Papus on
reincarnation
In the first of his weighty occult books
– Elementary Treatise on Occult Science (Traité Élémentaire de Science
Occulte) of 1888 – Papus makes little mention of Reincarnation. In fact by just
one word as a passing reference in a single paragraph. And it was not until
1912 that he got round to a book devoted entirely to the subject, La
Réincarnation.
His initial reluctance may have been
influenced by Eliphas Levi, who in his History of Magic, apart from a
brief mention of Pythagoras, was also short on the subject – as follows:
“Pythagoras believed above all things in the
soul’s immortality and in the perpetuity of life. The endless succession of
summer and winter, day and night, sleeping and waking, illustrated amply for
him the phenomenon of death. For him also the particular immortality of human
souls consisted in persistence of memory. He is said to have been conscious of
his previous incarnations, and if the report is true it was something suggested
by his reminiscences, for such a man as he could have been neither imposter nor
fool. It is probable that he came upon former memories in his dreams, while
simple speculation and hypothesis have been constructed as positive affirmation
on his part.”
(A E Waite’s translation, to which he
added a typical snooty footnote: “It happens that the hypothesis of
reincarnation was personally unwelcome to Eliphas Levi, and he did not know
enough of Zoharic Kabalism to realise that it is of some importance therein.”
Whatever Eliphas Levi knew or did
not, there was little teaching on the subject in the West until the latter half
of the 19th century, via the Theosophical Society and a French
version of Spiritualism promoted by Alan Kardac. Generally speaking reincarnation
was not on the menu in the great traditions of Western esotericism.
Papus shows an ironic sense of
humour in his opening paragraph: “If, as we firmly believe, something of us
subsists on another plane, it is a state to which we shall all be called,
sooner or later, to experience. So why quarrel about it in advance?”
And goes on to say: “Physical
existence is divided between the dead and the living, who are the last to solve
the problem, and here the cerebral maturity of each of us comes in.
“For some, Death is the end of all
that Nature has made until now. Intelligence, feelings, affections, all suddenly
vanish and the body becomes vegetable, mineral or gas according to natural
process.
“For others, Death is a liberation.
The Soul, all light, departs from the body and flies up to the heavens,
surrounded by angels and glorious spirits.
“Between these two extreme opinions
all intermediary beliefs exist.
“ Pantheists base the
Personality of the Dead in the great currents of Universal Life. Mystics
teach that the liberated Spirit, freed from the chains of matter, continues to
live, attempting by its sacrifice to save others who still suffer on Earth. Initiates
of the various schools follow the evolution of being on diverse planes of
nature up to the moment when it will return, and by its desire take on a new
physical body on the Planet where it has not yet finished ‘paying’ its dues. Death
for one’s country almost always frees the Spirit from a return or reincarnation.”
A classic patriotic sentiment (Dolce et decorum est
pro patria mori) probably more popular in 1912 than after 1914 with the
exploitation of mechanised slaughter which brought about Papus’s transition in
1916.
How many opinions, disputes,
polemics, remarks Papus, for a natural fact of which we are assured to see the
solution!
If asked for his opinion, Papus would say the Dead
of the Earth are the Living on another plane of evolution. In his opinion
Nature is a miser that loses nothing in any of its efforts. The brain of an
artist or savant represents years and years of slow evolution. Why should this
suddenly be lost?
When a close relation is on a journey in a far
country, you can follow them in thought when your heart is calm. He would like
to give the reader the realisation that the dead have not disappeared for ever;
but are travellers on another plane across a country to which we will all
normally go.
“Heaven is where the heart is”, said Swedenborg. After
a period of more or less long sleep without suffering, since there is no longer
terrestrial matter, the Spirit awakes and begins a new existence. It attaches
at first to those it has left on Earth and may seek to communicate with them by
dream or some intermediary that might be found. We should not force
communication between different planes, which are always delicate and could
present certain dangers. When, after a sincere desire, or an ardent prayer
accompanied by an act of physical, moral or intellectual charity, the Spirit is
allowed to make contact, there is always a way that will not frighten an
earthly personality.
On the other hand, if one tries to
force communication, one risks being
tricked by the brain of the ‘medium’ who, unconsciously repeats ideas dear to
the consultant, by temporary images, animated photographs floating in the
astral, or via beings who serve themselves or the medium to seize a little
material existence.
It is thus wise to wait for news of
the traveller. It needs calm to obtain the certainty of their effective
existence over there, and then think much of the traveller with the magnet of
love and not of despair and tears, and then, very gently, the veil will lift, a
sweet murmur fill the heart, the frisson of the presence of the beyond appear,
and little by little a great mystery be revealed.
So much for Papus take on psychic
communication with the departed, but what about those who have passed on
further, to possible reincarnation in a different body or personality? Here he
launches into a technical analysis based upon ancient Egyptian religious
practice.
(To be continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment