The Book of Mediums by Allan Kardec

The Spirits Book was the first published in the works compiled by Allan Kardec, dictated by the spirits of light in attending seances, and by observing and interviewing mediums. Table turning and these reunion sessions were en vogue during the Victorian era. The second in the series is the Mediums Book.

The philosophy of spiritism was thus codified, which set it apart from other spiritualism at the time during the mid 1800's- 1900. Classic or scientific spiritism follows this doctrine, in spanish espiritismo.

Thus defined:

"Spiritism has no priests and does not use or use in its meetings and practices altars, images, candles, processions, sacraments, indulgences, alcoholic or hallucinogenic beverages, incense, smoke, talismans, amulets, horoscopes, cartomancy, pyramids, crystals or any other objects, rituals or forms of worship.

Spiritism does not impose its principles. However other religions assist in Espiritismo aka Spiritism.

VS

Cruzado:

Espiritismo is a separate spiritual and religious practice that has incorporated into most houses of Santería. The type of Espiritismo practiced in Santería Lucumí is called Espiritismo Cruzado (Blended Spiritism) because it has been blended or hybridized with African elements from the Congo people." It is a nod to Kardec but contains syncretic elements in its spiritualism."

The Book of Mediums is essential to understanding Espiritismo Cruzado in our lineage and spiritual house, although it is beneficial to read other Kardec books. And of course our misa, folk seances are conducted with the Kardec Book of selected prayers.

The language is somewhat antiquated and dry. A hard copy of the book can be bought, but a free pdf is provided here. The Mediums Book  <<<<<click here

The difficulty also for some I have encountered is learning difficulties and problems with reading a digital pdf on a screen.

Therefore I have dictated a summary and parts of the chapters, and adding some information to the Mediums Book in a series on youtube, for learning in my temple, and to provide it to the public.

Book of Mediums youtube series <<<<<click here

"Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, under the codename Allan Kardec; proposed the study of "the nature, origin, and destiny of spirits, and their relation with the corporeal world". It encompasses "A discussion of the means of communicating with the invisible world, the development of mediumship and the difficulties encountered in the practice of spiritualism" and more....

You can read a bit more about the philosophy here

                                                                              Luz y Progresso,

                                                                             Sancista 7 Crossroads

                                                                                     
                                                                

Why your spirits are silent: Blocks to mediumship

When you are first opening yourself up to your spirituality, this is normal, as it takes time and practice to develop your abilities and strengthen your relationship with your spirits. It is also normal to have lulls in spirit activity, but there can also be reasons for a lack of response.

If you are not serious about your work, then good spirits do not want to work with you. A bad spirit will usually scare these people off, or they lose interest because development is slow, and they have no patience, nor dedication. It is a passing fad, something new for the flighty, and something wanted just to possess it, until they are on to the next thing. We cannot make people be spiritual. If you misuse your abilities and spirits, there will be repercussions to your abilities and spirit relationships in general.

A lack of humility or no confidence: be honest with yourself and examine your motives, and self doubt. This can be to shirk responsibility, fears, or feeling unworthy. Being full of ourselves can lead to error in lapses of judgment, as mediums we know we can be wrong at times, as no one is 100% all the time, as well as the future can change. Mediumship is a special gift, rather more for the improvement of the medium’s spiritual progress in Kardeican spiritism, and the tests that come with it. This is a warrior path not for the weak, and as much as an inner battle as one with external spirits. Spirits will use who they can, but leave and go to better mediums who work, persevere, have patience and sincerity. It is a relationship and not superiority over your spirits, bossing them around. As our abilities and confidence grow, so does our discernment. The only reason we have knowledge is it has been given by God, our elders and our spirits, and via our hard work, not intrinsic specialness.

Role & Path: we all have different abilities and community roles as part of a house and initiate. Other faculties can be developed in time, but usually a couple are strongest for you. Likewise your spirits have their own ways of communication. As a priest for the community, a wider variety of spirits will contact you to facilitate for others. As part of the temple, you may mostly have the contact of your own spirits.

Ingratitude: This gift is by grace of the will of God, and can be taken away as swiftly as it has been given.

Acknowledgement must be given to God and the helping spirits for their work and beneficence.

Charity: must give to receive.
Give to others and take care of your spirits, your duty, and what you have promised.

“enemies of spiritism”: Bad spirits: problems with inferior spirits: use prayer. Incarnated spirits: People seeking to undermine you, atheists or even the catholic church trying to say mediumship is evil or impossible. We use both our intuition, further research, and our logical mind. Institutional religion or mental disease: stigma on the medium leads to lack of confidence if you let that affect you. Lack of follow through and Dedication: Write down or follow advices given, reflect on information last given, and have a dream journal: did you follow the advice? Review last information given or session. Keep your obligations, keep practices current, and keep promises. Did you do what your godparents prescribed? Quote from my Tata's book, "when godchildren don't show dedication, then they will turn around and point the finger at the godparent for not teaching them". Dedication and tests are part of improving ourself and spiritism. Communication is key, but you may still feel their prescence in other ways than you are looking for specifically. This is part of our training and to see our dedication. Keep your spirit altars clean and uncluttered for clear communication. Spirits who are silent may be trying to get your attention after you ignore them by ignoring you and hoping that you self reflect. You need to listen. After you have spent time actively being open and listening, reflect. After you have reflected go before your spirits and tell them what you are committing to improve upon your person, and then ask for their assistance. Not following advices: being a bad person: gossiping, being mean to others, hurting others. Not being on your proper spiritual path, and not following proper protocols within the tradition. Going after or not respecting people in your temple or family, being antagonistic, stubborn and difficult, spirits will not take kindly to that. The same reasons your godparents may be ignoring you. Doing these things also can attract misfortunes, illness and bad spirits. You would be surprised what you get as a reward for not taking the low road. Timing: natural to have off days or ebbs and flows in ability, there are many variables and conditions. During the period of after Christmas to the first week of January, some let their spirits rest and cover their altar after removing water. This is the darkest time of year when the sunlight is the farthest from earth in the western hemisphere. During the holy week at Easter most voudouisants take it as a week of reflection on God. Likewise at other times of year, such as the saint feast dates, certain associated spirits will be more active. Try to have a regularly scheduled event such as misa date, or regular day of the week for contact. Spirits have their own spirit lives, they are not idle, waiting around. If you are lazy or disorganized you will attract lazy spirits.   When it comes to specific family members who have crossed over, for the first year they are given rest after the work that is done 9 days after their funeral. After that, you do not want them to always be present, because it is not natural, the risk is that they would be an earthbound spirit you are dealing with instead. Disinterest: for whatever reason they are ambivalent to what you are seeking help with, for example selecting your major at college. We have to live our lives and cannot do a divination for every single thing. This is a spiritual path. They are more interested in your moral and spiritual progression, but the ones closer to us and earth also know what it is like to have been human, and that we have physical needs such as food and shelter. Not every spirit you want to approach and work with wants to work with you, nor should you try to force them. Working with spirits not in your spiritual frame creating gaps in the links of your energy body and relationships with the spirits you should be working with that you actually have instead. This also can attract bad spirits and other problems in your life. You should only be working with spirits of your ancestors, and guides identified by your godparents as you are developing. Bad or dominating spirits. There may be also spirits in your frame that have to be dealt with blocking your abilities or other spirits. This requires spiritual work to placate them or extract them. Bad spirits or energy may require a cleansing, but also may need more work to be done to lift them off. This may be due to no fault of the afflicted, or may be due to the underdeveloped medium. We need to be current on our spiritual hygiene to remove that which can impede communication and cause other problems in our life. Sickness and lack energy, emotional issues, being unbalanced, can be not ready, not well rested. If you need healing and need to balance and be more grounded. To add fluids and magnetism you may need a healing medium to help if you are discharged. It is believed eventually the medium will discharge and need others to assist to heal you if you are continually healing others and do not have a way to replenish. Energy blockages can inhibit your transmissions. While this is more of a what not to do list, there are also ideas within what you should be doing. Be good, support, and love one another Sancista Siete Encruzhiladas

Pennies from heaven: gifts from spirit

Feathers and pennies are a well known sign around the world as spirit communication and gifting. Usually there is more meaning attached around the circumstances, such as the date.

This is two of my most recent gifts acquired from spirits.

I gave service to my indian spirits we call in the spanish way indios, spirit guides, as well as I honor my native ancestry. An offering was given of cooked corn, a wineglass of water, beer, cigar, and a green candle. Prayers of protection were recited, along with ones of peace, and acknowledging the people’s struggles, strength and courage. We prayed for particular people that needed to be liberated from negativity in their life. We perceptible got the message that they had left through the cracked front door and spread out to complete our request, and that we were heard.

The next day as I took out the recycling out the back door, I saw a weathered $10 bill against the left side of the door by the wall. There is a bar beside us, a block away, but that is no matter if someone drunk coming come down the alley could not have dropped it under the influence of not only alcohol but spirits. We needed the money at the time for groceries in between paychecks, but we still bought the indios more corn to give thanks.

The second story is that I have been keeping a statue of St Lazarus on the floor of my white table, which is like a boveda ancestral altar but also includes spirit guides. He is on the left near the congo section that I share with my husband. I originally bought the statue to use for the Lwa Sobo and Bade, twin goat humans who rule over wind and rain, crops in terms of drought, priesthood, warriors, misfortune, disease and healing. The statue is used to represent them as the brown and white dogs, however other saints can also be used for them, such as St Roque but perhaps that stronger represents Papa Sobo of the pair.

But that was not to be. My one congo warrior spirit came out of need and ritual calling before I was initiated, and confirmed by my Padrino who was puzzled at the spirit's presence in my cuadro, which is your spiritual frame or entourage that you are generally born with. Since I am part of a house with several traditions, and my husband is a Palero, I am around the congo based tradition of Palo Mayombe frequently. The spirits know me and although I cannot work with their Mpungo, I have had my life path reading and follow up in which Kobayende is likely my father, who is like the other religions spirits of Omulu or Babalu aye, or Bade/Badgessy or Sakpata, Heviosso. However their similarities they do of course have differences. They are of varying degrees of aggressiveness. Kobayende or Kaviunga is king of the cemetery but not the underworld. Bade unfairly is blamed for diseases, etc, but is only a messenger of ancestors who are mispleased, and in partnership with his brother, whose name Sobo or Sogbo is similar to this yoruban concept of osogbo, the spirits of misfortune, but magick and healings are also called sogbos by him.

In my second reading I was told to put the bitter melon herb around him for healing, as I was suffering an illness at the time. I keep a basket of beans to him as an offering and for cleansing , in which dollar bills go for health and protection, on a purple crown royal bag, tied with a yellow ribbon. The saint colors are yellow and purple, and white is a cooling peaceful color. I have not made his covering yet, a purple and gold beaded cape, with burlap on the inside. St Lazarus and some of these spirits likes to be covered, such as straw hat which flows over the body. So I have just tied whim with a white bandana, and given offerings of white wine, etc and have consecrated the statue. Palo does not regularly use saints for the spirits, especially if more african based, but I am an outsider. It is for my congo spirit to work with who I call Damien as a nickname. Damien does not have a statue yet, as I have a picture in my mind, but he does have a congo spear replica as his place marker.

Kobayende can protect you against the dead and disease, which is important for me as a spiritist and a healer. 

You can see in the picture his statue cracked in my backpack around his feet as I travelled back from Florida, from visiting my godparents. One of Kaviunga's epitaphs is "he who moves the earth". As Sobo represents lightening, these twins are also associated with the Lwa Agaou of earthquakes. I superglued it when I got home about 6 months ago and prepared some items in the perfectly made cavity, but now I see it has come undone, perhaps from the cold?

One day I noticed that a dried herb which was on the bookshelf about 3 ft away was in the basket. I asked if my husband put it there and he sworn he had not. Oh well, I thought maybe the overhead fan or a draft from the front door moved it. The herb is a yellow flower top called everlasting life. It was intended to make an oil designed for necromancy, as life to the dead.

About a week later, my husband found a feather tied with the yellow ribbon in the basket. I had noticed already that the ribbon around the basket seemed to be missing, but thought maybe it had slipped or moved under the items, from being moved, as it is in an area we keep supplies under in a cramped space. He mentioned it to me, and I said, I did not do it.

The feather has some blood or dark sticky substance on it, and could have come from a sacrificed rooster, the cardboard box with the Palero’s tools is often used to transport to and from ritual place he is using, the feather could have come unattached from items being fed and then placed back in its place. We have bags of feathers for item construction such as from turkeys, roosters, guinea hen, and parrots, but none like this one. The feather is not “perfect” crafting quality, it is black or dark brown with a brown stripe, and none of the roosters used had that color marking as far as we could tell.

The knot on on the quill is tied in such a way that is very strange. A sort of doubled over slip knot, but tied so tight it cannot move. One section is shorter than the other but able to be tied into a necklace to slip over the head. We both have no detailed knowledge on ways of knot tying.

This is something I could not ignore. I have seen and experienced some crazy and physical, tangible spirit contact, but nothing so solid, lasting and “real”.

Because we routinely work with the dead, avoiding the bad ones in the house, this anomaly made me concerned. I do not want random dead in my house, so I asked my husband to consult his shells for me. Everything else in our life seemed to be ok. Kobayende did not do it, but he directed it to be done, likely using a disincarnated human, and I was to wear this feather at certain times.

I gave him a small offering in order to thank him and do some bibliomancy with my congo, and as a prayer offering. The page that came up was to give thanks for a special favor obtained. "I would be unworthy to attribute them to casualty of happening or to my own merit....and to make out of it something against benevolency". I also consulted the Allan Kardec book of selected prayers for a sick person and up came the passage; I am hope: "I play with the breeze.....words which will console them.....I am with you when you are poor and sick".

Do I dare see a face?

When things like this happen they are to be taken seriously, and a good rapport with your guiding spirits, as faith that they will help you, and to follow their advices for their effort, so we may continue to receive their blessings.

Blessings to all, light and clarity,

Benediciones, luz y claridad para usted.

Sancista Siete Encruzilhadas