La trajectoire kardéciste de Fernanda : une spirite en quête

• Main Author: Claire Souillac
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Université Paris 3 2017-11-01
• Series: Cahiers des Amériques Latines
• Subjects: identity; mobility; modernity; religion; transculturality
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/cal/8314

« Kardecism » is a type of spiritism born in France in 1859 and so called after the name of its founder Allan Kardec. Once migrated in Brazil, it became an important religion. We offer here the portrait of a young Brazilian woman settled in France, whom we interviewed in Paris where we led a field research so as in Brazil. Fernanda left kardecism after years of attendance in groups of both countries. Using her profile, our goal is to interpret the « kardecist as an individual involved in a search », which helps us to ponder how kardecism is providing an answer at a certain point in its path, a path of initiation. When the individual has crossed a threshold in his/her process of introspection and critical appreciation of his/her practice, kardecism doesn’t seem to be enough anymore, and the individual looks elsewhere for other keys to enhance its understanding of the world and himself.