The Spirits' Book

Allan Kardec

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Role of Spirits in Natural Phenomena

536. Are natural phenomena, which we consider a disruption of the elements, due to chance or is there a purpose behind them?
“There is a reason for everything. Nothing takes place without God’s permission.”


a) Do these phenomena always have a reference to humankind?
“Sometimes they have a direct reference to humans, but they often have no other purpose than to re-establish the balance and harmony of the physical forces of nature.”


b) We acknowledge that God’s will must be the primary cause of these phenomena, but since we know that spirits can in fact act upon matter and that they are agents of God’s will, we would ask whether some among them could not exert an infuence the elements in order to rouse, calm or direct them.
“But that is obvious; it could not be otherwise. God does not exercise direct action upon matter. God has faithful agents in every degree of worlds.”


537. The mythology of ancient civilizations is entirely based on Spiritist ideas with the difference that they viewed spirits as deities. They represented those gods with special attributes; some controlled the wind, others lightning, while others ruled over plants and vegetation, and so on. Is this belief groundless?
“It is so groundless that it is far from having any semblance of truth.”


a) By the same reason could spirits somehow inhabit the core of the Earth and rule over the development of geological phenomena?
“Those spirits defnitely do not live within the Earth, but they direct its developments according to their various terms. One day you will receive an explanation of all these phenomena, and you will then understand them better.”


538. Do the spirits who rule over natural phenomena form a special category in the spirit world? Are they separate beings, or spirits who have incarnated before like us?
“They are spirits who will incarnate, or who already have.”


a) Do those spirits belong to the higher or lower degrees of the spirit hierarchy?
“This depends on their material and intellectual standings. Some give orders, while others execute. Those who satisfy material functions are always of lower order, whether spirits or incarnates.”


539. Does a single spirit partake in the production of natural phenomena, such as a storm, or is it a mass of spirits who are responsible?
“In innumerable masses.”


540. Do the spirits who exert power over natural phenomena act intelligently and with conscious intent, or from an instinctive and irrational impulse?
“Some act in one way, and others in another. Let us make a comparison: think of the hosts of animals that gradually formed islands and archipelagos in the ocean. Do you think that the transformation of the Earth’s surface has no Divine purpose and is not necessary to general harmony?”

“All this is accomplished by animals of the lowest degree that are simply providing for their physical needs without being aware that they are God’s instruments. In the same way, spirits of the most rudimentary degrees are useful to the general whole. While preparing for life, and before having full awareness of their acts and of their free will, they act upon certain phenomena in which they are the unwitting agents. They begin by executing the orders of their superiors and when their intelligence is more developed, they direct the processes of the material world. Further along, they are able to direct the effects of the moral world. This is how everything is useful, everything in nature is linked together, from the original atom to the archangel, who began as an atom. This is an admirable law of harmony that your mind is still too narrow to fully comprehend.”


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