Woman and the Spiritist philosophy

Influence of philosophical beliefs on the situation of woman in Antiquity, in the Middle Ages, and in our day. n (1 vol. in-12. Price: 2 fr.

Spiritist Bookstore, 7, rue de Lille.)

This work, which will be put on sale at the Spiritist Bookstore next December 10, comes once again to confirm the predictions of the Spirits concerning the progress of our philosophy and the practical application of its principles. Indeed, only a short while ago they announced to us that several serious works on the philosophy of Spiritism were being prepared, in which the name of the Doctrine would be proudly confessed and proclaimed.

Dealing especially with the most interesting question of the future of woman, the book by Mr. H. V. is characterized by a rigorous demonstration of all the principles of the Doctrine, in which the adepts themselves will find new points of view. In this plea on behalf of woman, one recognizes at the same time the attractive and rigorous argumentation of the erudite thinker who wishes to reduce any rebuttal to its utmost limits. The author has certainly studied the question with seriousness and has scrutinized it in its most minute details. He does not limit himself to expressing his opinion; he gives the grounds for it and the reason for being of each thing. The work by Mr. H. V. will be a landmark in the annals of Spiritism not only as the first of its kind, but, above all, for its philosophical importance.

We regret that the abundance of materials does not allow us to reproduce as many passages as we would wish. We shall limit ourselves to the following citations, sufficient for us to have an idea of the work and to appreciate its value:

“Sy Tayeb – My friend, you promised to listen to all that I propose to tell you about the question of women. For a long time I have not ceased to repeat that our coreligionists behave, in relation to their companions, like true executioners, which is why I devote all my faculties to soliciting a reform.

“Sy Abmed – Yes, I know it; but your opinions frighten me. You forget too much our sacred book, the Koran. How can you thus fail in the respect you owe to the words of our prophet, inspired by God?

“Sy Tayeb – I told you, in this regard, that one must take into account circumstances of times and places. In the epoch in which he lived, our prophet Mohammed lived in the midst of populaces in which women were held in great contempt, as may be seen from what is read in the Koran; but these teachings, far from authorizing new usurpations upon the liberties of woman, restrict the abuses that existed and seek to give some guarantees to the oppressed sex; nevertheless, we are no longer at the beginning of the Muslim era. “Sy Ahmed – I do not know what goes on among other peoples, but observe a little the women of our Arabs of the plain and even those of the Muslims of the city, and tell me what would happen if tomorrow they were free like Frenchwomen?

“Sy Tayeb – Certainly there would be eccentricities, but perhaps not so many as you may believe; and, moreover, they would soon cease if the husbands behaved up to the level of their mission, making themselves the educators of their wives and of their children.

“Do you not know that a certain number of young Muslim women, who surely did not come from our best families, united themselves with Christians, some of whom occupy elevated positions? Did such women not adopt French customs, to the point of being taken, by those who do not know them, for daughters of France? What some have done, all can do.

“Besides, I beg you, follow attentively what I am going to set forth to you.

“Human beings are composed of a soul or Spirit and a body.

“The Spirit is immortal; it is also immaterial, at least to our senses. The body is material and perishable, or, rather, it disaggregates at a certain moment and its molecules go to combine with other material elements.

“Spirits have no sex. They incarnate indistinctly in bodies of man or of woman, as they do in bodies of any race. This is what results from the teaching of the Spirits themselves, who may be consulted at any moment. Moreover, observation and reflection easily lead us to recognize it.

“How are the qualities of the soul manifested? by the moral and intellectual faculties. Now, in all times, in all places, has it not been observed that women can have as much moral worth as the men of their social milieu and, as regards intelligence, could not some among them be compared to the most well-favored men? In this latter case, what does the number matter, since it varies according to the social circumstances of education or the kind of life imposed upon women? It is enough that some of them have shown a power of intellect equal to that found in men, for one to be able to conclude that there are not Spirits of men and Spirits of women, the latter necessarily inferior to the former… “…Egyptian philosophy also gave woman an honorable place beside her companion in existence. We may judge of it by the population it imported into its territory, which made it Hellas, Greece. There, from the so-called heroic times, we see women deciding peace or war and inspiring distant enterprises; in a word, exercising the most complete authority. Furthermore, the power of seduction of some of them is such that they are treated as sorceresses. The abduction of a princess is sufficient to determine a general military action and to provoke the most important event of the whole first part of Greek history. On the other hand, the religion of that people, the whole of their myths, often so full of charm, make us understand very quickly what woman was among the Greeks; for it is known that these did not seek, in their religious creations, anything but to poetize and even to divinize what was taking place within the bosom of their own society. “Olympus, the abode of the gods, presents as many goddesses as masculine divinities, and these goddesses exercise roles as important as that of the gods their kin. If Jupiter the Thunderer makes the Universe tremble with a furrowing of his brow, his spouse, the proud Juno, also knew how to command, and when she advances majestically into the midst of the assembly of the gods, all recognize in her their true sovereign. If Venus, loosening her girdle, bows before the supreme chief and implores him, does she not obtain what she wishes with the applause of all? Wisdom, a very significant fact, is it not personified in a goddess, Minerva? And is this daughter of Jupiter not regarded in Olympus exactly as are among us the thinkers who make Humanity progress? “Finally, the divinities that represented the sciences and the arts were the nine Muses, young virgins, daughters of Jupiter.

“In all the myths, in all the scenes of the fictitious life of the divine beings, created by Greek imagination, we see woman intervene and, in many circumstances, assert her intervention, if not more, at least as energetically as the god, the demigod, or the hero. It is easy to observe, by these enchanting fables, which had for their object to personify the forces of Nature in extra-human beings, that the part falling to woman is, very often, more important than that attributed to man. The springs, the plants, the various elements that constitute our globe are entrusted to the direction of extraterrestrial creatures, among whom one most frequently recognizes those of the feminine sex… “In accordance with what we have just said, the Spiritist communications are reproached with being, in general, insignificant, monotonous, banal. We shall give the motives of this objection, first verifying whether relations with the invisible world do not satisfy a great number of persons.

“The communications with the beings for whom we had great sympathy and who have left the Earth are always very interesting for those who receive them, although without interest for the public; they are like those intimate letters, which charm only the persons to whom they are addressed. These Spiritist communications, whose origin is almost always affirmed by certain confidences, are an inexhaustible source of consolations; they certify the perpetuity of the soul, individual and conscious, making of death a simple absence. Had relations with the Spirits led to nothing but this result, the benefit would already be so great that we ought to see in it a new testimony of the goodness of God and to thank Him for it. “It is also claimed that the Spirits often speak of their labors, but are incapable of indicating in a summary manner in what they consist! Meanwhile, if we admit that they concur in the formation of the celestial bodies and that they are charged with carrying out the laws of God in relation to all that concerns the primitive material or fluidic elements that surround us; that they intervene in the acts of our daily life; that they live, study, progress by all the means we know and by those that are unknown to us, we may affirm with certainty that the labors of the disincarnate are at least as numerous as those of the most industrious men. “But the Spirits do not explain the processes employed. They invariably claim that we would not understand them.

“It is easy to account for this fact by means of the following comparison, to which we could have had recourse with profit every time we complained of not having, on the part of the invisible world, sufficient explanations:

“Let us imagine that we have some means of correspondence with the most backward savages of Oceania and that we wish to answer their questions. These savages know no other occupation besides hunting, fishing, and anthropophagy! What would we say to them if they asked us how we spend our time? How would we make them understand that, among us, some engage in commerce, in industry, and others occupy themselves with administration, with arts, with sciences, with literary and philosophical studies, etc.? What terms could we employ that would be within the reach of the inhabitants of Oceania? There would be a complete impossibility; we would be reduced to communicating to them in a general manner that we have much to do, without being able to explain it to them. Later, however, they will do as we do, when they have modified their state of society. The savages would not be very satisfied with our explanations; but would it be legitimate to call them into doubt? It is the same between us and the Spirits!… H. V.

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[La femme et la philosophie spirite : Influence des croyances philosophiques sur la situation de la femme dans l’antiquité, au moyen âge et de nos jours - Google books.]