TRADICIÓN
Espiritismo
La tradición empieza fijando su propio nombre, y lo hace separándolo del que ya circulaba: «Strictly speaking, Spiritualism is the opposite of Materialism; every one is a Spiritualist who believes that there is in him something more than matter, but it does not follow that he believes in the existence of spirits, or in their communication with the visible world.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 5». De ahí sale el término propio y su principio fundamental: «we designate the adherents of the spiritist theory as spiritists», y lo que la teoría espírita sostiene es «the relation of the material world with spirits, or the beings of the invisible world» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 5».
El propio volumen explica por qué su portada dice entonces *Spiritualist Philosophy*: «In a special sense, The Spirits’ Book contains the doctrine or theory of spiritism; in a general sense, it appertains to the spiritualist school, of which it presents one of the phases.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 5». La escuela mayor es una y la doctrina propia es otra, y la distinción la pone el texto, no quien lo lee.
Lo que la tradición se adjudica como campo lo dice en dos tiempos. Su objeto es estrecho y declarado: «Spiritism deals exclusively with the existence of the soul, and its state after death» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 21». Su alcance, en cambio, se declara sin límite: «The subject of Spiritism is immense. It involves all other subjects, physical, metaphysical, and social; it is a new world that opens before us.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 31». Y su método se reparte en dos mitades: «Spiritism consists of two parts: one of these, the experimental, deals with the subject of the manifestations in general; the other, the philosophic, deals with the class of manifestations denoting intelligence.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 38».
Los seres de que habla se definen por su extensión, no por su rareza: «Spirits may be defined as the intelligent beings of the creation. They constitute the population of the universe, in contradistinction to the forms of the material world.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 70». Ese mismo poblamiento es lo que la tradición dice haber puesto donde la astronomía dejaba un hueco: «Spiritism shows that it is filled with the beings of all the ranks of the invisible world» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 39». El trato con ellos ocurre por dos vías —«Spirits manifest themselves spontaneously, or in response to evocation.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 18»— y por personas a las que el sistema nombra y define por su función: «certain persons gifted with a special power or faculty, who are called mediums, that is to say, go-betweens, or intermediaries between spirits and men» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 12».
Entre el alma y el cuerpo el sistema pone un tercer término con nombre propio: «The link, or perispirit, which unites the body and the spirit, is a sort of semi-material envelope.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 15», que en el resumen doctrinal queda como «The intermediary principle, or perispirit; a semi-material substance, which constitutes the innermost envelope of the spirit, and unites the soul with the body.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 92». La analogía con que se explica viene de la fruta: «As the germ of a fruit is surrounded by the perisperm so the spirit, properly so called, is surrounded by an envelope which, by analogy, may be designated as the perispirit.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 74».
La reencarnación se expone como doctrina propia y se defiende por su razonabilidad antes que por su autoridad: «The principal merit of the doctrine of reincarnation is, then, to our minds, that it is supremely rational.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 133», y se ofrece con su consecuencia moral a la vista, que «the conditions of their next existence depend on themselves, and will be happy or unhappy according to the deeds done by them in this present life» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 126».
De su propio origen la tradición no dice que sea invención de un autor: «This book is a compilation of their teachings. It has been written by the order and under the dictation of spirits of high degree» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 40», y quien publica reclama para sí solamente «The method adopted in the arrangement of its contents, the comments upon these, and the form given to certain portions of the work» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 40». El argumento con que se autoriza es la convergencia entre fuentes distintas: «This conformity of the teachings transmitted, notwithstanding the diversity of the sources from which they have emanated, is a fact of great importance in relation to the establishment of spiritist doctrine.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 4».
Frente a la ciencia de su tiempo la tradición declina el arbitraje en vez de pedirlo: «Science, properly so called, is therefore incompetent, as such, to decide the question of the truth of Spiritism; it has nothing to do with it; and its verdict in regard to it, whether favorable or otherwise, is of no weight.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 21».
Frente a la religión se coloca como apoyo y no como sustituto: «Spiritism is thus seen to be the most powerful auxiliary of religion.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 98», con una misión declarada, «to enlighten us in regard to the future which awaits us», y con la prueba puesta no en el razonamiento sino «through the evidence of facts» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 98». La relación con el cristianismo se dice en una sola frase: «Christianity had to destroy; Spiritism has only to build up.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 320».
El fin que la tradición se pone es moral y social a la vez: contribuir al progreso «By destroying materialism, which is one of the sores of society, and thus making men understand where their true interest lies.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 321»; consolar, porque «Spiritism offers us the most effectual consolation under the greatest and most painful of earthly sorrows» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 373»; y apoyarse en una ley única, que el volumen enuncia como «Love is the law of attraction for living and organized beings; attraction is the law of love for inorganic matter.» «Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010) · p. 352».
en la biblioteca: 2 obras adscritas · 1 autor vinculado
Obras adscritas
cada adscripción se consigna en la ficha de su obraQué dicen de ella las obras
cómo la define cada obra, con su pasajeAlice A. Bailey — Initiation, Human and Solar (1922)
Brown — The Channeling Zone (1997)
DuQuette y Shoemaker (eds.) — Llewellyn's Complete Book of Ceremonial Magick (2020)
Finis Gloriae Mundi — Fulcanelli (edición española de 2001)
Guénon — Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines (Sophia Perennis)
Allan Kardec — The Gospel According to Spiritism (International Spiritist Council, 2008)
Allan Kardec — The Spirits' Book (White Crow Books, 2010)
Kraig — Modern Magick (tercera edición, 2010)
Myers — Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death (abreviación, s. f.)
Owen — The Darkened Room (1990)
The Urantia Book (Urantia Foundation, texto de referencia estándar)
Autores vinculados
Afirmaciones
32 entradas«Strictly speaking, Spiritualism is the opposite of Materialism; every one is a Spiritualist who believes that there is in him something more than matter, but it does not follow that he believes in the existence of spirits, or in their communication with the visible world.» — el deslinde con que la Introducción abre: ser espiritualista es creer que hay en uno algo más que materia, y de ahí no se sigue creer en los espíritus ni en su comunicación con el mundo visible.
«Instead, therefore, of the words SPIRITUAL SPIRITUALISM, we employ, to designate this latter belief, the words SPIRITIST, SPIRITISM, which, by their form, indicate their origin and radical meaning, and have thus the advantage of being perfectly intelligible; and we reserve the words spiritualism, spiritualist, for the expression of the meaning attached to them by common acceptation. We say, then, that the fundamental principle of the spiritist theory, or Spiritism, is the relation of the material world with spirits, or the beings of the invisible world; and we designate the adherents of the spiritist theory as spiritists.» — la acuñación del nombre propio y el principio fundamental que declara: la relación del mundo material con los espíritus; el troceo imprime *SPIRITUAL SPIRITUALISM* sin la coma que separa los dos términos.
«In a special sense, The Spirits’ Book contains the doctrine or theory of spiritism; in a general sense, it appertains to the spiritualist school, of which it presents one of the phases. It is for this reason that we have inscribed the words Spiritualist Philosophy on its title page.» — la razón que da para que la portada diga *Spiritualist Philosophy*: en sentido general el volumen pertenece a la escuela espiritualista, de la que declara presentar una de sus fases.
«Spiritism deals exclusively with the existence of the soul, and its state after death;» — el objeto que se adjudica, dicho como exclusivo: la existencia del alma y su estado después de la muerte.
«The subject of Spiritism is immense. It involves all other subjects, physical, metaphysical, and social; it is a new world that opens before us.» — y el alcance que reclama a la vez, sin límite de materia: involucra todos los demás asuntos, físicos, metafísicos y sociales.
«Spiritism consists of two parts: one of these, the experimental, deals with the subject of the manifestations in general; the other, the philosophic, deals with the class of manifestations denoting intelligence.» — la división que hace de sí mismo en parte experimental y parte filosófica.
«Spirits may be defined as the intelligent beings of the creation. They constitute the population of the universe, in contradistinction to the forms of the material world.» — la definición que la respuesta 76 da de los espíritus: los seres inteligentes de la creación, población del universo frente a las formas del mundo material.
«Spiritism shows that it is filled with the beings of all the ranks of the invisible world, and that these beings are no other than the spirits of men who have reached the successive degrees that lead up to perfection;» — con qué dice llenar el hueco que los astrónomos dejaban en el cielo: con los seres de todos los rangos del mundo invisible, que declara no ser otros que los espíritus de hombres en grados sucesivos hacia la perfección.
«Spirits manifest themselves spontaneously, or in response to evocation.» — las dos vías de manifestación que consigna, la espontánea y la de la evocación.
«under the influence of certain persons gifted with a special power or faculty, who are called mediums, that is to say, go-betweens, or intermediaries between spirits and men.» — la definición funcional del médium: intermediario entre los espíritus y los hombres.
«The link, or perispirit, which unites the body and the spirit, is a sort of semi-material envelope.» — el tercer término del sistema, el perispíritu, definido como envoltura semimaterial que une el cuerpo y el espíritu.
«The intermediary principle, or perispirit; a semi-material substance, which constitutes the innermost envelope of the spirit, and unites the soul with the body.» — el mismo término dentro de la enumeración doctrinal de los tres principios del hombre.
«The spirit is enveloped in a substance which would appear to you as mere vapor, but which, nevertheless, appears very gross to us, thought it is sufficiently vaporous to allow the spirit to float in the atmosphere, and to transport himself through space at pleasure.» — la respuesta 93 describe la sustancia que envuelve al espíritu; el troceo imprime *thought* (sic) donde la lectura propuesta es *though*, no cotejada contra imagen de facsímil.
«As the germ of a fruit is surrounded by the perisperm so the spirit, properly so called, is surrounded by an envelope which, by analogy, may be designated as the perispirit.» — la analogía con la fruta de la que el término toma su forma.
«The principal merit of the doctrine of reincarnation is, then, to our minds, that it is supremely rational.» — el mérito que reclama para la doctrina de la reencarnación, dicho como juicio propio y no como autoridad.
«the spiritist doctrine of reincarnation is by no means so terrible as they imagine it to be; that the conditions of their next existence depend on themselves, and will be happy or unhappy according to the deeds done by them in this present life» — la respuesta a quienes la temen: las condiciones de la existencia siguiente dependen de uno mismo y de lo hecho en esta.
«This book is a compilation of their teachings. It has been written by the order and under the dictation of spirits of high degree, for the purpose of establishing the bases of a rational philosophy, free from the influence of prejudices and of preconceived opinions. It contains nothing that is not the expression of their thought; nothing that has not been submitted to their approbation. The method adopted in the arrangement of its contents, the comments upon these, and the form given to certain portions of the work, are all that has been contributed by him to whom the duty of publishing it has been entrusted.» — lo que los Prolegómenos declaran sobre el origen del libro y sobre la parte que reclama para sí quien lo publica: el método, los comentarios y la forma dada a ciertas porciones.
«This conformity of the teachings transmitted, notwithstanding the diversity of the sources from which they have emanated, is a fact of great importance in relation to the establishment of spiritist doctrine.» — el argumento con que la doctrina se autoriza: la conformidad de las enseñanzas pese a la diversidad de las fuentes de que emanan.
«Science, properly so called, is therefore incompetent, as such, to decide the question of the truth of Spiritism; it has nothing to do with it; and its verdict in regard to it, whether favorable or otherwise, is of no weight.» — la posición que toma frente al arbitraje científico: lo declina en los dos sentidos, favorable o no.
«Spiritism is thus seen to be the most powerful auxiliary of religion.» — cómo se coloca respecto de la religión, como su auxiliar más poderoso y no como su sustituto.
«the mission of Spiritism is precisely to enlighten us in regard to the future which awaits us to enable us, within certain limits, to see and to touch it, not merely as a deduction of our reason, but through the evidence of facts.» — la misión que se adjudica y dónde pone la prueba: no en la deducción de la razón sino en la evidencia de los hechos.
«its progress will be more rapid than that of Christianity, because it is Christianity itself that opens the road for it, and furnishes its basis and support. Christianity had to destroy; Spiritism has only to build up.» — la relación que declara con el cristianismo: base y camino abierto, con el reparto de tareas dicho en una línea.
«It will certainly become the general belief, and will mark a new era in the history of the human race, because it belongs to the natural order of things» — lo que la respuesta 798 declara sobre su porvenir, apoyándolo en pertenecer al orden natural de las cosas.
«By destroying materialism, which is one of the sores of society, and thus making men understand where their true interest lies.» — la manera en que la respuesta 799 dice que contribuye al progreso.
«The doctrine of Spiritism is evidently more moral. It admits the plenitude of man’s free-will, and, in telling him that, when he does wrong, he yields to an evil suggestion made by another spirit, it leaves him the entire responsibility of his wrong-doing» — el argumento moral que opone a las doctrinas que atribuyen el mal a una naturaleza dada: admite el libre albedrío pleno y deja entera la responsabilidad.
«Spiritism furnishes the religious element with a more efficient support than superstitious terror.» — lo que dice ofrecer al elemento religioso en lugar del terror supersticioso.
«Spiritism offers us the most effectual consolation under the greatest and most painful of earthly sorrows; it does away with solitude and separation» — el consuelo que declara dar ante la pérdida de los seres queridos.
«Love is the law of attraction for living and organized beings; attraction is the law of love for inorganic matter.» — la ley única en que el sistema apoya su moral, enunciada en los dos sentidos.
«Eventually my research interest narrowed to one of the most controversial expressions of alternative spirituality, channeling, which can be defined as the use of altered states of consciousness to contact spirits—or, as many of its practitioners say, to experience spiritual energy captured from other times and dimensions.» — el estudio de Michael F. Brown sobre el channeling estadounidense define así su objeto: el uso de estados alterados de consciencia para contactar espíritus o, como dicen muchos de sus practicantes, para experimentar energía espiritual capturada de otros tiempos y dimensiones.
«After months of involvement in the world of spirit communication, I came to the conclusion that most practitioners of channeling—who as a rule refer to themselves as “channels” in» — y consigna con qué palabra se nombran a sí mismos quienes lo practican, channels; el tramo se corta al cambiar de plana y el renglón siguiente dice que lo hacen en lugar del término más corriente, channelers.
«In strictly formal terms, channeling bears a stronger resemblance to spirit possession or mediumship, a practice in which people serve as passive vehicles for visiting spirits.» — el deslinde que Brown traza lo hace por la dirección del trato y no por la doctrina: en términos estrictamente formales el channeling guarda semejanza más fuerte con la posesión espiritual y con la mediumnidad, práctica en que la persona sirve de vehículo pasivo a los espíritus que la visitan.
«In some societies, mediums control the spirits who possess them. In others, they are unwilling vessels, and their role as spirit-hosts is seen as an affliction. But in either case, spirits come to human mediums rather than vice versa.» — y el rasgo con que fija esa dirección para la mediumnidad, con el desacuerdo interno de esas prácticas consignado: en unas sociedades el médium domina a los espíritus que lo poseen y en otras es vaso involuntario, pero en ambos casos el espíritu viene al médium y no al revés.