Adelaide Augusta Câmara was one of the most devoted female figures of Spiritism in Brazil, well known by her pseudonym Aura Celeste. She incarnated in the city of Natal, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, on January 11, 1874, and disincarnated in the city of Rio de Janeiro on October 24, 1944. Aura Celeste arrived in the former Federal Capital in January 1896, thanks to the help of some Protestant militants, to whose religion she belonged, who gave her the opportunity to teach at Ram Williams School, which she did with great mastery for some time, until she organised a primary school in her own home, where many illustrious men of the Brazilian political and social milieu learned their first letters with her. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

It was in this period of her life, in 1898, that she began to feel the first manifestations of his mediumistic faculties. At that time, the great Bezerra de Menezes was at the head of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation, clothed in that halo of prestige and respect that believers and non-believers alike gave him, and Spiritism was the subject of all conversations, not only through mediumistic phenomena and healings, but also through spoken propaganda, books and the press.

Under the wise guidance of Bezerra de Menezes, she began her remarkable mediumship career as a psychographer at the Ismael Spiritist Centre. The great apostle of Brazilian Spiritism, through his well-known clairvoyance, once predicted that Adelaide Câmara, with her prodigious faculties, would one day astonish believers and unbelievers alike. And Bezerra's prophecy was not long in coming true, for soon Adelaide Câmara, as an auditory medium, began to work in spreading the Doctrine, lecturing and prescribing with such accuracy and precision that her name spread throughout the country.

When the unforgettable teacher, Dr. Bezerra de Menezes, died in 1900, Adelaide Câmara approached the great pioneer, Inácio Bittencourt, and, in the sessions of the Spiritist Circle ‘Caritas’, she started to render her magnificent services as a medium and as a propagandist of the first order. When she married in 1906, household chores and the education of her children forced her later to withdraw from active propaganda in the Centres, but she did not remain inactive. In her spare time she conspired with the spirit guides and was able to receive and produce admirable pages, which were published in the work "From the Beyond", in 21 fascicles, and in the book "Dew from Heaven".

It was there that she adopted the pseudonym AURA CELESTE, the name by which she became known throughout Brazil. In 1920, she returned to the rostrum and to mediumistic work with such vigour and enthusiasm that her frail body suffered a little, but she never stopped fulfilling her duties. Dr. Joaquim Murtinho was the spiritual physician who, through her, began to work in healing the sick and needy, diagnosing and healing all who knocked at his door, spontaneously developing various mediumistic faculties during this period. In addition to the mediumship of incorporation, hearing, clairvoyance, psychography, healing and intuition, Adelaide Câmara also possessed the extraordinary faculty of bilocation. She performed many healings in different parts of Brazil, transporting herself to them in a ‘fluidic unfolding’, her perispiritual body being visible, as happened in Juiz de Fora and Corumbá (verified) by patients who, under her care, saw her apply ‘passes’ to them.

Poet, lecturer, storyteller and educator above all, she left excellent literary-doctrinal works, in prose and verse, usually signing them with her pseudonym. Thus she published ‘Voices of the Soul’, verse; ‘Sentimental’, verse; ‘Aspects of the Soul’, short stories; ‘Spiritual Words’, lectures; ‘Towards Truth’ and ‘Light from on High’. She also published many poems and doctrinal articles in Spiritist magazines and newspapers. The great journalist and writer Leal de Souza referred to Adelaide Câmara as ‘the great modern Muse, the Spiritist Muse’. In 1924, she dedicated herself to helping orphaned children and destitute elderly people. She focused all her efforts on materialising this ancient desire of her soul. However, he could do little in almost three years of struggle. It happened then that a confrere, João Carlos de Carvalho, was collecting donations and funds for the foundation of an institution of this nature, and one day he gave her the list of donations so that Adelaide Câmara could find new balls for such a humanitarian purpose.

A few days later, João Carvalho died and she took possession of the list and the money collected. A few months later, Mr. Lopes, owner of Casa Lopes, who had been studying the Doctrine, showed interest in organising an institution to help orphans and Adelaide told him that she had a list of donations for this purpose. The idea was enthusiastically welcomed and soon materialised. They rented a house in Botafogo and the Spiritist Asylum ‘João Evangelista’ was installed there on March 13, 1927, with Adelaide as the first director. This festive inauguration was attended by Dr. Guillon Ribeiro, then 2nd secretary of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation and its representative in the ceremony. In brief words, Adelaida Câmara expressed the joy of her soul, affirming that the ideal of her whole existence had been fulfilled: ‘to be a mother of orphans, a grace from heaven that I would not exchange for all the gold and greatness of the world’.

From then on, she dedicated all her time to this great work of charity, lending it the light of her knowledge and her kindness until the day when she serenely surrendered her soul to God. With extreme dedication, Aura Celeste worked in various Spiritist charitable societies in the city of Rio de Janeiro, giving to all of them the best of her energies and intelligence. In the Spiritist Asylum ‘João Evangelista’, however, she performed her greatest task, not only as a competent educator, but also as an able supervisor of countless young people who received, as they still do, intellectual and moral education. Adelaide Câmara's life and work were a ladder of light, an affirmation of faith and humility, and a perennial witness of love. She was the great educator who taught by teaching and educated by teaching, by example. A medium without vanity, sincere and honest to the utmost, she practised mediumship as a true priesthood. Endowed with a solid culture, she would have made a name for herself in the world of letters if she had wanted to.

Poetess of vast resources, convincing and natural speaker, lady of vigorous style and sparkling imagination, she gave and did everything, with the resources she possessed, for the good name and the enhancement of the Spiritist Doctrine. The Spiritist Asylum ‘João Evangelista’, in Rio de Janeiro, is still there, with its own headquarters, witnessing the work and dedication to the cause of good of that noble woman called Adelaide Augusta Câmara.