The Soul of Earth The preceding question brings us naturally to that of the soul of earth, often debated and diversely interpreted.
The soul of earth plays a main role in the theory of the formation of our globe, by the encrustation of four planets; theory of which we have demonstrated the material impossibility, according to geological observations and the data of experimental science (see Genesis, Chapter VII, No. 4 and following). As far as the soul is concerned, we will also rely on the facts.
This question leads to another: is Earth a living being? We know that certain philosophers, more systematic than practical, consider Earth and all planets as living beings, based on the principle that everything lives in nature, from the mineral to man. We believe first that there is a capital difference between the molecular movement of attraction and repulsion, aggregation and disintegration of the mineral, and the vital principle of the plant; there are different effects there that show different causes, or at least a profound modification in the first cause if it is unique. (Genesis, chap. X, Nos. 16 to 19).
But let us admit, for a moment, that the principle of life has its source in the molecular movement. We cannot dispute that it is still more rudimentary in the mineral than in the plant; now, from there to a soul, whose essential attribute is intelligence, the distance is big; no one, we believe, has dreamed of endowing a stone or a piece of iron with the faculty of thinking, of wishing and of understanding. By even making all the possible concessions to this system, that is by taking the point of view of those who confuse the vital principle with the soul itself, the soul of the mineral would only be there in the state of a latent germ, since it does not reveal itself by any manifestation.
A fact not less obvious than the one we have just mentioned, is that the organic development is always in relation with the development of the intelligent principle; the organism completes as the faculties of the soul multiply. The organic scale constantly follows, in all beings, the progression of intelligence, from the polyp to man; it could not be otherwise, since the soul needs an instrument appropriate to the importance of the functions that it must fulfill.
What would be the use of the oyster having the intelligence of a monkey, without the organs necessary for its manifestation? Therefore, if Earth were an animated being, serving as a body to a special soul, this soul would have to be even more rudimentary than that of the polyp, since Earth does not have even the vitality of the plant, while, by the role that is attributed to this soul, especially in the theory of incrustation, they make it a being endowed with reason and the most complete free will, a superior Spirit, in a word, which is neither rational, nor in conformity with the general law, for never a Spirit would have been more imprisoned and more badly served. The idea of the soul of Earth, understood in this sense, as well as the one that makes Earth an animal, must therefore be placed among the systematic and chimerical conceptions.
The smallest animal, in fact, has the freedom of movements; it goes where it wants to and walks when it pleases; while the stars, those supposedly living beings and animated by higher intelligences, would be constrained to perpetually automatic movements, without ever being able to deviate from their path; they would be much less favored than the last aphid. If, according to the theory of incrustation, the souls of the four planets that formed Earth, had the freedom of uniting their envelopes, they had the freedom to go wherever they wanted, to change the mechanical laws of the universe as they pleased; why don’t they no longer have it?
There are ideas that refute themselves, and systems that collapse as soon as their consequences are seriously scrutinized. Spiritism would be rightly ridiculed by its adversaries if it made itself the responsible publisher of utopias that do not stand examination. If ridicule did not kill it, it is because it only kills what is ridiculous.
By the soul of Earth, we can understand, more rationally, the collectivity of Spirits charged with the elaboration and the direction of its constituent elements, that already supposes a certain degree of advancement and intellectual development; or, better still, the Spirit to whom is entrusted the high direction of the moral destinies and the progress of its inhabitants, a mission that can be devolved only to a being eminently superior in knowledge and in wisdom. In this case, it is not, strictly speaking, the soul of Earth, for this Spirit is neither incarnate there, nor subordinated to its material state; he is a chief in charge of his direction, as a general oversees the control of an army. A Spirit, charged with a mission as important as that of the governance of a world, could not have whims, or God would be very careless to entrust the execution of his sovereign decrees to beings capable of making them fail by their sloppiness; however, according to the doctrine of incrustation, the unwillingness of the soul of the moon would have been the cause for Earth to have remained incomplete.
Numerous communications, given in various places, have come to confirm this way of considering the question of the soul of Earth; we will only cite one that sums them all up in a few words.
Spiritist Society of Bordeaux, April 1862
“Earth does not have a soul of its own, because it is not an organized being like those who are endowed with life; it has millions of them who are the Spirits responsible for its balance, its harmony, its vegetation, its heat, its light, the seasons, the incarnation of the animals they watch, as well as that of men. This is not to say that these Spirits are the cause of those phenomena: they preside over them, like the officials of a government preside over each of the cogs of the administration.
Earth progressed as it was formed; it always progresses, without ever stopping, until the moment when it will have reached its maximum of perfection. Everything that is life and matter in it, progresses simultaneously, because, as the progress is accomplished, the Spirits in charge of watching over it and its products, progress on their side, by the work they do, or give way to more advanced Spirits. Currently, Earth is touching a transition from bad to good, from mediocre to beautiful.
God, creator, is the soul of the universe, of all the worlds that gravitate in the infinity, and the Spirits in charge in each world, of the execution of His laws, are the agents of His will, under the management of a superior delegate. This delegate necessarily belongs to the order of the highest spirits, for it would be an insult to the divine wisdom to believe that it would abandon to the whim of an imperfect creature the care of overseeing the fulfillment of the destiny of millions of His own creatures.
Question: Can the Spirits responsible for the direction and the elaboration of the constituent elements of our globe incarnate here?
Answer: Certainly, because, in the state of incarnation, having a more direct action on matter, they can do what would be impossible for them as Spirits, just as certain functions, by their nature, fall more especially to the spiritual state. Each state has specific missions.
Don’t the inhabitants of Earth work for its material improvement? So, consider all the embodied Spirits as part of those who are responsible for making it progress, at the same time as they are progressing themselves. It is the collectivity of all these intelligences, incarnate and discarnate, including the superior delegate, that constitutes, properly speaking, the soul of Earth, of which each one of you is a part. Incarnate and discarnate are the bees who work in the building of the hive, under the direction of the Head Spirit; this one is the head, the others are the arms.
Question: Can this Head Spirit also incarnate?
Answer: Without a doubt, when he receives the mission, that takes place when his presence among men is deemed necessary for progress.
One of your spiritual guides.”
