Copyright (C) 1999 by William Mistele.  All rights reserved. 

The Power of Silence:  an Evocation of Alosom, 25 degrees
Sagittarius

9/18/97: Thurs. 

Reason for Evocation:  I have been feeling over sensitive.  I notice I
have a tendency to withdraw in order to recapture the feeling of
being in my own space.  As I think about this, it occurs  to me it
might be a good time to work with one of the Bardon spirits who
specialize in inner silence.  I would like to produce an inner peace.
   
Preliminary Thoughts:  When I think of silence, I recall some of the
libraries I once studied in.  Some of them are beautiful like at the
University of Chicago.  The architecture of the buildings evokes the
feeling of other ages.  Silence in such an environment provides
support to concentration.  Though many people are present, there is
an atmosphere of scholarship and learning.     
   When I think of the monasteries I have studied in, there too is a
sense of being empowered to disengaged from the external world. 
When I think of nature and some of the deserts I have lived in, I
recall the flow of time as being free of the pressures and distractions
of civilization.  Silence, in these cases, is a way of stepping back and
seeing our lives from a greater depth.
    I would like to be able in a microsecond to be free from external
stimuli even amid the most intense emotional encounters.  There are
even times when I would like to feel I am an exchange student from
another incarnation temporarily visiting this lifetime.  I want to be
involved but I want to retain my own sense of humor and
objectivity.  
    Thorton Wilder, in his play, Our Town,  portrays a young
woman who has died and who now looks back on the life she has
left behind.  The silent space separating her from life is bittersweet. 
In the play, she crosses the boundary separating the living and the
dead to relive one day of her life.   Silence encompasses
psychological and spiritual gulfs like this.
    In the movie, Jacob's Ladder, Jacob is being operated on after
being stabbed in Viet Nam.  Unconscious on the operating table,  he
dreams he has survived the war and returned to his home and wife
in New York City.  There he works as a postal clerk.  But he is
haunted--terrifying things happen to him in the subway or in the
middle of the day.  
   Jacob's Ladder is a descent into the lower brain's concern with
survival and pain.  The movie states that perhaps our demons are
angels in disguise sent to remind us to let go of our attachments.  At
the end of the movie, when Jacob is finally ready, his child who
died years before offers his hand and leads Jacob up the stairs and
into the light.  
      Silence in this movie is not bittersweet.  It is where the voice of
conscience speaks.  It says our heart always provides enough light to
find our way through the dark. 
      In hermetics, silence is one of the four fundamental powers
ascribed to the elements--will, daring, knowledge, and silence. 
Silence is the divine virtue relating to earth.  In silence, we nurture
our visions and our highest ideals until they are strong enough to
manifest on earth.  
     In what follows I describe an evocation of a spirit of the
earthzone named Alosom who specializes in silence.  I have spent
days with various masters whose inner silence is impressive.  They
have trained for many years each in their own traditions.  But
somehow I want something more than the silence of a library, a
desert, or a monastery.   
    I want to enter a silence in which I feel in harmony with the
universe.  If the planet earth were a Goddess, I would like to enter
that silence in which I can feel Her heartbeat and listen as she
speaks.  Having said this, let's see to what extent the spirit Alosom
can assist me in what I seek.

 Ascending the Planes:  I transfer my mind into the akasha. 
Meditating in akasha is always a new experience.  This time I sense
how akasha penetrates the densest aspects of physical matter. To be
in akasha is to be surrounded by an immense space which penetrates
through space and time.  Vast distances open around me. But this
expansion of awareness is also a way of probing the tiniest physical
particle--of perceiving matter from within its structure.  In other
words, this vastness can encompass a lifetime of experience, a
planet or a solar system.  It can also shrink to explore the inside of a
molecule, an atom, an electron, or a photon. 
    Physicists understand this principle:  you can not comprehend the
history of the universe and the placement of the galaxies without
also understanding the matrix of subatomic particles.  The macro
and micro universe are interrelated.  Akasha penetrates and reveals
the secrets of both realms.
   
Sagittarius: when I move into the specific astrological sign of
Sagittarius in the earthzone, I immediately sense it qualities.  It
possesses a profound thirst for knowledge and an energetic quest for
experience.  Sagittarius bonds passion to ideals and it is relentless in
trying to make its ideals real.  If those under this influence can avoid
becoming burnt out or obsessed with selfish excess, they become
very wise.  Through sheer accumulation of experience resulting
from their searchings, their insight and perspective borders on
genuine illumination.  They understand which choices and actions
are the most fruitful and fulfilling.
    
25th Degree of Sagittarius in the Earthzone:  To pursue a quest you
need to be able to disengage from the world.  You need to be
centered in yourself.  Whatever opportunities and experiences are
offered to us by life, this degree of the zodiac would have us ask
ourselves: "Do I have what I need to be transformed?"  It is
imperative to have a satisfactory answer to this question and to
apply our attention to this end.  
     To be in akasha is to embody a profound receptivity.  But akasha
is also filled with powers and purposes saturated with divine
imperatives.  The realm of spirit is very active and it has no doubt
about its power to shape the world.  This degree of Sagittarius is an
example of one kind of power and imperative.  It is the courage
willing to set aside the demands of society and take the time to
rewrite our life script.  We do this so we can embody in an effective
manner the ideals which command our commitment.
  
The Realm of Alosom:  Bardon mentions that Alosom is master of
the qualities and powers of silence.  The level of the akasha where
Alosom dwells contains the wealth which comes from shutting
down our connections to the external world.  This requires and also
results in a supreme self-confidence and ability to be centered within
ourselves. There is also a tremendous increase in energy when you
shift your attention from the external world to your inner self.

Alosom's Sigil:   This spirit's sigil makes silence into a force like
gravity when it has increased several times over.  It has strength.  It
is tangible and real, vital and alive.  Silence for spirits like Alosom is
a place where power accumulates.

Alosom's Inner Source of Inspiration:  The universe--the galaxies,
stars, and planets--is a womb protecting, sheltering, and nourishing
the seeds of life until they are ready to be born as spirit. Silence
serves the same purpose.  It shelters and protects.  It nourishes and
fosters growth until the spirit, newborn and fragile, is ready to
assume the full powers and prerogatives of a creator.  Silence is the
inner strength an individual needs to fashion the missing links
between beginnings and endings, between dreams and their
manifestations. 

Alosom's Outer Aura:  Alosom's aura provides a space which is
protective and free from distractions. What do you suppose I could
possible say to a spirit whose specialty is silence?  How do you
speak aloud when words are the opposite of what is being studied?  
   I ask Alosom, "What happens when individuals develop silence
within themselves?"
Alosom replies, "Like a Thoreau who goes to live for a time on the
outskirts of society, the past and the future speak to you.  You open
to them, ask them questions, and they reply.  Then you discover you
have close friends who have been before your time and who will
follow you later on.  
   "Your orientation and the affirmation of your values becomes so
strong that the world is willing to alter its nature due to your
integrity and honesty.  There are many who have said, `I have a
vision,' or `I have a dream.'  But those who transform the world
through their dreams and visions have done so by relying on the
power of their inner silence."
   "And what is inner silence?" I ask.
   Alosom says, "I stop the senses from perceiving.  I sever your ties
to life.  I can do this for a moment or for as long as is needed.  But I
am neither negative nor do I ascribe to austerity.  Instead, I embody
peace, stillness, dignity, beauty, and freedom of choice.  These grow
so strong under my supervision, they flow from you like water from
a spring.
     "When you can shut down your five senses and retain your full
awareness, there is a vast, inner expansion of consciousness.  This
consciousness leads to total mastery of your self.  When this light is
in your eyes,  when it radiates from a warm and genuine smile, your
worst enemies will think twice and then refuse to fight. 
    "For those who are unprepared or insincere, silence is a country
whose borders are guarded by nightmares, terror, and whirlwinds of
despair.  But those who cross over and explore these unknown lands
find wealth beyond compare.  Master silence and  you will have
channels of communication which open to all realms.  You will be
able to commune with any spiritual being. You will understand the
meaning when a spirit speaks.
   "You will discover there is nothing within you you need deny or
fear.  All desires become clear.  Silence is where dreams originate,
visions are born, and passions enter to be transformed."

Alosom's Inner Aura:  His inner aura is quiet, calm, and relaxing.  It
gives you a sense of feeling at peace with the world and confident in
yourself.

 9/19/97: Fri.  Note: As with other spirits, I meditate with Alosom
on the four planes.   This requires condensing light until the
accumulation is enough for the spirit to be present in our world.  In
this particular instance, I use the color of blue which is the color
Bardon uses for drawing the sigils of  the spirits of the earthzone in
Sagittarius. 

The Akashic Plane:  Alosom says, "To have inner silence is never to
be separate from your ideals, your dreams, your visions, your hopes,
and all that you would make real.  It is to have these things alive
within you in every moment.  Like a knight in the legend of King
Arthur who sits at the round table, you represent the kingdom of the
heart.  It surrounds you and when you speak you speak with its
power. 
     "Avatars and world teachers enter history to remind us that
divinity is everywhere.  Those with inner silence join the spiritual
world and earthly existence.  This is because amid the routines and
activities of life silence maintains an open space inside them.  In this
space the highest ideal can be present without being contaminated,
compromised, or put off to the side.  Silence strengthens inner
visions so there is never any doubt or uncertainty about their
reality."

The Mental Plane:  "When silence touches the mind, you can
consider everything before you begin deliberation or use thoughts
for reflection.  For the mind to comprehend opposites--masculine
and feminine, matter and spirit, space and time, and so forth--it
must be as open as night to starlight or as receptive as early morning
to the ascending sun. 
    "For some, to stop thoughts or to turn the senses within is to be
naked and vulnerable.  It is intolerable. They feel their sanity is at
risk--as if their bodies are sinking in quick sand, they imagine their
consciousness in extreme danger and nearing its end.
    "The same is true for freedom.  If for a moment they saw the
possibilities of being fully alive, they would fall down and cry.  They
would become physically ill or imagine some evil has seized them.  
    "For this reason in war silence is the element of surprise.  It is the
unthinkable.  It does what the opponent can not imagine.  Whatever
the odds, there is always a moment when success becomes
inevitable.  Silence sees what is invisible to everyone else. 
    "In love, silence is the celebration of union.  It is ecstasy and
rapture more than thoughts and sensuality can capture.  In it is the
experience of being one and the beauty is astonishing."
     On the mental plane, the silence in Alosom's mind is like a
mirror.  A mirror can reflect a laser beam which has just burnt its
way through six inches of steel and yet the mirror does not heat up. 
Silence is built into the mirror.  It is beyond light and darkness, form
and emptiness.  Though it never tampers with the ordinary and
familiar, its response is always new. 
   Let's try another image.  For Alosom, silence is like letting the
mind rest, find a home, and then let go into an open expanse of
radiant light.  It is a bliss that must go unnamed because thought can
not map or chart a path across it.  A Zen master once said to me,
"When students solve their koans, the answers are always different
and yet always the same."  When I probe that Zen master's mind, 
he does not need to listen to a student's explanation of a koan.  The
Zen master knows when a student has it right.  He witnesses a new
flower blossoming.  The air is filled with the fragrance of light.  
    
9/20/07: Sat. Pathworking:  Before proceeding to work with the
astral and physical planes, I decided to do a pathworking to help
ground these experiences.  A pathworking uses the imagery of the
outer world to illuminate and express inner plane experience.  It
builds connections between different parts of our psyches. 
    Pathworking starts with something familiar and proceeds to the
unknown.  You explore what something means to your personally
and also what it means for the planet.  You can begin by visualizing
yourself going through a  door, walking down a road, through a
forest, up a hill, and so forth.  There is a variety of ways of using
setting and imagery to create the right mood.  
   I begin by thinking about silence and feeling it around myself. 
Almost immediately I see myself sitting on top of a mountain peak. 
As I look down and about, the land around the mountain is laid out
as a time line.  I can see where I was born and all the various places
I have lived and visited over the years.  
    I notice I can look at a location and immediately I am there.  I
then recall what I experienced as if I am reliving a specific event in
time.  And in a moment I can return to the mountain peak and see
everything again all at once.  There is also a mountain range behind
me.  It is the future and what I have not explored.
   I stand up and follow a trail circling the mountain.  After a short
walk,  I come upon a round, stone building.  The building has large
entrances without doors.  I walk up to an archway and look in.  It is
dark inside but a man in a light grey robe walks over to me from
inside.  His eyes are bright.  His voice is soft.  He says,  "This
temple celebrates the mystery of silence.  To join in the celebration,
offer a gift."
   I say to him, "My gift is the silence with which I observe nature
and listen to the beings within its four elements.  I hear their songs
in the winds, the seas, the magma, and the stones."
  He says, "Come. Enter."
   I enter and find a meditation cushion waiting for me on the floor. 
I sit on it.  I am surrounded by a number of individuals also
meditating.  As my eyes adjust to the semi-darkness, I recognize
some of those who are here.  There is a Zen master I know and a
Tibetan lama, a Hopi Indian Medicineman, and a magician.
     As I glance at them I notice, similar to being on the mountain
peak, I can see into their lives.  I see when and where they have
practiced silence.  I see the lama meditating for years by himself in a
cave in Tibet and the Zen master in a monastery in Viet Nam. 
There are others here as well from other ages such as St. Columba--
the priest trained in the bardic arts of the Celts.  The silence is so
rich it is like a living presence.  It wraps you about and holds you in
its heart. 
    As I continue meditating, I notice that some of those sitting here
are spirits whom Bardon has mentioned and I have worked with
before.  Jah-Hel is from Mercury and Ebvep the moon.  Jachil is
from the earthzone in Cancer and Cigila is from Pisces.  And
Cermiel in Capricorn is a guardian of the passage between death and
rebirth. 
    The silence embraces both human and spiritual beings without
differentiation.  The more I sit here meditating, the more the
experience becomes graphic and concrete.  I can place my hand on
the stone floor and run my fingers over the crevices.  And the
presence of others who are here is very strong.  The sense of
spiritual community is awesome.  This temple feels as real as any
temple I have ever been in.
    Note: It may seem odd that a gift is required before entering this
temple of silence.  To enter this space an individual must already
know silence.  The individual's internal silence serves as a medium
through which he or she can connect to the masters, spiritual beings,
and the powers which are present.  .   
   I also notice that elemental beings, even those are masterful as
Mentifil, are unable to enter this space.  A gnome can not detach his
mental body from his astral and physical bodies and project it
directly into akasha nor can he "center" his consciousness within
akasha.  The spiritual resources of the earthzone are not available to
elemental beings.  If an elemental being tried to do so, his astral
body would begin to dissolve and disintegrate.   A human being is
not so limited. 

9/21/97: Sun.  The Astral Plane: Alosom says, "Silence is prophecy.
Words fashioned in silence become reality.  Through silence, the
most secret and intractable of passions are transformed into visions. 
When you follow desires to their source, you discover that the four
elements conceal divinity--the lion, the ox, the eagle, and the angel. 
They sit in peace and speak of what shall be.  To enter the center of
stillness and yet feel the turning of the wheel of time around you--to
be open and receptive and yet transparent and luminous--this is the
gift of silence.
    "To keep silence is to be blessed by Divine Providence.  It is the
ability to take the most difficult of fates and karmas and turn them
into something wonderful because you see the beauty within them.
Law and limitation bind things giving them weight, shape, and place. 
But silence grants freedom because it knows how to wait.  In the
greatest darkness and the most lonely prison, silence finds gates
leading to liberation.  
    "Who can stand against you, oppress or oppose you, when you
have measured and crossed the abysses of silence hidden within
them?  What army, what empire, what wall, or weapon shall protect
them?  When you are silence, you are the vibration, the matrix, and
the substance from which their thoughts arise.  You are the eyes, the
forge, and the hammer which has shaped their will.  Its design is an
imprint of your mind. 
    "To possess the virtue of silence is to command a treasure
sharper and more beautiful than the largest diamond.  As fire to
light, as emptiness to form, silence is to wisdom, will, and love."

The Physical Plane:   When a spirit such as Alosom enters our
physical world or when silence is fully present, doubt and confusion
dissolve.  Faith and conviction are complete.  You perceive how
your current situation in life is an excellent place from which to
proceed to accomplish all that you need.  The conflicts and tensions
which hold you are seen as ingredients you can use to transform
yourself and the world. 
    Alosom made these following comments on silence:, "For the
stone circle placed five thousand years ago, the past, present, and 
future are not separate.  The stones are arrayed to bear witness to
the beauty and magnificence at the center of the circle where silence
speaks.
    "Time is a stone circle.  All worlds, evolutions, races, and paths
of life are monoliths and monuments revealing its purposes.  But
silence is behind the forms and designs fashioned by time and it is
full of boundless light.  All treasures of matter and spirit and all
expressions of life testify to its presence.  
    "Silence is a garment worn by the unmanifest when it appears on
earth.  To walk cloaked in silence is to be an agent of peace in
creation.  Anger and rage are then like candle flames exposed to a
winter storm.  Hatred and greed are like ice amid a desert where the
sand bakes in the heat.  
    "Silence is the taste of infinity--the wine in the cup of each
moment.  To drink is to become a prophet of liberation,
emancipation, and freedom.
    "To enter silence is to be cleansed, anointed, and blessed.  You
can see its depths every single time in the eyes of those who
accomplish divine missions.  
     "Silence is the power to follow a path of light through the
greatest perplexities and obstructions.  When you speak, nightmares
transform into visions of compassion and sorrow falls asleep in the
arms of peace.  
    "In silence, who you are and who you are meant to be--your
divinity and highest destiny--these are ever radiant as a flame in your
heart.  Enter the center of the circle.  Be a sea of boundless light. 
Become the wish-fulfilling gem responsive to every desire and yet
offering the highest liberation.  
    "Search out and claim the treasures of silence so they become
your own.  Draw upon your inner spirit and also upon me.  I am
free to teach and to transmit to others all these powers and qualities. 
     "The reason I exist is so these gifts might be celebrated on earth.
Approach me through evocation, invocation, meditation, or any
other means.  Though I am an agent with a commission appointed
by Divine Providence,  when it comes to silence, I am as near to you
as your own breath."  
 
Closing Remarks:  This evocation, of course, barely scratches the
surface of Alosom's wisdom.  As I think about silence now, I can
see how, as in a druid's circle, silence is a part of cycle of day and
night,  the seasons of the year,  and the phases of our lives.  Silence
is a part of the fabric of life.  It is ordinary, ever present, and yet
its
nature can be explored and celebrated through ceremony and ritual. 
     To my surprise, the pathworking is what is most remarkable to
me in this evocation.  In an instant, with the smallest mental shift, I
can be within the temple of silence I experienced in the vision.  I
cherish this sense of community and connection which is free of the
boundaries of limiting traditions.  Silence embraces everyone.  Time
and distance place no restrictions upon this sacred space.  Here,
human and divine beings sit side by side.  Too pure to be
compromised, silence, like the sky at night, is full of boundless
wonder and beauty. 
    Alosom concludes, 

May silence fill you with infinite light
May the heart of life dwell within your heart
May the peace that embraces the universe and all its stars
Abide with you and guide you wherever you are.