Spirit Hierarchy - Where do you see yourself?

Each spirit is unique.  If we describe ourselves as spirits wearing a material world body, it makes sense that each one of us is unique.  We often think that physical characteristics such as eye color or height help us to distinguish our individuality, but what about our spirit?  If it is unique, how is it different from the spirits of everyone else?

 

Kardec described an infinite degree of variations among the levels of spiritual advancement.  He classified the various levels depending on the level of purification for the spirit.  So we might say that someone has a certain eye color, but is that color a lighter or darker shade when we compare it to others with a similar color?  And how did Kardec decide upon the various levels for spirits?  The spirits told him, in answer to question 97 of  Kardec's The Spirits' Book, "The number of orders can change, depending on the point of view from which they're being considered, and if we consider the general characteristics of spirits, we can reduce them to three principle orders or ranks."

 

To clarify the concept, Kardec put the spirits into three distinct categories:

1) First and Highest Rank:  "Spirits who have reached the degree of relative perfection; what may be called pure spirits."

2) Second Rank: "Those who have reached the middle of the ascending ladder.  They have arrived at a degree of purification in which the love of good is the ruling desire of their existence.

3) Third and Lowest Rank:  "Occupying the lowest rungs of the ladder are the less advanced spirits; they are in a state of unawareness and they tend towards mistakes, wrongdoing, and crude sentiments."

 

Note: Not all spirits in the third category are essentially ignorant or bad. Within this category, there are various spirits who are inactive and neutral, doing things that are neither good or bad; there are spirits who are frivolous and mischievous; and still other spirits who are malicious and take pleasure in doing harm.  It should be understood that these classifications are not absolute; there is no abrupt change from one to the next, because just as with the various eye colors in humans, there is often a blend. 

 

How can we hope to improve ourselves if we are uncertain of our progress?  Kardec developed a subdivision of the three classes through observations and a systematic analysis and comparison of the spirits who visited tables during spiritist sessions.  Kardec wrote, "Having arrived at this general classification, it only remains for us to bring out through a sufficient number of subdivisions; the principal differences in the three greater classes we have established.  Spirits do not, in all cases, belong exclusively to such-and-such a class. Their progress occurs only gradually, and at times, inconsistently.  As a result, they may exhibit in themselves the characteristics of several sub-classes, a point easily understood and confirmed by observing their language and acts."  There are ten subdivisions of spirits.  Your life is your own journey - can you determine which type of spirit you are now? 

 

Third (Lower) Order - Imperfect Spirits    Tenth Class- Impure Spirits    Ninth Class - Frivolous Spirits    Eighth Class - Pseudo-Authorities    Seventh Class - Ordinary Spirits     Sixth Class - Noisy and Boisterous Spirits

Second (Middle) Order - Good Spirits    Fifth Class - Benevolent Spirits    Fourth Class - Learned Spirits    Third Class - Wise Spirits    Second Class - High Spirits
First (Highest) Order - Pure Spirits
    First and Highest Class

 

We are all in the lower order (imperfect spirits) or we wouldn't be here on earth.  Here are some characteristics for each Spiritual Class - because once you know where you are, you can decide where you need to go next: 

 

Impure Spirits:  The influences of matter (the material world) predominates over spirit issues. There is an inclination toward wrong-doing. These spirits are unaware, proud, self-centered, and exhibit all the negative sentiments that result from such attitudes. 

 

Frivolous Spirits:  They have a clear idea of the existence of God, although they have no comprehension of God. In other words, someone may believe in the existence of clouds, but they have no idea how or why the clouds exist.  The frivolous spirits are not all thoroughly bad. In many of them, there is a lack of seriousness, a lack of reasoning power, and a love of mischief. Some do neither good nor evil, but the very fact that they do no good denotes their lack of advancement. Others take pleasure in wrong-doing and are gratified when they find an opportunity to cause harm.  Among spirits of this order, a certain amount of intelligence is often allied with malice and love of mischief. But whatever their intellectual development, their ideas are lacking in elevation, and their sentiments are more or less poor attempts at humility.

 

Pseudo-Authorities: Their knowledge of the things of the spirit-world is narrow, so this type of spirit becomes an authority on material world issues.  What results is that because they know little about spiritism, their thoughts are confused with the ideas and prejudices of the incarnate life. They may give false and incomplete notions of the spirit world; but the attentive observer can often find in their communications, however imperfect, confirmation of the great truths proclaimed by spirits of the higher orders.  Their character is revealed in their language. Every spirit who reveals a wrongful intention in any communication may be ranked in the third order; and consequently, every harmful thought suggested to our mind comes to us from a spirit of that particular order.

 

Ordinary Spirits: There are differences in their capabilities.  These spirits are far from being able to grasp the whole truth of spiritism individually, which is why they have reincarnated again - to better understand certain mysteries that are proportional to their purification.  There are often some presumptions among them, and those who think they know what they do not know.  There may be theorizers, who mistake their own ideas for the truth; and a higher class or order who are less materialized, and divested of earthly ideas and prejudices.

 

Noisy and Boisterous Spirits: They see the happiness enjoyed by the good spirits, and this sight causes them to burn with jealousy and envy.  They hold on to the memory and the perception of sufferings in the current and past incarnate lives, which often creates more painful impressions on them than the reality. They suffer from the ills they have endured themselves, and from those they have caused others to endure. And as these sufferings may have continued for a very long time, they believe themselves to be destined to suffer forever. 

 

From Allan Kardec's The Spirits Book (excerpts from Chapter Five)