Special

por Altamirando Carneiro

Lessons from Parnassus
from Beyond-Tomb

Francisco Candido Xavier's first mediunic book was “Parnaso de Além-Tumulo” (Parnassus from Beyond-Tomb), a gathering of poems the authors of which were disembodied poets.

In the second half of 1927, when the mediumship of Chico Xavier became known, his friends, among them his brother Jose Candido Xavier, published in Spiritist and non-Spiritist newspapers and magazines, against the medium’s will, poetic messages received by him.

These friends deleted the spiritual authorship of the works and sent them for publication, naming the author as F. Xavier, although Chico insisted that they not do so and tried to make his friends aware of the seriousness of the subject.

At the end of 1931, Chico Xavier sent poems (signed) and by him psychographed to Rio de Janeiro, assigning them to the vice-president of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation, Manoel Justiniano de Freitas Quintão, requesting that a careful examination of the identification of the authors be made.

Manoel Quintão did not personally know Chico Xavier, which only happened in March 1936. But he did not doubt the medium's morality and the authenticity of the poetry. In June 1932, Quintão published them in the book “Parnaso de Além-Túmulo”.

Fifty-six poets participate in the “Parnaso de Além-Túmulo” and 259 poems are recorded. It is an extraordinary book, from which successive reprints have been printed, which attests to the strength of the messages contained in it.

As Manoel Quintão says in the preface:

"Romanticism, Condorism, and Parnassianism are shown in praises of sounds and colors, to confirm - no more subjectively, but objectively - the survival of their interpreters.

It is to read Casimiro and to revive Springs; it is to recite Castro Alves and feel Floating Foams; it is to recite Junqueiro and remember The Death of D. Joao; it is to phrase Augusto dos Anjos and recall “I”.

So let us see:

Oh! What a flash inside my soul.

Constantly wondering,

The thought dreaming

And the heart singing,

In the delicate harmony

Born of beauty,

From the green of nature,

From the green of the beautiful sea!

It's Casimiro...

 

There are pilgrim mysteries

In the mysteries of the destinies

Which order us to be born again;

From the Light of the Creator we are born;

Multiple lives we live,

To return to the same Light.

It is Castro Alves

 

It stood in the strange splendor.

The whole nature in lucid poetry

It rested happily in the prayers of harmony!

It was the feast of love,

In the Heaven in Light,

It celebrated

The greatness of a returning soul

To the herd of Jesus.

It is Junqueiro…

 

Rest, now, vibrio of the ruins,

Forget the worms, the flesh, and the manures.

Rest in the midst of perfumes

Singing in the Light of the Divine amplitudes.

It's Augusto dos Anjos..."

The poets of Parnassus from Beyond-Tomb dictated lessons to the Earth with all authority, because they loved and suffered as we did, they fought, they removed the mountains from difficulties. And one only speaks well of what one lives, or of what one has lived. It is even better when one knows, or has learned, to find solutions to solve each problem.

This detail did not escape the cleverness and observation of Humberto de Campos (Spirit), in the introduction that began to be published as of the second edition:

Parnassus from Beyond-Tomb will be again, like the harmonious message of the poets who loved and suffered". Carmem Cinira with her broken dreams, of a woman and a girl, Casimiro with his child’s emotion, Junqueiro with his irony, and Antero with his austere and painful rhyme.

Everyone is there, within their characteristics.

The dead speak and Humanity is anxious, awaiting their words.

"Stand-up, dead" he exclaims, "for the living on the Earth are lost in the dark abysses".

Humberto de Campos mentions that the skeptics, reading the poems of Parnassus, "will be surprised that the dead continue with the same tendencies, referring to the same issues that were their main concerns…”

When they leave from here, the evil Spirits will continue to be evil until they regenerate and become aware of good, and the good Spirits will continue to serve the same purpose of guiding and helping man.

These skeptics say that if the Spirits progress, as the Spiritists say, why do the poets of the Beyond are stuck in the old style they had, when alive?

J. Herculano Pires, in the preface to the book Castro Alves Speaks to the Earth - Correio Fraterno Editions - with mediumistic poetry received by Francisco Candido Xavier, Waldo Vieira and Jorge Rizzini, talks about Castro Alves which, by extension, applies to all disembodied:

"If Castro Alves was in this Earth, for an extension of his life or through reincarnation, he would certainly follow modern literary movements." Castro Alves, however, continues, one hundred years after his death, in the Spiritual World. (Note: The preface was written in 1971). In the existential conditions of the Spirit, its view of material things is very different from ours. His goal in poetry is not to attain to earthly poetic virtue, but to attain the human heart, to identify him with men who respect his name and his historical image".

Return to Earth - It is known from information of the Spirits themselves that many of them will return to Earth in the near future. Castro Alves speaks of his turn in the poemWhen I return, received by the psychographics of Francisco Candido Xavier:

When I return to being a sweet child,

Filling the house with excitement and laughter,

Harvesting roses, carnations and daffodils,

To tread on Earth the good path,

I will find Love and Hope,

By bringing together brothers from all over the world.

When I return to the old friend orb,

Black abyss of errors and pains,

Stage of thousands of struggles and thousands of fears,

Where I suffered so much... but I loved so much...

By God, I will bring with me,

The balm that wipes away all the weeping,

When I return to the old friend orb.

When I come back to have new material,

Moldable wax shaped in Holy hands,

I'll grow up already walking on the path

Of the Truth and Love of Christianity.

Then, as a young and healthy man, in this golden test,

Triumphant demonstrate that Spiritism

Is the Doctrine of Christ that renews itself.

When I return to the Dark Earth

In whose darkness, bold, I firmly dive into,

I will teach that it is ignorance and pride

Selfishness, hatred, jealousy and cruelty.

I'll show that the evidence is painful

For who abuses the Law of Freedom,

When I return to the Dark Earth.

When I return to the school of distress,

I will bring in my eyes the Light of the Gospel

And a new world will come from the old,

Because I lived on the wings of truth.

In one hand I bring Esperanto - the Union,

In the other, Spiritism and Charity

And the Gospel singing in the heart.

 

Translation:
Eleni Frangatos
eleni.moreira@uol.com.br

 

     
     

O Consolador
 Revista Semanal de Divulgação Espírita