SPIRIT HIERARCHY

Introduction |
Spirit Hierarchy  (excerpt from "The Spirits' Book")

Spirit Hierarchy
(an excerpt from Chapter Five of "The Spirits' Book")

 
Part 2 of 3
Second Order - Good Spirits
 

General Characteristics
   Spirit predominates over matter. Spirits desire the good. Their qualities and their power for good are relative to their current level of advancement. Some of them possess scientific knowledge; others have acquired wisdom and charity. The more advanced ones combine knowledge with ethical excellence. Since they aren't completely dematerialized, however, they preserve traces of their incarnate existences that, depending on their level, are more or less noticeable. These traces can be seen in their ways of expressing themselves, in their habits, and in some cases, even in characteristic eccentricities and mannerisms which they still retain. Without these weaknesses and imperfections, they could pass into the category of spirits of the first order.
    They comprehend the idea of God and of infinity, and they already share in the bliss of the higher spheres. They find their happiness in doing good and preventing evil. The affection that unites them brings them inexpressible delight and they are untroubled by envy, remorse, or any other negative emotions that torment spirits of the lower degrees. Nonetheless, they still must undergo the discipline of trials until their purification is complete. As spirits, they instill good and noble thoughts into the minds of human beings, keep them from wrong-doing, and protect those whose life course makes them worthy of aid. They also neutralize, through their suggestions, the influence of lower spirits on the minds of individuals.
   The human beings in whom they are incarnated are upright and benevolent. They are not motivated by pride, self-centeredness, or ambition; nor do they feel hatred, rancor, envy, or jealousy. They do good for its own sake. To this order belong the spirits who are often popularly called "good genii," "protecting genii", "good spirits." In times of spiritual blindness and superstition, humans have regarded them as beneficent divinities.
    They may be divided into four principle groups:

Fifth Class - Benevolent Spirits
Their dominant quality is kindness. They take pleasure in serving and protecting human beings, but their knowledge is somewhat narrow. Their ethical is greater than their intellectual progress.

Fourth Class - Learned Spirits
They are especially distinguished by the extent of their knowledge. They are less interested in ethical questions than in scientific investigation, for which they have a greater aptitude. However, their scientific pursuits are for the common good. They are entirely free from the negative emotions that mark spirits of the lower degrees.

Third Class - Wise Spirits
The highest ethical qualities form their distinctive characteristics. Without having arrived at the possession of unlimited knowledge, they have reach a development of intellectual capacity that allows them to judge human beings and situations with insightful clarity.

Second Class - High Spirits
They combine, to a very great degree, scientific knowledge, wisdom, and goodness. Their language, inspired only by the purest benevolence, is always noble and elevated, and often sublime. Their superiority makes them, more likely than any others, to give us just and true ideas about the spirit world (that is, within the limits our knowledge allows us). They willingly enter into communication with persons who honestly and sincerely seek truth, and who are free enough from material bonds to appreciate their teaching. But when questions are prompted only by curiosity and questioners are motivated more by material than spiritual concerns, they withdraw. When under exceptional circumstances they incarnate themselves on Earth, it is always to undertake a mission that will lead to our progress. In this way they show us the highest type of perfection to which we can aspire in the present world.