by Alora Hayward
Have you ever wondered how the spiritual movement began? Have you ever participated in a seance? Or watched one on TV? Dating back to the Eighteenth-Century, the term “spiritual” was used for reference to the church, but in the Victorian Era, many Victorians were intrigued when it came to the spiritual movement. The term spiritual comes from the British and as Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as “a belief in the existence and influence of spiritual or incorporeal beings or entities.” The idea of spiritualism then, is that one believes in the afterlife, or rather, after-death. Speaking of death, it became a sort of friend to the Victorians during the era; knocking on doors, often coming with traditions such as mourning wear, locks of hair being worn in a brooch or locket, or ring; even death photography which was popular during this time, allowed for a commemoration of deceased loved ones. Sometimes, even participating in seances.
Seances and spiritualism were quite popular within the Victorian Era, in part to the crisis-of-faith that some Victorians were dealing with. This crisis-of-faith was “an event in the Victorian Era in which much of Europe’s middle class begins to doubt what is written in the book of Genesis as a reliable source in accordance with how the universe was created”. This led to some, even prominent Victorians such as Queen Victoria herself, as well as writers such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle participating in seances, which was part of the spiritualist movement. Peter Lamont writes in his article “Spiritualism and a Mid-Victorian Crisis of Evidence”: “Seance phenomena were, afterall, the primary reason given…to their conversion to spiritualism and continuing their beliefs'' How were seances conducted? If so many people were interested in them? Well, more often than not, a medium (or psychic as we know today) would perform the seances around a table. Robert Luckherst writes how “spirits would exchange banal but comforting messages with loved ones; some would elaborate extensively on social or political institutions of the afterlife…” This, as Luckherst notes, brought comfort for the grieving patrons. Our very own Sir Hugh John MacDonald participated in a seance of his own. In the image below it reads:
“Remarkable and Weird performance: Hugh John MacDonald Receives a message from Lare Sedley Blanchard: ‘My dear old Friend - this is indeed a privilege I had not looked for or expected. I am near you, and it is my hand that guides the medium - I am yours, Seldey Blanchard”
It goes on to mention how Sir Hugh John found the experience: “Mr. MacDonald in a voice full of emotion, admitted that the signature was very [much] like what he could remember of his dear old friend…who died about 1885.” Going on to describe how Sir Hugh John felt “bewildering, [and] weird” having taken part in the seance.
Seances are still popular today, as well as the spiritualist movement. Whether you believe in the afterlife, use tarot cards, or even read your horoscope, these are all part of spiritualism - despite what others might say. The Victorians knew how to dabble in spiritualism. Do you?
Bibliography
Exploring the Victorian Occult - Durham University
The Victorian supernatural | The British Library
https://www-oed-com.uwinnipeg.idm.oclc.org/view/Entry/186901?redirectedFrom=spiritualism#eid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism
Seeing is Believing: Spiritualism in the Victorian Era-Part 1 | The Old Operating Theatre
https://www-jstor-org.uwinnipeg.idm.oclc.org/stable/4091661
Why Did So Many Victorians Try to Speak with the Dead? | The New Yorker