Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1868

Influence of the planets on the disturbances of the terrestrial globe



We extract the following from a letter addressed to us from Santa-Fé de Bogota (New Granada)^[1] by one of our correspondents, Dr. Ignacio Pereira, physician, surgeon, founding member of the Homeopathic Institute of the United States of Colombia:



“It has been three years since, by the change of the seasons in our regions, the summer has become very long, and diseases quite unknown to our country have appeared in some plants; potatoes have been attacked with dry gangrene, and from the microscopic observations that I have made on plants affected with that disease, I recognized that it is produced by a plant parasite called perisporium solani. For three years our globe has been in the grip of disasters of all kinds; floods, epidemics, epizootics, famine, hurricanes, seaquakes, earthquakes have, one by one, ravaged various regions.



Knowing that when a comet approaches Earth, the seasons become irregular, I thought that these bodies could also produce an action on organic beings, cause climatic disturbances, causes of certain diseases, and perhaps influence the physical state of the globe by the production of various phenomena.



The Spirit of my brother, whom I questioned on this subject, limited himself to saying that it is not a comet that acts, but planet Jupiter that every forty years is in its closest path to Earth, recommending that I should not pursue this study on my own.



Concerned about his answer, I studied the chronicle of forty years ago, and found that the seasons were irregular then as today, in our regions; the wheat was attacked by a disease known by the name of anublo; there were also plagues on men and animals and earthquakes that caused great disasters.



This question seems important to me; that is why, if you think advisable to submit it to the teaching of the Spirits of the Parisian Society of Spiritist studies, I should be much obliged if you would let me know their opinion."



Answer



September 18^th, 1868



There isn’t a single phenomenon in nature, however small it may be, that is not regulated by the exercise of the universal laws that govern creation. It is the same with great cataclysms, and if scourges of all kinds are rife on Earth at certain times, it is not only because it is necessary to be so, given their moral consequences, but it is also because the influence of celestial bodies on one another, the combined reactions of all natural agents must inevitably lead to such a result.

Since everything is subjected to a series of laws, eternal like the one who created them, and since we cannot go back to their origin, there isn’t a phenomenon that is not subjected to a law of periodicity or a series, that provokes its return at certain epochs, under the same conditions, or by following, as intensity, a law of increasing or decreasing geometric progression, but continuous. No cataclysm can arise spontaneously, and if it seems so by its effects, the causes that provoke it have been put into action for a somewhat long time. They are therefore spontaneous only in appearance, since there is none that isn’t prepared at length, and that does not obey a constant law. Consequently, I fully share the opinion expressed by the Spirit of Jenaro Pereira, as to the periodicity of the irregularities of the seasons; but regarding their cause, it is more complex than he supposed.

Each celestial body, in addition to the simple laws that govern the division of days and nights, seasons, etc., undergoes revolutions that require thousands of centuries for their perfect accomplishment, but that like shorter revolutions, pass through all periods, from birth to a maximum effect, after which there is a decrease to the last limit, to then begin to go through the same phases again.

Man embraces only the phases of a relatively short duration, and of which he can observe the periodicity; but there are some that include long generations of beings, and even successions of races, whose effects, consequently, have for him the appearances of novelty and spontaneity, while if he could look over a few thousand centuries back, he would see, between these same effects and their causes, a correlation that he did not even suspect. These periods, that confuse the imagination of humans by their relative length, are however only instants in the eternal duration.

Remember what Galileo said, in his uranographic studies that you had the great idea of including in your Genesis, about time, space and the indefinite succession of worlds, and you will understand that the life of one or more generations, compared to the whole, is like a drop of water in the ocean. Hence, don’t be surprised for not being able to grasp the harmony of the general laws that govern the universe; whatever you do, you can only see a small corner of the picture, and that is why so many things seem anomalies to you.


In the same planetary system, all the bodies that depend on it react on each other; all the physical influences are united in it, and there isn’t one of the effects, that you designate by great disturbances, that is not the consequence of the aggregated influences of the whole system. Jupiter has its periodic revolutions like all other planets, and these revolutions are not without influence on the modifications of Earth’s physical conditions; but it would be a mistake to regard them as the sole or preponderant cause of these modifications. They intervene in part, like those of all the planets of the system, as the terrestrial movements themselves intervene to contribute to modifying the conditions of the surrounding planets. I go further: I say that the systems react on each other, due to the coming together or the distance that results from their translational movement through the myriads of systems that make up our galaxy. I go further still: I say that our galaxy, that is like an archipelago in the immensity, also having its translational movement through the myriads of galaxies, is influenced by those to which it approaches. Thus, the galaxies react on the galaxies, the systems react on the systems, as the planets react on the planets, as the elements of each planet react on each other, and so forth, step by step up to the atom; hence, in each world, local or general revolutions, that only appear to be disturbances because the brevity of life only allows partial effects to be seen.

Organic matter cannot escape these influences; the disturbances that it undergoes can therefore alter the physical state of living beings, and determine some of these diseases that plague plants, animals, and humans in general; these diseases, like all plagues, are for the human intelligence a stimulus that pushes it, by necessity, to the search for the means of combating them, and to the discovery of the laws of nature.

But organic matter, in turn, reacts onto the Spirit; the latter, by its contact and its intimate connection with the material elements, also undergoes influences that modify its dispositions, without however depriving it of its free will, overexcite or slow down its activity, and by that very fact, contribute to its development. The effervescence that sometimes manifests itself in a whole population, among men of the same race, is not a coincidence, nor the result of a whim; it has its cause in the laws of nature. This effervescence, at first unconscious, that is only a vague desire, an undefined aspiration towards something better, a need for change, results in a quiet agitation, then in actions that bring about moral revolutions that, believe it, also have their periodicity, like the physical revolutions, because everything is linked. If the spiritual sight were not circumscribed by the material veil, you would see these fluidic currents that, like thousands of conducting wires, connect the things of the spiritual world to the material world.

When you are told that humanity has reached a period of transformation, and that Earth must rise in the hierarchy of the worlds, do not see anything mystical in these words, but on the contrary, the accomplishment of one of the great fatal laws of the universe against which all human ill-will is shattered.

I will say to Mr. Ignacio Pereira: We are far from advising you to give up studies that are part of your future intellectual baggage; but you will undoubtedly understand that this knowledge must be, like all others, the fruit of your labors and not that of our revelations. We can tell you that are on the wrong track, and even point out the true path to you, but it is up to your initiative to lift the veils in which the natural manifestations that have hitherto escaped your investigations are still enveloped, and to discover the laws by the observation of the facts; observe, analyze, classify, compare, and from the correlation of facts deduce, but do not rush to an absolute conclusion.

I will end by telling you: In all your research, take the example of the natural laws, that are all interdependent; and it is this solidarity of actions that produces the magnificent harmony of their effects. Men, be united, and you will progress harmonically towards the knowledge of happiness and truth.

F. Arago.”

Allow me to add a few words, as a complement, to the communication just given to you by the eminent Spirit of Arago. Yes, of course humanity is changing as it has already changed in other eras, and each transformation is marked by a crisis that is to the human race what growth crises are to individuals; crises often throbbing, painful, that carry generations and institutions with them, but that are always followed by a phase of material and moral progress.

Earthly humanity, having arrived at one of these periods of growth, has been amid the work of transformation for nearly a century; that is why it is agitated on all sides, in the grip of a sort of fever and as if moved by an invisible force, until it has resumed its place on new bases. Then, whoever sees it, will find it much changed in its manners, its character, its laws, its beliefs, in all its social condition, in a word. One thing that will appear strange to you, but that is nonetheless a rigorous truth, is that the world of the Spirits, that surrounds you, suffers the impact of all the upheavals that agitate the world of the incarnates; I say more: it takes an active part in it. This is not surprising to anyone who knows that the Spirits are one with humanity; that they leave it and must return there; it is therefore natural that they are interested in the movements that affect men. Be sure, then, that when a social revolution takes place on Earth, it also stirs up the invisible world; all passions, good and bad, are overexcited there as among you; an indescribable effervescence reigns among the Spirits who are still part of your world and who are waiting for the moment to return there.

The disturbances of the physical elements are sometimes added to the agitation of the incarnate and the discarnate, most often even, because everything suffers in nature; it is then, for some time, a real general confusion, but that passes like a hurricane, after which the sky becomes serene again, and humanity, reconstituted on new bases, imbued with new ideas, traverses a new stage of progress. It is in the period that begins that we will see Spiritism flourish, and that it will bear its fruits. It is therefore for the future, more than the present, that you are working; but it was necessary that these works be elaborated in advance, because they prepare the paths of regeneration by the unification and the rationality of beliefs. Fortunate are the ones that benefit from it today, for it will be much gain and spared sorrows to them.

Dr. Barry.”

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[1] From 1830 to 1856, the country was known as New Granada, and from 1856 to 1863, it was known as the Grenadine Confederation. It became the United States of Colombia in 1863, and it changed its name to the Republic of Colombia in 1886 (source: history.state.gov, T.N.)