THE LIGHT OF ESPIRITISMO
I was watching the show Obi Wan. There is a scene in it where the young Princess Leia looks in wonder at “Ben” and asks him what the Force is like.
He responds, “Have you ever been scared of the dark, then turn on the light? How do you feel then?”
She said “Better.”
“Well, that’s what the Force is like.”
These words stayed with me well after watching that episode. I was struck by their simplicity. But Obi Wan’s words remind me of a bedrock of practicing Espiritismo. I have spoken at length about espiritismo here, so I am not going to repeat myself. But the point of this practice, especially the work we do with ancestral spirits and spirit guides, is because without them we are groping in the dark. Many espiritismo houses will in fact have a picture of a lighthouse. I have seen this before a certain people’s ancestor tables, but did not understand the significance. The light house is understood to be God, and not God as normally depicted or understood. But God as Light and Intelligence. Spirits are emanations of that God in the world as we know it, and we work together to bring guidance on the stormy seas of life. Seas that can leave us feeling rudderless and without a map to guide our way.
The work of espiritistas is to turn on the light in the dark. Now, this is not some racially-coded thing (even though espiritismo and its cousin, Spiritualism, both have a deeply racist past). It is instead the notion that we are reaching for Source to navigate life, assist wayward spirits, and uplift humanity.
Assistance can take on numerous forms. It could be praying for the spirit of someone who took their life. It could be performing an elevation for a spirit who is a good soul, but no one laid their body to rest. It can even be helping someone who is being pestered by a spirit attachment, figuring out what the spirit attached to them wants or needs.
I had one of these spirits once. He was connected to my team of spirits. But the elders I had initially told me he was not elevated and to forget about him. They were dead wrong, as I eventually came to recognize. But the spirit did need work. Months of work, actually. Thankfully, I had learned enough in my years of practice to slowly but steadily free that spirit of their shackles from life.
Turns out, that spirit had a large destiny all its own. A destiny that it now sought to share with me. and this is an important point related to “turning on the light.” Sometimes a way a spirit presents is not who they really are. Like us, spirits can be complex. They can have layers of problems like their own traumas, which will make them present one way. When they are cleansed of that, and spiritually reminded that they are more than those traumas, they will present another way. If we write them off like we tend to do with each other, we may miss a big piece of the blessings that come otherwise.
I’m writing about this because I am aware that many people are scared and afraid these days. There is no one thing that will alleviate all of our fears, but your spiritual court that walks with you goes a long way toward helping us maintain a sense of peace in the face of life’s travails. May you find your own way to turn on the light this year.