In this issue, we continue the study of the book, Practical Instructions on Spiritist Manifestations, work published by Allan Kardec in 1858. This work which we suggest you read, refers to the edition published by “Casa Editora O Clarim”, and is based on Cairbar Schutel’s translation.
Questions for discussion
A. Is there any relationship between sleep and dreams?
B. How many and what are the orders and classes that make up the Spiritist Scale, according to Spiritism?
C. What are the main characteristics of each of the orders that make up the Spiritist Scale?
Reading Text
50. Eternal punishment: the Higher Spirits teach us that only Good is eternal and that Evil will end. Thus, they fight the doctrine of the eternal punishment, since it goes against the idea of God, who gives us His justice and goodness. (Spiritist Vocabulary, page 49).
51. Pennate: home or domestic gods of the Ancients, so called because they were kept in the most secluded place in the house. The Homes were also, as the Pennate, domestic gods or geniuses, with the difference that the Pennate were, in their origin, the manes of the ancestors and the Homes were good geniuses, family protectors, and were considered hereditary, because once they were connected to a family, they continued protecting the descendants. The Homes also protected cities, villages, streets and public buildings. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 49 and 50).
52. Pythia and Pythoness: Pythian priestess of Apollo at Delphi, so called because of Python, a snake Apollo had killed. Pythia gave the oracles, but as they were not always intelligible, the priests had the task of interpreting them according to the circumstances. (Spiritist Vocabulary, page 51).
53. Polytheism: religion that accepts many gods. For the Ancient the word God passed the idea of power, and all power superior to the ordinary one was a god. Thus, even men, who had done great things, became gods for them. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 52 and 53).
54. Possessed: Originally, this word meant a person in which a demon lodged. The Doctrine says that the Spirit is united to the body, and it cannot be definitely separated only by death; therefore, another Spirit cannot put itself in its place to join the body at the same time. Thus, there would be no possession in the absolute sense of the word; there is subjugation, i. e. an imperfect Spirit can bind itself to an embodied, lord over him, dominate his thoughts and compel him to do what he wants. (Allan Kardec later changed his mind and admitted that yes, possession does exist, as we see it in the book Genesis, Chapter XIV, item 47). (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 53 and 54).
55. Prayer: prayer is an invocation and, in certain cases, an evocation, in which we call a Spirit. When it is addressed to God, He sends us His messengers, the Good Spirits. Prayer cannot revoke the decrees of Providence, but through it the Good Spirits can come to our aid, to give us the moral strength that we lack, or to suggest to us the necessary thoughts: hence the relief we experience when we pray fervently, as much as the relief experienced by the suffering Spirits when we pray for them. Reason tells us, however, that the prayer of the lips is a vain formula when the heart is not involved. (Spiritist Vocabulary, page 54).
56. Trials: difficulties of the corporeal life through which the Spirits are purified according to the way they support them. According to the Doctrine, the selfless Spirit, free from the body, recognizing his imperfection, chooses, by an act of his own free will, the type of trial he deems more appropriate for his advance and which he will suffer in his next life. If he chooses a trial beyond his strength, he will give in and his payment is delayed. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 54 and 55).
57. Psychophony: transmission of the thought of the Spirits through the voice of a medium. (Spiritist Vocabulary, page 55).
58. Absolute purity: state of the first order Spirits, the pure Spirits: those who went through all grades of the Spiritist Scale and no longer have to incarnate. (Spiritist Vocabulary, page 55).
59. Purgatory: Place of temporary atonement, according to the Catholic Church for the souls that still have to cleanse some of their impurities. The Church does not define in a precise manner the place where the purgatory is. It places it everywhere, in the space, perhaps beside us, and it does not clearly explain the nature of the punishment suffered there. In the purgatory the suffering would be more moral than physical, although there is fire there. The Spiritist teachings are more specific. Spiritism rejects the dogma that punishment is eternal, and it accepts a temporary atonement, more or less long, which is nothing else but the purgatory, given another name. This atonement is accomplished through the soul’s moral sufferings in a wandering state. The Doctrine says that the Spirit becomes pure, if it purges his impurities in its several corporeal lives; the sufferings and tribulations of life are atonement and trials by which they improve with the result that here on Earth we are in full purgatory. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 56 and 57).
60. Reincarnation: The Spirits return to bodily life. Reincarnation can take place immediately after death, or after a period of time shorter or longer, during which the Spirit remains wandering/erratic. It may happen on Earth or in other spheres, but always in a human body, never in an animal. Reincarnation is progressive or stationary; never retrograde. In his new life, a Spirit can decay in social position, but not as Spirit, that is, you can be born a server, rich or poor, but always progressing in science and morality. Thus, the criminal can become a good man, but the good man cannot become a criminal. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 57 and 58).
61. Religion: in the Vocabulary, this entry is blank. It is known that Kardec, in all his work, avoided giving the denomination of religion to Spiritism: he preferred to call it science or moral or philosophical doctrine. Ten years after this book, however, the "Spiritist Magazine” published a speech made by Kardec on November 1, 1868, when the Encoder answers the question: "Is Spiritism a religion?" His answer confirmed what was already known by the analysis of the doctrinal content of the Encoding: “Yes, with no doubt; in the philosophical sense it is a religion, and we are proud of this, because it is a doctrine based on brotherhood and communion, and on the most solid foundations: the laws of Nature". He then explains why he had stated differently until that moment: “If Spiritism said it was a religion, the public would see in it a new edition, a variant, so to speak, of the absolute principles regarding faith matter, a priestly caste with its procession of hierarchies, ceremonies and privileges". (Read the “Spiritist Magazine” dated December, 1868, about this issue). (Spiritist Vocabulary, Editor's note, pages 58 and 59).
62. Satan: the prince of demons. This word is a synonymous of Devil, with the difference that this last word is more used in a familiar language. In addition, according to this belief, Satan is unique: the evil genius, the rival of God. Devil is a more generic term that applies to all demons. There is therefore one and only Satan (or Devil), but there are several devils. According to the Doctrine, Satan is not a distinct being, for God has no rival who can measure up. Satan is the allegorical personification of all evil Spirits. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 59 and 60).
Answers to the proposed questions
A. Is there any relationship between sleep and dreams?
Yes. The dream is an effect of the emancipation of the soul during sleep. When the senses are numb, the bond between the body and the soul is loose. Thus, the soul becoming freer, it partly recovers its Spirit’s faculties and enters more easily into communication with beings of the incorporeal world. The memory that it retains on waking, of what it saw elsewhere, and on other worlds, or in its past lives, is the dream itself. Being this memory only partial, almost always incomplete and interspersed with waking memories, result from there, in a sequence of facts, continuity solutions that break its concatenation and produce these strange sets that seem meaningless, more or less how it would be its account, truncated here and there, lines or phrases fragments. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 65 and 66).
B. How many and what are the orders and classes that make up the Spiritist Scale, according to Spiritism?
The Spiritist Scale, which contains the different orders of Spirits, indicating the degrees that they have to go through to reach perfection, comprises three main orders: 1st order: pure Spirits; 2nd order: good Spirits; 3rd order: imperfect Spirits. These orders are subdivided into nine classes characterized by the progression of moral sentiments and intellectual ideas. The nine classes are: 1st class - pure Spirits; 2nd class - higher Spirits; 3rd class - judicious Spirits; 4th class - wise Spirits; Grade 5 - beneficent Spirits; 6th grade - neutral Spirits; Grade 7 – pseudo wise Spirits; Grade 8 - frivolous Spirits; Grade 9 - impure Spirits. (In the final version of “Thee Book of Spirits”, published in March 1860, there was a small change with respect to the classes that make up the Spiritist Scale). (Chapter I, Spiritist Scale, pages 74-83).
C. What are the main characteristics of each of the orders that make up the Spiritist Scale?
The pure Spirits, which form the 1st order, do not suffer any influence of matter. They show an intellectual superiority and absolute moral in relation to the Spirits of the other orders. Good spirits, which make up the 2nd order, have predominance of Spirit over matter. They have the desire to do well. Their skills and power to do well are in proportion to the degree to which they arrived: some have wisdom and goodness; the more advanced add knowledge to moral qualities. Not being completely dematerialized, they retain more or less, according to their level, traces of a bodily existence, either in their language or in their habits. Imperfect spirits, which are the 3rd order, are characterized by the predominance of matter over the Spirit and inclined to being evil, ignorant, proud, selfish, and with all consequent evil passions. Not all are essentially evil; in some of them there is more levity, thoughtlessness and malice than genuine evil. Some do not do good or evil; but just by their negligence they show their inferiority. Others, however, have pleasure in being evil and are happy when they find time to practice it. (Chapter I, Spiritist Scale, pages 76, 80 and 82).
