Oahspe
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Oahspe: A New Bible is a book announcing new revelations from God, which was produced by John Ballou Newbrough (1828–1891) by automatic writing, and which was first published by Newbrough in 1882. The title page of Oahspe describes the content of the book with these words:

A New Bible in the Words of Jehovih and His Angel Ambassadors. A Sacred History of the Dominions of the Higher and Lower Heavens on the Earth for the Past Twenty-Four Thousand Years together with a Synopsis of the Cosmology of the Universe; the Creation of Planets; the Creation of Man; the Unseen Worlds; the Labor and Glory of Gods and Goddesses in the Etherean Heavens; with the New Commandments of Jehovih to Man of the Present Day.

According to the glossary in the 1882 edition, the meaning of the word used in the title is:

Oahspe. Sky, earth (corpor) and spirit. The all; the sum of corporeal and spiritual knowledge as at present. ¹

Origin

The "Tablet of Fonece" an illustration from Oahspe

Newbrough, who wrote Oahspe on one of the first typewriters (which was a recent invention at that time), claimed that Oahspe was the result of angelic control, and was written through automatic writing on the typewriter. Oahspe also includes many drawings made by Newbrough, which are also said to be through angelic control. The practice of "automatic writing" was well known during the period in which Oahspe was written (1881), and Newbrough said that the book was the result of that spiritualist technique. He described the presence of angels and lines of light which controlled his hands as they "automatically" typed the text. ²

Nature of the revelation

The voice of the Creator, named Jehovih, which is derived from the sounds E - O - I, is not an audible sound but rather a subtle impression to the soul... "my voice is not a sound but comes to the soul from all sides." "I am the Creator, and am sufficient to all the living." Clairvoyance and clairaudience, the seeing and hearing of spiritual and heavenly things, are extensively addressed within Oahspe.

Oahspe is also a book that has numerous “firsts” i.e. it is the first to use the word “Starship” long before science-fiction writers conceived of interstellar space travel (Book of Aph XVI.18). A cosmogony that gives details of the field of force of the sun and the planets, including comets. Describing properties not known at the time, naming the hottest part of the sun as the photosphere, describing the sun’s field of force that reaches beyond Neptune and pushes the tails of comets away from it (the cosmic wind was not postulated until more than half a century later), identifying the outer small bodies before even the first of them was first sighted (Pluto was discovered half a century later)(Bk of Cosmogony and Prophecy, II.18)....to name a few.^{citation needed}. Although the book's discussion of a vast sunken continent which it calls Pan located in Pacific Ocean whose remnants include Japan, comes after Louis Jacolliot wrote of a similar idea, the Oahspe's description of a lost Pacific continent did influence later stories of Lemuria and Mu.

As well as containing chapters on a spiritually-based explanation of physical science, Oahspe contains chronologically-ordered accounts that are cosmological revelations concerning the evolution of humanity from 78,000 years ago, and life on Earth, from its start as a planet being formed from its beginnings as a comet, to its first lifeforms and finally to the appearance of the human race and its progression from beast to spiritual maturity.

The text describes the existence of cyclical events that occur within a range of greater and smaller cycles. For instance, according to Oahspe, the Earth is traveling with the Sun and its planets through regions of space in a large circuit of 4,700,000 years, which is divided into sections of 3,000 years average, which also occur within larger cycles of 24,000 years and 72,000 years and so on. Each of these regions has variations in density and so engender varying conditions of more and less light, including fluctuations in sunlight (light having both spiritual and physical properties is not limited to sunlight) available to the Earth, which has spiritual and physical consequences for Earth and its inhabitants, whereby civilizations have risen and fallen accordingly.

These various regions are under the administration of spiritual or "Etherean" beings with titles such as "god" and "chief" and whose ranks and ages vary in ascending grade, from tens of thousands of years to hundreds of thousands of years old and older, and whose dominions cover vast distances and many spiritual and corporeal worlds of various grades and densities. They are designated "Sons and Daughters of Jehovih," and in accordance, the text of Oahspe contains separate sections or "books" such as the "Book of Cpenta-Armij, Daughter of Jehovih", and also includes familiar names from non-Abrahamic religions, as in the "Books of Apollo" and "Book of Thor", named as Sons of Jehovih.

An interesting graphological characterisitc of Oahspe is that a number of its sub-books are printed on pages divided in two, top to bottom. In these, the top half of the page contains a narrative of celestial events, while the bottom half describes the corresponding events on Earth. Included in its contents, Oahspe contains a body of material that purports to provide explanations that cover events in the spirit world and their corresponding effects on events in the physical world dating back to 72,000 years ago, and missing details of ancient historical accounts regarding the origins of all of Earth's religions.

Oahspe has many illustrations of symbols purported to be of ancient languages and an original language called "Pan" or "the Panic Language" meaning "Earth Language" which is explained as originating from the ability of man to mimic sounds, and thus the "Panic" language began as onomatopoetic (a word that sounds like what it is). It also contains many unfamiliar words whose meanings and origins are not fully explained or mentioned in the accompanying glossary. Many of the terms are purported to be derived from ancient human languages which were inspired through the presence of angels, while others are said to be human approximations of spirit words and meanings not originating on Earth. A section called the "Book of Saphah" has details on the alleged meanings and roots of many of the words and symbols.

Excerpt

A sample of the text of Oahspe will give an impression of its style:

1. JEHOVIH said: By virtue of My presence created I the seen and the unseen worlds. And I commanded man to name them; and man called the seen worlds Corper, and the unseen worlds Es; and the inhabitants of Corpor, man called corporeans. But the inhabitants of Es he called sometimes es'eans and sometimes spirits, and sometimes angels.
2. Jehovih said: I created the earth, and fashioned it, and placed it in the firmament; and by My presence brought man forth a living being. A corporeal body gave I him that he might learn corporeal things; and death I made that he might rise in the firmament and inherit My etherean worlds.
3. To es I gave dominion over corpor; with es I filled all place in the firmament. But corpor I made into earths and moons and stars and suns; beyond number made I them, and I caused them to float in the places I allotted to them.
4. Es I divided into two parts, and I commanded man to name them, and he called one etherea and the other atmospherea. These are the three kinds of worlds I created; but I gave different densities to atmospherean worlds, and different densities to the etherean worlds.
5. For the substance of My etherean worlds I created Ethe, the MOST RARIFIED . Out of ethe made I them. And I made ethe the most subtle of all created things, and gave to it power and place, not only by itself, but also power to penetrate and exist within all things, even in the midst of the corporeal worlds. And to ethe gave I dominion over both atmospherea and corpor.

— "The Book of Jehovih", chapter II

Influence

Oahspe is a text studied by individuals around the world, and is available in both the English and Dutch languages. Historically, a number of groups have formed in response to Oahspe, including J B Newbrough's Shalam Colony in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 1884 ³. Presently, one such group is the Universal Faithists of Kosmon, whose teachings include the virtue of the unity of group efforts to achieve good works. Oahspe is available in a current edition printed by the Universal Faithists of Kosmon, in Colorado, USA.^clarify and as an e-book available freely over the Internet ⁴.

References

External links

• Oahspe: The only 1881 version on the internet
• Pamphlet on the Origin of Oahspe
• Information about the Shalam Colony, a utopian community founded by Oahspe believers
• Oahspe Quotations
• Oahspe Study and Confirmation