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causes us to approach our foes of the past in order to efface old enmities; so we find upon our route the greater
part of those who made our joy or torment. It is the same in the adoption of a social class, of conditions of
education, and privileges of fortune, health, misery, or poverty. All the causes so varied, so complex, come to
combine themselves, to assure to the new incarnation the satisfaction, advantages, merits, and the debts it has
contracted. One can comprehend after all this how difficult is the choice. If we do not possess the discernment
to adopt with wisdom and foresight the most efficacious means for our evolution and the paying of our past,
intelligent directors inspire us, or themselves make the choice to our profit. At the same time, the soul is free to
accept or delay the hour of reparation.
At the moment of attaching itself to the human germ, while the soul still possesses all its lucidity, its
guide spreads before it the panorama of the existence which awaits it; it shows the obstacles and the
difficulties with which the path is strewn, and makes it comprehend their utility in developing its virtues and
destroying its vices. If the trial seems too great, if it does not feel sufficiently armed to confront it, the soul can
retreat before the experience and find a transitory life which will enable it to gain new moral force and will. In
the hour of supreme resolution, before descending into flesh, the spirit perceives the general trend of the life it
is about to begin. It sees in large lines the culminative facts, always modifiable, nevertheless, by its personal
actions and the use of its free will, for the soul is the mistress of its acts. But as soon as the cords are knotted to
the body, and the incorporation takes place, all is effaced, all vanishes. Existence begins to unroll with its
consequences, already foreseen, accepted, and willed, but without one intuition of the future existing in the
normal consciousness of the being incarnated. Forgetfulness is necessary during material life. Anticipated
knowledge of coming misfortune, the prevision of catastrophes which await us, would paralyze our efforts and
suspend our onward march.
As to the choice of sex, it is again the soul which decides it in advance. It can be changed from one
incarnation to another by a modifying act of the creative will. Certain teachers declare that alternative sex is
necessary to the acquirement of special virtues. For instance, will, firmness, and courage for men; tenderness,
patience, and purity for women. Nevertheless, we believe according to the teachings of our guides that this
change of sex is needless and dangerous, even while possible. The higher spirits, we are told, disapprove of it.
It is easy to recognize about us the persons who have adopted a different sex in the previous life, they are
always in some manner abnormal. The viragoes with masculine tastes who show the attributes of the other sex
in various ways, are evidently reincarnated men. They have nothing aesthetic or alluring about them. It is the
same with effeminate men, who have all the characteristics of the daughters of Eve, and seem lost creatures on
earth.
When the spirit has taken habitation in sex, it is bad for it to attempt a change; many souls, created in
couples, are destined to evolve together, united always in their joys and their sorrows. They are twin souls, and
their number is greater than is generally believed. They realize the most perfect form of life and sentiment, and
give to other souls and example of faithful, unalterable, and profound love. What would become of their love
and attachment if the change of sex were necessary law? We believe rather that noble characters and high
virtues multiply in the two sexes at one time in the general ascension. There is but one point, and one alone,
which could make the change of sex seem an act of justice, that is where unkind treatment or grave injustice
has been inflicted by one sex upon another, and retribution could only come by suffering in the same manner
in another life and another sex. But the penalty of retaliation does not reign in an absolute manner in the
worlds of souls, as we shall see further on. There exist a thousand forms under which reparation can
accomplish the end and efface the causes of evil.
The all-powerful chain of cause and effect unwinds in a thousand diverse links. The objection may be
made that it would be unrighteous to constrain half of the spirits to evolve in a weaker sex, often oppressed
and humiliated sacrifices of a barbarous social organization. We reply that this state of things is disappearing
day by day, to give place to a more equitable order. It is by the moral uplifting education of women that
humanity itself will be uplifted. As to the sorrows of the past, they are not lost; the spirit which has suffered
from social iniquities obtains by the law of equilibrium compensating results of the trials endured. Our guides
tell us that feminine spirits mount with rapid flights toward perfection. The feminine role is immense in the life
of people. Sister, wife, or mother, she is the great consoler and the sweet counselor. She prepares man’s future.
It is the respected, honoured, enlightened woman who makes the family strong and unites a grand moral
society.
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