home | what's new | other sites | contact | about

Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Franchezzo

return to the main-page article on "Hell" 

Away before me stretched a narrow path, and curious to see where it would lead I followed it, sure that it would somehow lead me to those whom I could help. After following it for a short time I came to the foot of a range of black mountains, and before me was the entrance to a huge cavern.

décor provided courtesy of the Munsters

Horrible reptiles were hanging on to the walls and crawling at my feet. Great funguses and monstrous air plants of an oozy slimy kind hung in festoons like ragged shrouds from the roof, and a dark pool of stagnant water almost covered the floor. I thought of turning away from this spot but a voice seemed to bid me go on, so I entered, and skirting round the edge of the dark pool found myself at the entrance to a small dark passage in the rocks.

Down this I went, and turning a corner saw before me a red light as from a fire, while dark forms like goblins passed and re-passed between it and myself. Another moment and I stood at the end of the passage. Before me was a gigantic dungeon like vault, its uneven rocky roof half revealed and half hidden by the masses of lurid smoke and flames which arose from an enormous fire blazing in the middle of the cavern, while round it were dancing such a troop of demons as might well typify the Devils of Hell.

With shrieks and yells of laughter they were prodding at the fire with long black spears and dancing and flinging themselves about in the wildest fashion, while in a corner were huddled together a dozen or so of miserable dark spirits towards whom they made frantic rushes from time to time as if about to seize and hurl them into the fire, always retreating again with yells and howls of rage. I soon perceived that I was invisible to these beings, so taking courage from that fact, I drew nearer.

this was not real fire, but a mentally-induced or simulated fire

To my horror I discovered that the fire was composed of the bodies of living men and women who writhed and twisted in the flames, and were tossed about by the spears of those awful demons. I was so appalled by this discovery that I cried out to know if this was a real scene or only some horrible illusion of this dreadful place, and the same deep mysterious voice that had often spoken to me in my wanderings answered me now,

they were suffering what they had inflicted on others, they had burned others at the stake in their religious hatred

"Son! They are living souls who in their earthly lives doomed hundreds of their fellow men to die this dreadful death, and knew no pity, no remorse, in doing so. Their own cruelties have kindled these fierce flames of passion and hate in the breasts of their many victims, and in the spirit world these fiery germs have grown till they are now a fierce flame to consume the oppressors. These fires are fed solely by the fierce cruelties of those they now consume; there is not here one pang of anguish which has not been suffered a hundred fold more in the persons of these spirits' many helpless victims. From this fire these spirits will come forth touched by a pity, born of their own sufferings, for those they wronged in the past, and then will be extended to them the hand of help and the means of progression through deeds of mercy as many and as great as have been their merciless deeds in the past.

"Do not shudder nor marvel that such retribution as this is allowed to be. The souls of these spirits were so hard, so cruel, that only sufferings felt by themselves could make them pity others. Even since they left the earth life they have only been intent upon making others more helpless suffer, till the bitter hatred they have aroused has become at last a torrent which has engulfed themselves.

“Furthermore know that these flames are not truly material although to your eyes and to theirs they appear so, for in the spirit world that which is mental is likewise objective, and fierce hatred, or burning passion, does indeed seem a living fire. You shall now follow one of these spirits and see for yourself that what seems to you cruel justice is yet mercy in disguise. Behold these passions are burning themselves out and the souls are about to pass into the darkness of the plain beyond."

As the voice ceased the flames died down and all was darkness save for a faint bluish light like phosphorus that filled the cavern, and by it I saw the forms of the spirits rise from the ashes of the fire and pass out of the cavern. As I followed them one became separated from the others and passing on before me went into the streets of a city that was near.

another city, not of the Roman empire, but this time of the old Spanish cities

It seemed to me like one of the old Spanish cities of the West Indies or South America. There were Indians passing along its streets and mingling with Spaniards and men of several other nations. Following the spirit through several streets we came to a large building which seemed to be a monastery of the order of Jesuits—who had helped to colonise the country and force upon the unhappy natives the Roman Catholic religion, in the days when religious persecution was thought by most creeds to be a proof of religious zeal.

the chief inquisitor

And then, while I stood watching this spirit, I saw pass before me a panorama of his life. I saw him first chief of his order, sitting as a judge before whom were brought many poor Indians and heretics, and I saw him condemning them by hundreds to torture and the flames because they would not become converts to his teachings.

I saw him oppressing all who were not powerful enough to resist him, and extorting jewels and gold in enormous quantities as tribute to him and to his order.

tortured and burned at the stake

And if any sought to resist him and his demands he had them arrested and almost without even the pretence of a trial thrown into dungeons and tortured and burnt.

he actually loved to see his victims writhe in terror and suffering

I read in his heart a perfect thirst for wealth and power and an actual love for beholding the sufferings of his victims, and I knew (reading as I seemed to do his innermost soul) that his religion was but a cloak, a convenient name, under which to extort the gold he loved and gratify his love of power.

burning the 'gentle timid natives'

Again I saw the great square or market place of this city with hundreds of great fires blazing all round it till it was like a furnace, and a whole helpless crowd of timid gentle natives were bound hand and foot and thrown into the flames, and their cries of agony went up to Heaven

perpetrated in the name of Christ

as this cruel man and his vile accomplices chanted their false prayers and held aloft the sacred cross which was desecrated by their unholy hands—their horrible lives of cruelty and vice—their greed for gold. I saw that this horror was perpetrated in the name of the Church of Christ—of Him whose whole teachings were of love and charity, Who came to teach that God was perfect Love.

he called himself Christ's minister

And I saw this man who called himself Christ's minister, and yet had no thought of pity for one of these unhappy victims; he thought alone of how the spectacle would strike terror to the hearts of other Indian tribes, and make them bring him more gold to satisfy his greedy lust.

Then I beheld this man returned to his own land of Spain and revelling in his ill-gotten wealth, a powerful wealthy prince of the Church, venerated by the poor ignorant populace as a holy man who had gone forth into that Western World beyond the seas to plant the banner of his church and preach the blessed gospel of love and peace—while, instead, his path had been marked in fire and blood—and my sympathy for him was gone.

enjoying the last rites - before he went straight to hell

Then I saw this man upon his deathbed, and I saw monks and priest chanting mass for his soul that it might go to Heaven, and instead I saw it drawn down and down to Hell by the chains woven in his wicked life.

And I saw the great hordes of his former victims awaiting him there, drawn down in their turn by their thirst for revenge, their hunger for power to avenge, their sufferings, and the sufferings of those most dear to them.

in hell, he wanted to do all of his crimes all over again

I saw this man in Hell surrounded by those he had wronged, and haunted by the empty wraiths of such as were too good and pure to come to this place of horror or to wish for vengeance on their murderer, just as I had seen in the Frozen Land with the man in the icy cage. And in Hell the only thought of that spirit was rage because his power of earth was no more—his only idea how he might join with others in Hell as cruel as himself and thus still oppress and torture. If he could have doomed his victims to death a second time he would have done it, in his heart there was neither pity nor remorse, only anger that he was so powerless.

Had he possessed one feeling of sorrow or one thought of kindness for another, it would have helped him and created a wall between himself and these vengeful spirits, and his sufferings, though they might be great, would not have at last assumed the physical aspect in which I had beheld them.

As it was his passion of cruelty was so great it fed and fanned into fresh life the spiritual flames which theirs created, till at last when I saw him first they were dying out exhausted by their own violence. Those demons I had beheld were the last and most fierce of his victims in whom the desire for revenge was even then not fully satisfied, while those I had beheld crouching in the corner were some who, no longer desirous of tormenting him themselves, had yet been unable to withdraw themselves from beholding his sufferings and those of his accomplices.

a repentant Jesuit

And now I beheld that spirit with the newly awakened thought of repentance, returning to the city to warn others of his Jesuit fraternity and to try to turn them from the path of his own errors. He did not yet realise the length of time that had elapsed since he had left the earth life, nor that this city was the spiritual counterpart of the one he had lived in on earth. In time, I was told, he would be sent back to earth to work as a spirit in helping to teach mortals the pity and mercy he had not shown in his own life, but first he would have to work here in this dark place, striving to release the souls of those whom his crimes had dragged down with him.

Thus I left this man at the door of that building which was the counterpart of his earthly house, and passed on by myself through the city. Like the Roman city this one was disfigured and its beauties blotted out by the crimes of which it had been the silent witness; and to me the air seemed full of dark phantom forms wailing and weeping and dragging after them their heavy chains. The whole place seemed built upon living graves and shrouded in a dark red mist of blood and tears. It was like one vast prison house whose walls were built of deeds of violence and robbery and oppression.

'a peaceful primitive people living upon fruits and grains and leading their simple lives in an innocence akin to that of childhood'

And as I wandered on I had a waking dream, and saw the city as it had been on earth ere the white man had set his foot upon its soil. I saw a peaceful primitive people living upon fruits and grains and leading their simple lives in an innocence akin to that of childhood, worshipping The Great Supreme under a name of their own, yet none the less worshipping him in spirit and in truth—their simple faith and their patient virtues the outcome of the inspirations given them from that Great Spirit who is universal and belongs to no creeds, no churches.

********************************

Editor's note: compare these natives' natural religion with that of the North American Indians, who today are highly honored in Summerland:

The following channeled information is from Flashes of Light from the Spirit-land, through the mediumship of Mrs. J. H. Conant, by Allen Putnam, Frances Ann Conant, 1872.

a nation in the Spirit World more powerful and grand than you have any idea of

"Spiritually, in an absolute sense, the Indian is far in advance of the whites. I know well that the egotism of the white race will rise up and deny this assertion; but there will come a time when the religions of the two will be weighed in the balances of Justice, and we well know which will be the sufferer. The pure, unadulterated religion of the Indian will put his white brother and his religion to shame; and when in yonder sphere the soul of the white man shall stand unclothed of all false surroundings, it will see that the Indians’ religion is far in advance of his own. The Indian has received his religion through the reasonings of his soul — that is the natural kind of religion; that is unadulterated, pure, intuitive, free from the world's uncomeliness. It has come to him intuitionally; he sees God in all things, hears him in the winds, perceives his attributes in all the workings of Nature, which is his Bible — the [true] Bible of God. I would that you with white skins had a religion as pure before God as that of the Indian... [the] North American Indians … live in the spirit-world, a nation more powerful and grand than you have any idea of."

READ MORE of the exalted state of the North American Indians.

*******************************

Then I saw white men come thirsting for gold and greedy to grasp the goods of others, and these simple people welcomed them like brothers, and in their innocence showed them the treasures they had gathered from the earth; —gold and silver and jewels. Then I saw the treachery which marked the path of the white men. How they plundered and killed the simple natives. How they tortured and made slaves of them, forcing them to labour in the mines till they died by thousands. How all faith, all promises, were broken by the white man till the peaceful happy country was filled with tears and blood.

Then I beheld afar, away in Spain, a few good, true, kindly men whose souls were pure and who believed that they alone had the true Faith by which only man can be saved and live eternally, who thought that God had given this light to but one small spot of His earth, and had left all the rest in darkness and error—had left countless thousands to perish because this light had been denied to them but given exclusively to that one small spot of earth, that small section of His people.

I thought that these good and pure men were so sorry for those who, they thought, were in the darkness and error of a false religion, that they set forth and crossed that unknown ocean to that strange far-away land to carry with them their system of religion and to give it to those poor simple people whose lives had been so good and gentle and spiritual under their own faith, their own beliefs.

I saw these good but ignorant priests land on this strange shore and beheld them working everywhere amongst the natives, spreading their own belief and crushing out and destroying all traces of a primitive faith as worthy of respect as their own. These priests were kind good men who sought to alleviate the physical lot of the poor oppressed natives even while they laboured for their spiritual welfare also, and on every side there sprang up missions and churches and schools.

Then I beheld great numbers of men, priests as well as many others, come over from Spain, eager, not for the good of the church nor to spread the truths of their religion, but only greedy for the gold of this new land, and for all that could minister to their own gratification. Men whose lives had disgraced them in their own country till they were obliged to fly to this strange one to escape the consequences of their misdeeds.

I saw these men arrive in hordes and mingle with those whose motives were pure and good, till they had outnumbered and thrust the good aside everywhere, and made of themselves tyrannical masters over the unhappy natives in the name of the Holy Church of Christ.

And then I saw the Inquisition brought to the unhappy land and established as the last link in the chain of slavery and oppression thus rivetted round this unhappy people, till it swept almost all of them from the face of the earth. And everywhere I beheld the wild thirst, the greed for gold that consumed as with a fire of Hell all who sought that land. Blind were most of them to all its beauties but its gold, deaf to all thought but how they might enrich themselves with it.

And in the madness of that time and that awful craving for wealth was this city of Hell, this spiritual counterpart of the earthly city built, stone upon stone, particle by particle, forming between itself and the city of earth chains of attraction which should draw down one by one each of its wicked inhabitants, for truly the earthly lives are building for each man and woman their spiritual habitations.

Thus all these monks and priests, all these fine ladies, all these soldiers and merchants, yea and even these unhappy natives had been drawn down to Hell by the deeds of their earthly lives, by the passions and hatreds, the greed of gold, the bitter sense of wrongs unrequited and the thirst for revenge which those deeds had created.