Król-Duch wobec spirytyzmu. Poszukiwanie punktów zbieżnych

Abstract

The point of King-Spirit and Spiritualism is to show and consider the convergent points of Juliusz Słowacki’s poem and spiritualism. In my opinion, Słowacki’s spiritual system was very similar to spiritualism as codified by Allan Kardec, than to Towiański’s or Far Eastern metempsychosis. Słowacki was familiar with many religious-philosophical images of metempsychosis, so I am aware that in his poems and his writings we can find traces of his reading and also his own thoughts. However, I focused on the marks of spiritualism. In essence, I am interested in the metempsychosis of the King-Spirit. This main character in Słowacki’s poem seems to personify perfecting the spirit in spiritualism’s theory. Furthermore, the conception of history and civilisation expressed by the poet is pretty similar to spiritualism. This conception is used by Słowacki to explain the Polish tragedy of the Partitions and defeats of the homeland. At the end of my considerations, I attempt to use the King-Spirit character as a metaphor for the Polish nation.