Angelhood

Angelhood is reached when two rightful halves or counterparts blend together and become a completed angel.  

The higher heavens are all composed of angels; completed, bright, glorious angels; far—very far on toward bliss, wisdom, love, and truth; until, at last, they arrive at a point where they understand nearly all natural laws—comprehend them fully in all their details. When an angel reaches this altitude, the angel is in a sphere where there are no children and there is nothing in this sphere that is crude or undeveloped.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

These are no idle tales

How is a man met who has loved his brother and tried to help him in every way he could?

He comes to this life; all the spirits and angels have taken cognisance of his doings. How is he met? Let me tell you. After his immediate relatives and friends have met and received him, a throng of grateful and loving spirits and angels are waiting to do him honour, and they vie with one another to see which shall give him the greatest amount of happiness; for every kind act he has done for humanity, a thousand souls—aye, a million—stand ready to do him every kindness in their power; they meet him with reverential gestures and acclaim; they crown him with laurels as their king; they weave garlands and bowers of beauty for him; they form triumphal arches with his name inscribed thereon; they often seat him in a golden chariot, crown him with flowers and march to the strains of angelic music through the arches, while the chariot is drawn by prancing steeds.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

Each soul stands for what it is really worth

Listen, listen! men of earth, for you will soon hear more about this life than you know at present. Commit no wrong, for it will meet you as sure as you commit it. A man or woman who has lived all his or her life on earth trying to do something to benefit humanity, on coming here and having received very little on earth as recompense, finds that the order of things is reversed. All those whom he or she has ever been the means of benefiting now array themselves to benefit him or her, and untold riches are heaped upon them; but money has no power; the wealth of the soul becomes all powerful. Still, as I have said before, we have spiritual correspondences. We have that which appears like gold, silver, and precious stones, but one soul has as much power over such things as another, providing the soul itself corresponds or has wisdom enough to manufacture them from sublimated matter; but no one can possess these things except those who have wisdom, love and truth; and these cannot be bartered for gold. There each soul stands for what it is really worth.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

Brothers, sisters, these things are so; they are not imaginary

Teach and practice war on earth and it is continued within the heavens, often long and extensively before those engaged in it can be brought to see the error of their ways, for nature evolves slowly and a spirit does not become wise and good at one stride.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

True union comes after death

We advise no husband or wife, on earth, to separate; but, quite the contrary. All husbands and wives on earth should remain together and be true to each other—the husband as true as the wife—if it is possible for them to do so. We think the present laws of the United States regarding marriage and divorce are just and equitable; for, if those who are married live miserably together the law provides a remedy; and, this is as it should be, and no sane man or woman calls this just law free love. Think of a pure, true, gifted and beautiful woman being united to a wretch calling himself a man—a man so degraded that he is hardly above a beast and in many respects below a beast, for no beast of its own free will ever gets drunk—think of such a woman being obliged to remain with such a creature because she ignorantly made the fatal mistake of marrying him—an abusive, murderous, drunken wretch, false to his marriage vows in every respect, seeking any and all avenues wherein he may basely deceive and betray his wife, betraying any and all women whom he could deceive. 

If you on earth were spirits as we are, and as we do, could look into the secret lives of many wretched beings on earth, you would all agree with us that the divorce law is just and equitable.

To be the wife of a vicious, false and drunken husband, is the lot of thousands of women; and to these the divorce laws are a boon and are strictly just. Not one jot or tittle of free love enters into them; but the true union that comes after death is the just recompense for all these miserable earthly marriages.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

If the higher did not assist the lower in all things, creation would be at a standstill

If the higher did not assist the lower in all things, creation would be at a standstill—chaos would result.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

A great natural law breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul

A great natural law breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul. The germs of all things that live reside within the ethereal atmosphere which interpenetrates all space.

Evolution is a great truth, but you must put another great truth by the side of it and let the two grand truths walk evenly hand in hand, side by side: Evolution and Involution.

God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. By God is meant a great natural law—for all great natural laws are God. A great natural law, then, breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul. From the atmosphere man inhaled the germs of life, the germs which were to be the living souls of the next generation. Now this is involution—all life, whatsoever, came from the atmosphere; otherwise, the germs of all things that live reside within the atmosphere—not the coarser air, but the ethereal atmosphere which interpenetrates all space; and man's soul goeth back to God who gave it. The great law of involution gave to man his life and at the death of the body his soul goeth back to that which gave it—that is, his spirit goes back into the ethereal atmosphere or the celestial world.

When science says that life originates within a cell of protoplasm, it is right in one way and wrong in another. Protoplasm or matter has no life whatever of its own, and the life principle does not reside within it, but when that cell of protoplasm is exposed to the air it attracts from the atmosphere a germ of life—a spiritual germ. Now the germ begins to expand, grow, evolute; first involution and then evolution.

The very lowest forms of life are various species of moss upon the rocks, and the living, glutinous masses found in the sea. Rocks decay slightly, the decayed matter of the rock and the moisture of the air or rain, make protoplasm, the germ of moss, which resides within the atmosphere, by a natural law of attraction, the spirit, or living germ, buries itself within the protoplasm, covers itself, with it, otherwise the germ could never develop into that which nature designed it to be—the first or lowest order of life upon the earth. Moss is a beautiful form of life and all life is beautiful.

Now, when this moss decays, or dies, the life or spirit of it ascends as developed spiritual moss, into the ethereal atmosphere or celestial world, to beautify the celestial spheres; the matter or protoplasm remains on earth and after many accumulations becomes soil fitted for higher germs of vegetation, and as fast as the higher germs find suitable soil or matter wherein to hide, higher and still higher forms of vegetation appear, until through the laws of evolution and involution vegetation arrives at that point where a tiny flower appears. Now the flower holds the attractive force, and it gathers within its tiny cup the spiritual germ and holds it fast until seed is formed.

Now involution and evolution have given us seed, that is, by involution a higher state of things has been evolved until we arrive at insect and animal life, until a point is arrived at when the great laws of involution and evolution take on the forms of male and female. Each male form now inhales, and holds, the spiritual germs of the future generation, and the same principle applies to all life within the waters.

If, as has been shown, all life originates within the atmosphere, or ether, surely it all returns to it again developed and beautified, for that is the sole object of spirit and matter, or ethereal germs and protoplasm.

Now I will try to prove what I have said to be true: It is true, as we here well know, but men of earth want proof. Seal any kind of matter or protoplasm away from the air, that has never yet attracted the germs of life, and it will keep for years, or until a little air finds it's way to it, but shortly after the air does find its way to it, life appears; for the germs of life have buried themselves within the mass of the matter.

And now, dear friends, I will tell you how you may see these germs with the naked eye, which I think will be additional proof that what I tell you is true. When you are sitting quietly in a room, look toward the light of a window—that is look out of the window toward the sky, but let your gaze rest steadily upon the atmosphere a few yards from the eyes—do not look at anything but the air—gaze quietly and steadily for a few moments and you will be surprised, for you will thus behold the germinal sea, consisting of living, germinal points of light. These points of light vary in size from those about as large as the point of a pin to those of much larger size—say, the head of a pin. Now do not make a mistake and think I mean motes in a sunbeam; I mean nothing of the kind. The points of light which you will see, if you strictly follow my directions, are living little globes, lighter in colour than the atmosphere, of all grades and sizes and they are darting hither and thither in all directions, filled with life and motion, never still for an instant, little, bright, translucent globes of light; an unending sea of germinal life. Now do not mistake and think mean clairvoyant sight. I do not thus mean, but your natural sight—the sight of your material eyes—and the only reason you have never observed them is because you have not thought of doing so; for, ordinarily, you do not notice them at all; and still the air is filled with them, to be seen with the naked eye if you but take the trouble. I presume that many of you have seen them but have thought very little about them. 

Herr Franz in Letters from the spirit world

Every law has its counterpart

Male and female, positive and negative, involution and evolution; every existing law has its counterpart; heaven and earth, spirit and matter, and so forth.

Every man shall reap according to his folly

I am a just God, saith the Lord of Hosts, and every man shall reap according to his folly. The just God being the great eternal law of Justice.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

The true law that governs marriage.

Many on earth think that families will be reunited here and then go on in the same relation as before, perhaps to all eternity, but this is not so, neither does any family ever sustain the same relationship that it sustained while on earth.

For instance, we will say a family on earth has two or three small children translated to the celestial world, the father and mother and the remaining children live on earth for a great many years thereafter, the children thus remaining grow to manhood and womanhood, marry, and have families of their own, the father and mother remain, perhaps, fifty or more years; we will say that perhaps the children they lost have been in the celestial world fifty years. Now these children have not been standing still; no, not for a moment—no more than those on earth. If those on earth have grown to manhood and womanhood and married, can anyone think that those in the celestial world have not done the same. It must be a self-evident truth that such is the case. These celestial children have also grown to manhood and womanhood, they have been united to their true counterparts, and the union constitutes an angel or completed whole, male and female as one. They do not bear children, as on earth, but the union of the positive and negative forces, male and female generates thought, and thoughts are things; that is, an angel's thoughts become objective, or objects—spiritual entities—not human spiritual or angelic living entities endowed with life and motion but thought entities. 

Herr Franz in Letters from the spirit world

God must be a free lover

Nothing was ever created without the blending of the male and female principles in nature –together they are the creative God – together they are creation itself. There can be but one true, conjugal union or love; all others, whatsoever, are false and fleeting and sooner or later must fall apart, not necessarily until so-called death separates them – and so-called death certainly separated me from both my wives.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

If a woman has had a number of husbands on earth, whose wife shall she be in heaven?

Now among other questions which I asked the man of Nazareth was the one his disciples asked him long ago – If a woman has had a number of husbands on earth, whose wife shall she be in heaven? Jesus said to the disciples, In heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are as the angels in heaven. Now, as we said, we questioned Jesus as to what he meant by this and he replied – I meant just as you have found it, my dear Herr Franz and Helena. You and Helena were not married by a priest as they marry on earth, neither was Helena given to you in marriage by father or guardian, but you were united by the great natural law pertaining to angelhood, of which the earthly marriage is but the foreshadowing or type.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

And they twain shall be one flesh

There are thousands upon thousands who are united, on earth, to the real other self. Those so united will go on as one in the celestial world, but those so united do not remain apart very long; a natural law exists that when one departs from earth the other soon follows; for those who belong together cannot be long separated; the half which has departed draws the remaining half to itself; so that earthly husbands and wives who have been for long years separated by so-called death, are not re-united; and nearly all the widows and widowers left on earth soon—as I myself did—marry again. Well, this is as it should be, but those who thus marry were not in the first instance united to the eternal counterpart of themselves; if such had been the case they would not marry again; the very thought would be horrible to them. We do not mean to say that the husband or wife thus left may not have had a strong regard—or one may call it love if one prefers—but the fact that they soon after united themselves to others is evidence in itself that they had not found the true one.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

Your desire for knowledge is a powerful incentive

To the pure all things are pure. This saying has sometimes been misunderstood. It does not mean that impurity is pure to the pure, but that the pure receive only that which is pure, for if an impure answer should flow into the mind, that mind itself is impure and receives its own, and the answer of the pure spirit is not taken in and assimilated. When you thus question (see our former letter), receive no answer but the highest and purest that your mind is capable of holding, and all will be well. Do not call on any spirit who is beneath yourself in love and wisdom—always on those above you. A father or mother in spirit life will not reply falsely to a child left on earth. That father or mother desires only the welfare of the child and it is a great incentive to most fathers and mothers, who have children on earth, to progress in wisdom as rapidly as possible that they may be able to give it to loved ones there.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

The Lord is the Law, and God the Soul of man

The Lord is the Law, and God the Soul of man.

For I am a just God, so saith the Lord

I cannot say, now, there is no God; for the great eternal laws of nature constitute that which is called God, and strict justice is one of these great eternal laws. So be careful what you do—take heed to your steps one and all—for I am a just God, so saith the Lord, and will recompense every man according to his works. The Lord is the Law, and God the Soul of man.

Robert G. Ingersoll (Spirit)

Don't want to stay in it, my brothers

Now, the Devil has horns as well as hoofs and, of course, his horns are for the purpose of fighting, goring and killing; but, in order to deceive himself and others, he calls them gatling guns, smokeless powder, torpedo boats, bombarding shells, and other names too numerous to mention. The Devil's head is exceedingly large and strong, else he would not be able to sport such wonderful horns wherewith to gore men to death—let out their entrails, crush and mangle them, break their bones, leave their wives widows, and their children fatherless, crying for bread. He is a vicious, cruel old Devil, older than  mankind, for he originally belonged to beasts; but in those days he was more innocent than at present; then, he only used his horns in self-defense; but now he is a raging, rampant Devil, seeking whom he may devour; he even strides to remote regions and pushes with his horns and tramples with his hoofs, until he leaves thousands of innocent people in bloody, burned and mangled heaps; slain to satisfy his thirst for blood and his ambition to conquer and hold for gain; and every man who helps to encourage and sustain this bloody beast, either by his influence, pen, voice or vote, is the personal Devil before mentioned, and he is the master and maker of a burning and most frightful hell that will sooner or later swallow him within its depths.

Robert G. Ingersoll (Spirit)

Nature's methods are all simple

Nature's methods are all simple.

Tell my loved ones at home that I am not unsexed

Friends, these are hard facts, and I here and now attest, with my signature, that I have here found women to be women and men to be men in every sense of the word, for without the co-partnership and union of the sexes absolutely nothing could exist. There would be no homes here, nor on earth, wherein men could rest, no love except the merest friendship, no homes wherein little babes and children could receive loving care and attention and be taught the rudiments of all knowledge.

Letters from the spirit world

The world is all one family

The world is all one family.