Mediums Network

Home circle.

Here is a summary of our home circle.  When we sit to investigate and further our comprehension of those energies who have passed it is never with any expectation or forethought but more an open mind and heart to what is shown and it is with a level of trust along with faith that people can come through.

Unbeknown to the circle as they sat on 27th August 2013 it was to be to a spiritual event which once begun filled everyone with surprise.

The sitters all waited for the opening words to be stated, then on commencing trance spirit invited to join the circle.

There was silence for a little while and then a few minutes in audible cracks came from next to one of the medium’s chairs.  With odd noises coming one after another sitters began to inquire if spirit were responsible for it and on responding to the dialogue several of the mediums saw a spirit figure of a man.  He was African and claimed his name to be Joseph.  Noting this one of the gathered members addressed the spirit and wanted to know if there was anything particular he would want mentioned about him or a link we could implement that would help us to find more on who he was on this side.  The entity pointed a finger towards his chest and said one word Slave.  Historically one Joseph Knight was found to be a man born in Africa and sold as a slave in Jamaica to a Scottish owner, John Wedderburn of Ballendean. Knight was made a household servant by Wedderburn and in 1769 he accompanied him to Scotland where, Inspired by Somersett’s Case in England, in which the English courts had held that slavery did not exist under English law, Knight brought suit against his master for his freedom. Knight won his claim, and he established the principle that Scots law would not uphold the institution of slavery.

In circle Joseph alluded to himself as slave.  It was poignant as it was he who through life helped to banish the concept of slavery from England.  Joseph Knight was born in Africa and was taken to Jamaica and later, in 1769, to Scotland, where he was to serve his master, John Wedderburn of Ballendean.  In the sitting in spirit the connection to his achievement was strong, he was smiling as he recounted his name Joseph and said this proudly with speeches on length surrounding his want for identity.

The circle was held on a Tuesday evening.  It was the next day which in the United States and across the world Martin Luther King day was celebrated giving a remarkable evidence of spirit’s awareness not just of time and issues in the world that we face but that it was an event which instigated this particular spirit to come and talk of his own experience.  Three years after Joseph’s input a ruling in England due to his effort cast doubt on the legality of slavery under the common law.

Knight -v- Wedderburn

In 1778, it is odd to think this same Joseph who walked and talked to the mediums in the circle was fighting all those years back to rid slavery from law.  His case was a pioneering example of what one could achieve and through his courage the whole ideology on keeping individuals for one’s own objective was debated.  It became linked to the Sommersett case and applied to the rest of Britain, Knight demanded wages from his owner, and he ran away when this was denied.  Wedderburn was indignant, feeling that he had bestowed considerable gifts on Knight by educating him and taking care of him, he then had the fugitive slave arrested, but in an unheard of act Knight brought a claim before the Justices of the Peace court in Perth, a case that would be known as Knight -v-Wedderburn.

An appeal to the Sheriff was made by Knight portraying how strong he was in his sense of just behaviour.  Luckily the Sherriff found in his favour and through the sitting the spirit of Joseph stood and talked to those gathered with a feeling of independence. 

Historic articles show that when the justices of the peace found in favour of Wedderburn, Knight appealed to the Sheriff of Perth, who found that ‘the state of slavery is not recognised by the laws of this kingdom, and is inconsistent with the principles thereof: That the regulations in Jamaica, concerning slaves, do not extend to this kingdom’.  Because of the note worthy heroic stand Joseph won the appeal which would make history. 

Appeal to the Court of Session was made and it has been documented.. 

In 1777 Wedderburn in turn appealed to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland’s supreme acting civil court, arguing that Knight still owed perpetual service to him, in the
same manner as an indentured servant or an apprenticed artisan. The case was important enough that it was given a full panel of judges and this including Lord Kames the important
legal man of the period.

Knight was helped in preparation for his hearing by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. Their argument was that ‘no man is by nature the property of another’ with a vision to ban slavery. Since there was actually no proof that Knight had given up his natural freedom, he should be set free from serving Wedderburn.  Although Wedderburn’s counsel argued that material and commercial interests, which underpinned Scotland’s prosperity, should be in peril if the suit went against them the verdict was one to shock all.

In an unexpected and somewhat momentous decision, Lord Kames stated that ‘we sit here to enforce right not to enforce wrong’ and the court emphatically rejected Wedderburn’s appeal, ruling that ‘the dominion assumed over this Negro, under the law of Jamaica, being unjust, could not be supported in this country to any extent: That, therefore, the defender had no right to the Negro’s service for any space of time, nor to send him out of the country against his consent: That the Negro was likewise protected under the act 1701, c.6.
from being sent out of the country against his consent.’

In effect, thanks to what Joseph Knight was able to put forward, slavery was not recognised by Scots law and runaway slaves or ‘perpetual servants’ could be protected by the courts, if they wished to leave domestic service or were resisting attempts to return to slavery in the colonies.

Joseph was someone who in life made a stamp on ingrained belief and through his vision embarked a path that would open the lives of many others.

After the case, Knight became a free man, and married his sweetheart Annie Thompson, a woman who had also been in Wedderburn’s service and had been treated poorly following the revelation of her relations with Knight. At this point however Knight disappears from the record; nothing further is known of his life or death

We were able to watch as Joseph brought his own perspective on the account of his days during the circle.  His own speech was vital because as research has shown there was nothing known of him in the ledgers or recorded of him after his case.

The night was to be busy as on leaving Joseph’s spirit caused many more to enter the sitting.  The room became translucent, white substance filled the air and it was not long before in trance Sir Isaac Newton claimed his identity and wanted to be the next to speak.

Sir Isaac Newton was the renowned father of science but it was only after a exploration into his background that it was found he graduated in August 1665.

Sir Isaac Newton PRS MP 25 December 1642 until 20 March 1727 was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of the world.  He was a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, first
published in 1687, laid the foundations for most of mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics and shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the invention of the infinitesimal calculus.

In the circle Sir Isaac Newton wanted to talk on his contribution, just as Joseph had conversed on and in a responding narrative brought out his love and fondness for what he had done and practically put together. 

The idea of building on putting things together was significant for the entity as his voice spoke clearly on how the public needed to see thoughts realised.  Science he claimed had no place in the mind if it was not put on the table and actively made a plausible invention.  Newton’s Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists’ view of the physical universe and was what dominated for the next three centuries. It was through his mental process that also demonstrated that the motion of objects on the Earth and that of celestial bodies could be described by the same principles. By deriving Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and looking from his mathematical description of gravity, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the past beliefs of the cosmos.

Leonardo da Vinci came in spirit adjacent to that of Sir Isaac Newton.  His form was visible before his words made their way to the circle through trance.  It was his full name Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci .. that he gave and then he raised his hand to show that he should be holding a brush.   The habit was one believed in the circle to be a basic reference to his love of arts but actually later pieces showed that Leonardo’s earliest known dated work is a drawing in pen and ink of the Arno valley, drawn on August 5, 1473.  The month of August which would be relevant to his appearance in the sitting.

It is always with a reason with which spirit will come, visit or manifest in a circle.  This can be a connection to a day or month, a memory of a birthday or passing which will mean that they want to bring their energy to a point where they can be seen, heard or felt.

In the sitting it was the commemoration of freedom that is believed made the three entities of Joseph Knight, Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo di vinci such good companions.  They all talked on how a want for freedom whether that be of the physical sense or towards freeing the mind of in depth theories and giving this gift of insight out to the many who would go on to implement it or to the effect that a sculpture or painting would give to those who look upon them, they all aided the restoration of just codes of conduct and through what they physically stood for made a shift in the laws of the land and the education of the mind and the arts which would shape generation after generation.    

It came to light through uncovering recent news about these notable individuals that an exhibition about Leonardo Da Vinci is being held at The Queen’s Gallery at the present time in August 2013.

The Edinburgh International festival is hosting the Mechanics of Man which is a large collation of work from Leonardo featuring sketches, studies and physical images.  Without spirit we would not know that Edinburgh is both the host for this artistic rememberance and where Joseph so long ago fought for the right to be allowed out of service of an owner.

Pictures are of Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da vinci.

Pictures are taken from online encyclopaedia.