writing. He discussed with a priest that utilizes all the arguments that I used in the past, for the defense of the Church, but now he uses new words that explain with simplicity, and should I confess? His reasoning allows my eyes to see and my ears to listen.
Through him I see things as they are, and more remarkable, after having followed him to a place where he defends Spiritism, I go back to the feeling of my existence as a Spirit; I appreciate better, I define better the great laws of truth and justice; I swallow my pride, cause of the cataract that confused my reason and judgment for two-and-half centuries; however, look at the power of habit, the pride of race!
Despite the radical changes that took place in the properties of my grandparents, in the social mores, in the law and in government; despite the conversations with the medium that transmit my thought; despite my visits to the Spiritist groups of Paris, and even the Spirits that prepare for the emigration to more advance worlds, or for earthly incarnations, it took me eight days of thoughts to surrender to the evidence. My resistances fell one by one in this long struggle between the disappearing past and the present that drags us to new hopes, like the old broken armors of our former knights. I come to make an act of faith before the evidence, and I attest that I am the bishop of Cosnac, that I live, and that I feel and judge. While I wait for my reincarnation, I prepare my spiritual weapons; I feel God everywhere and in everything; I am not a demon, I abjure my pried of cast, and in my fluidic covering I pay tribute to the God Creator, the God of harmony that calls all of His children to him, so that later, after a more or less eventful life, they arrive purified to the ethereal spheres, where that magnanimous God allows them to enjoy the supreme wisdom.
De Cosnac
Note: The archbishop of Sens, before the last one, was called Jean-Joseph-Marie-Victoire de Cosnac. He was born in 1764, at the Cosnac Castle, in the Limousin where he died in 1843. The Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Sens, volume 7, page 301, says that he was the eleventh prelate that his family had given to the Church. It is not impossible that a bishop with such a name had lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Tulle, March 7th, 1866
Two and half centuries ago, unconscious of my position, I constantly saw the fortified castle of my ancestors, the deep moats, the Lord of Cosnac always linked to his King, to his name, to his memories of greatness; there was pages and valets everywhere; men-at-arms leaving for a secret expedition. I follow all that movement, all the noise; I hear the outcry of the prisoners and colonists, of the fearful servants that humbly pass in front of the master’s house; it is all just a dream!...
My eyes opened today, to see everything contrary to my century old dream! I see a large bourgeoise home, but without the lines of defense; everything is calm. The big trees disappeared; one could say that a fairy hand transformed the feudal home and the woodlands that surround it. Why such a change?... Has the name that I carry disappeared then, and with that the good old times?... Ah It is necessary to let my dreams go, my desires, my fictions, because a new world has just been revealed to me. Formerly a bishop, proud of my titles, of my alliances, counselor to the King, I only admitted our personalities, a God creating privileged races, to whom the world belonged, in its own right, a name that should perpetuate, and as the basis of such a system, tyranny and suffering for the servant and the worker.
A few words were enough to wake me up!... An involuntary attraction (in the past I would have called it diabolic) brought me to this one that is writing. He discussed with a priest that utilizes all the arguments that I used in the past, for the defense of the Church, but now he uses new words that explain with simplicity, and should I confess? His reasoning allows my eyes to see and my ears to listen.
Through him I see things as they are, and more remarkable, after having followed him to a place where he defends Spiritism, I go back to the feeling of my existence as a Spirit; I appreciate better, I define better the great laws of truth and justice; I swallow my pride, cause of the cataract that confused my reason and judgment for two-and-half centuries; however, look at the power of habit, the pride of race!
Despite the radical changes that took place in the properties of my grandparents, in the social mores, in the law and in government; despite the conversations with the medium that transmit my thought; despite my visits to the Spiritist groups of Paris, and even the Spirits that prepare for the emigration to more advance worlds, or for earthly incarnations, it took me eight days of thoughts to surrender to the evidence. My resistances fell one by one in this long struggle between the disappearing past and the present that drags us to new hopes, like the old broken armors of our former knights. I come to make an act of faith before the evidence, and I attest that I am the bishop of Cosnac, that I live, and that I feel and judge. While I wait for my reincarnation, I prepare my spiritual weapons; I feel God everywhere and in everything; I am not a demon, I abjure my pried of cast, and in my fluidic covering I pay tribute to the God Creator, the God of harmony that calls all of His children to him, so that later, after a more or less eventful life, they arrive purified to the ethereal spheres, where that magnanimous God allows them to enjoy the supreme wisdom.
De Cosnac
Note: The archbishop of Sens, before the last one, was called Jean-Joseph-Marie-Victoire de Cosnac. He was born in 1764, at the Cosnac Castle, in the Limousin where he died in 1843. The Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Sens, volume 7, page 301, says that he was the eleventh prelate that his family had given to the Church. It is not impossible that a bishop with such a name had lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century.