The Seven Principles of Spiritualism Explained
written by Perry Rabbitts, 2006
The Fatherhood of God
God encompasses everything. I believe God is the totality of spiritual consciousness which pervades all of the spiritual and material Universe. The physical Universe is inconceivably big with millions upon millions of stars and planets. Matter seems almost limitless and yet it is formed of inconceivably small particles, molecules, atoms and electrons. The Universe is filled with energy, everywhere there are forces and motion, immense manifestation of energy displayed in suns and minute electrical charges of one molecule rubbing against another.
Science has proved that matter is formed from energy. Spiritual philosophers state that energy is formed from the spiritual. So it can be said that absolutely everything is formed from the spiritual. The spiritual is not merely the foundation of all matter and energy but it “has soul”. A consciousness is able to outwork through it, which has knowledge, purpose and feeling and the total of this consciousness is, I believe, God. Science tells us the aggregate total of energy and matter in the Universe is finite. I believe that the spiritual is infinite and that the God consciousness is infinite.
The human has consciousness, understanding and feeling. The higher aspects of human nature, love, compassion, sympathy and affection are but feint reflections of God’s omniscient power. God is the consciousness of the infinite spiritual Universe and by definition the whole of the material Universe which is formed from the Spiritual. God’s purpose is to unfold a Universal plan of growth, change and progress.
The ‘archetypal’ father is the creator of the child, the instructor, the nurturer, guide, support, the one we turn to for help. The father may keep his distance but our welfare is paramount to him, his hand is constantly ready to guide us to safety in times of trouble. These are the qualities possessed by the Infinite Spirit, God. God possesses the creative, loving, nurturing consciousness. His Universal plan nurtures, on a small scale, us human souls and on a grander scale he nurtures the whole of creation. We all share this wonderful inheritance, God is truly the Father of us all.
The Brotherhood of Man
God is Universal, all creation, all of mankind stems from the same source, from God. Man is both material and spiritual, God’s plan and purpose apply to both the material world and the spiritual. Mankind has unity in a creator and the same great plan applies to us all. The plan is harmony, of growth, change and progress.
The Brotherhood of man is a practical Principle. As brothers live and strive together to support each other and the family, this Principle reminds us that we should do the same. We should endeavour to cooperate with our brothers. We help our fellow man and by so doing we are actively taking part in God’s plan, we bring about security, peace, kindness, beauty and joy to people’s lives.
Helping others should be done, not to glorify ourselves, not to gain favour with God but in a spirit of unselfishness. The kindly world, the listening ear, time and effort spent to help another, everyday opportunities giving a helping hand and share the blessings of this life; these if offered in a loving giving spirit with no expectation of reward, are true acts of brotherhood. We should love one another, by loving and acting with kindness a spiritual light will shine from within. Our capacity to experience God’s love will grow. We will indeed benefit, just as a person who shines a torch in the dark to guide others can then see by the light himself.
An important aspect of Brotherhood, is to shine the torch of knowledge, to inform the ignorant and the unseeing. Lack of knowledge, darkness to God or misunderstanding of our spiritual nature and potential, these are like cages trapping us and leading to unhappiness. This is where I believe a good Spiritualist speaker can help their brother man, to remove the ignorance to bring the light of knowledge where once there was darkness. This is an act of true brotherhood.
The Communion of Spirits and Ministry of Angels
This Principle is a major difference from other religions of today. Historically many religions were founded upon angelic messages and inspirational revelation stemming from the spiritual world. But Spiritualism is one of the few religions which acknowledge the continuing importance of a link to the spiritual. Communication does take place and those in spirit show and interest and help us when they can.
For 150 years communion from the spirit world has given us proof that there is an after-life. Messages from recognisable personalities, from relatives and friends in the spirit world show that death does not significantly change a person. Interests, knowledge, affections held before death remain with them into the next existence. Information gained during these years of communication has consistently confirmed that spirit people minister to us. They guide and influence our thoughts and actions. The mechanism of this guidance has been explained by them; the spirit people exist in a state of higher vibration, they are able to lower their vibration and their thoughts are received by our subconscious mind. It is a subtle influence and often we receive help without realising its source.
Some people, ‘sensitives’, are aware of the spirit people and can communicate directly with them. Some spirits are further evolved, they have progressed to higher angelic spheres of existence and constantly seek to help mankind. Angels do indeed carry out God’s work and administer to those spirits in lower spheres of existence and to us still in the body.
The Continuous existence of the human soul
Broadly speaking, each human being is an ‘expression’ of something created ages ago. Some cause generated a spiritual ‘life-force’ and today we are a manifestation of this life-force. Our life-force has taken ages to unfold, our experiences and actions have helped shape it. Our destiny is to progress into higher spiritual entities.
What are we and what are our spirits ? Perhaps, at a fundamental level, we are ‘dynamic, vortices of a tiny part of the Supreme Almighty power’, a permanent collection of God forces. Spiritualism’s mission has been to preach that we are at source eternal spiritual beings.
We are born into the material, we live, experience and learn, we ‘die’ or are reborn into an spirit world. In the spirit-world, we have form and substance but we evolve and progress to even higher levels of existence. In time we evolve into ‘higher frequency’ beings, from plane to plane of existence into eternity. Our soul never stops progress it will always exist. Eternity is a concept hard for our minds to grasp but when we come to accept it this life on earth takes on new meaning.
Personal responsibility
This Principle reminds us that we should face up to and conquer our negative tendencies. These may be thoughts or actions by which we transgress God’s laws, the laws of the natural way of things. Nature wants us to be healthy, happy, cooperative beings living in harmony with all of life. By our own efforts we should seek to lead a better life. We should strive to identify our negative thoughts and actions and personally atone for our mistakes and sins.
It is the natural way of the Universe, balance must be restored. Wrongs committed will inevitably bring to us conditions of difficulty where we must strive to put right what we have done, we must re-balance the good and bad in our lives.
Certain branches of Christianity in particular have a different approach. They believe Jesus was crucified to cleanse them of sins if they but believe in Him. Some believe praying to Jesus can free them from past sin. Some believe a confession to a priest relieves them of responsibility of wrong thought and action. This is not the way of the Spiritualist. To achieve spiritual progress we must live according to spiritual principles and we are indeed responsible.
Compensation and retribution hereafter for all the good and evil deeds done on earth
‘Reaction follows an action’, ‘for every effect there is a cause’. These are fundamental principals applying to the physical world. A correlation to these applying to Human beings is our 6th Principle.
Lives spent in service of others, performing loving deeds of nobly seeking truth and intellectual progress, these are good things. They inevitably lead to ‘compensation’, to spiritual progress and happiness. Evil lives, of cruelty, neglect of others and our own advancement will lead to ‘retribution’, sometimes painful unhappiness, a period when we must make amends. To progress we will have to struggle to put right what has been done wrong or neglected. Most religions hold a similar principle, some call it ‘Karma’ others use the metaphor ‘You reap what you sow’. Our lives, our future life in spirit is determined by our good and evil deeds now and in the past.
A golden coin, was once a raw piece of ore buried in the mud. But the ore was smashed, fired, beaten, cut and stamped to become a shining valuable thing. We are the same, with imperfections and impurities in our natures. We are compensated if we strive to beat out imperfections, we become bright and happy. If we chose to ignore our imperfection or even encourage them then the result is that we suffer and experience unhappiness.
What is evil? Evil is thought and action contrary to Gods way of things. God��s plan leads to happiness and fulfilment. Evil leads to disharmony, selfishness and misery. For some God’s plan is big, their inherited endowments, environmental conditions, their destiny an opportunity is great. For them neglect of their opportunity or deliberate turning away from it is evil. Evil is relative; a hungry thief who deprives a wealthy man of a loaf of bread is a different scale of wrong than a wealthy man stealing from the poor. For some God’s plan is humble and the lowly struggle to do humble good deeds and thoughts is enough. God is merciful and what is good or evil may vary in proportion to one’s potential.
In the spirit-world our thoughts determine the conditions in which we find ourselves. The 6th Principle warns us to live good lives to ensure that our future experience is not that of suffering but instead of joy, light and happiness.
Eternal Progress open to every Soul
Mankind has evolved from primitive barbarous ancient times. It has been a slow, painful struggle to the ‘more civilised / enlightened’ stage of existence we have in this world today. This struggle continues throughout existence on into the spiritual and will throughout time.
On an individual level, man struggles with his ‘lower animal nature’, its desires for sensuous pleasures, its greed and instinct for aggression. But we know we can progress away from this to higher fulfilment, to seek out nobler goals. We may accomplish progress but by doing so we become aware of even greater possibilities before us and spirit inform us that this expanding awareness goes on for ever.
Nature, human history and our own experience shows us that the old resists the new. Change is unsettling, it is a journey into the unknown. The competing forces of progress with stagnation cause disharmony and negative influences. The Spiritualists 7th Principle reminds us to seek out progress; that the potential for progress is inexhaustible and will inevitable lead mankind to higher and higher levels of spiritual existence. We progress as a result of our experience and knowledge and all can share in this advancement if they so desire.