Spiritual Cosmology

Here is an extract from an introduction to an Oration by Mrs Cora Tappan the great American 19th century medium in London’s Cavendish Rooms. It was given by a Doctor Hitchman and appeared in the Spiritualist newspaper Medium & Daybreak on June 18th 1875.
“The Spiritual Cosmos is to be unfolded to you by the whole band of twelve guides, now controlling this worthy and excellent, and most distinguished medium, for the diffusion of that knowledge of time and eternity which cannot but tend to make even the robber himself generous, the drunkard sober, the miser just, the cruel man conscientious, the rake honourable, the fop, if foolish, yet manly or more brave, from generation to generation. Macbeth shall still become more kind and gentle, the bloody Richard less brutal, Shylock increasingly affectionate and good-natured, Claudius the better for his remorse, Angelo publicly upright, though privately tempted to do evil. Blemishes have we all, and the merits of the “coming man” shall redeem them in the science and practice of Spiritualism – a ray of that diviner light which shall purify each vision of mortality, and enable the Othello of all nations shortly to look down upon the feet of Iago, and rest assured that it is a fable, false as hell, which attributes a cloven hoof to the devil himself for ever and ever.

Through the circles high and holy,
Of an everlasting change,
Now more swiftly, now more slowly,
Form must pass and function range.
Nothing in the world can perish,
Death is life and life is death;
All we love and all we cherish
Die to breathe a nobler breath.

Lay that truth in lavender of the sweetest, in the choicest portion of your soul’s paradise, since I doubt not, it is revered as one of highest and most majestic amongst the immortal guides of this cosmopolitan medium, our gifted sister; and I pray that the peace of God may dwell with all Spiritualists richly, in thought, word and deed, as our angel-guides make the desert of materialism to blossom and flourish like a rose.”

If we had such articulate promoters of Spiritualism today, the world might be a better and safer place for us all and Spiritualism the stronger. Tomorrow I shall continue with the prayer this speaker gave before handing the platform over to Mrs Tappan and her guides and the next day will give you a beautiful poem from one of the guides explaining what happened to her after she passed to spirit.