Geraldine Cummins facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Geraldine Cummins
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Geraldine Cummins as a young woman, c.1915
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Geraldine Dorothy Cummins
24 January 1890 Cork, Ireland
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| Died | 24 August 1969 (aged 79) |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | Novelist, playwright/dramatist |
| Known for | mediumship |
Geraldine Dorothy Cummins (born January 24, 1890 – died August 24, 1969) was an Irish writer and playwright. She was also known for her work as a spiritualist medium. This means she believed she could communicate with spirits.
She started her career writing novels and plays. Later, she focused more on mediumship and "channelled" writings. These were texts she believed came from spirits, often about the lives of Jesus and Saint Paul. She also wrote about many other topics. Her novels and plays often showed everyday Irish life in a realistic way.
Early Life and Writing Career
Geraldine was born in Cork, Ireland. Her father, Ashley Cummins, was a doctor and a professor. She had two sisters, Mary Hearn and Iris Cummins. When she was young, Geraldine was a talented athlete. She even played for the Irish Women's International Hockey Team. She was also active in the suffragette movement. This movement worked to get women the right to vote.
Geraldine wanted to become a doctor like her father. However, her mother did not agree. So, Geraldine chose a career in writing. She worked as a journalist and wrote creative stories. From 1913 to 1917, she wrote three plays for the Abbey Theatre. She worked on these plays with Suzanne R. Day. Their comedy Fox and Geese (1917) was very popular. In 1919, she published her novel The Land they Loved. This book showed the lives of working-class people in Ireland.
As she became more involved in mediumship, she wrote less creative literature. But she still published some works later in life. Her play, Till Yesterday Comes Again, was performed in London in 1938. She also wrote another novel, Fires of Beltane (1936). In 1959, she released a collection of short stories called Variety Show.
A literary expert, Alexander G. Gonzalez, said that Geraldine's work tried to show all parts of Irish society. This included people from rich families to those in the lower classes. She was influenced by other writers like Somerville and Ross. Gonzalez thought her short story "The Tragedy of Eight Pence" was her best work. It tells the sad story of a woman trying to hide her husband's illness. She wanted to keep him from knowing that his death would leave her with no money.
Psychic Work and Channelled Writings
Geraldine began working as a medium after being encouraged by Hester Dowden and E. B. Gibbes. She claimed to receive messages from a spirit guide named "Astor." She also practiced automatic writing. This is when a person writes without consciously thinking, believing a spirit is guiding their hand. Her books were based on these messages.
In 1928, she published The Scripts of Cleophas. This book shared information she believed came from the spirit of Cleophas. Cleophas was said to be a follower of Saint Paul. The book added details to early Christian history, like the Acts of the Apostles. She later added to this work with Paul in Athens (1930) and The Great Days of Ephesus (1933).
Geraldine's next book, The Road to Immortality (1932), described human progress through spiritual understanding. It gave a hopeful view of the afterlife. She believed its contents came from the spirit of Frederic W. H. Myers. He was a psychologist and psychic researcher. Unseen Adventures (1951) was her spiritual autobiography. She also published several books about the life of Jesus. These books contained knowledge she believed came from spirits.
During World War II, Geraldine reportedly helped the British. She used her connections to find people who supported the Nazis within the Irish Republican movement. She also used her psychic abilities to help the Allies. She sent messages, which she believed came from spirits, to Allied leaders. These messages were meant to support the war effort. She claimed to receive information from spirits like Theodore Roosevelt and Arthur Balfour.
In the 1940s and 1950s, she worked with doctors who study the mind. They wanted to use spiritualism to help people with mental health issues. She wrote about these ideas in Perceptive Healing (1945) and Healing the Mind (1957). She worked with a psychiatrist who used the pen name R. Connell. Their method involved Geraldine "reading" an object linked to a patient. She would then try to find past experiences that might be causing the problem. These could be from the patient's childhood or even from their ancestors.
In 1952, she wrote a biography of the writer and spiritualist Edith Anna Somerville. She also wrote The Fate of Colonel Fawcett (1955). This book shared her psychic insights into the disappearance of explorer Percy Fawcett. He vanished in Brazil in 1925. Geraldine claimed she received psychic messages from Fawcett in 1936. At that time, he was still alive, telling her he had found ancient relics. In 1948, she received another message from Fawcett's spirit, saying he had died. Her last book, Swan on a Black Sea (1965), was about her conversations with the spirit of Mrs. Willett.
See also
- Cummins v Bond
