Spiritualism, Feminism and Environmental Warnings

A Summer’s Dream and Caution

“Spiritualism has inaugurated the era of woman,” proclaimed Mary Davis in 1880. I bet that date surprises you. As early as the mid to late 1800’s, Spiritualist conventions, gatherings and writings all called for the emancipation of women. Those who assumed the most radical positions on woman’s rights became Spiritualists (for example, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was also a close friend of Cora Richmond – my spirit guide) This shouldn’t be surprising since all evolutionary steps can be traced to the spirit world’s guidance and intervention.

Spirit Warnings & Interventions

Many are hoping the spirit world will now help us to make the necessary changes to heal our sick earth. For sure, we can’t claim we haven’t been forewarned. I’ve been an active member of the environmental movement since 1972 and I can’t say I’m impressed in the least. In fact, I’m more discouraged than ever. The equator has shifted further north due to the reduction in ice weight in the north and south poles (see the scorching hot temps in the UK and Europe); erosion is dismantling shorelines around the world and our oxygen engines (forests) are dying due to fires, hot temps, and unprecedented pest populations out of control. To say we are in deep trouble is putting it mildly. We’re fast approaching the most massive extinction event since the dinosaurs and as humans we’re high on that list.

The Comstock Book Burnings

Back in the 1800’s not all feminists were Spiritualists, but all Spiritualists advocated equality for women. Women were equal to men within a Spiritualist practice, polity, and ideology. This was inherent in a religious practice in which truth was revealed to individuals without recourse to an external authority (always males and typically Priests). In the mid 19th century there were eleven million Spiritualists out of a population of twenty-five million in the US. This growing faith spread fast around the world but was severely crippled when it was subjected to the massive book burnings with the Comstock book censorship law. Today we have the same problem with book burnings. Not literally but figuratively speaking. Witness those who deny environmental catastrophe and denigrate scientific query and warning. I shudder to think what future generations will say about our generation. If any survive.

The mid-19th century spiritualist movement was the cyclonic force of the feminist movement. In manner of dress, the right to speak in public forums, to own their own money, to be spiritual leaders, and to declare a woman’s right to equality, the spiritualists cleared the path. In Spiritualism the place of worship was relocated to the home from church, or temple. Spirit circles gathered around parlour tables, a most appropriate place for women to preside.

The medical society deemed mediumship a medical disorder causing rebellion against gender roles. On the other hand, Spiritualism taught women to exercise self-healing properties in her own nature and to develop a more egalitarian relationship with her doctor. Now those who warn of the illness in our air and oceans are called extremists, alarmists and negativists. It’s never been popular to be an environmentalist. We’ve been called, “Unrealistic, anti-business, and regressive.”

The persecution of the young female medium suffered at the hands of self- proclaimed psychic investigators was reminiscent of the earlier witch hunts. Mediums were bound to chairs, locked in small cupboards, naked, supposedly to assure sitters they weren’t hiding any tricks in their skirts. Despite this stress, mediums were expected to provide proof that they communed with the spirit world which a surprising number of them succeeded in doing!

More Prophecy than Prescription

Equality between the sexes was lauded from the spiritualists as a spiritual imperative from the spirit world meaning that it was divinely prescribed and ordained. Spiritualists believed, as one advocate put it, that woman’s freedom is the world’s redemption. Today we know that was more prophecy than prescription.

The seeds of modernism, psychoanalysis, communications, human rights, longevity were all brought from the unseen world to the seen in this most spiritual, glorious age.

The her/his story of religion has taught us that the further we move in time away from the original spiritual message, the more it morphs, disintegrates, and ultimately decays. Spirituality is a dynamic force and has the power to alter the consciousness of humans, the course of our collective destiny and ultimately our ability to thrive. Its temple is the heart, its expression is in the actions we take every day of our lives.

If you are inspired by feminism and spirituality, I highly recommend you research this fascinating spiritual herstory. It’s a study rich in joy, surprise and affirmation. If you are worried about what the scientists are saying about our environment, I highly recommend you get involved. There may be a day when you’re grateful you did become involved when it might have made a difference. Don’t be complacent. Don’t be one of those who persecuted Cassandra – be one of those who listened and did everything you could to make it better.

Quote

Woman’s Era is here; her right to half the knowledge of the universe, as well as half of the opportunities of living, is daily receiving more and more evidence, because of her ability to demonstrate that she is that other half of the intelligence that man has failed to reveal.

Psychosophy by Cora Richmond, 1888