Copyright © 2006 by William Mistele.  All rights reserved.

 

Problems in the Study of Magic, Part III—

    The Magnetic Fluid

                         

Note 1: Some parts of this essay are taken from my other articles.  See also yet to be published book Undines.

 

Note 2: This essay is a response to a woman’s question to me: Can you tell me how women might become more feminine by working with the magnetic fluid? The following topics amount to a first draft.  I will continue adding to it from time to time.

 

Note 3: This article can also be construed as the curriculum for a seminar at the Magical University called Introduction to the Element of Water, The Magnetic Fluid, and Undines.

 

Topics:

 

Introduction: The Electric and Magnetic Fluids

The Electric and Magnetic Fluids in Magic

Two Problems (includes beginning exercise)

Warm Up Exercise

Profile of an Undine’s Personality

Profiles of Magnetic Women

 

Exercises Using Water Imagery

 

            A Lake: from the undine Isaphil

           The Ocean: from the undine Istiphul

            Iceberg: from the undine Amue

            Ocean Trench

            Lunar Gravity

            A Thunderstorm

            A River

            Water as Omnipresence

            

From Pop Quiz for Magicians:

Distinguishing a Real Undine from an Imagined One

The Rules in Communicating with Nature Spirits

Nature Spirits Don’t Follow the Same Rules

Peace, Contentment, Rapture: Self-Evaluation

Tone Magic

 

Journal of Meditations on the cosmic letter M

Becoming a Whale: an exercise in mental projection

Several Poems Relating to Water

An Essay on How to Write a Poem: the Focusing Method

A Field Trip: One Minute Seminar on Relationships

Final Summary

 

Introduction: The Electric and Magnetic Fluids

 

From a magical point of view, two of the most dynamic energies of transformation in the universe are the electric and the magnetic fluids.  These are not the same as the electricity and magnetism in nature but are roughly analogous to them.  

  These fluids arise out of the four elements, earth, water, air, and fire.  These elements and fluids are equally active within the human body and particularly in sexuality and attraction between the genders.  They can be pursued on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels.

 

The Cultural and Spiritual Problem

 

To put it briefly, there is a profound conflict and imbalance in the soul of humanity.  In terms of the two fluids, the electric is far more developed and pronounced than the magnetic.  It is a kind of global, social, psychological, cultural, spiritual, and archetypal imbalance. 

     The electric is seen our war machines, our military industrial complexes, our science, our applied technologies, our research and development.  We understand well about having dominion over the earth—hard work, ordering, producing, taking, using, and building.  There is a mastery that comes from assuming power, being in charge, organizing, systematizing, standardizing, planning, commanding, and taking control.

     The opposite, however, seen in the magnetic fluid is not so developed.  If it were we would know what it means to feel a “peace that flows like a stream from the dawn of time to the ends of eternity.”  We would know what it is to feel one with the universe.  We would know what it is like to cease thinking for hours on end, to be as calm and still as a mountain lake that reflects in its depths the stars, the night, the moonlight, and the treasures of spirit hidden within us.

      We would be able to flow into and unite with, to share heart to heart with anyone else on earth.  Empathy—sensing what others’ feel, experiencing what they experience, perceiving the world through their five senses—this ability would be as advanced and as powerful as our knowledge and application of nuclear physics.

     You see, the magnetic fluid is so astonishingly beautiful and overwhelmingly ecstatic that prior to this time we may not have been ready to work with it.  We would have risked destroying human history as we know it had we focused our attention in another direction, one that would have strayed from our appointed course of development.  Our greatest scholars, teachers, and leaders just might have been inspired to put their best efforts into unlocking the feminine mysteries rather than the more extroverted masculine powers.

     But now the time is right.  What has been previously hidden should not be held back.  The powers, the treasures, the wonders of the undines and the magic of water should be familiar to all who desire them.

 

 

The Electric and Magnetic Fluids in Magic

(From Four Archetypes of the Feminine)

The Electric Fluid

 

In brief, the electric fluid is hot, burning, expansive, dynamic, intense, powerful, and explosive in sensation.  It has the capacity to produce great light.  In psychological terms, it is commanding, full of faith and conviction.  It reaches for sovereign power seeking absolute control.  It annihilates and destroys obstacles that stand in its way. 

    In more spiritual terms, it seeks to manifest its vision using all the previous qualities—with certainty, with dynamic will and expansive power, with implacable dedication and electrifying conviction.  An example in the earthzone is the spirit referred to as Anamil in Aries or for that matter the archangel Michael.  For both of these spirits, there are no problems that exist on earth that can not be solved. 

    You could say that independence, strength, courage, conviction, faith, will, determination, dedication, self-reliance, self-mastery, uprightness, clarity, order, adaptability, practicality, planning, productivity, excitement, exhilaration, creativity, and vision are qualities that are present when the electrical fluid is operating successfully.

   In my other essay, Christianity and Judaism, I give the example of the “dark vision” that came to Abraham about his descendents suffering in Egypt.  For that matter, the captain of the Titanic might have had a twinge of anxiety about running at full steam with icebergs in the vicinity and most definitely the engineers at the company that produced the “O” rings for the space shuttle had a few concerns as well.

    Had these individuals possessed sufficient will and conviction they might very well have done whatever was necessary to avoid the destruction they intuited.  But they did not.  Their electric fluid, their faith and conviction, their will and decisiveness lacked both strength and quality necessary to prevent the disasters that followed their inaction.

    Obviously, the electric fluid can be done in a positive or negative way.  In the I-Ching, the great yang is describe as the most creative of all things.  The prefect expression of its nature is the easy that it might overcome the difficult.  In other words, you take a great task, project, or purpose and break it down into its steps and parts and master them one by one. 

    A great father systematically and persistently teaches his children in a simple but continuous manner so that when they are older they are fully equipped and prepared to face the challenges of life.  He foresees the ends and objectives in advance, makes plans, and persists in carrying through with them so that the most difficult of problems can be solved.  A father’s great accomplishment is in preparing his children to undergo the great transitions of life in a smooth and harmonious manner.

   Once the decision is made to build a Golden Gate Bridge, an Empire State Building, or to invade Europe, you need an architect or a commander who will assume total and complete responsibility to follow the plan and to accomplish the mission.   You definitely do not want a commander in chief (Hitler) who says, “Don’t wake me under any circumstances” or a general in charge of the defense of the French coast (Rommel) who says “The storm is too strong.  I think I will go attend my wife’s birthday party” hours before the allies begin the invasion of Normandy. 

   What you do want is a commander in chief (Eisenhower) who knows that he is completely responsible for the outcome, who is willing to assume great risk, to act decisively, and yet who is willing to resign his commission should the invasion fail. 

    The electric fluid can be very destructive as well.  As such, it’s burning and consuming power acts to dominate the wills of others.  It tortures and torments, hazes and subjugates.  It absorbs others’ wills into itself.  It utilizes every means possible to corrupt, divide, undermine, and enslave others to its purposes. 

     An example of the electric fluid operating in a negative patriarchy is when the man in charge hazes those under him.  One way he does this is to ask that they do something completely absurd that they know he knows is absurd.  Doing this task degrades them but nonetheless doing it with full devotion is a test of their complete loyalty and obedience. 

     In North Korea, the leader is a great master of this form of hazing.  Or, as is stated in the computer game Civilization, by definition there are no unhappy people in a totalitarian society.  If you express your unhappiness you have a way of disappearing.

     For the negative electrical fluid, the light is there but it lacks purity and clarity--the vision is distorted and twisted.  The faith and conviction are there but are often expressed in a degraded form such as through arrogance and self-righteousness. 

     The positive electrical (or patriarchal for that matter) is seen in George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Gandhi—all acting to revolutionize society in a more just and inclusive manner.  The negative is seen in Napoleon, Stalin, and bin Laden—all grasping after power in a regressive and exclusive manner.  But in either the positive or negative forms, the electric fluid is willing to put itself at complete risk to accomplish its mission and manifest its vision. 

 

 

The Magnetic Fluid

 

The magnetic fluid, by contrast, is cool, soothing, contracting, and attractive.  It is nurturing, and supportive.  It contains within itself so as to shelter and protect.  Instead of intense and explosive, it is rhythmic, receptive, and gentle. 

     In psychological terms, it is empathic, sensitive and responsive.  It draws together, bonds, joins, and unites.  It accepts and affirms.

      On the mental plane, the magnetic fluid calms the mind exchanging the process of thinking for an expansion of sensory perception. It amplifies awareness so that water becomes part of one’s nervous system.  You become aware of vast distances and the subtle nuances of physical and emotional vibration. 

      In spiritual terms, it reaches toward all embracing, all-encompassing love.  It presents us with astonishing states of awareness that transcend individual identity.  Such states involve wonder, ecstasy and beauty.  

     Again, in the I-Ching the great Yin is the most receptive of all things.  The perfect expression of its nature is the simple that it might overcome what obstructs.  The yin in this case is known for its devotion.  It is the mother whose love is always there, whose support is always felt and present.  There is no end to its nurturing capacity physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. 

    The Great Yin conveys an inner feeling of affirmation, of support and love.  This devotion or conveyance of love serves to unite the individual from within no matter how dissecting and dividing, conflicting and stressful the circumstances of the individual’s path in life.  This is a feminine, a mother’s set of qualities and powers describe by King Wu in ancient times in China when he wrote the I-Ching.  Whether individual women have any interest in being so devote or “feminine” in this sense in a modern society, these qualities and powers are a significant part of the magnetic fluid’s capacities.

    We could say that peace, repose, calmness, happiness, contentment, serenity, tranquility, well-being, delight, kindness, gentleness, affection, empathy, tenderness, sensuality, pleasure, bliss, ecstasy, compassion, and love are qualities that are present when the magnetic fluid is operating successfully.  Whether positive or negative, whether life giving or life destroying, the magnetic fluid is the guardian that reveals the deepest feelings and the mysteries at the core of the self.

 

 

Two Problems

 

First Problem

 

The problems in working both with the water element and with undines probably reduce to two things.  The first involves learning to focus completely on direct sensory perceptions and impressions.  It is necessary to hold, gaze upon, enter, immerse yourself within, taste, touch, listen to, explore, survey, and record your full spectrum of your feelings and emotions. 

    To work with the magnetic fluid an individual needs a personal inventory, a mental repertoire, and memory data base to draw upon to compare and contrast so as to interpret new and unusual experiences.  When dealing with the unknown, it helps to be very clear about what you already know.  Your body and your feelings are your primary reference books in exploring the magnetism within water.

 

Magical and Non Magical Methods in Working with Water

 

To be brief, we can recall and to some extent relive our past experiences with water.  We can also interact with water through our imaginations.  This can be carried out in a casual manner such as is done in daydreaming.  We can also extend our imagination a little further by imagining we are inside of a dream.  This method is sometimes referred to as pathworking—you go on a little mental excursion following a certain theme. 

     We can be playful—I imagine or recall being on a beach.  I feel the spray on my face from waves breaking.  I smell the air.  I hear the roar from the waves.  I watch the wind as its gusts play upon the surface of the lake or sea.  This is all perfectly normal and within everyday modes of brain activity.  There is nothing magical about this at all.

     But what if I extend the process.  What if I focus on one detail for a minute or more.  I imagine I am floating in my favorite tide pool by Makapu’u on Oahu.  I linger here.  The high concentration of salt in the water supports my body.  I hear the waves pounding on the rocky, volcanic shore twenty feet away.  I float with my eyes closed.  I let go.  All that exists in this moment is the touch of water, its sounds, its smells, it vibrations, its swirling bubbly action.

     And I continue now within a waking dream.  The water in this dream responds to me.  It is ready to show me new sensations and feelings I have never felt before.  A shiver of bliss curls down my nerves as if my nerves are the strings of a harp and the winds of my desires and longings begin to play music upon them.  Except for this: the notes and melodies are not my own; the musician doing the playing follows themes that use the sensations and feelings of water. 

    I breathe deep.  My chest rises slightly in the water and then sinks slightly again as I exhale.  The edges of my body fade.  My nervous system feels like it extends though the pool and then just as easily through the surrounding ocean without limitation.  The sensation of water in nature and the internal feeling of being accepted and at peace become interchangeable. 

    It helps of course that I am fairly well acquainted with being able to stop my mind from thinking.  I am here without thoughts occurring.  I am focused on the physical sensations and receptive to the faintest nuances of feeling without distractions arising. That comes from training. 

   It helps also that I do not worry as the definition of my body or ego identity dissolves into nothing.  I am not afraid of becoming nothing or a mirror that is empty and clear so that its nature is pure receptivity. 

   I linger here.  Time—the part of my brain that tracks a sequence of moments unfolding as a linear activity—it disengages.  The clock in my brain has lost reference to seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, eons and ages.  I could just as easily be dreaming with the sea of that moment when life first took birth and began its journey.  I could just as easily be in that place when the seas shall wash the shores of this planet and mankind shall be no more. 

    I linger here as the sensations and feelings within my brain conjure images of places familiar like moments of intimacy with women I have known.  And just as easily images appear of worlds so far away they have been created by my imagination as a tribute to what I long for. 

    A therapist might call this free association.  A clairvoyant might call it divination.  I call it another way of being—it is passing through the gates of dream and imagination to taste the powers of the magnetic fluid and the treasures of spirit hidden within water.

     Have I started doing magic yet?  It is a tough call.  Technically speaking according to one definition, magic occurs when you use your psychic powers. 

     A sense utilizing tactile sensation or visual perception is cancelled.  The energy within the sensory system of touch or the eye’s receptivity to external light is suspended.  The physical sense of the skin or eye is then turned within and free to be utilized by the brain which perceives now through the eyes of imagination, dream, or the astral plane. 

     This action subtracts an amount of physical vitality from your body.  It puts a tax on your nervous system and it submits a charge to be paid at a later date from the integrity of your personality.  Magic is very, very expensive. 

     You have to pay back what has been taken away during your imaginary or psychic journey if you want to return fully to the light of day—if you want to be, feel, and act normal again in this world shared in common with other human beings.  A lot of people never make the transition back. 

    This is where practicing a rigorous system that trains the mind and concentration pays off.  You are able to balance the accounts—the debits and credits, the interest and taxes, the fees and assessments—so that things remain harmonious when your payments come due. 

    And now you return from these magnetic dreams that feed on divine passions.  You have your cup of coffee with sugar and cream or your green tea and you notice right away the subtle tensions in your nervous system that remain.  With a breath or a minor mental adjustment you focus and they begin to drain away.      

    The blood vessels dilate and the warmth and circulation return to the parts of your body that experienced a very minor form of hibernation as you focused your attention on another world.  And you make a few mental notes on what to do during the day or week that will keep your body and mind healthy.  You want to be extremely careful to avoid any residual strain or anything that might distract from your everyday activities. 

    And then the real test for both those who use magic and those who use ordinary methods of reflection appears.  The question then is, What part of your experience with watery magnetism can you apply in a way that enriches your life and your world?  Does the feeling of peace carry over to your personality so you appear calm, serene, and clear?  Or are you still caught in an otherworldly dream like waking up in the morning after some profound dream that you just can’t quite recall? 

    When you dealing with someone in a moment of conflict, can you look into the other’s eyes and easily imagine where they are coming from and what is driving them?  Can you project (or spontaneously flow) something of your peace toward them so that somehow they feel good amid the interaction?  In this case, your empathy expands so as to increase your knowledge of your fellow human beings. 

   Or does your heightened sense of empathy make your vulnerable?  You want to give and to heal but the application and the situation never quite match or express your intentions?  For an undine, there is a wild serenity, an engaging peace, and an enticing stillness that reign supreme within any situation.  Some of the undines are fabulous magicians.  But once we start talking about dialoguing with undines we are now operating within a magical universe or so it would seem.

 

Note:  There are times when concentrating on nature images actually produces a charge of energy inside your body.  For example, it is possible to accumulate an extra amount of watery energy within oneself.  This can have a healthy, balancing effect. It can produce disharmony the way attending a basketball game can be draining if you remain in a heightened state of excitement after the game or if upon getting up in the morning you remain in a semi state of sleep.  In the case of having a surcharge of watery energy inside of you, the remedy is to imagine it draining away.  You can “breathe” the water element out of your body through your breath or body pours or you can imagine it slipping out your feet or hands.

 

First Step

 

A first step, then, a beginning exercise is imaginatively recall the highlights of your experience with water in nature—being out in the rain, swimming in a lake or river, watching the waves break on the shore, the fog drift over the water, the smell of the ocean, drinking water from a well, sailing in a boat with the spray of the waves on your face, a picturesque lake you camped near, being out on the high sea, ice, snow, seeing the fog in your breath when it is cold, etc.  And then there are the images we get through movies, magazines, and TV—icebergs, the artic poles, streams within caves, huge waves, water spouts, etc.

    Here are few more descriptions from my dialogues with undines:

 

Water is the sparkling white drops in a waterfall, the color in the rainbow, the spray in the wave breaking on the beach, in the white cap, and in the water splashing your face.  It is soft, foamy bubbles slipping around your ankles as you walk in the surf and the drops of water thrown into the air as the water in a stream slaps against a rock.  It is the water dropping down, sprinkling, or drizzling as you walk beneath the leaves of trees still wet from the rain.  It is the smell of salty, moist air when you are near the sea and the cool, moist scent when you approach a desert stream.

 

And while sitting on a rock in a stream with an undine next to me I become acutely aware of tiny currents crisscrossing at the edges of the mirror like surface just where water begins to fold around a rock.  As the water dips and turns around my ankle, I sense how the stream's bubbling ripples are like the hands of a dancer telling a story as they turn in countless swirls and curves.  The streams across these islands seem suddenly near.  Their sounds breathe and sigh, caressed by air, hiding in sand, seeping beneath rocks, falling in space, and circling in mountain pools.  Drifting downstream to the sea, these waters laugh like young girls carrying baskets of fresh fruit to a celebration.

 

These are part of my personal experiences that make up a repertoire of my memories with water.  Some of our memories will be highly emotional and others will be playful and innocent.  It is important to note the temperature of the water, the currents, waves, tides, and all the sounds, smells, feelings and sensations that are especially vivid in our memories.  We will need a crystal clear set of images and sensations in order to proceed.

 

In so many ways it is not difficult to open to the astral realm—when your body sensations and perceptions are completely immersed in the touch and embrace of water in nature.  There can be a pleasant memory of water.  Something enjoyable to recall.  A time when you had fun.  A time when you forgot yourself.  Something thrilling occurred.  Something joyful and playful and full of delight. 

   This is normal stuff.  But there is a moment if you pause and let go just a little more than usual.  You make that small shift into your feelings.  And then touching water, even placing your hands in a bowl of water and your emotional receptivity opens to a far larger expanse of the magnetic field that is water’s vibration in nature.

   Then it is possible to feel water in a way that is giving, receiving, embracing, flowing, letting go, yielding purifying, renewing, with depths and breath, currents, tides, and streams.  This water encircles the earth, extending without center on and on full of life, dreams, and songs. 

    The vibratory field of watery magnetism is such that every desire can be satisfied here, every dream experienced in its fulfillment, every vision purified, every craving and hunger released so as to know the wonder hidden within them, and every love tasted, touched, and felt to the that end that human beings are destined to achieve. 

    And then again the trick is coming back to the normal mode of perception and the familiar range of feelings you left behind.  If you overdose on watery magnetism you are not really here but still wandering around out there.  And that can be a nightmare—being haunted by what you can not express or share. 

     And if you come back too quick or without artistic sentiment, the wonder and beauty, the harmony and all-embracing love you felt and touched gets left behind.  If you are not careful, it gets erased from your mind.  The brain can not retain a consciousness so far away from the ordinary.  Then again it is like a dream from which you awake having forgotten even the taste.

 

Second Problem

 

And so the second problem is with letting go of and then returning to one’s personal identity.  I do not think I could get the famous depth psychologist, Carl Jung, to let go of his identity sufficiently to work with water.  I think he was probably too caught up in identifying with his mental activity.  I do not think I could have gotten the poets T.S. Elliot or W.B. Yeats to work successfully with water.  And I know that Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, and Rowling would be incapable of this quest. 

    On the other hand, the poet Theodore Roethke yes.  He would have in an instant embraced without hesitation or a second thought the undines’ domains had he known about them.  And if I had showed the poet Dylan Thomas a meditation for undines, an undine personality profile, and a few stories as well he would have gone so deep I don’t know if he would have found his way back. 

    And if the photographer Ansel Adams and I had gone hiking together and I had explained to him about the energies underlying nature, he would have added nude women to his spectacular photography.  I am sure of that.  I also think the German poets Holderlein, Trakl, Schiller, and Rilke could have handled undines with their imaginations and their hearts.  These poets were hard core mystics.  They knew how to surrender their egos and identities for the sake of their art.

      But I am not so sure about the English Romantic poets.  They knew how to take a perception, a feeling, or a sensation and explore it endlessly in their poetry.  But to be honest with you I think they would have been scared shitless of a real queen of undines had they run into one or two.  It is one thing to write about a fairy queen when you know you are the artist and you are in control of the words, the rhythm, and the intonation of the poetry that comes through. 

     It is altogether a different thing when the touch of a queen of undine’s hand on your skin takes you into a dream in which you feel simultaneously the waves breaking on all the beaches of the world.  No, I don’t think they would have been ready, even though they were poetic revolutionaries, to embrace a beauty that would have annihilated their concepts of nature as being passive and pretty.

    It is not that I am asking more than what most artists would be willing to give or to attempt.  It is more like this: you have to be able to say “here is everything I am, know about myself, and have experienced in this life; and now I am putting that off to the side for a little while (I’ll be back shortly and it will be waiting for me)—I am putting off all that I am so I can do something completely different. 

     “I am going to enter a waking dream and a realm of the imagination so deep and vast that it overlaps with the energies underlying nature.  And in this realm I am going to learn to perceive and feel like an undine as if this is my home and no longer that tiny zone of consciousness we call humanity.”

     It does not really matter if you believe in undines or not.  That is quite irrelevant.  What is at stake is another mode of perception that takes place outside of the normal range of human consciousness. 

    Am I suggesting that it is inexcusable for mankind to have missed such astonishing beauty, to have been so blind to the all-embracing love that vibrates all around us in every ocean, lake, and stream, to have failed to explore the bliss and ecstasy so intense they destroy human conceptions and philosophy? 

     It is inexcusable.  It is absolutely inexcusable.  It is also completely understandable.  You think other things have not been hidden or held back?  How about this?  “Say Moses, in regard to the Arc of the Covenant, it is known to be made of gold and to generate like an electrical condenser a whole lot of electricity.  Could you give us the schematics and electrical circuitry for the design along with an explanations and suggestions for applied technology?”

     “And Jesus, could you tell us about what went on during all those years of your life for which there is no record?  What was your process of self-discovery?  And could you tell me in detail what it is like to be joined to God and how exactly and to what extent you expect or anticipate that others will join with you in accomplishing this?  In other words, could you give us some tips on the nature of this romance that had made the two of you one?  I am only asking because I sense that the entire history of Christianity has been blind to the reality.”

    “And Krishna, I love the way you went about trying to make peace between warring armies in the Mahabharata.  Could you write up your diplomatic strategies and modes of heightened empathy in a manner comparable to your Bhagavad-Gita?  Machiavelli wrote The Prince and Hitler Mien Kampf and we also have The Art of War.  We have works on destruction and domination so what I would really like is a work of equal power that arises from the heart and demonstrates that peacemaking to be a divine art.” 

    “Oh yes, and Buddha, could you transmit to me, well, at least to those who were a part of your history a direct taste, a direct transference of your state of bliss and enlightenment?  I know you can do this.  It would have revolutionized Buddhism and put enlightenment into the curriculum of every university.  But I guess someone just didn’t ask you so this treasure was lost forever.” 

    After all, Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching just as be was about to disappear forever from history because the guard at the outpost gate asked him to share his wisdom.  If you don’t ask or, like Jacob with an angel, strive or wrestle with the Mysteries they are quite content to return to the Silence from which they arose without a word of farewell, without a regret, or the postscript—“transmission lost.” 

     You see, from my perspective, history has been full of all sorts of spiritual blunders.  We have these windows of opportunity for seizing what might otherwise vanish.  We are surrounded by so much.  I don’t imagine that astrophysicists anytime soon are going to give up trying to discover the 95% of matter in the universe that is missing from their observations, the stuff they call dark matter and dark energy.  As with them, it is about making it a habit of looking very carefully until you find what you are after.

      The only advantage I have when it comes to entering and seizing the treasures hidden within the unknown is that my curiosity is insatiable—searching very carefully has been a life long habit.  I possess more than a little determination.  But for some strange reason Divine Providence has become my patron.  You could say I am under orders to find a way to express the beauty of the universe such as this one: the magnetism and all-embracing love hidden within the element of water. 

 

Personality Profile of an Undine

 

A while back I worked my way through a college textbook in personality theories.  It was pretty neat actually.  I mean these psychologists put a lot of work into developing their various theories. 

    They did not do as much as I would have liked in terms of field work and research.  They did not conduct enough first hand interviews; primary data was lacking and certainly they were not very good at ethnography, at understanding family history and oral traditions.  And obvious they never talked to my father or mother and they sure do not know much about politics or politicians.  But then again I did not think they would.

     It was very funny, though, because they also did not seem to read much of each other’s work.  Kind of like the heads of the various religions on earth.  Sometimes you suspect they deliberately brainwash themselves into pretending that other religions do not exist.  And if other religions do exist, well, it is like something the dog dragged back during the night and left for you to find on the front steps. 

    The hermetic saying is “as above so below,” in other words, your spirit and your personality (or personal identity) reflect each other in beauty, power, and harmony.  Personality is very important.  It is not your spirit that does the juggling in terms of balancing all your activities and interests. 

     Your spirit does not write the checks to pay your bills or figure out how to please or not please someone with whom you are intimate.  No, this is your domain—you as a person.  And your personality is the style, the manner, the mode of operation, and center of accumulated experience through which you act. 

    OK?  We are going to talk about the personality of undines.  Take a moment, as in five seconds, and imagine an undine.  Take five more seconds and imagine the personality of a great queen of undines who knows the magic of water beyond the knowledge of the human race. 

    In the following I am going to describe briefly the personality profile of an undine.  Consider it in these terms.  Our Magic University offers classes in elemental beings.  And some of our associate professors are actual undines.  You could call them visiting professors.

      To get a good grade in their classes—that is, between the first day of class and the time of the final exam—you have to be able to pass yourself off as an undine, a mermaid, or a merman.  You see, magic is technically not about being academic.  It is a way of being and experiencing that is first hand involving field research, original sources, and careful observation--perception is always the primary mode of verification.

     So you have to put on their personality, acquire their kind of awareness, enter their dreams, allow their deepest passions to flow through your soul, and perform their magic.  This is not about shape changing.  It is about extending one’s imagination and feeling and opening our hearts, not just to theirs, but to the dreams hidden deep within us.

 

How to describe the personality of an undine?  Well, how do we describe the personality of a woman?  As a point of reference--and we are going to need one--notice the language used in describing women according to the twelve signs of the zodiac:

    She likes to be in charge.  She is good at solving problems.  You do not want to mess with her. (Aries).  She is down to earth, grounded, practical, sensual, loving, and hard working. (Taurus).  She is sharp, no-nonsense, witty, communicates well, and has a variety of interests. (Gemini). 

    She is nurturing, sweet, takes care of herself, cautious yet also she gets what she wants. (Cancer).  She is attractive, romantic, inspiring, enjoys parties especially when she is the host and the center of attention.  (Leo).  She is analytic, astute, works together well with others though she equally enjoys solitude. (Virgo). 

   She thrives in loving another though the relationship has to be balanced and harmonious.  She is very attractive and adept at understanding others.  (Libra).  She is intense, passionate, and knows how to express her will from a gut level. (Scorpio).  She loves quests and seeking out new experiences.  She is high minded and does best when her life is guided by an ideal. (Sagittarius). 

    She is ambitious, determined, realistic, and practical.  She will work as hard as she needs to in order to arrive at her goal. (Capricorn).  She is spacey, dreamy, visionary, and when she gets it right she sees the bigger picture. (Aquarius).  She is giving—she has to give.  And in giving too much she has to retreat from others in order to recharge.  She is intuitive and receptive. (Pisces).   That is the personality of women in terms of the zodiac. 

    Of course, I am not about to describe the personality of just any undine.  I am going for the equivalent of one of the most glamorous, a supermodel, you might say or a Hollywood star.  In human terms, we might consider women such as Michelle Pfeiffer, Angelina Jolie, Catherine Zeta Jones, or Meryl Streep.  In their field of acting and performing arts as well as beauty, these are among the top. 

    Michelle Pfeiffer has unusual capacities for receptivity and for getting into her role without letting a hint of her stardom interfere.  Angelina Jolie has a larger than life personality.  She is extraordinarily articulate and able to live out the intensity of what she feels within.  Catherine Zeta Jones has an overpowering level of vitality.  She is in fabulous physical shape and she can sure dance and sing.  And Meryl Streep, winner of a life time achievement award, takes the heart of the person she is playing and lives it as if it is her own.  Her empathy is extraordinary.

     David Letterman, the evening talk show host, once said to another actress, Sandra Bullock, “You could do anything on the screen, cook noodles for example, and I would enjoy watching.”  Such women at the minimum possess a quiet charisma and a subliminal way of capturing your attention.

    Now then, consider the personality of  a great queen of the undines.  The undine Istiphul has a resemblance to women in the signs of Libra and Taurus that are governed by the sign of Venus.  Imagine the beauty and love of Venus falling into the sea and giving birth to the soul of a woman. 

     And then imagine that this woman has her own professional skills and subliminal arts—she can extend her consciousness through all the oceans of the earth, the dark depths of the ocean trench, the currents, the tides, the wind blown foam from the white caps across a thousand miles, the icy poles, the iceberg and the freezing wintry darkness, and yes the lightning storm raging with electrical bursts. 

     In other words, her heart embodies the femininity and love hidden within flowing water that yields, receives, absorbs, purifies, renews, and gives birth to and sustains all life on earth.  These qualities summarize to a small degree the personality of Istiphul.

     Istiphul certainly is sweet, kind, and tender.  Is Scorpio passionate and erotic?  Is Libra beautiful?  Istiphul is perhaps the most beautiful creature on earth and no other being can match her erotic skills.

    Is Istiphul romantic?  When you enter her presence she automatically is aware of your deepest desires, longings, and dreams.  And not only that.  She is aware of those desires and longings that are hidden in the depths of your self.

    It is her nature to alter her own qualities and powers so as to fulfill the deepest cravings in your soul.  But this is not a trick or a subterfuge.  Her magical knowledge includes creating a space of wonder and receptivity in which two separate souls can join as one in an ecstasy that only the mystery of the seas unfolds. 

    Is Istiphul sensual? When Istiphul touches you arm, you can feel waves breaking on beaches all over the world.  With a note sung from her lips, she can call the flowing essence of the entire sea--all that languid and tranquil receptivity and nourishing presence--to caress her shoulders, to shine from her breasts, or to shimmer in the soft curves of her hips.     

     A description of an undine’s personality is not exactly an academic activity.  By necessity, it involves your imagination.  Therefore, imagine taking all the sensations, feelings, and moods that the seas create;  imagine binding that beauty and wild passion into one light, one dream, or one vision of completion--and then to be able to transmit this to another through your eyes, a touch, or a kiss.  This is precisely the natural and normal mode of interaction that you experience when you are in Istiphul’s presence.  Now that is quiet charisma and subliminal attraction!

      Does Istiphul have an agenda?  Does she conspire to undermine your personality or subvert your will to comply with her purposes?  Does she give to you in order to get what she wants in return?

      Does the sea absorb the heat of the sun and return that heat so as to cool the equator and to warm the colder northern regions?  Does water purify, renew, restore, and give birth?  And do our feelings not reach out through our desires, our dreams, and our longings to see and to believe in what we are meant to be?  Istiphul is a force of nature and an intelligence within the element of water, yet her most unique abilities are found within the art of uniting with another.

    The personality of an undine is, like the sea, ancient and primordial.  And like water an undine’s affection is as intimate as water that is in our blood, flows through our breath, and quenches our thirst.  An undine can interact exactly like a human woman who flirts, teases, laughs, cries, listens, shares, and gives of herself. 

    But when an undine like Istiphul relaxes, her aura is nearly indistinguishable from a vast expanse of open ocean.  To be with her is to be aware only of the sounds, scents, and sensations of waves stretching from horizon to horizon. 

     If Istiphul wishes to share anything it is that we as human beings learn to perceive and extend our awareness as she does: to let go and sensually flow with a billion waves dancing to a thousand separate winds; to sink down into our inner bring and to know what it is to be whole and complete and to become one with another as she is one with the sea.

    Do the queen of undines have will like an Aries or a Leo?  Let me put it this way.  From what I can tell their magic is such that they can conjure up an entire thunderstorm by charging the magnetism of the ocean.  They can contain any will within the depths of their love and then purify, refine, and redirect it to attain a higher vision. 

    Are they practical and down to earth like a Taurus or ambitious like a Capricorn?  Try as sharp as a diamond and as clear because their feelings are that pure.  They sense intuitively the possibilities contained in any moment.  The peace within the depths of the seas and the vision arising from the distilled essence of the stars—this is within their dreams. 

      The undines wish to share with mankind the wonder, beauty, peace, serenity, bliss, and ecstasy of the water element on earth.  And there is one thing more which our religions on earth have done nothing to prepare us for—the seas are alive and possess an ancient dream to love and to be loved in return.  And I suspect that sooner rather than later the undines shall accomplish their mission of transferring their vision to human women.

    There you have it, the personality profile in brief of an undine.  Of course, other undines have different qualities.  Isaphil is under the influence of the moon especially since she is custodian of treasures of spirit hidden within serenity.  She possesses an ancient gift that mankind has not yet received.  Amue is nurturing like a woman with the sign of Cancer.  And Osipeh?  Maybe she is a Scorpio with some Libra and Gemini thrown in—passionate with art and a knack for communication.

    If this were the first day in a college class on undines, think about how you might be different once you have completed the curriculum.  Or imagine someone else you know and think about what he or she might be like having worked through all the exercises, home work assignments, group projects, and field research that the class entails. 

    What?  Joe, you have a question from the back row?  Does the University offer a correspondence class on undines?  Well, I think some of you might consider writing up your class notes, experiences, and designing a group project that would present the curriculum for a correspondence class.  How about that?

 

 

Personality Profiles of Magnetic Women

 

Katie?  Katie you seem to have that look on your face I know all too well.  What is it that you think I am not explaining?

    

Katie: You have given us a profile of an undine’s personality.  And you compared her personality to human women.  Could you just briefly say something about what a human woman might be like if she were to study and develop the magnetic fluid within her self so as to increase her femininity?

 

You sure go for the heart of the matter, don’t you?  Thank you for asking.  I always love a good question.  OK.  Let’s give it a shot.

 

Take you for example.  Consider that time I had you imagine a sea of water around yourself.  And then that this sea was love.  And then I had you flow that watery ocean of love through other people, down through their head, through every part of their bodies, and then out their feet.  That worked remarkably well on people who were in no way psychic and who didn’t even believe in this stuff.  But I knew from your aura that you had a gift in this area.

    Other examples.  Of course there are cases where the woman acts like a medium to channel an undine.  But in these cases the women often do not recall the words they speak or the life energy that moves through them. 

     Of course, there are those rare moments when I have talked to women and they have been totally accepting.  Listening, giving, receptive to every feeling I was feeling.  Their hearts so open it was as if I were alive within them and a part of them.  How can you put a value on that or try to explain it to someone who has never experienced it?

    So yes there are women who know how to love so that you are one with their heart.  It is a lost art.  Everything another person is you embrace within a sacred space of your soul and spirit.  You wish for them the best.  You hope for them.  You feel their pain and suffering, their inspiration and dreams, and you seek to hold and heal them with the strength that is within your self. 

   It is not all that rare for lovers to be in constant psychic connection to each other.  Some sense how their partners are doing during the day.  They can feel the other’s ups and downs and if there is distress, hunger, or elation.  Their connection is that profound.  I meet couples like that.  I just can’t get them to keep notes of their experiences with their lovers in a journal.  They feel embarrassed as if writing it down would make them appear weird.

     I knew a woman who learned a Taoist meditation for integrating and rejuvenating her own vitality.  The thing was she could also do the exact same meditation within anyone else no matter where they were.  Focusing her attention to transform vitality was just as easy when she did it within another person as it was doing it within herself.  This made her a psychic healer.  That kind of activity would be completely natural for any undine.

  

I could mention my still incomplete Travel Guide to Life.  In it I describe the astral plane of the ten sephira each of which I have observed being active in actual women.  We start with well-being and peace.  Around a woman like that you experience timelessness.  You are a part of a boundless time frame in which you sense that all that you seek will come to you naturally in due season.  I have only met three women who have that quality of water so strong that being around them is like being in a dream. 

     The image here of water involves to some extent all the other images of water also.  But it perhaps is seen in a huge lake beneath a mountain.  The water is still without a ripple and as you float in it you find yourself also on top of the highest mountain.  It is as if you can see to the ends of the earth—you are both in the water and full of vision in the same moment as if time and space were suspended.

  

Then there is Yesod, the sphere of the moon.  Here there are women who embody happiness, serenity, and contentment—qualities extremely rare in women these days.  The undine Isaphil is an absolute master of this domain.  Still, I have met women at whose touch you can let go and experience the pure of flow of water. 

     They possess a divine sensuality in which every desire enters the house of satisfaction, every dream experiences the completion of its vision.  This kind of contentment and happiness gets inside yourself and makes you into a new person.  This feeling of inner life keeps renewing itself like water overflowing from an Artesian well.  It is easy to miss because it is so gentle.  And the affection is so natural. 

    

In Hod woman are vivacious and spontaneous.  They bring out the best in others by living on the edge of the moment.  They have a way of being fully engaged and taking delight in whatever is going on.  It is like seeing the light sparkling in drops of water falling into a mountain pool.  Its constantly new. 

    This magnetic quality of feeling animates people because it interacts on so many different levels at the same time—the physical body language, the emotional language, the verbal play and mental focus are all active.  It is like the woman is using subliminal sonar—she is bouncing off the other person a variety of responses in order to discover what will maximize the participation. 

     Associated with Hod is the Greek god Mercury who was known for his persuasion.  He could persuade Demeter to abandon her depression and to return to participating in life.  And he could tell a story that would cause Argus to fall asleep and close a thousand eyes. 

      The equivalent in terms of magnetism is that the woman uses an incredibly range.  She is relentless in seeking a fair exchange, a vitalizing give and take that creates the feeling of being fully alive.  To summarize, she is animating, scintillating, vivacious, sparkling, and captivating. 

    

    

In Netzach, women have that deep, empathic magnetic embracing love.  They take you into themselves so as to make two into one through art, through beauty of expression, or through the mysteries of intimacy.  These women are masters of “a secret sharing heart to heart” that occurs when two people are in love.  They have a passion that possesses courage and determination.

     To be precise, they are aware of and have a great appreciation for the way people are attracted to each other.  They know how to modulate and to enhance that attraction so that it goes deeper and also reaches new heights. 

     This is actually not a romantic thing they are doing.  It is more subtle and internal.  It is less about falling in love and far more about the process of discovering who both people really are.  They treat intimacy as if it is a sacred ritual of the heart.  The image is that of a holy well or a still pool of water beneath a mountain that is luminous with its own inner light.  (See my poem, The Feeling of a Woman)

  

In Tipareth, the empathy is more universal.  In the woman’s heartfelt embrace you are joined to the depths of life.  Her compassion, empathy, and love are so bright and dynamic they unite you to the inspiration within you.  Some of the undines are like this: they simply will not be satisfied until they discover the deepest source of life within you.  To do this they make themselves perfectly clear like the purest mirror and in a state of complete stillness they allow your inner spirit to appear.  Some cultures treat sacred lakes like this or for me it is the tide pool at Makapu’u.

   I know several human women are just like that.  If I touch them I am immediately transported into the presence of my Guardian Angel or into the sphere of the sun and the presence of some high spirit who in his innermost being is united to God.  But these human women for the most part are acting as mediums. 

      They are neither aware of the gifts they possess nor are they willing to learn to consciously take hold of and use them.  Nonetheless, if they did utilize their gifts consciously then they would certainly be equal in magical quality to the queen of the undines.  I can not deny this.

    

In Gevurah a woman has that age old and well-known ability to spur men onto action.  Or, then again, maybe she is not interested in men.  But here too she has that primary quality of water that is called daring.  Her feelings automatically tell her what is possible and she will hold nothing back in her pursuit of her course of action.  It is being possessed by fearlessness. 

     I know women like that.  They could get Rommel, Patton, and general Eisenhower to get off their butts and strive to fulfill their missions with greater precision.  You could say they are not a cheerleader or a quarterback who calls the plays but rather an angel who inspires the craving for accomplishment. 

     The magnetic fluid in this case, like the cosmic letter N, generates an ecstasy that originates in the moment of action.  It is an internal thing—a feeling of the energies of the universe flowing through you as you strive for self-mastery.  The feeling is that of water possessing the momentum of a flash flood.

   

In Chesed, the woman’s magnetism inspires universal visions.  She is the love that makes a community work.  When we all feel a part of each other—this is her doing.  She is the motivator, the unifier, the one who gets us to sense directly that all our hearts beat with the same blood.   To care for another is to care for your self. 

   Do I know women like this, who make serving mankind feel like your best course of action?  I have met a few.  They are reformers.  They carry the ideals on their shoulders—they tell us in spite of the opposition to get rid of anti personal weapons; they say something should be done about the millions who die each year from starvation and disease.

     If there is someone out there who is striving to turn a ghetto into a community—it might be their voices you hear; it can be as simple as someone noticing you when your life is utterly lost: her hand is on your shoulder and she says in effect “Come on back.  I miss you and like having you around.” 

     I know women like that—they keep track of you and you feel as a result that you are part of the circulation of life within them.  Something of them is always flowing through you.  They never forget you.  You remain alive because you are a part of their heart. How can you put a price on that? 

     A lunar spirit once said to me, “The greatest treasure in all the world is a woman who loves a man with all of her heart.” Think about the internal resources of soul and spirit, of empathy, love, and compassion that a woman would need to possess in order to accomplish that—to be able to extend her self freely so that she is one with your spirit.  Such treasures exist precisely when and where the magnetic fluid is in full effect. 

     The sphere of Chesed is not about romantic love.  It is not about sex though those who dwell here are often the best.  And so in my screenplay, The Fall of Atlantis, there is an age old order of women who pass down their lineage from mother to daughter. 

     And in their tradition they act as others’ guardian angels.  They love them in a way that imitates the divine.  They are pure inspiration and they are as much a part of another’s life as it is possible to be.  And all of this they do from a distance only occasionally revealing who they are to their targets. 

     A woman once said to me quite spontaneously, “You are my guardian angel.”  The Hopi Indians have what they call a “spiritual uncle” or “spiritual aunt.”  The person watches over you your whole life.  It’s a minor vocation.  There is an inner connection.  It is completely altruistic. 

     You practice it because to some degree we are all spiritual beings.  And when you taste in full measure the magnetic fluid then it becomes the most natural of things.  The image is like a sacred cup of inspiration that is treasured and passed around a community to accentuate those moments that mark life’s great transitions.  I knew a community that used an actual chalice in that way.  The physical symbol evoked the feeling of sharing with everyone.

    

Next is Binah and the sphere of Saturn.  The prime feeling that goes here is joyful reunion.  The depth of feeling is so great it turns life into a celebration.  When you embrace a woman who has this feeling (and by embrace I mean you share a heart to heart space), you are again experiencing a suspension of time.  The connection is internal and it underlies all the seasons of life.  It reunites everything that is separate. 

    At my last high school class reunion, some of the women danced with a wildness and an abandon that just might have shocked the most wild of teenagers.  They forgot about their age and how they looked and where they had put on wrinkles and pounds.  They forgot that some of them were now grandmothers and they just gave themselves to the dance.  And this was just an ordinary high school class reunion.  

     A woman mentioned to me the Burning Man get together out in the desert of California the other day.  It is some sort of Celtic type party that goes on for a week or so.  There is no money and no bartering or exchange.  Everything is free, a gift from one to another.  I told her it was “stone soup” as a community and to this she agreed. 

     But what was most interesting was that she broke down and cried the entire time she was describing it to me.  She was longing to return to the next get together and she missed the full impact of that boundless and free community of sharing.  This is a magical kind of feeling underlying a community—like I say it takes you outside of time and into a mythical place.  Here we can experience others in both a wonderful, mysterious, and also very tangible way.

     Now in all honesty you can lose your personality and not just in a positive way in this kind of magnetic embrace.  Take Islam which was handed down to Mohammed by the angel Gabriel, archangel of the lunar sphere.  I am told that in Islam each year in the desert of Saudi Arabia a million people or more spend a night in the desert under the moon wearing death shrouds and fasting. 

      It is a kind of get together and reunion that dramatically states that we are all one with each other without separation of class, position, occupation, language, or race.  The down side to a religion that is locked into a lunar magnetism is that it never embraced the full force of its opposite—the electrical fluid. 

     The dream of unity and of a golden age of peace and prosperity in which all of those who believe are under one caliph—it is too hard to return from a ceremony like that to a world in which all those things that separate are still in full force.  Corruption is thrown in and other religions run the world from things like the UN and the World Bank. 

      Rather than embrace the future there is a return to tradition in a way that demonstrates a lack of precisely those electrical qualities involved in faith and conviction.  These are not about beliefs.  They are the dynamic will that takes hold of what is and makes a difference.  It is to move into the future with clarity that seizes opportunities that manifest in a real and concrete manner an original vision—these are sadly missing.

     So naturally they want to blow themselves or others up.  They can not handle the tension between the dream and the reality, between the inner feelings of the ceremonies and the knowledge required to effect beneficial and enduring change.  But then again, they are not learning about the magic of water. 

     I have been inside the mind of bin Laden and I have written about my experiences with Gabriel.  If you have a great tradition then it is worth the effort to upgrade and do maintenance on it.  The pyramids and the Parthenon need maintenance.  So do religions.  You just have to get out there and do your homework so the cultural tension dissolves into something creative.

      Well, that is the magnetic fluid and feeling of Binah.  The woman I knew who went down to Columbia to help the indigenous Indians and who got herself killed by the guerillas may well have had a vision of the universal love of Chesed.  See, she acted with idealism seeking to enrich and protect an entire community through dramatic action.  She made news around the world.  But she failed miserably in uniting with the magnetism of Binah. 

    If she had she would have found a way to reach the CEOs and chairman of the boards of the oil corporations who were playing the paramilitary against the guerillas.  She would have found a way to inspire those corporate giants to improve their public image  by sponsoring improvement in the Indian reservations.  Maybe a casino with a landing strip and a luxury resort.  I don’t know.  But as the saying goes, “The dead have no rank”--she forfeited her part in the show. 

     A woman with the magnetic feeling of Binah acts to preserve the life of a community.  And negotiating with time in order to survive is part of her art.  On the Isle of Iona off the West coast of Scotland there is a pool near the top of Dun-I.  It is called The Well of Immortality.  You have to get there while it is still dark, right before the sun in the morning touches the water.  It is a nice image for water in Binah which reminds me of my essay on Eros and Psyche. 

     In the ancient Greek mythological story, Psyche is given impossible tests by Aphrodite as the only means to win the god Eros as her lover.  The story reaches it climax when Psyche undertakes her last quest.  She is to enter the land of the dead and there to secure from Persephone an elixir that the goddess possesses.  Psyche is to return with the elixir back to the world of the living.

     “The elixir of eternal beauty,” Persephone warns Psyche, “Only death knows the secret to eternal beauty and the elixir I have placed in this box carries that mystery.”  It is the life animating the form of all things fused into an essence that is beyond all form.  It is the perfection of nature’s energies—the entire mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms refined, combined, fused, and united. 

    To work this process within yourself, you must first embrace and penetrate and then let go of the outer world so that an inner union and unity can be created.  If you want to unite with Eros, to wed and become one with him (Eros--the essence of masculine eroticism, vitality, and exhilaration), then you must first become nothingness—a receptivity so great it can contain his fiery power over all the gods and goddesses without denying who he is and at the same time without annihilating yourself.

 

“Tell me young woman, what do you really want?” Zeus asks of Psyche.  Zeus asks this in his role as king of the gods who has a celestial kingdom to maintain, boundaries to defend, laws and order to uphold, and rules of engagement to supervise and referee.  But he also asks as one whose passions and desires war within himself. 

  

And Psyche replies, “I have made love with a god.  I have felt him within my body.  And I love him with all of my heart, more than life itself ….I want the union of mortal with immortal, of heaven with earth, of a beauty so deep and rich it transcends both life and death.  I want to be able to look at a man and feel that his innermost desires I understand—so that what he is is also part of my self.  I want a union not just of body and social role.  I want a union that is heart to heart.” 

     

 Zeus: “And why do you want to do this Psyche?
 

Psyche:  “To make the world new.”

 

And then Zeus thought to himself, “Beauty such as this until this moment did not exist.  What being, mortal or divine, could have imagined or wished that Life contain such a gift?”

 

In this story a young woman changes the entire constellation of heaven through her love.  The innermost interplay of the greatest instincts, drives, and motivations within us are fundamentally altered by her action.  In this case, the magnetic fluid holds power over the electric and transforms it from within. 

    I love this story—a woman who loves with a nearly incomprehensible passion.  But then again only love can penetrate mysteries this deep.  The story speaks of one who brought this love into existence through a conscious choice.  Such is the magnetism in Binah.  Its passion embraces the great opposites of life and its union with another is both a human and a divine celebration.

 

 

In Chockmah, the feminine feeling is one of sensing the future.  The feeling in Binah unites the best of the past.  Here is its complement—to flow guided by a vision into the unknown future.  There we will want to find the best that can manifest.

      If you want to make the most of the future, then as George Washington stated in my debate—“A man with a plan of action is worth far more than a man with no plan at all.” The difference is that here with are dealing with feeling and not with thinking that lays out a series of step by step actions. 

     I can enter this state when I mediate with Isaphil—that mediation about being full of lunar light, still and clear like a pure mountain lake that embraces in depths the night, the moon, the stars, and the Milky Way.  From that space I often find myself peering into an unborn future where images come to me of what shall be and the part I can play in the unfolding.

    It is not the same as the woman in Gevurah who is fearless and full of passion.  When you are around a woman with Chockmah magnetism you feel new and better things are going to happen.  She is like an agent for the future, a representative of what shall be and she take your hands and guides you almost effortlessly to that place where you are meant to be. 

     I know women like that.  They say to you, and it is often nonverbally or though a look in their eyes or the trust they extend to you, “Don’t hold back.  This is why you have entered the world.  Now seize your destiny.” 

   And a few years later everything is different.  It is like you are living inside of a dream or a vision.  Somehow you made the transition.  In this case, what happened was not something you could predict or think about.  It was a pure feeling in play—if nothing else, it was a blessing of divine grace that flowed through her heart and gave you the inspiration you needed to follow the right course of action.

      I actually get a lot of complaints about this feeling and magnetism.  A lot of people don’t want to go into the future.  They want to be like everybody else.  Deep down, they want to feel, act, and think like other people so as to conform to the norm.  They want to fit in and think that this will make their lives simpler and easier to live.  They are tired of this ambiguity and uncertainty about not knowing how the future will turn out.

     But this feeling is just the opposite.  If you sink into it you come to realize that the future is a sacred space.  And the best way to approach it is to unite with something greater than your self.  As Loa Tzu the professor of the way of water stated it, “The highest of men and the humblest also are a valley of the world.  And being a valley of the world they continuously endlessly conduct the one source from which vessels may be usefully filled.”

   The magnetism of Chockmah is a vessel so empty and open and ready to receive the inspiration of the sacred that it quite willing to change itself and the world.  It is unafraid of new and unknown modes of transformation. 

    It is feeling of being within the best of the future and also within the present so that each can freely pass through the other.  It requires a selflessness that is willing and excited about uniting with the divine.  It is the touch of water that renews, rejuvenates, and recreates your self.  

    So the image is perhaps like a crystal ball, the bowl of water Nostradomas used, or the dream that takes you into the future. 

    

And this takes us of course to the sphere of Kether, the crown of creation so to speak.  In Kether, magnetic feeling is a sense of the one matrix that embraces all of life.  When the undines sense all the water of the earth and the waves breaking on every beach, they are right within this sphere.  Their magnetic reach extends through everything.

     When the goddess of the sea tells me that “When I dream I become a silver chalice that receives the distilled essence of all the stars.  And in my dream that I dream I feel I have become one with the universe.”  She is speaking from within this magnetism.  The higher magic within water is this all-embracing, all-encompassing, omnipresent love.  These are a few of its images.

    When theologians talk about omnipresence, forget it.  This is something you experience.  It is a bliss and ecstasy that runs right through your nervous system.  It influences your perception.  And it is a heart to heart communication with everything that exists. 

    Nature is the training ground where the paths of spirit are found.  To approach God or the Goddess, work with the element of water.  It is one of the four divine gates.  It is the perfection of love’s embrace.

     Do I know women like this?  A woman like this could slip her soul inside you and unite you in the same moment with the universe.  To answer the question I know a woman exactly like this who possesses precisely this quality.  But it is a latent gift, something she is only faintly aware of. 

     In other words, I can use her energy to unite her, myself, and the universe as one.  And though she is willing, her senses, soul, and mind are not refined enough to understand what is occurring.  In a former life time she was a high priestess or a magician.  In this life, she has other concerns.

   As with so many of these qualities and powers within water, the women have no framework or concept, purpose or motivation to lay hold of their gifts and work with them.  The gifts they possess as part of their souls have no practical application within our society. 

     They have not been told that the magnetic feminine is sacred and divine in its essence equal in majesty and power to anything that is masculine.  And they do not seem to know about these things intuitively.  So naturally they do not pursue them or seek to make them their own.

    There is another aspect to the Kether magnetic feeling I should mention.  It oversees all other feelings.  So if something is weak, it focuses its life and inspiration on just that one area so that the feeling of any of the other nine sephira are strengthened. 
   The heart in Tipareth does the circulation.  Kether focuses the circulation on specific areas of need.  It reaches out and completes so that the quality of the whole is maintained. 

     So the really great thing I know about the magnetic fluid, a treasure of great wonder, is that a woman who possesses the feeling of Kether in its full power will find you wherever you are.  And she will heal you of your pain and take away everything bad that has a hold of you. 

   The nature of this specific magnetism is that it has supremacy over all other powers.  It will overcome time and space and every obstacle life puts in your way.  It will restore you and allow you to start over.  It will grant you new life and a path of wonder to follow. 

     This is the nature of divine femininity.  Like the emptiness of space, it contains the entire universe within itself.  It can embrace anyone and reunite them to the divine that is their source.  To drink from this cup is to walk with the divine and to play a part in the Celebration for which the universe was created.

   

 

Warm-up Exercise, from the undine Isaphil

 

As a token tribute to the mystery we would enter and join, let us connect to water in some way physically, a simple gesture to honor its power and its depths.  For example, put your hands in a large bowl, a sink of cold water, a stream, or a pool.  Feel the cool water on your skin. 

     Gently move your hands and feel the water flow over your fingers and palms.  Now extend your mind into the water.  Make that small shift--carefully, very carefully, let your awareness become the water that holds your hands.  And finally, let your mind be both your hands and the water.  There, now we are ready to begin.

 

Exercises Using Water Imagery

 

The following five meditations are drawn from the world of nature and the imagery of the seas.  Each represents a slightly different aspect of the magnetic fluid.   Some of these meditations I have taken from my book on four undines I work with from the Bardon system.  Again, we can explore these images using our sensual and emotional imaginations.  And we can do so either in a non magical  or magical manner depending on the extent to which we engage our concentration.

 

 A Lake

 

Think of a lake you would find enjoyable and satisfying to be sitting in front of.  Perhaps a mountain lake surrounded by mountains running up to twenty thousand feet and snow capped.  Perhaps a small lake with lots of green trees and warm in temperature.  Perhaps a lake set among desert dunes.  Whatever appeals to you.

        The undine Isaphil uses a lake as a way to become very still, clear, pure, calm, and peaceful so that your soul is like a perfect mirror capable of reflecting the night sky, the oceans, the moon and its light (shining down upon the whole earth), the stars and their light, and the entire Milky Way. 

    Start, then, by sitting at the edge of the lake created by your imagination and enjoy the feelings and sensations it represents.  And then you make the shift and become the lake in your consciousness—that entire body of water with its depths and extended magnetic field and its still, mirror like surface.

     Isaphil has her own comments to this effect:

 

So open yourself and be a stillness so pure and clear that the circling of the moon and the singing in the sea can appear clearly within you.  This is the master key I give to you, to relax, to be calm, to open from within, to be so still, you reflect easily within yourself the being and the life of all that exists.

 

Feel from the depths of your self a love that flows like the moon’s light shining during the night. 

 

Open your heart and let shine through you the beauty of the universe.

 

To put it simply, there is a peace in the soul as deep as the ocean, as flowing as water, as still and clear as a mirror, and as vast as the starry night.

 

Isaphil goes on. 

 

When the water in a lake is as clear as a mirror, just so let your mind rest.  As human beings, you have a predilection to weigh and to measure, to analyze and test, to work and to shape, to see and to control each and every thing.  Yet know also that your mind is this mirror--a power reflecting the world through the eyes of serenity.

      In this place of the mind, there are no shores for waves to wash upon, no place where the rhythms of life can break.  Truly, the Word is spoken here, but the ‘label’ that names can never appear. 

As in all things, let your love be as the sea that enfolds and embraces.  Let it be as the river which flows to the sea and as the rain that renews the earth.  Let it be as the pool, so calm and clear, it yields to you its sweet waters to drink.  Only in love as pure as this can you ever see the world as it really is.

Feel the moonlight on your hands and on your face.  Reflect the world around you in this way. Softly, gently, graciously, become a space of pure lunar light--your mind the ocean that has no shores.

 

OK.  We are taking a moment here to check this out.  A few deep breaths.  Relaxing the body.  Mind is now calm.  Astral body is now becoming still, serene, luminous and soft like moonlight streaming down from the night sky shining upon the whole earth. 

     Relaxing more.  Another deep breath.  Opening my heart.  Looks and feels a lot like a trance—we have a report of a temporary spontaneous Samadhi occurring here.  Ah, here is the earth, the moon, the sun, our solar system, the oceans of the earth, all water on earth, the biosphere, the winds in the sky, the clouds, and deep within my soul now is a place of stillness which precisely like the sea at night receives into itself the distilled essence of all the stars.  And there is the feeling of being one with the ocean of the sky, the vast expanse of the universe, a oneness arising from a dream of serenity, an inner peace with the universe. 

      Within this moment I am within the realms of the undines. They are all around me.  It just happened.  Contacting undines was not meant to be part of this essay but then again I won’t shut them out if they show up spontaneously. 

    It is not that in this moment I am no longer a human being.  No, it is not that.  It is that I within the dream of a queen of the undines.  I am within the open space at the center of her heart.  This is who she is and this is the treasure of spirit she wishes to impart to the human race, which, due to some strange fate, the human race never embraced this part of the great Mystery. 

   Yes, I have heard the sky at night filled with heavenly choirs singing precisely the way they once did to “shepherds tending their flocks at night.”  But I will tell you, and this is my report, that from within Isaphil’s heart the sun and the stars—their lights are songs—the entire night sky is on fire with songs of ecstasy and delight. 

     Does it take a poor poet such as me to deliver such an obvious message?

 

From the undines—to humanity:

The universe is on fire with wonder, beauty, and ecstasy.

 

 

The Ocean

 

A Meditation on the Sea (from the undine Istiphul)

 

Follow Istiphul and me in our joining of minds as we sit on the sand with our feet in the water: Imagine the sea--blue-green waves stretching from continental shores to continental shores.  Look at the waves in front of you.  Look at the waves as they spread out to the horizon and envision the vast expanse beyond as they circle the earth.  Consider the winds that drive them and the tides rising and falling.

     To the north, feel the icy pole of the world.  Consider the wilderness where snow falls for a half of a year in darkness.  Gaze upon white cliffs of ice and the icebergs to which they give birth.  See and feel them drift to the south.  And, toward the equator, feel the warmth of the moist trade winds.  Visualize the archipelagoes and the island chains.  Sense the ease with which clouds form from the seas and the hurricanes are fashioned from the warm air rising.

     Visualize also the shores of islands as they gradually or rapidly drop down to the ocean floor.  Send your mind into these depths.  Among the deepest trenches of the sea are lost ships, volcanoes, and darkness, but you are able to walk here without difficulty.

     The trick in a meditation such as this is to become what you are contemplating.  Become the primordial sea.  This is the first step--feel the sea’s heartbeat, its breath, its currents, its tides, and the myriad forms of life dwelling within it.  There is no need to hesitate--the sea is already within you.  The waters of the oceans flow through you salt rich.  Though you live in air, there is also air within the sea.  The ice in your drink--it is not so different from the iceberg floating free from the glacier’s grip.

     The ocean, though vast and mysterious, is also the dream of being accepted--of being able to relax, to let go, and to flow in a place too great for the mind to imagine.  Wave after wave of sensual caresses, with rhythm and passion, renew, heal, and yield to us the taste of beauty and freedom.   

     Istiphul has something to add.  She says, “Place your hand in water and feel the water connecting you to all the seas of the earth.  Become a billion waves dancing to a thousand separate winds.  To know me is to learn to perceive as I do.  For a moment let go and be as me--the soul of the sea.”

 

From the undine Osipeh

 

My meditation with Osipeh: As I imagine myself immersed within an endless space of blue-green water, a series of images flow through my mind.  They are the feelings of being a mother--of attracting, receiving, giving birth, and nurturing as pure acts of love.  These images encompass both the experiences of women as well as those forces which give birth to and nurture all life on our planet.

     Meditating with her at Hanauma Bay on Oahu: I can feel the current moving counterclockwise around the bay, the oxygenation where the waves break, the temperature, the waves’ motion coming in from the ocean.  I can feel an eel breathing, a school of tangs swimming, a parrotfish biting the coral, a black sea urchin half-asleep, a needle-nose wrasse poking through the water, and silverfish slicing along like knives. The entire bay is part of her skin and her nervous system. 

   

The female form embodies a way of thinking men can not imagine.  It is receptive, open, nurturing, offering and giving of itself.  Affection extends everywhere and into everything. 

If your mind can not become like this then all my gifts to you will mean nothing.  The effects will be temporary and they will leave you feeling empty.  Though you can create an undine’s love and healing touch with your magic, it will never be natural or come from your heart until you embrace the feminine spirit.

 

 

From the undine Istiphul

 

This is a charm every woman possesses and that she can find in herself if she opens her soul to the sea: the raw power of magnetism which can receive, embrace, hold, and give birth to the soul in any man. 

 

For every aspect of fiery will, water offers a cool tranquility of equal power so that the rhythms and cycles of nature are preserved.  In this way, the active principles within the universe are able to join with--arise from and return to--a place of peace and rest.  These are water’s depths.

 

The magnetic fluid has this receptivity, sensitivity, and encompassing power.  It reaches into inner recesses of your soul, the secret chambers of your heart, and extends further through space and time.  It embraces all visions that life is meant to fulfill. 

 

It is bliss, wonder, ecstasy, love, rapture, pleasure, enchantment, dream, vision, mysterious, vast, and utterly gratifying.  We might describe the magnetic fluid as having a wild serenity, an engaging peace, and an enticing stillness. 

 

As you identify with the magnetic energy, you can sense something numinous, wonderful, and awesome--the water element on our planet is a reflection of omnipresent, all-encompassing love. 

 

 

A Second Mediation on the Sea

 

What is the magic in Istiphul’s touch?  Let us pursue this theme for a moment to see if we can find it within ourselves?  Remaining alert, relax as if you are within a dream.  Then contemplate the oceans.  Note and memorize the sounds and smells, the waves and winds, and the tides rising and falling. 

     Concentrate on the sensations of water and spray.  Feel the force of water in currents.  Feel the waves swirling and splashing around you as you swim among them.  Become the sea as the crab knows it, the fish, the fisherman, the bird, the sailor, and the one who lives at the edge of a bay.

     This is not so difficult.  Gather all your memories of the sea.  Open yourself to them in a place of stillness within your heart where thoughts are unnecessary.  Feel their life. 

     Now, draw these memories and feelings together distilling their essence.  Translate this watery life, this beauty and receptivity, into one sensation you can hold in the palms of your hands.  If you caress and embrace another with this love from the depths of your heart, a heart which holds the sea within it, then this is Istiphul’s touch.

   Note: I sometime ask receptive women to try this exercise as I guide them through it.  In my limited experience with three or four women, they can quite easily reflect the undine Istiphul’s sensual awareness though their bodies.  The quality of the magnetic fluid is there. 

     But so far none of the women are actually aware of the heightened sensory and sensual perception their bodies briefly possess.  It is like it briefly flashes through their awareness—I mean, they actually do sense it—but then as quickly the memory is gone and they forget where they were or what they had.  The exceptions are several women psychic partners.  With these women I wrote up the experience as poems about water or of an undine speaking to me through them.

 

 

From the undine Isaphil

 

Isaphil: “You yourself once spoke to the Lady of the ocean. Come.  Ask her your question.”

     I stand now with Isaphil on the shore of Sandy Beach, Oahu.  I enter into a deep, meditative trance in which I feel the ocean in her whole being: the waves, the tides, her life, her mysteries, her birth, and her depths.  And then I speak to the ocean and ask her to appear to me. 

     Her feet glowing with shining light as she walks on a moonlit path across the waves, she comes close to the shore.  Her body and garments are dark blue, regal, and majestic.  But her eyes are blue-green, youthful, and vibrant. 

     I say to her: “Share with us your dreams.”

    

The Voice of the Ocean

 

At night I dream that I have become a silver chalice.  And within this chalice is gathered the purest essence of all the stars.  When I dream this dream, though I am but the sea, I feel I have become one with the universe.

 

In a sense, all these different meditations flow through each other.  They are all one.  Though I wrote the above paragraph ten years ago, only recently have I begun practicing it regularly.  And yet it weaves together with the image of a lake and those that follow as well.  The images begin with water but they soon pass into an awareness of the magnetic fluid that in the same moment joins nature, human, and divine.

 

An Iceberg

 

Pathworking.  I decide to do a pathworking on the icy meditation suggested to me by the undine Amue.  A pathworking gives me a chance to relate my experiences with Amue to my own life.  As a magician, it is not difficult to imagine just about anything.  But when I put aside my magical concentration, I also want to understand what these energies mean for me personally. 

     Pathworking is a relaxed exploration of feelings.  It uses free association, imagery, and contemplation.  It creates a continuum between normal consciousness and altered states of mind.  It is a way of insuring that all the rungs are on the ladder that stretches between the physical and the spiritual worlds.

     I relax and focus on my room.  Amue is sitting here next to me.  Being near her, I can feel waves washing over me and I feel the sea extending in all directions.  I take a few moments and consider how I feel about the aura of some people I have known.

     I once worked with Art Linkletter who had a TV show.  Around him, you can sense studios, audiences, producers, and so forth.  I met the vice president of Ford Motors.  In his aura, it is easy to visualize automotive factories, production lines, and a board of director’s meeting.  One day I had breakfast with Captain Fuchida, the Japanese commander who lead the attack on Pearl Harbor.  He had spoken the words, “Tora! Tora! Tora!”--Attack! Attack! Attack!   His aura has the qualities of obedience, courage, devotion, a ferocious loyalty, and, of course, airplanes and aviation. 

     Similarly, sitting with Amue I feel and see the sea as a space that nurtures and gives birth to life.  The sea is her area of expertise.  But why concentrate on water in its frozen form?  Amue seems to love tropical waters, reefs, and schools of fish breeding near the surface.   

     I understand the magical significance of concentrating on cold, watery sensations.  It is a way of creating a magnetic field of energy.  But meditating with Amue in a frozen wintry darkness opens the depths of the unconscious. 

     Perhaps an Inuit shaman would think nothing of picturing himself inside of a huge chunk of ice during an arctic night.  He might even say when asked about it, “This is as easy for me to do as it is for you to turn on the television and watch the news.”

     I ask Amue, “What is the arctic circle for you with its vast fields of ice and glaciers?”  She replies, “It is like a playground.  The sounds moving within miles of ice are pure delight.  The tones of ice cracking are tantalizing.  They send shivers through my body.  Like the voice of the wind singing its soul into a stone, carving it with wind-driven sand, ice flows like waves of a sea where the motion is slowed.  When a wave breaks on a beach, the release is free and easy as the spray dances in the air and falls on the sand.  But in ice the release ripples, swells, and rolls for ages.  Time holds its breath for eons and then lets go.

    “When it rains at the equator, you see rainbows.  When it rains at the North and South Poles, you only see snow--cold, crystalline, and drifting even after it touches the ground.  There are not many undines who dwell in deserts, maybe one or two here or there at an oasis or by pools of water underground.  But at the poles, you can find undines.  Cold is not a problem.  Wearing clothes for warmth is a human invention.”

     I say to Amue, “Still, ice has a sense of isolation.  When the sun is distant, the light dim, and warmth a rare commodity, the senses turn within.  Animals hibernate until the seasons are more friendly.  And mystics renounce the world in search of an inner sun.”

     Amue replies, “Your body needs warmth to remain alive.  But the mind is not so restricted.  Here, visualize your body as an ice sculpture which is perfectly clear.”

     I take a moment concentrating on my body as being made out of ice.  Amue says, “When you are as solid as ice, still and cold, anything you wish to know about the sea is reflected in your soul.  Your body becomes a magic mirror and a crystal ball.”

     It is easy enough to see what she means.  As I think about whales, dolphins, or manta rays, I can see them swimming in the ocean and reflected in my body as if I am the ocean in which they are swimming.  For Amue, water has mystical qualities and amplifies psychic perception.  “But what about the astral plane?” I ask Amue.  “What is the equivalent of ice and freezing cold in your own domain?”

     Amue replies, “It is not so different. Concentrate on your astral body being one hundred degrees below zero.”  I do this.  She says, “What do you feel?”

      I reply, “To be honest, I feel like I have turned my back on humanity, that I am no longer a human being.  In this place of dreams, I no longer care what happens in the physical world, only that love and beauty are preserved.  I feel more undine than human.”

     Amue says, “You have discovered one of our secrets.  Water is essential for life but it is also a spiritual presence.  We sense this presence as a song which resounds through all the waters of the earth.  In its essence, water nurtures, preserves, and gives birth.  It is all-encompassing.  And there is no selfishness, greed, or separation within it.

     “To understand the beauty of the world, humanity must put aside its fear, insecurity, and desire to control.  We can not be overly friendly to those who depart from the rhythm of life.  When your astral body is this cold, you taste our inner essence--a love that flows without ever being lost and gives all of itself in every moment.”

     As I look in Amue’s eyes, I see her beauty and understand what she is trying to show me.  She is telling me it is not so difficult to be happy, content, and satisfied.  It is not so difficult to feel whole and complete and full of life.  It is a matter of letting go and feeling a sea of love flowing through your soul.  I feel like I have known Amue for years.  She is so natural and vibrant.  I only need to look into her eyes and I feel a calm, soothing, and serene beauty washing over me.

 

 In this meditation, you image you are meditating inside of an iceberg.  You want to experience the energy underlying water in a solid form.  For me, there is a sense of suspending time. You no longer relate to the external world.  Rather, you are within a protective space of magnetic energy. 

    This energy is pure.  In it you can find those feelings which you need to become whole and to grow.  In other words, the magnetic fluid specific to an iceberg has a psychological or psychic magic within it.  It implies finding and internalizing the feelings of love you need to become transformed. 

       Occasionally, we run into individuals who embody something this purity and giving in their astral bodies. These individuals are genuine and wholehearted.  You can tell when you meet such individuals because you feel emotionally refreshed, revitalized, and more alive being with them.

    Some individuals also embody in their auras extremely cold and intense magnetic energies.  In other words, their magnetism has a power outside the range of what we usually encounter.  Others might sense in these individuals something strangely fierce, detached, and cold. 

    Sometimes we need this kind of icy, magnetic detachment in order to accomplish certain missions in life.  It enables you to remain focused on your task when no one else understands you or offers you support.  You need the power of the feminine to contain, shelter, and nurture with love. 

     A mother, lover, or energy field such as this then gives the precise support you need to sustain the power of your will.  Without it, you compromise or abandon your goals because your goals have no meaning to the people who are part of your everyday life.  When nothing reflects your spirit, you have to become the womb which gives birth to what shall be.

   As I place my mind inside of an iceberg—for example, an iceberg  frozen solid in an arctic bay for the winter--my mind stops thinking.  After a few moments, it seems I can taste the ice.  I can feel the strength of water in its solid form.  I can feel the temperature of this iceberg, its weight, and I feel the way it floats.  There is this wintry darkness inside of me.

      Even so, emotions are content and undisturbed.  The body feels frozen as if there is nothing else you need to do than be here in this moment.  This is a way to calm down and be still.  It embodies the undine’s perspective which it would not hurt us to understand--it is a wild delight in purity, a ravenous hunger for serenity, and a peace which is underneath all the seasons of life.

 

 

 Ocean Trench

 

Drop your mind down into an ocean trench.  Here you feel undisturbed by the surface of the ocean or, for that matter, by the     outer world.  You attain a profound sense of peace which is ancient, wise, and which comprehends the mysteries of the deep. 

     This is where you learn to perceive and think from the point of view of the planet rather than from the viewpoint of a member of a particular race of beings living on the earth.  In other words, the magnetic fluid attunes us not just to the feminine aspects of the human soul but also to the soul of the earth. 

      The sea holds a peace in its silent depths.  Entering this place with an open, calm, and relaxed mind, you feel this peace not as something that is impersonal and distant.  Rather, it is more like a lover—it is gentle, friendly, and intimate.

 

 

Lunar Gravity

 

Would you believe it?  Until Sir Isaac Newton, apparently no one had explained why and how the tides rise and fall as they do.  Gravity and the laws governing bodies in motion—why just about any undine could have told you about the sun, the moon, and the tides and this without reference to mathematics, physics, or school experience.

     Well, here is an exercise you will not find on an exam in any high school on earth.  You imagine you can sense the gravitational force causing the tides to rise and fall.  You sense the influence of the sun and moon on the oceans of the earth. 

    For example, you visualize the moon drawing the oceans on opposite sides of the earth to rise due to the moon's stronger gravitational pull on one side of the earth and weaker pull on the opposite side. You eventually get a feeling for this magnetic or gravitational influence on water and you identity with it. 

     This gives a feeling for the deepest flows of magnetism in nature and also for the bio rhythms that are active within our own bodies.  In this way, we gain a sensory understanding of the rhythmic cycles of the moon and its cycles moving with and in opposition to the sun.  Through awareness of this magnetism, or if you like gravity, we gain a sense of the way these outer worlds move and feels from within water as well as within us.

 

 

A Thunderstorm

 

 

Osipeh:

 

 “Do not hold back. Come into my home.  In my kingdom, sunlight plays with the waves in a thousand ways.  I will teach you what it feels like to fall asleep and sink miles deep, to dream you are caressed by the breath of moonlight until all you feel is peace.  And then you shall awake as a song singing in a curling wave ready to break, ready to dance in a wild splash of foam and spray laughing, the tension in the surface of an entire ocean letting go in a sigh and roar of relief.

     “Come away with me and be free of need.  I am the waves of the sea rolling.  I am the song of the sea unfolding.  I am the rise and fall of tides in rhythmic motion resonating to the call of love. 

     “The touch of your hand on my skin is like a lightning storm over the horizon.  Silent explosions light up the dark, empty places within your heart.  Can you feel what I feel in this moment?  Love is a pilgrim journeying through a land of ancient shame, unbearable pain, and yet never ending wonder because it will never be satisfied until it is one with another.”

 

Watery magnetism brings us to the topic of lightning and what it means within the soul.  Undines know about such things because it is the polarity within the magnetic fields from which lightning springs.

 

Lightning and Istiphul

 

Istiphul takes my hands.  As some women I have met can also do, Istiphul passes into my body--her very soul is within me.

     And now I have visions of electrical storms.  That is to say, my feelings and physical sensations spontaneously transmute into visual images of a thunderstorm at sea: explosive volts leap into the indigo darkness of a moist sky.  Electricity accumulates around my body and then flows back around hers. 

     Between us, we are condenser, amplifier, and generator as the spark arcs between our separate hearts.  Within my body lightning reaches down from violent clouds to strike the ocean and to explode in a touch or a kiss.  And also, ball lightening forms and flows from my shoulders down my arms, reaching for her and caressing her body with a furious dance. 

     St. Elmos fire too encompasses us and its sound is here--the hiss and jzzzzz that hums with prayers of eerie solemnity.  In the distant sky I see the Northern Lights both marvelous and ominous--the Earth’s own veils being lifted by solar radiance--a banshee’s hopeless songs of loss turning into a frenzied dance of bliss.

     As Istiphul’s feminine essence enters my spine and ascends, I enter the dreams of gods and goddesses calling out to their consorts through all of space and time.  Though a man has the power to penetrate, to enter, and to share the light of the sun, the woman is a circle of ecstasy, a ring imploding upon itself.  She is the pulsating waves gyrating in the circling flashes of a cyclotron down a tunnel, down into the depths of her being, down into the depths of the ocean and the earth.

     I open my eyes not realizing they were closed.  Istiphul’s body floats in the air next to me.  The waves crashing and diving about her seem but gentle ripples and drops of water flowing through her hair and down her breasts. 

     My eyes blur for a moment.  I no longer see waves of water dancing and raging about us. Time slows. The ocean changes into its opposite: I see sand dunes with air flowing over their crests, carving an ocean of shapes and tender memories as they yield themselves to the hungry hands of the wind. 

 

 What can I say?  The undine Istiphul is a master of the polarity within water and electrifyingly intense emotions are the nature of the encounter.

 

 

 

The following poem relates to a salamander named Itumo, a being of fire.  As I mentioned, undine work it from the other side: setting up the magnetic polarities that cause lightning to strike.  So a thunderstorm over the open ocean you could say is also part of their domain. 

      Itumo, you could say, uses a hard sell.  Undines are masters of the soft sell. It is up to you to decide which is more effective. Itumo is a salamander who specializes in lightening.  He is a rather dynamic and mysterious being.  I am very fond of him.  One day he said to me, I know more about what is going on inside you than anyone else on earth.  I wrote this poem after I had joined my mind to his.
 

Itumo

 

Do you know what its like when lightning strikes?

In an instant the earth and the sky unite:

The tree, the flowing stream, the hilltop, the rock

Their hearts burst so that the thirst of the cloud for the earth

Might be satisfied.

 

Do you know what it is like inside a thunderstorm?

A sea of rain, froth of mist, and vapors churning

Electricity building

Passions locked in a frenzy, intensifying,

Power exalting in strength and beauty

Uncoiling within itself

Until, unable to be contained,

Ecstasy takes flight upon the wings of freedom.

 

Do you know what it is like to explode

From the core of your being

To be a flame of white light

Reaching down from the sky

And up from the earth

And to celebrate this art within your heart?

I will tell you:

 

It is bliss unafraid of emptiness

It is love unafraid of loss

It is desire burning so hot

It annihilates the shadows within the lover’s heart.

Wherever there is an abyss, a chasm, or a gulf

Within nature, between one heart and another,

Or separating mankind from the divine

My joy and delight will suffice

To pierce and shatter the darkness of any night

So you may find the path across.

 

 

And so our mediation on these images?  Become the open ocean and also the sky filled with clouds.  Sense water in its liquid and gaseous forms one above and one below separated by air and wind.  And then the opposite polarities oppose—one negative and the other positive. 

     Can you feel this in your soul—the calm peacefulness of the sea and the open expanse of the sky?  And then in a still, clear place within your mind, an electricity flies as lightning and thunder to quench an elemental hunger for balance and harmony.

    And one further question most significant—can you sense an undine’s capacity to penetrate into another person’s depths and there release a secret desire turning it into bliss?  And all of this without the undine ever losing her sense of serenity or wavering in her striving for intimacy?  I tell you thunderstorms are images within nature that capture in small measure the mystery of love as a primordial and all-consuming power. 

 

 

 

A River

 

“A peace that flows like a river from the dawn of time to the ends of eternity.”  (from the story of the wizard Ahmed and the undine Istiphul)

 

In some cultures, there are sacred rivers.  And if you bathe in them, you are freed of your sins.  It is not just the nature religions and Hindus who like rivers. 

      “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.  The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” 

    Or how about, “Out of their bellies shall flow streams of living water.”  In magic or simply good meditation, we take an image in nature and become one with it.  We then feel it inside of ourselves.  The river in this case as an image of water is something that flows through our souls. 

    A magician or mystic is not so spiritually impoverished as to have to wait for the making of a new heaven and a new earth before tasting and experiencing these things.  Rather, again, nature, human, and divine intermingle and join within our hearts. 

   The river is an elemental, sensory experience with water.  It is a feeling of flowing and yielding, of letting go and relaxing, of becoming pure and living at peace with nature. 

     It is also at the same time an experience with the divine if we can find within that watery magnetism a love that joins with and unites all aspects of ourselves; it makes us whole and transforms us from the depths of our souls. 

    And if we understand that water is itself a sacrament, a sensation, feeling, and symbol given to us that bears witness to omnipresent love, then we shall know “a peace that flows like a river from the dawn of time to the ends of eternity.”

    As a meditation, then, imagine sitting in front of a river.  Use all your senses.  Relax.  And then in whatever way works for you enter and become the river.  Float down it.  Swim in it.  Become a fish.  Become the waves, the currents, the eddies, and ripples on the surface--until at some point you can feel a sensation of water flowing through you body that is relaxing and peaceful and life renewing. 

 

 

Water as Omnipresence

 

There is a magical aspect of water relating to omnipresence and akasha.  You imagine you are within the ocean but you concentrate on the way in which water suspends distance.  You sense and then study how water enables you to feel an immediate contact with any other creature or place within the sea. 

    Some of the undines have this perceptual ability to sense waves breaking on any shore of the earth.  In their own consciousness, they feel as if their senses can perceive anything anywhere within the ocean.  The water serves as a medium for amplifying impressions and conveying physical sensations of objects no matter how distant. 

   This meditation on water leads to the clairsentient ability to suspend distance so you can connect to anyone as if you are there with them.  In this case, the ocean is used as a symbol of the astral plane where we are able to move in our astral body anywhere we wish in an instant by focusing our mind there. 

     Also, undines such as Amue and Istiphul feel as if another being or creature's aura is a part of their own aura.  This arises because they automatically circulate energy between themselves and anything else which makes contact with them.  This heightens their abilities to heal and to love.  They do not feel separate because the other's space is also their own space in that they sense every subtle vibration within another. 

 

 

From Pop Quiz For Magicians

 

Note: These are questions in which you decide for yourself as to which one is best.

 

What is the difference between an imagined nature spirit and the real being? Which of the following might work for you to determine the difference between a real and an imagined undine? 

 

It depends on your level of imagination.  Countless times I have tried to determine if I was awake or asleep and dreaming.  So far I have not been able to tell if I was asleep or not until the moment in which I woke up from the dream.  I guess you could say I have an active imagination.  My imagination has an internal program that runs its own tests on the reality of me.

     Similarly, if you enter into a conscious dream state as is done in lucid dreaming, the images produced by your imagination can be as real as the experiences that occur within a dream. The question of whether life is a dream does not interest me.  (Although I love the movie Thirteen Floor which is about an entire city that is a computer simulation with the people thinking they are all real.)

 

The undine you imagine responds to you in every conceivable way just like a real woman except that the imaginary undine also possesses the magic of water.  Depending on the connection between your conscious mind and the collective unconscious, your image can become a powerful evocation at least in terms of energy and sensations.

 

No, if you imagine an undine long enough and with enough concentration you run the risk of connecting to a real undine through this powerful image.  You might also create an elemental, a magically charged image with consciousness.  In psychology they might call such a creation an imaginary friend if you are dealing with a child or some form of self-hypnosis or delusion if you are dealing with an adult. 

    Let us presume for a moment that magicians are trained sufficiently that self-deception and mental disturbances are rare occurrences.  In which case, we can remain focused on our topic of what precisely is the outcome and result of this kind of experiment.

   In the case of a created thought form, a powerfully charged image acquires its own instinct for survival and its intelligence and responsiveness become independent of your mind.  Such an entity can serve to entice you to offer it more attention or, if you do it correctly, it can inspire you like a guide to the inner planes.  (Didn’t we do an experiment earlier on “spirit guides?” Why we did, didn’t we?)  But because of the chance for mistakes in this area, Tibetans for example almost always insist on dissolving the energy in their thought creations immediately after each practice session. 

 

Let’s proceed then with the possibility that we can create an undine (at least what is called an “elemental”) from out of your own imagination.  It starts as a mental conception or image.  It takes on feeling and astral energy and then eventually it gains the etheric vitality and vibration of water as well.  Tibetans and others also like to shift their consciousness into these constructed images or yidams.  Your imaginary creation becomes an idealized image of a being or a symbol of a state of awareness that embodies all that you seek to learn. 

     To do this, shift your mind into the form of an undine or merman if you like.  We have already been exploring the water element.  This practice has useful applications. It makes it a little easier to sense and interact with an undine should you be near one (since you have already figured out how to create one). 

 

On the other hand, magicians typically create an energy field that is inviting and in which a real undine would feel at ease in entering.  To do this, you imagine water in and around yourself and also refine this vibration by some contemplation--you review water's nature and attune your mind to water's beauty and essence.  In other words, by imaginatively creating a field of cold water energy around you, you offer the undine a space in which to appear.

  

Have we answered the question yet about the difference between an imagined undine and a real one?  Not really.  Consider: If you apply Steven Spielberg's power of visualization as a movie director to psychic imagery, you can create a picture that puts you directly in touch with the archetypal energies of the collective unconscious and also with the astral plane of the undines.  The undine you imagine becomes a vehicle for channeling etheric and astral watery sensations and feelings. 

     If, for example, I imagine an undine in front of me and ask her, "Tell me something about the water element I don't already know?"  The creature I visualize replies immediately and with power in a challenging manner.  She is ready to take me one step further beyond my own experience with water.  

    

What does my visualized undine say?  She says, "What you don't know about water is how to let go.  You don't know how to become the waves of an ocean that encircles the globe by both day and by night.  You don't know how to become the cold current that circulates down into the depths from the poles to rise at the equator.  You don't know that journey.  You don't offer that renewing power to others."

    

This image I have created in my imagination of an undine can speak freely from the depths of my self and also it takes me more deeply into nature.  Imagination is itself a magical power.  On the other hand, if I call the undine Isaphil to come here into my room, I notice the difference right away. 

 

Ok.  This is Magic 101.  Why not?  I call the undine Isaphil.  She is here now.  Isaphil is like an ancient power of the earth whose beauty makes her forever young and full of new life.  I could try to say that she is part of my self, but the power in her etheric and astral bodies goes way off the spectrum of anything I can imagine.   

     Through imagination and meditation, we can find and create sacred energies.  There is no doubt about this.  But Isaphil is a divinely appointed guardian of the water element on earth.  She is able to bestow treasures the human race has not yet discovered.  Of course, I could imagine an undine having all these qualities as well.  But I could not do it with this degree of force, this amount of beauty, or this depth of presence.

     Let me just mention the method I am using in these meditations as I interact with the elementals in nature.  I ask Isaphil to circulate energy between the two of us in a way which does not accumulate energy and which is completely relaxed.  In this way, there is no excessive tension typical of evocation and there is no accumulation of energy to dissolve afterwards.  However, Isaphil still has a medium of watery energy to manifest through because I also evoke the image of an ocean which I have practiced doing for many years.

     The circulation of energy between us starts immediately.  This is a psychic connection but it is analogous to everyday experience.  You can hold another individual's hands and share caring and empathy.  You can breathe together holding hands--as one inhales, the other exhales.  This may strengthen your connection by emphasizing the polarity of your auras. 

     You can circulate the vitality in your meridians through each other's bodies.  You can join your hearts or link your minds telepathically.  You can open yourself so you feel each other's feelings and think each other's thoughts.  All of these things are implied and occur on some level and to some extent when I ask Isaphil to form a circulation of energy between us.

      Here are some of the differences between working with Isaphil as compared to working with an undine I have conjured up purely through imagination.  First of all, there is an energy exchange occurring without any effort on my part.  For example, there is a soft, caressing flow of watery sensations all over my body.  These sensations are relaxing, soothing, and releasing.  There is also a cleansing, cooling sensation I can feel inside my body as well. 

     As the energy reaches my heart, I can almost hear a voice singing, "Awake, awake. Feel the thrill--a thousand sensations you have never felt, a thousand dreams human beings have never dreamed: to kiss with the passion of the sea, to give and to receive without limitations, without hesitation." 

     I also feel myself pulled into the astral domain of Isaphil.  I am within the ocean but I am sharing some of Isaphil's modes of perception.  I can look over and see an iceberg in the distance but now I feel the iceberg's energy within my own body as I look.  I feel the frozen, fresh water of the ice caressed by salt water the way one person's body presses against another.

     I pull myself out of the water and sit on a piece of flat ice in an arctic bay.  The open water is still like a mirror.  The sun is dim and distant in the sky.  There is no discomfort, no need for a sweat suit to feel at ease. 

     An undine can be thrilled and have fun even when nothing is happening.  Human conception has no part to play.  My body becomes the arctic bay.  The ice and the water are full of exciting and enchanting feelings: they join together wild laughter and solemn, majestic meditations as the stars circle and dance in the sky through the night. 

    

Still having trouble distinguishing imagination from actual contact?  Perhaps it would help to first lay a better foundation for the connection through better immersion in the water element. Try getting inside water--visualizing, sensing, tasting, feeling, hearing, and experiencing the following:

    Water is the sparkling white drops in a waterfall, the color in the rainbow, the spray in the wave breaking on the beach, in the white cap, and in the water splashing your face.  It is soft, foamy bubbles slipping around your ankles as you walk in the surf and the drops of water thrown into the air as the water in a stream slaps against a rock.  It is the water dropping down, sprinkling, or drizzling as you walk beneath the leaves of trees still wet from the rain.  It is the smell of salty, moist air when you are near the sea and the cool, moist scent when you approach a desert stream.

   If you really put yourself into the above paragraph, your consciousness is within the vibratory range where you can meet a real undine.  But is the one you meet real or imagined?

    An analogy?  I can imagine a friend and then compare my imagination of my friend being here to memories of actual interactions.  The most obvious difference is that my real friend has lots of her own memories I still don’t know.  And the way her mind and emotions work is beyond much of what I can imagine.  There is more to her than what I imagine. 

     But most of all, the real person has a real etheric and physical body.  The physical carries a dense vibration that is composed of real life force and vitality.  The physical is very hard to capture with imagination.

     Then again, I have met people for the first time in dreams which we shared in common.  And then later on in real life I met the same person and we compared our memories regarding what occurred within the dream.  Sometimes the dream image or imagination has a strong connection to the real thing.  Each is reflected through the other. 

     The bottom line?  I would suggest building up a repertoire of memorized experiences which you might use for yourself.  These we compare and contrast the way your specific imagination works with the way you observe things in real life.  Then you keep refining your observations. 

     A trained magician’s imagination has the specific attribute that what he imagines he also has (to some extent) the power to make real.  That is why you never want to downplay the importance of finding your own solution to this particular problem.

OK?  Let’s run it by again.  A real undine often has a power and a magical resourcefulness that are far beyond the reach of imagination or normal contemplative exercises.  The primary difference between a real undine and an imagined one is that the real undine will always increase your understanding and feeling for the ocean.  The undine, after all, is an aspect of the natural world and reveals the secrets of nature.  An imagined undine will tend to specialize in your subconscious wishes, hopes, fears, and remain within the boundaries of your imagination.

 

IN COMMUNICATING WITH NATURE SPIRITS, WHAT ARE THE RULES?

 

Never make the first move—always let them speak first to you.  Otherwise, according to the rules of astral plane covered in Who Gets to Possess Who? section 14b, they can declare you a “lost soul” thereby gaining salvage rights to your soul.

 

No matter how loving or friendly, all nature spirits and elemental beings are programmed to follow the rule that governs all magical realms--the strong rule over the weak.  That is, while you are seeking to master them they are seeking to master you.

 

If they give you a gift, such a gnome offering the Red Lion or Philosopher’s stone, it is only because they wish to possess your soul.

 

No, if a high ranking elemental being offers you a gift the gift acts as an entrance pass that enhances your ability to enter their elemental realm.  Just make sure you bring your own exit pass or else have a quick escape route in view.

 

The undines/mermaids are not trying to seduce you and then take possession of your soul.  It is just the nature of the magnetic fluid they embody—it automatically acts to magnetize your aura so you come to feel the way they do.  (Although there may be a few bets on the side over who can seduce you the quickest).

 

You do not need magic to commune with nature spirits.  You only need to do one of the following:

 

1. Really love nature and then nature spirits will really love you. 

 

2.  Keep a diary in which you imagine you understand their dreams and schemes.  Make an entry each day in which you imagine yourself doing whatever it is nature spirits do.  Magic can not compete with empathy like that. 

 

3. Feel the blood flowing through your veins and imagine you are rivers and the sea.  Feel the air in your breath and chest and imagine you are the winds, the biosphere, and the dream of being free.  Feel the weight of your body, the bones, and especially the legs and feet and imagine you are solid and enduring like the mountains, the earth, and the trees.  Feel the heat of your body, your desire and need and imagine you are the fire that consumes and also the fire that needs no fuel to create light to see.  I think that should do it: nature spirits will then welcome you as an honored guest among them.

 

 

Even if you follow the correct rules, what might happen with nature spirits?

 

They show up unexpectedly, obtrusively, and without being called.  Maybe they like hanging out with you.

 

You notice they do not speak in any human language.  Their communication is directly body to body, feelings to feelings, and mental imagery to mental imagery.  Kind of intimate and at times absolutely overpowering.

 

When something interesting happens, it occurs to you that what you just experienced is not described anywhere in human literature by any human mystic, poet, or philosopher.  

 

You find yourself dealing with forms of psychology that the human race will not discover for hundreds of years.

 

You notice that as you begin to see as they see, feel as they feel, and interact with the elements as they interact that your psychic powers are vastly enhanced.  But what you are perceiving is no longer the perceptions of a human beings.  Duh.

 

That unless you write down what you were doing for the last three hours you spent hanging out in the ocean with an undine, drifting though the sky with a sylph, walking beneath a mountain with a gnome, or discussing questions about the nature of fire with a salamander, everything that happened vanishes from your mind within five minutes of time.  (Why?  You have two hundred thousand years of neurological programming that makes you a human being.  They have millions of years of uniting with nature while remaining unseen.  Putting the two together in one state of consciousness is not as easy as it may seem.)

 

 

Peace, Contentment, Rapture, and Omnipresence—A Pop Quiz Self-Evaluation Process.  Consider the following review.  Which one is easiest for you to sink down inside of, to become one with, so that you feel, at least for a few moments, it is totally real and that you a part of it?

 

There is a place of enfolding depths, a place to drift and float free like the feeling of well-being that flows like a stream from the dawn of time to the ends of eternity.  (from the story, Istiphul)

 

There is a peace in the soul as deep as the ocean, as flowing as water, as still and clear as a mirror, and as vast as the starry night. (from the story, Isaphil)

 

At night I dream that I have become a silver chalice.  And within this chalice is gathered the purest essence of all the stars.  When I dream this dream, though I am but the sea, I feel I have become one with the universe. (The goddess of the sea from the story, Isaphil)

 

I close my eyes.  My only awareness is now my breath.  My breath becomes the breath animating all life on earth.  My breath is in every living being, in every tree.  My breath is throughout the sky and the depths of the sea. 

     Everywhere there is air, I am there.  I flow without ceasing.  Through the pulsing heart of Life on earth, I glide.  I follow the movement of Her thoughts and I am one with Her Love. (from the story, Isaphil, spoken by the lord of the winds)

 

Imagine for a moment what this would be like: imagine taking all the sensations, feelings, and moods that the seas create;  imagine binding that beauty and wild passion into one light, one dream, or one vision of completion--and then to be able to transmit this to another through your eyes, a touch, or a kiss. (from the undine Istiphul)

 

 “Place your hand in water and feel the water connecting you to all the seas of the earth.  Become a billion waves dancing to a thousand separate winds.  To know me is to learn to perceive as I do.  For a moment let go and be as me--the soul of the sea.”  (from the undine Istiphul)

 

.  “As in all things, let your love be as the sea that enfolds and embraces.  Let it be as the river which flows to the sea and as the rain that renews the earth.  Let it be as the pool, so calm and clear, it yields to you its sweet waters to drink.  Only in love as pure as this can you ever see the world as it really is.

     “Feel the moonlight on your hands and on your face.  Reflect the world around you in this way. Softly, gently, graciously, become a space of pure lunar light--your mind the ocean that has no shores.”

 

 

Tone MagicThere does not seem to be a lot whole written on this topic.  Maybe there are some mystical musicians or composers out there who have a feel for this form of magic.  Here are a few excerpts drawn from my work on undines which are suggestive regarding the relation between a tone in music and an act of magic.  Can you hear what I hear when these sounds appear?

 

Note: Below are brief summaries of the cosmic letters E and M.  Together they compose the E-M formula that can be used for facilitating a connection with undines.  The E is concentrated on the mental plane and the M on the astral plane. 

 

The Cosmic Letter E

 

Sitting here on a rock as water flows around me, I blow on a small panpipe, playing a soft, hollow, echoing sound.  I then hum the note of “D.”  I concentrate on a mental level where thoughts are born and images transmitted from mind to mind.

     And with this note I envision a world where the inner essence of each individual and creature circulates with all others--as the wind we breathe, as water rising from the seas falls again as rain finding its way into our blood and into our tears.  And there is a color I also visualize: the color of dark ultraviolet.  This color oscillation in this instance is like a stillness heightening our sensitivity so we can hear another’s thoughts or feel their heart’s desires within our own heart. 

     I concentrate also on a sensation of penetration, of being everywhere and nowhere all at once in a place of perfect peace.  In such a space there is nothing we can ever lose.  This is a place where the heart is so open it can embrace another without desiring anything in return to balance the relationship.

 

The Cosmic Letter M

 

And again I hold the panpipe to my lips and blow another note of D.  This one, however, has a soft, gentle sound imitating the ocean’s own breath, flow, and being.  I sing now within the astral plane--and in this sound is the sea in its depths, the sea in its currents, and the sea in waves crashing down on bare shores.  And the color of this sound is blue-green--the very essence out of which the Creators did create all oceans on all worlds throughout the universe. 

     I also concentrate on the water element that is cold and chill.  That is, I envision an immense field of magnetic energy.  This fluid is the inner essence of the feminine mystery--in truth, there are places in nature where men may not go without an invitation.  And though bardic magicians respect such boundaries, our voice and breath speak on behalf of the realm of spirit which has no gender limitations.

     And so with these two sounds I create a place not to trap but to so sweetly call Istiphul that, to put it simply, at this moment there is nowhere else she would rather be than here within this magic space that I have just now sung into being.

 

Undine Sounds

 

As I enter Osipeh’s domain, I hear a woman singing the note of F--the F on the top bar of the middle C scale.  This note expresses the astral energy and atmosphere of Osipeh’s domain.  Multiple sensations of love merge and emerge from each other--the sensation of being caressed, stoked, and hugged; there is a slippery wetness of bliss surging down the nerves; there is intimacy and sweet kisses;  there is the feeling of floating suspended in water and also the feeling of having your head resting on curvaceous thighs.

     There are deep desires releasing and old tensions letting go.  There is a feeling of drifting on a raft down a river beneath the moon and of being held also.  There is the distinct sensation of a wave breaking on a beach, a river reaching the sea, a cloud beginning to rain, moisture rising from a leaf, and fog forming on a lake.  The sound of the note of F and all these feeling are interchangeable.  Osipeh has the most remarkable sense of feeling alive, of being renewed, and of giving herself to you.

 

Osipeh’s Inner Aura.  I sense a magic of tones.  I hear an oboe or perhaps a bassoon playing.  I can hear a male voice singing a note which is like the cold white of winter’s snow and ice and yet it is fresh and inviting.  It calls you to rise up and feel water splashing, exploding, and dancing in great waves colliding against the shore and then rolling back and forth and smashing against each other some more.  It is a cauldron of foamy white spray racing every which way, bubbling up, and washing over you with happiness and satisfaction.

 

I invite Amue to follow me back to my location in the physical world.  Amue is now present here in my room.  She begins singing to me.  She spends a few moments on each musical note.  The notes evoke memories of childhood--of being held, embraced, and feeling happy, content, and at peace. 

     Amue captures in her singing various themes from the different ethnic groups which are part of my heritage.  There are songs of heroes who believe passionately in their ideals and in what they seek.  There are songs of love: Amue’s songs move imperceptibly between the comfort a mother gives her infant and the song of a lover who gives all of her heart to another with absolute trust.  There are songs of longing and desire, of the sun radiant and dazzling in its light as it sparkles and burns within ice.  Amue now sings in quarter notes and half tones expressing solitary quests and then the tension resolves with a note evoking transcendent vision and accomplishment. 

     As she repeats and then varies her melody, I imagine myself sitting in an ancient Taoist monastery.  Late at night I sit meditating before an altar burning a few sticks of incense.  A gong sounds on the hour.  There is a profound satisfaction and a peace within and around me.  As Amue sings, I have no doubt I could continue within this dream for the whole night if I wished.  The chanting is familiar and the setting is part of the landscape of my soul.

 

Istiphul

 

Istiphul emits a loud cry--the note of a soprano, but this sustained note is like an entire song.  The sound of it carries far out into the surrounding ocean.  At the same time, this sound gathers and draws back to her the spiritual force within water which animates it and bestows beauty upon it.

     I realize what this is--I am witness to the magic of tones which some undines possess.  Istiphul sends part of her being outward.  The sound ricochets back and forth in each drop of water.  As a soprano can break a glass with her voice, this note Istiphul sings can turn water to ice or steam.  Instead, a power lying dormant and asleep within the ocean uncoils itself in response--

     There is a pulsing and a shivering--the muscles in the body shaking and quivering.  The body spasms but not from pain or tension.  This is an ecstasy of pure delight.  Her sound penetrates and encircles at the same time.

     And the song within this note, how can I express it?  Words woven out of wind and water, out of sea and sky, living water, a wilderness of delights, they fall now as passion--a bite, a yearning touch, a tender kiss.  Then they become a waterfall surging and splashing and falling further down into the arms of love’s embrace. 

     It is a haunting sound, curtains of starlight falling down caught in a pool where the ocean dreams.  It is urgent--at first buoyant and then sinking, it dissolves into a magnetic expanse where all thoughts go to lie down having finally exhausted their explorations of how things are different.

     As Istiphul sings I become one with the sea--pure bliss, pure ecstasy adrift within sweet serenity’s lap.  I float.  I am suspended.  And again I blend with the body of the ocean.   

     If in part the purpose of a spiritual quest is to find and unite with our divine parents, with the source of our inspiration, then this sound would be the wine used to celebrate reunion with the divine mother.  Whichever one you seek--Gaia, Dana, Shekinah, Vishvamata, Prajnaparamita, Shakti, Kundalini, Rudha, Sophia, Venus, Diana, Demeter, and Kwan Yin. 

     With this note ringing within my ears, it is easy to forget who I am.  A few seconds pass, perhaps a few minutes--suddenly I am no longer sure if these few moments were actually two or three years.  Did I trade my body for that of a dolphin, frolicking and playing near reefs and further out at sea?  Just now I say to myself, “Ah, I remember.  I am actually a human being!”

     Nerve ends are soothed even as they are sharpened.  As I have said before, this is the undine’s magic of tones: the creation of a place of soul where two separate hearts from two separate worlds may join as one.  Melting together, the deepest desire in one is fused to the deepest desire within another.                

 

 

A Few Examples of Meditating on the Cosmic letter M

 

#1

Imagining blue-green and water around and in me.  The most obvious result immediately is that I cease to think.  My brain cools down dramatically since there is far less electrical activity. 

   Second, I do not identify with my personality.  I become the watery and magnetic expanse without form identification or need for self-imagery. There is nothing to reinforce, validate, or assert.

   At this point, it is fairly easy to focus on any specific feeling associated with the magnetic fluid and to feel it entirely.  Contentment?  I am absolute contentment.  Peace?  I feel the peace of the stars within a sea of cosmic love and ecstasy.  Serenity?  I become a stillness so pure, open, and vast that all visions can easily pass through its heart becoming transformed so they are more radiant, more perceptive, and more capable of manifesting according to wisdom and love.

    How about pleasure and bliss?  There is physical release.  There is happiness, satisfaction, and gratification--the gratification of two uniting, every instinct in their being tasting the full cup of craving and then finding at last within those desires the final end that is sought.             

      OK.  Let’s do love.  What I have is that love is becoming so one with another that all separation is overcome.  This is seeing through the eyes of the Mystery, seeing life as it is meant to be lived, felt, experienced, and embraced.  It is forever possessing the power to transform the other and oneself in and through that embrace.  In this meditation, this love I have become.                                                                                                                                                            

    I know even now and here amid the flow that this is a temporary state, a kind of artistic self-hypnosis or momentary trance.  But I wonder if there might not be a way to make it more permanent.  To make this expanse of light and sensory bliss a part of my personality so that the attraction, embracing love, and satisfaction are a way I express myself. 

       And so I sense that I can sit here for as long as I want within this state.  And if I can do that then I know I can call it back at will perhaps whenever I want in any situation.  Underneath life as we know it is another presence—the magnetic fluid as part of nature, within our bodies, and part of a spirituality that awaits us to claim it.

   I conclude that one of the tricks with the cosmic letters is to build up enough personal experience with their imagery, sensations, and feelings that they naturally become a part of one self.  In this way, the power of concentration that can be used to evoke their qualities and energies is no longer necessary.  They can be experienced and explored as easily as entering a waking dream, a kind of extended daydream, or undertaking an imaginary journey.

 

#2 I notice by spending time entering again a number of sensory experiences with water I naturally without effort generate a powerful magnetic field around myself.  If I think a specific vibration of an emotion or feeling, the magnetism amplifies it so I experience in a very rich and deep manner.  If I add the color of blue green and water extending out around myself in all directions, it becomes even stronger.

   For example, I visited Sacred Falls the pool and also the stream, Hanauma Bay, Brighton Lake, and various images such as a mountain lake, under a falls, and inside an iceberg at the North Pole.  And then I worked on love, as two joining as one and eventually I got the sensation physical and strong and persuasive. 

   Also occurring were spontaneous awareness of the other cosmic letters involving water.  And a sense of being one with the universe in the Isaphil cup or a lake capturing the distilled starlight and the feeling that generates.

   But most of all this time just working with the images of water and being in these images I got a very strong sense of generating a powerful magnetic field.  I could have made it much stronger but I keep within a natural flow in this meditation.

 

#3: 1/7/06/  I did a lot of watery memory recollections and then the icy cold blue green out in all directions. But I just got this time the very strong contracting quality of the magnetism.  No feeling particularly even though I kept trying.  No other specific thing coming through either.  Tempted to call an undine but I wanted to explore this on my own.

    I also did the four planes but not much other than above.  Maybe it needs the E-M formula or the note of “D.”  I think it was the degree of intensity or density of the water and magnetism that interfered with the ability to get specific feelings.  Like running a race, the intensity of the activity precludes any kind of sensitivity.

 

#4: 1/8/06.  I was more gentle with the intensity of vibrations. Just blue-green water on astral plane.  I worked on serenity first and got an image of being a mermaid lounging on a rock singing to the sea.  Very relaxed and sensual.

   So then I worked on love. I had first the Chinese yin yang symbol which is great but I want the sensation not the symbol.  So I got the electric and magnetic in a male and female making love—the hot, burning, intense, craving electric being soothed, cooled, yielding within, and released with the magnetic.

   And then I moved further to “oneness.”  This then became a hundred per cent of the female joined with a 100 per cent of the male.  A complete oneness with each other.

   The electric and magnetic in this case seemed completely transformed.  You could call this divine sexuality.  Everything is different.  Like the divine union of all opposites in the cosmic letter J, it reveals the true and original and highest purpose behind everything. 

   I can consider situations of conflict and see why people act the way they do—because they exist within an overpowering state of separation.  I am stating the obvious here—they would not do the things they do if they knew how to become one with each other. 

    They would possess divine intuition and exercise divine creativity fulfilling original purposes arising from the depths of their hearts joined to divinity. 

    How do you express this sort of thing in human relationships?  It is that kind of Goddess command: Create a religion without priests, temples, or rituals in which love, power, wisdom, and justice are equally honored and pursued.  And how precisely do you do that?

    You make a kind of inner plane temple which is not a temple but a space of the heart.  And then two individuals who fully appreciate the sacred art enter this space with their hearts and there they simply practice the Letter M in this way—joining every part of one with every part of the other.  It is both something you can do with yourself (joining the opposite electric and magnetic in your body and soul) and it is something you can do with another. 

    In my screenplay, The Fall of Atlantis, two characters are fighting back to back against an overwhelming number of enemies.  The one character says to the other, “Tell me something about women that I don’t know.”  “Do we have to have this conversation now?”  “We may not have another change.”  “You have to love the woman inside you before you can love the woman outside of you.”  “Is that all?  I thought you were going to say a beautiful woman is a mirror that reveals to you the one thing you can otherwise never discover about yourself.”  “That’s true too.”

    There is a real art in balancing the opposite polarities of the electric and magnetic fluids within ourselves.  It is also a great art to bring these opposites together with another person so they are joined harmoniously and with great power.   But underneath this action is a great amplification of awareness, sensory bliss, and experience.  The levels of consciousness that result are up there with the divine.  Those spirits who are masters of life are all accomplished in this art and form of divine perception. 

    You are not going to learn about this sort of thing neither in Sunday School nor from Howard Stern’s talk radio.   Hugh Heffner and his opposite--equally Billy Graham--know nothing about it.  But whatever our state of desire, interest, motivation, or intentions, the entire concept of joining opposites is worthless unless we can capture in our awareness the magnetic fluid.

  

 #5:  2/9/06.  I worked on the ocean and the Isaphil meditation.  Also the blue green watery color.  Then I focused on serenity and stillness.  This took some work but I ended up feeling I was inside of a water filled crystal ball.  I would get various images of the past, present, and future.  Often I thought about some topic and impressions and images would come to me. 

    This is a really fascinating aspect of magnetism since it produces psychic visions.  It is not my familiar mode of meditating so it may take some practice to stay with the single vibration of stillness that suspends time.

   

 

 

 (from Basic Practices)

 

 Sea Life

 

 Before proceeding to review the exercise

on transferring consciousness into animals, I would like to make a

few comments.  The idea of adopting the form and consciousness of

an animal is rather fascinating.  Animals are totem spirits for

different Indian clans.  They are at the heart of shamanic practices

and they can act as familiars.  Animals have acute perception and

remarkable adaptation to specific environments.  They possess a

high level of instinctual intelligence.

    For some American Indian tribes, the totem animal of a clan

represents a specific way for members of that clan to sharpen their

perceptions of the natural world.  If you can identify in your

consciousness with a specific animal, then you can extend your

range of perceptions and feelings.  You gain contact with a kind of

power and instinct for survival which is normally outside a human

being's awareness. 

     Furthermore, if a group of individuals works with a specific

animal over a long period of time, you gain more than the instinctual

energy and intelligence of the animal.  The animal takes on

archetypal qualities.  It becomes numinous and a symbol of divine

consciousness as well.  Thus, it is not only American Indians who

utilize animal imagery.  The prophets of Israel, though against all

attempts to use images or forms to represent God, still saw in their

visions a consciousness uniting man, eagle, ox, and lion.

 

 

The Humpback Whale

 

Humpback whales often swim off a beach a little over a mile from my house. 

They sometimes come within a few hundred feet of the shore. 

     Let me begin by quoting a few paragraphs from a web site on

the internet.  The site below, for example, gives song files, pictures,

migration routes, and other information:

 

http://www.discovery.com/exp/humpbacks/hear.html

 

"The humpback whale is named for the way its back arches out of

the water when it starts a deep dive. Its scientific name, Megaptera,

means "large-winged" and refers to its long, white wing-like flippers.

Humpbacks are very dark colored whales, except for the flippers,

parts of the chest and belly, and the underside of the tail flukes....

 

"Northern hemisphere humpbacks reach an average length of 45-52

feet, and southern humpbacks reach 60 feet. The average weight for

a mature adult is 35-40 tons.

 

"Humpbacks are found in all oceans to the edges of polar ice, and

follow definite migration paths from their summer feeding grounds

to warmer waters in the winter. There seem to be three distinct,

isolated populations: North Pacific, North Atlantic, and Southern

Hemisphere.

 

"An acrobatic whale, humpbacks regularly breach (jump out of the

water), stroke each other, and slap the water with their flippers and

flukes.... Humpbacks swim in groups or pods of up to a dozen at

calving grounds, and in smaller groups of three to four during

migration. They can often be seen feeding together.

 

"Humpbacks are baleen whales that have 14-35 long throat pleats

that expand when the whale takes in water while feeding. They use

baleen plates to strain krill, herring, other small fish, and plankton

out of the water....

 

"Humpbacks are best known for their haunting vocalizations or

"singing." They have a rich repertoire that covers many octaves and

includes frequencies beyond the threshold of human hearing. These

songs, apparently sung by males, last as long as 20 minutes, after

which they are repeated, often with slight changes. When a whale is

singing, it floats suspended in the water, head down and relatively

motionless...."

 

I project my mind into a humpback whale.  Almost immediately I

notice an extraordinary sense of peace and well-being.  The entire

ocean feels like home.  There is an incredible relaxation combined

with rhythmic movement.  The ocean provides food.  Your mates

find you when you need them.  Even when you swim alone, you are

not really alone.  The other whales of your pod are in the same

ocean.

     The mental body of this whale is incredibly interesting also.

There is a way in which space and time are partially suspended as it

views its environment.  When you are in the tropics, your body is

sustained by the food you have eaten in the arctic.  And when you

are in the arctic, the warmth and community of the tropics remains

fresh and vivid in your mind.  The migrating between the two is not

so much a journey or quest for survival as much as a satisfying form

of exercise like going on a hike through the mountains. 

     I realize scientists are put off by popular attempts which

anthropomorphize whales.  By contrast, scientists are busy doing the

important work of making observations and collecting data.  But

there is also a telepathic rapport that is essential to communication

between the species.  Part of telepathy is taking another's

experiences and translating them into images and feelings from your

own experience.  The difference between being sloppy and being

proficient is a matter of how receptive you are and how much you

can put aside your own assumptions.

     The whale's mental vibration is a lot more open than my own.  I

tend to differentiate between the present moment and environment

in which I exist and the memories I have of past experiences and

also my thoughts about future plans and expectations.  The whale is

obviously aware of its present environment.  But it also retains a

strong awareness of its entire annual cycle of movement and

activities. 

     Individuals who have near death experiences often tell about

seeing their whole life as if in a few moments.  The whale seems to

retain an awareness of its entire life cycle in each moment.  The

route of migration from pole to equator takes place within the same

ocean.  The movement is guided by temperature and light similar to

the movement between the surface which is bright and the depths

which are dark.  The changes of life and all that we experience

surrounds us wherever we are and in every moment.  Whales seem

to know this better than us.

     And so I seem now to stray into the archetypal dimension in

which the image of the whale carries power, beauty, and revelation.

Certainly the songs of the humpback whale express something of

this mystery.  You see, whatever the scientific explanation for the

whales singing and its functions, there is something else present. 

     It is as if the ocean has raised and bred a creature which sings

some of its songs.  These songs belong not just to those who sing

but also to those who listen.  Sailors do not know of this.  They

have too much fear in their hearts and are much to greedy and

impatient to listen.  Scientists know nothing of this.  Their patience

is great and their tenacity relentless when it comes to making

observations and testing their theories.  But they too fail to listen.

They do not empty their minds and become one with what they are

observing.

     What I can say about the archetypal domain of the whale is that

when I open myself to it, I feel the ocean flowing my body.  I feel

the currents and magnetic fields which flow between the poles.   I

feel the ocean with its power to sustain and nourish life.  But there is

more.

     If there were a tarot deck of animals and the whale was one of

the cards, this whale card would also have a spiritual meaning.  Its

meaning would be the discovery of a place of the soul and heart

where healing and renewal are without limitation or restriction.  I

feel this now.  I find it to be awesome and wonderfully beautiful.

 

Common Difficulties.

 

1.  Shape Shifting.  Some individuals will have difficulty changing

their consciousness from the form of the human body to some other

shape.  Bardon has students practice holding visual images in their

minds for five minutes without any disturbances.  This preliminary

exercise is invaluable. 

    If you can picture your body as a hologram or like a hollow

statute,  you can slowly move your consciousness downward from

your head to your toes or into any part of your body.  This is a

matter of holding an image steady and then altering your location

within it. 

    Similarly, if you now picture an animal, you can move your mind

around within it, from the tip of its head to the end of its tail.  You

can visualize your hand turning into a paw, a claw, hoof, a wing,

etc.  This too is simply a matter of making a picture and then

imagining that you are responsible for changes in that picture the

way you are responsible for moving your own fingers.  Bardon likes

to emphasize visual concentration and obviously the visual sense is

very important in one kind of transference.

    Another way is just to picture the animal doing all the things the

animal does.  You watch the animal and you get a feel for it.  You

then identify with or internalize that feeling.  You can imitate the

animal's behavior in your mind or go over it again and again until

you get a feel for the instinctual life and perceptual mode of the

animal.  In Kung Fu and other martial arts, the students imitate

animal movements in their practices.  The idea is not just to master

the strikes and parries, but the spirit of the animal as well.

     Other individuals will get all sorts of impressions, feelings, and

intuitions and basically find it easy to feel they have shape shifted

into an animal.  Their problem is not changing into the animal.

Instead, their difficulty is in being out of control.  Their experience

is more like a vivid dream full of random impressions rather than a

concentration exercise. 

     Psychic perception has the capacity to identify with something,

observe all its connections to its world, and at the same time to

remain completely detached.  Again, one of Bardon's basic practices

is to maintain an empty mind free of any thoughts or disturbances.

If you can do this, you can focus on those sensations and feelings

which you are interested in. 

     If you want the animal's sense of smell, you focus on its nose.  If

you want its hearing, you focus on its ears.  You eliminate other

distractions so that gradually you examine the perceptual and

instinctual system of the animal.  Though sometimes the instinctual

desires of animals can become overpowering during this exercise,

the idea is never to lose your sense of clarity.

 

2.  Getting out of your body.  Actually, Bardon presents mental and

astral projection exercises in chapters eight and nine of Initiation into

Hermetics.  But it is clear that this is also what we are doing here to

some extent.  Bardon says, for example, that "Adepts who have

been practicing this exercise, for years, are capable to understand

any animal, and handle it by their will power."  Controlling an

animal obviously involves more than just imagining you are an

animal in your head.

     In the beginning, however, it seems to make little difference if

you imagine an image of your cat, for example, and then imagine

you are inside of this mental image.  You develop the same empathy

and strengthen the same mental concentrations whether you are

actually in the cat or think yourself to be so. 

     The way to get a sense of being outside of your body and inside

something else is just to practice the exercise.  Some people can do

this effortlessly.  For others, it is like learning a new sport--there are

all sorts of new rules to learn, muscles to exercise, and tricks to

acquire.  Again, if you have done the concentration exercises in the

first three chapters, then if you imagine yourself to be in a certain

location, part of your mind is indeed in that location. 

     It seems to me there is something to be said for transference of

consciousness.  You can use it in positive or negative ways but as Bardon

says, consciousness knows neither space nor time limitations.  Whether you

actually are convinced or not that you are inside of something else, the

exercise of transferring your mind into another person, for example, is a

fabulous means for developing sympathy for the feelings and understanding

for the thoughts of the other person.  Certainly, students will want to

experiment with transference of consciousness in a variety of ways until

they feel they have made the technique their own.

 

 

 

Poems on Water

 

 

 Too Much to Ask

(edited version)

 

I watch the clouds pass over the Koolau's

With moist hands, fingers pressing into the trees

Their tongues dip into the leaves

As their soft lips whisper, quivering

Like a drop of water

Delicately poised, balanced, shivering

Before running wild down the bark,

I listen to the wind at Sandy Beach

As it speaks of the sea

Of the wave's crest

Rising higher

Foamy white it hurls itself

Without thought, hesitation, or regret

As thin mist into the sky

As the diamond sun

Sings with enchanting eyes

Of dawn and twilight

Where two hearts unite

Day and night melting into a greater love,

I watch the stream in Manoa Valley

Drifting and turning

Curling around every rock

Letting go as it flows

As in a dream

Releasing itself

With sighs and gentle cries

Willingly it yields

Into the arms of the valley below

So naturally I think:

Love is not so distant

In every smell, taste, and touch

Its fingers play upon my nerves

Ravishing my senses

As it searches for my heart ….

 

 

Psalm for the Sea 7

 

The blue-green purity of an arctic sea

Mirror like

A faint mist drifting upon its surface

The blue-white glacier

Clinging to the mountain slopes

Or resting within the valley

It is winter when the herbs are bitter

And the sun dim and distant

There is a time

To retreat and to sleep

To withdraw from the outer world

In the arms of love

Is soothing release

In its embrace

The cold of the world

Leaves no trace

Yet the ice, the frost, the snow

Are not indifferent

They are not without love

 

In the winter of the soul

Is the greatest vision

Of the Beloved’s face,

A sojourner once said to a woman,

I love you so much

If you held me within your heart

Winter would no longer be cold

And ice and snow

Would be warm to the touch.

The woman replied,

I am afraid the silence of snowy fields

The icicles chill

And the touch of frostbite

Can offer more love than I

But if you see the beauty within my soul

And can celebrate it

Even when it flows bitter and cold

Even during the dark of winter when no light shines

Then I will give you my love.

 

From the poles to the black volcanic beach

To the white sands of the Aegean Sea

The oceans enfold the world in their embrace

They absorb the heat of the sun

Cooling the earth by day

Warming the earth by night

In loves embrace

Is the preservation of light on earth

Whose heart is as deep and vast as the seas?

Who heart nourishes all life on earth?

Whose heart can greet the winds passionate kiss

With waves running wild and free

And yet absorb the light of the stars by night

In a place mirror like and at peace?

 

The man replied to the woman,

“I shall be a mirror so empty and clear

Your beauty shall finally shine

In all its radiance

I shall give you a cup to drink

Filled with the wine of the sun

Which persuades winter to let go its grip

So spring is free to come

And when we are separate

Neither the depths of the sea

Winters cold

Nor even the dark ocean where the stars shine

Shall diminish our love

Our hearts will be forever one.

 

Who are you? she asked,

 

He replied,

I am the voice of love

The one you have called

From the depths of your heart

And I have come to celebrate with you

The love that renews the world.

 

 

The Feeling of a Woman

 

Does the moon shed no light for me tonight?

Does love neither seek me nor reach for me

When I would share my heart?

Ah fool, I tell myself,

Nearly half a century is gone

Yet the passions of youth burn ever strong.

I remember the girl whose love broke me in two

Her affection was soft and sweet as the moon

Her smile, her heartbeat, her eyes

Were greater than any tide

Like this night, she left me

Abandoned, without light.

 

The feeling of a woman

Is like a pool flowing beneath a mountain:

No sun dawns

No moon rises

Yet the water is luminous,

Cool, soft, soothing

Amid transparent light, silence dancing:

The taste of love a secret sharing heart to heart.

 

Some will die without having felt this touch

Some hearts will harden, turning bitter, dry, and cold

Because the memory has grown old.

But I remember her smile, her heartbeat, her eyes

Though no moon shines this night

Though no hand reaches for mine

The waters of my heart

Flow cool, soft, and full of luminous dreams

Dancing with the silence of this night

Overflowing with love.

 

 

 

Women and the Sea

 

 

Why has it taken me so long to grasp

This most basic of facts:

Women are like the sea

In her arms

Warm and gentle

I lie on a tropical beach

The sun lazy and sweet

The moon spilling over with enchanting dreams,

I set my sails

By the winds of her smile

Her eyes shine with ecstasies

I have yet to find

As she says:

“Take me, ravish me

Search out all my secrets

Impress me with your abilities

I am yours to possess

If you can discover my bliss. 

Her waves are round and soft

Splashing with laughter

My craft surges and rides,

Her moist, wet kiss

A thin mist upon my cheeks

The land vanishes from the horizon

Yet she remains by my side.

 

Off the coast of Central America

Through a mountain pass

The winds blow fierce

Catching your sails

They drive you West

With huge waves and gusts

Sailing down wind

You try to ride the storm out

Until on the third day

The crest of a thirty foot wave

Breaks over the deck

The boat hidden beneath a foamy, white crest

But now the storm is past

I know women like that:

With the hunger of the wind

They will devour you or empower you

It makes no difference to them.

 

The helmsman of a forty foot catamaran

Who sails from Kauai to the Big Island

Says he prefers to have sailors on board

From the Great Lakes

Local sailors, he complains, are accustomed

To predictable trade winds

And so their eyes do not study the horizon

Nor do they smell the air

Searching for any indication

Of the mood swings of the sea

But on Lake Huron or Lake Erie

A lion squall can smash down on you in less than twenty minutes

Gusts of a hundred miles an hour

The waves blown flat without white caps

Horizontal rain flailing your face

And then in a few moments it is passed

I know women like that:

In their eyes, unprovoked,

A ferocity rises up, ready to attack

To smash you flat

Before falling back

Denying its own presence

Behind a wall of vulnerability and sensitivity.

 

Once I flew a spinnaker

Two thousand square feet of sail

Round, soft as silk,

Floating in the air off the bow

With lines, winches, and pole

I kept the sail on the edge of a luff

Barely fluttering, quivering,

Hypersensitive to each nuance of wind shift

The sailboat gliding over the waves

The stays taut, the mast tense

The helm guided by a firm hand,

After three hours of unbroken concentration

My body and mind joined to the wind

I said to another sailor,

I wish making love could be like this

The body and breath one,

Adrenaline and endorphins running this thick

In the bloodstream.

But he did not understand what I meant

In a society where women are not fully aroused

The men are materialists

Their eyes are blind

Their hearts are closed

Having never tasted the feminine essence

They do not see

The inner light shining in all things

Through the translucent waves

Whispering in the wind

Calling to them in their dreams

The sea says, Come and dance with me,

But they do not understand,

Such men fail to attain to their destiny

Light does not illuminate their visions.

 

You may think I exaggerate to make my point

But I tell you

Once when a bank of gray clouds

Closed in with thunder

And ribbons of lightning glancing down

As twilight faded into darkness

The mast and sails began to glow

With a purple, greenish light

And a humming sound

Like listening with your ear against a bee hive

Saturated the air

And the hairs on our arms stood up

Excited by the touch

Of St. Elmos fire

I know women like that:

They have passions and moods

Which men have never seen

Electric, their desires flair up

They touch you in the dark

And then, without a second thought,

Without a care, they depart.

 

One night, alone in a small craft,

The sky was overcast

I could hear the waves breaking not far off

Against a rocky shore hidden in darkness

But I could not turn out to sea

The waves were too great

When the waves crest broke

Over the stern I took on water

And so sailing only by sound

I listened to the waves

Bearing off when the breaking crest

Was too near

Until two hours later

I sailed past the tip of the island

I know women like that:

Shoals hidden in darkness

Uncharted, unmapped, 

Places where dreams are shattered

Lives are shipwrecked

And to survive them

You must make darkness your friend.

 

And even when you are ashore,

When you think you are safe and sound

Where your feet are really on solid ground

It is still like visiting Sacred Falls on Oahu,

I have floated naked in that mountain pool

At dawn as the suns golden, molten breath

Caressed the rocky heights

The water so cold yet inviting

So exciting, yielding all of its being to my touch

Like lips which finally surrender a kiss

But then later on when I had left

Falling rocks kill others right where I had stood

That place, though sacred, is also a trap

I know women like that

They can be incredibly sweet and kind

And then turn and stone you to death

Like their worst enemy from another lifetime.

 

But then again

The sea never did promise me

She would be an easy conquest

 

To state my case

Concerning women and the sea:

If you look carefully enough

Into the eyes of any woman on earth

Hidden in the depths

You will find a quiet dignity

And if you meditate on what you find

You will hear her say:

I am waiting for a lover

Who is wise, strong, and tender

To discover my secrets

To taste my bliss

To ravish my heart

And yet who lets me be

As wild and free as the sea.

 

 

For Karen Matheson

 

Does the mountain stream cry

Its pools almost dry

As its source--the clouds

Drift off into other skies?

Do the remaining falls weep in sorrow and loss?

Do the ripples circling silently between the rocks

Dream of endless loneliness before flowing on?

 

If my answer is "No,

Can I persuade my heart otherwise?

Your voice walks beside me

Through these mountains, deserts, and forests 

Where, though breathing, seeing, and dreaming,

I feel I have died

Because love has left my life behind.

But your voice reshapes my life

In your song I hear you say,

 

This pool you see

It dreams of clouds and seas

But its still waters reflect more

The stars dwelling in the vast expanse of space

Their songs of Joy take eons of time

Each others hearts of find

And yet they are all joined as one

As your heart and mine

Within this moment

Within this poem

Flow as one stream of love.

The child understands not the words

Understands not the reasons for its suffering

But the mother is there to comfort

She holds him within her arms

In my waters cool and deep

Rest and sleep

Let go

Be released

And yet expand also—”

 

 Dissolving

Sinking down into your heart, your love

I am now the underground stream

Gently weaving through the caverns beneath the ground

I am curtains of rain sailing upon the wind

I am the sea and the iceberg drifting

The whales song echoes through my body

As other whales listen a thousand miles distant

I am the mist embracing the forest with her arms

I am the grape on the vine

As it ripens

As it ferments into wine

Capturing the lightning with its song

Joining earth and sky

The taste of the grape

Sings of the treasure I have found within your heart:

In the coldest, darkest place of emptiness

Though invisible and unknown

A fiery light still shines

A heart still celebrates the Love Binding the universe with its might

From your heart to mine

In this moment

This flame is passed,

And so I have come to see

The stream, the falls, the pool and its dreams

Fear neither loss nor emptiness

Nor the loneliness where the soul dissolves

But flow as part of a Sea Whose Song is Infinite Love.

 

 

 

The following essay on how to write a poem reviews a method called focusing which relates to empathy.  The poem itself pursues images from the water element.  The essay also illustrates heart to heat communication.

 

 

An Essay--How to Write a Poem


The poetry I write is more a direct description of my experience in meditating than it is anything else.
Some have asked me to explain what it is I do.  One method I use in writing my poems derives from
Eugene Gendlin's method called "focusing."  (See Eugene T. Gendlin's book Focusing published by
Bantam Books, 1962).

     There are six steps in Gendlin's method.  1. Put everything off to the side so you can focus on one
feeling or question.  2. Get a direct feeling from your body, an impression you can perceive in a concrete
manner, which accompanies your feeling or question.  3. Express this feeling specifically in an image, a
phrase, even as a geometric configuration of where the sensations or feelings are in your body.

     4. Go back and forth between steps 2 and 3, that is, check and increase the accuracy of the image or
phrase so that there is a close correlation or "fit" between your body and your conscious representation of
where the sensations or feelings are in your body.  5. Allow now your entire body and soul to open to
what it is you have identified as "stuck" energy or feelings which are not flowing freely within yourself.
For example, ask, "What is behind  this or underneath it?"  This allows what is stuck finally to be
accepted and embraced by all that you are.  6.  Give yourself a chance to process what you have
experienced.  Let it become in some way a part of your life.

      In so far as psychologists are occupied with the needs of the personality, Gendlin, typically, has an
individual ask, "What is keeping me from being happy right now?"  There are a vast array of definitions
for what it is to be happy.  Certainly, it is up to each of us to find for ourselves our own answers.  There
is, however, a strong connection between our body and our feelings.  When we feel full of energy, clear,
and open to what is happening within us, we are on the path of happiness.  The body and feelings have an
immense advantage over the mind when it comes to discovering happiness.  Let us explore an example of
a focusing session.

       An individual might focus and notice a constriction or pain within his or her heart.  Focusing further
to increase the accuracy, the shape and intensity of this feeling becomes more clear--it is then
characterized as a throbbing, even a burning sensation which carries within it a feeling of loss.   The
sensation and the feeling of loss become, then, a "handle" one uses to open up the entire body and soul to
experience this stuck energy.  Total, undivided attention is present along with the empathy which is willing
to enter into and feel all that is there.  And the whole body stands ready to embrace and accept whatever
is discovered.

     Asking, "What is this?" or "What is beneath this?" allows us to enter into an inner psychic space in
which we are purely attentive and receptive.  New and original perceptions rather than old thoughts and
reactions can then be found. Empathy, love, and concentration are all present at once.  The energy the
psyche has put forth to hold, contain, and to bury these feelings is now no longer needed.  The rigid
barriers within the body are free to dissolve and the energy is free to move, to shape shift and be
transformed--to be integrated into the rest of our psyche rather than being separate and alone.

     In this moment, however, we do not identify with our personality or familiar identity.  No.  If we want
integration, to be more open and clear, we need to identify consciously with the totality of who we are.
To do this, we must be willing to enter the unknown--to embrace that space at the center of our heart
where love encompasses all.  It is from this place that the stuck and trapped energies and tensions within
our selves dissolve and are then free to flow and move unobstructed.

     Opening to our sensations and feelings, the loss is then discovered, in this case, to be rejection: the
withdrawal of love by others, the lack of acceptance, the way others have attacked rather than tried to
understand
who we are.  The inner tension around the heart is then perceived as arising from an attempt
to guard against others' hostility and lack of acceptance.  In this "discovery" or insight, there is no longer a
need to defend oneself.  The acceptance felt toward oneself in this case reaches out to others as well.
The body through opening and flowing with the movement of energy has found another way of relating to
the world.

     The energy, then, shifts because the barriers holding it in place are no longer needed.  The greater
resources belonging to the entire psyche are drawn upon.   With this shift and change comes new insight.
And the tense, burning sensation with its feeling of loss is now gone.  There is in its place a feeling of
delight, a sensation like water flowing down a stream.

     Our task in the final step is to allow this insight to become a part of our life.  Without receiving this
insight, it is easy for our more familiar but less dynamic routines, thoughts, and reactions to reassert
themselves.  In this case, receiving this insight becomes a matter of holding the others in our hearts with
the same love and acceptance we have discovered we can offer to our self.

     The most significant difference between what I do and what Gendlin does is that in step 5, in opening
to the energy or feeling, I use and flow into the energies of nature as the images in my poems testify.  I
also, as a spheric magician, draw freely from the vast array of spirits Franz Bardon mentions in his book,
The Practice of Magical Evocation.  This helps amplify my ability to explore and animate my
impressions.  And it enables tensions within me which are much more collective, universal, or cosmic than
personal to be released and transformed.

     As a psychologist, Gendlin's prime directive is to help others to adapt and to be successful in the social
world as it already exists. His emphasis is on the happiness and integration of the personality.  A bardic
magician like myself has a different objective--it is to discover spiritual treasures and bear them back to
our world, in other words, to capture in poems the beauty of the universe.

     My intent is not to adapt to but to comprehend and then to transform the world according to a vision.
Though I use Gendlin's method, I have modified it so that it is now a wand in the hands of a magician.  I
chart, then, not just the integration of the personality, but the integration of the collective, global, and
cosmic psyche in my meditations.

     The image or phrase I use as a "handle" on the energy I am experiencing within my body turns into
part of the poem I write.  In the poem, I pass into a void.  I move beyond the boundaries of the world in
quest of the harmony and beauty I seek.  The entire poem, then, is a record of this journey I have
followed on paths of soul and spirit.

     To avoid excessive explanations, I will begin writing a poem and talk about it as it unfolds.  I am
listening to a song by Karen Matheson from the soundtrack of the movie Rob Roy.  The song is Ailein
Duinn.  This song is in another language and though I do not have a translation, I notice there is
something in Karen's voice which I wish to explore--Karen sings from her heart and in her heart there is a
love which encompasses vast distances and places of isolation.  She accomplishes something as she sings
which I have not learned to do within my self
to unite sorrow, loss, and loneliness with beauty.

     The heart has this power--to hold all of our experiences in life within a place where stillness and love
are joined.  I want to enter this place, to join with this source, that this light might shine within myself as
well.  This will not be easy for me. One of the qualities of love is that it seeks to flow through the very
core of another's being.  The oneness offered is immense.

     But this flow is not without a price.  In its quest for intimacy and oneness, this love inevitably enters
every sealed room where frightening secrets have been hidden away, every chamber where horrors and
terrors have been bound and stowed--the flow of love breaks all barriers down.  Love creates a magical
circle.  It weaves together all that is within the life and experience of both individuals.  For this love
(which I perceive as I listen to Karen's voice) to flow within myself, I must pass through the darkness that
exists within me.

     Listening to Karen's singing, I open myself completely as a bardic magician.  I become the silence
which carries the notes of her voice.  I become the darkness willing to allow the light and all the images
within her mind to shine forth.  I bear the tension her heart embraces.  I am the willingness that feels what
she is feelings.  I am the stillness so complete her entire being--without diminishing, without a trace of my
desires and needs
is allowed to appear here.  I am the mirror willing to reflect without distortion her soul
and her spirit within myself.

     And yet, though the mirror is empty, it also seeks to hear what her voice has to say to me personally.
The tradition of the troubadour asserts that union with God or Goddess can not be attained, can not be
experienced in full, until it is first seen and experienced through the heart of another.  There is a path of
transformation her voice leads me upon.  This path leads both through her and through myself.  Upon this
path we are not separate.      This is a path of love and upon it there are moments when all that exists is
union, oneness, and bliss.

     This is not a wish or a fabrication, for love in its essence contains this mystery--only in love can we
undergo transformation without knowing where were are going or who it is we are becoming.  Love offers
us this union that we might find and enter the sacred gate leading to the enlightenment of the world.

      Listening to Karen's voice, my body is now gone.  The surrounding world is no longer here.  I would
listen in this moment so completely that my mind is like the sky, my feelings the sea, and my body as
quiet and patient as the mountain.

     My listening becomes the mirror so clear that her love, heart, and soul can appear within it not just as
an image or representation seen at a distance.  I allow the magic in her voice and song to create in me the
very source of life inspiring her. The feelings and energy within her song now begin to appear within me.
They are able to move freely drawing upon all that I am and all that I have ever experienced.

     In this listening space, her heart is now free to speak directly to my own.  This is communication from
one heart to another heart.  This is a dialogue between two souls involving our entire being.

      In her voice I find a love so pure I can feel it now flowing around my fingertips--a cool wind flows in
the evening before the moon rises. The air is liquid.  It brushes through my hair.  Standing behind me, I
feel her hands on my shoulders.   I am protected by her love, sheltered by her heart.  She offers me her
own heart and soul that I might know my own better--again, this is not my wish or hope.  This power to
join and offer support is precisely the essence of her own soul which she is sharing in her song.

     The wounds within myself, the pain and anguish, they are strings upon a lute and she reaches to touch
them with hands of compassion and healing.  Her song and her heart from which it arises walk with me
right now by my side through the darkest places of my lie--places I can see,  I can visit easily, but which I
have not been able to share with anyone else.  I feel her love as an actual energy moving through me.

     As I listen to her voice I sense the reason that this healing power is within her is that she is willing to
become the Earth.  Within her eyes, within her heart, she too would bear, endure, and nourish all so they
may come forth in their own time, in their own way, and be reborn, transforming and attaining all that
they were ever meant to be.  I feel that grace, that acceptance, that love within her heart as her voice
speaks
to me.

     With Karen's presence and heart clearly here with me, as liquid energy streaming through my body, I
visit again those places in my life where I was indeed lost and lonely--so lonely I felt I had died, or that
awakening within a dream, I turned and looked around myself and saw a million broken hearts silent and
unable to speak.  But Karen remains by my side as I enter this dark place.

     Still, this is not easy to do.  In this moment, as I hold a cassette player in my hand, my thumb hesitates
to push the play button and again listen to her song.  The pain is overwhelming.  It washes through my
body like an undertow striving to tear apart my identity and carry it off.  The pain is so total it feels that in
entering it there is no way out. The pain weighs me down.

     There is a place of lostness within me so vast it is like a dream from which part of myself has never
awakened.  I hesitate to enter lest even more be taken away from me than before.  But tracing the images
I am actually seeing in this moment, I write these words to the poem having spent many years walking
alone through deserts, forests, and mountainsides:

Does the mountain stream cry

Its pools almost dry

As its source--the clouds

Drift off into other skies?

Do the remaining falls weep in sorrow and loss?

Do the ripples circling silently between the rocks

Dream of endless loneliness before flowing on?

  

If my answer is "No,

Can I persuade my heart otherwise?

Your voice walks beside me

Through these mountains, deserts, and forests

 

Where, though breathing, seeing, and dreaming,

I feel I have died

Because love has left my life behind.

 

Clearly, I can enter, as in a walking dream, these moments of immense tension which I have experienced
before.  I am there now.  I have invaded the past.  I am who I once was.  But to be here is to experience
a numbness which can not feel, a sorrow which does not release.

     But Karen's voice is here with me also.  She says to me, "You can feel.  It does release.  I am able to
experience here and now all that you are going through.  You are within my heart and my love flows
through your soul."

      I feel the mountain pools and the streams again.  I am one with them.  And I feel the clouds moving
on just as love having propelled me forward on my path of life then turned away from me and left me
alone.  But she is within the pools and the streams as well.  Karen's voice, like a magician's, evokes within
me the love which exists within this very moment within her heart.

     And so in my body where I feel the tension, the numbness, the pain, I feel her energy flowing also
through me.  Her energy has become my own.  I could sit here for years by myself doing focusing and
still this energy would never release.  But in listening carefully I have allowed the heart of another to
infuse my own heart with new life even amid this wilderness.  And so I write:
 

But your voice reshapes my life

In your song I hear you say,

This pool you see

It dreams of clouds and seas

But its still waters reflect more

The stars dwelling in the vast expanse of space

Their songs of Joy take eons of time

Each others hearts of find

And yet they are all joined as one

As your heart and mine

Within this moment

Within this poem

Flow as one stream of love.

The child understands not the words

Understands not the reasons for its suffering

But the mother is there to comfort

She holds him within her arms

In my waters cool and deep

Rest and sleep

Let go

Be released

And yet expand also

 

"There are places within us which are so vast, so empty of human companionship, that to enter them is to
risk losing our understanding of who we are.  But these places as well are part of an even richer and more
wonderful world--they are a part of the Soul of the Earth.  Here are found all the treasures of spirit the
human race has ever known and will ever discover.

     Karen, with her heart of gold, leads me on paths through this wilderness of the soul.  I am no longer
within what is called the collective unconscious.  I am not supported by the wisdom of any culture on
earth.  I have entered the domain of what is better called the global or cosmic unconscious.    Here water
itself testifies to that aspect of Divinity which it embodies--universal and comic love.  Because the
magnetic powers within Karen's heart reflect and carry the Soul of the Earth itself, I am safe traveling
here.  The desolation I once faced but could not bear, she has transformed through the willingness of her
heart to flow through my own with her love.  She has given voice to the Life which infuses us all.

     There are places of the spirit we may not enter without another by our side.  There are
transformations we can not undergo unless another is there to guide us.  I assert that the feminine soul has
the power within it to bear and give birth to any destiny human or divine.  This is my experience as a
bard.  This is why I am so attentive to the treasures found within the hearts of women.  To the treasures
within the heart of this women I yield: I flow and let go and, entering into the mysteries of water itself and
the heart of nature, I write:

Dissolving

Sinking down into your heart, your love

I am now the underground stream

Gently weaving through the caverns beneath the ground

And I am curtains of rain sailing upon the wind

I am the sea and the iceberg drifting

The whales song echoes through my body

As other whales listen a thousand miles distant

I am the mist embracing the forest with her arms

I am the grape on the vine

As it ripens

As it ferments into wine

Capturing the lightning with its song

Joining earth and sky

The taste of the grape

Sings of the treasure I have found within your heart:

In the coldest, darkest place of emptiness

Though invisible and unknown

A fiery light still shines

A heart still celebrates the Love Binding the universe with its might

From your heart to mine

In this moment

This flame is passed,

And so I have come to see

The stream, the falls, the pool and its dreams

Fear neither loss nor emptiness

Nor the loneliness where the soul dissolves

But flow as part of a Sea Whose Song is Infinite Love.

 

It is neither caprice nor exaggeration when I write the words, "Infinite Love."  Karen's heart reflects the
Beauty of the universe even as the Soul of the Earth reflects within itself the spirit of the sun, moon, and
stars.  I am now in the center of Karen's heart.  I am one with the Source inspiring her.  I move as spirit
and the spirit indwelling her fills me with its love.

     This joining of spirits, this sharing from heart to heart, is not a method unknown to our world or in any
way inappropriate.  It is not just troubadours and bards who imagine such things.  In any serious spiritual
anthropology, shaktipat, guru yoga, and the transference of power from heart to heart, are the essence of
the teachings made real.  Part of Tibetan Buddhism, e.g., in its method of initiation, is to enter and
experience the heart of the Dalai Lama.  This is done in fact as part of the visualizations which are used
with a guru in many tantras.

     Just for a moment, if you feel free, come with me.  Visualize the Dalai Lama standing in front of you.
See his smile.  Look into his eyes. This is not so difficult.  You can imagine a friend you are close to.  If
you visualize him or her right now in front of you and listen to words he or she might speak, you may be
able to "feel" something of the other's presence entering you, flowing through your body.  This is the
same thing.

     For a moment, become a dot of white light and flow into the heart of the Dalai Lama.  Let the entire
universe for a moment be precisely what you feel and sense within his heart.  Here is this moment is a sea
of compassion which is infinite.  His heart contains worlds upon worlds all enfolded by the light of the
enlightened mind which he shares freely with others.

     This field of energy of his heart is also like wind and water when they are gentle and kind and
nourishing.  It is an open expanse which is inexhaustible.  It is a sea of time where the mind discovers
itself to be a mirror clear, open, and luminous, a mirror whose very nature is compassion.

     It is no wonder, then, that this same man repeats again and again, "As long as suffering remains to
sentient beings, I will remain to serve," or, "My only religion is kindness."  These words epitomize the
essence of a sea of energy which his heart embraces.  These words are spoken by one who would lay the
ground work for establishing on earth a genuine cosmic religion.

     Karen's heart also touches on the universal and cosmic.  Her magnetism is that of Venus: the
willingness to combine and join what is separate so that healing and beauty may be found, so that love
may be fulfilled.  Listening to her voice singing Aileen Duinn, becoming the space where the light of her
soul can shine, I have entered a sea whose essence is Infinite Love.

     In summary, when I listen to another or to a spirit for that matter, I listen with my entire being.  When
I follow a feeling, like Orion in the sky, I am the eternal hunter.  I move across all boundaries.  I
overcome all barriers.  Like others before me, I am a servant who is guided by the One Light which holds
the universe within its heart.

     But put more simply, I enter a waking dream.  In this dream, I taste, feel, perceive, hear, and touch
the energies which arise within the stillness of my heart.  I allow them to appear, to use all of my life as
the strings of a lute which they are free to take and play any song upon of their own choosing.

     Willing to be the earth and the sky, the seas, the volcano and the lightning, I become the source which
inspires the other's being so that I too might become transformed, so that the paths of the spirit might be
opened and shared with others.

     Again, this is what bardic magicians do: we find treasures of soul and spirit and share them with the
world.  Our meditation is the open space of the heart which we never cease exploring.  Our poem or song
is a record of our journey, of what we have been permitted to bring back and share with the world.  But
the poem is more than this.  As is my experience when I listen to Karen singing, the poem/song is a
magical gate.  The poem is a sigil drawn not with lines but with metaphors which evoke a spiritual
presence.

     The poem is the blood of Divinity called forth by the bard's voice and carried by the wings of spirit.  It
is the flame moving free and without obstruction from one heart to another heart.  The poem is a joining,
a oneness of love creating that moment in which God and Goddess reach for and touch each other within
our hearts.

 

 

Field Trip and Three Day Seminar in One Minute (on relationships)

 

  Time to get away from the classroom.  Here we are folks at the world famous Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, Michigan.  I have standing next me to my right the most eligible bachelor in the state of Michigan.  Let’s call him Brad.  Next to him is his current stock broker (James—all these names are fictitious).  And to my left is an actual group of self-proclaimed cheerleaders both rooting for Brad and carrying on a discussion of Bard’s current girlfriend.

    Me: “Excuse me ladies.  Can you tell me why you consider yourselves a group of cheerleaders for Brad?”

   Susan: “I think we feel we are out of the running or never qualified for the running.  But we still feel we have a vested interest in the outcome.”

    Me: “Ah yes.  I think I kind of understand.  But why this bachelor?  What makes him so special?”

   Linda:  “He’s handsome, successful, wealthy, a great sailor, has a beautiful sailboat, great to crew for, and has hundreds of friends. It makes a woman feel good just to be around him.”

     Me: “Really?  So what’s the cheerleader squad discussing tonight?”

    Jennifer: “We’re questioning Brad’s attitude toward women.  He says he is not really serious when he dates but come on.  I think he is naïve about women if he thinks those he is dating aren’t really serious about him.”

   Susan: “Look. I run my own bar and I have seen a lot of dating going on.  And unless a guy is intimate with a woman he owes her exactly nothing.”

      Me: “So you are saying on the one hand that Brad is misleading women and yet technically it’s the women who are misleading themselves.  Is that a fair summary?”

    Jennifer: “Yah.  Judging from his track record, he usually takes about seven years to decide to marry a woman ….because he doesn’t want to go through the trauma of breaking up.  Not being serious is his way of being cautious.  I mean, look at the way he hangs out with a woman--his arm around the girl he is dating and how he kisses her.  When I see that there is no way the woman isn’t going to get involved.”

     Me: “So has this been a problem with his latest date?”

     Susan: “He’s a man.  He thinks of a woman in terms of whether 1. she has ‘excess baggage,’ 2. she is ‘damaged goods,’ and 3. whether or not she is ‘high maintenance.’”

    Me: “So he is kind of picky.”

    Linda: “His real problem is not the women he will finally marry.  The problem is that after two years the woman will finally catch on to what Brad is really about.”

   Me: “And what is that?”

    Linda: “For Brad, the first thing in his life is business.  The second is his social life.  The third thing is his sailing and hanging out down here at Bayview.  At best, his wife will only be fourth on his list of priorities.”

   Me: “That could be a problem, huh?  But why should we speculate? Let’s ask Brad for an opinion.”

    Me: “Say Brad. I have been talking to your cheerleaders here and they are questioning your interpersonal skills. They suspect they may not be sufficient to keep a woman happy once you marry here.”

   Brad: “Its true.  In my past marriages, my wives left me.  Got any ideas?”

   Me: “Ladies?  No thoughts?  We’ll, have you heard about the three day seminar on relationships taught in one minute?”

   Brad: “Well, I have a minute.  Let’s do it.”

    Me: “There are three components.  First, once a week sit down and listen to a woman for fifteen minutes.  During this time, utilize only active listening.  That is, on occasion paraphrase what she is saying and also suggest what you sense she is feeling as she talks.  For example, Susan here says flat out that a woman has no claim on you unless you are intimate with her.  And I suspect she feels that the only important thing you should be concerned about in dating is finding the right woman.  Susan is concerned about what is best for you. This is active listening: capture both thoughts and feelings.”

   Susan: “You got that right.”

    Me: “The second component is that after fifteen minutes you place your mind inside of the other person.  Just to make it challenging, I will pick James here since I know nothing about him and have never heard him say anything.  To do this, just image you are the other person—you have the other person’s body, feelings, mind, gestures, body posture, vocal intonations, word choices, etc.  Get right inside the other so you are one. 

        “Ok, here I am imagining I am inside of James.  And this brings us to the third component—wait inside the other until you get a distinct body sensation.  This sensation is a gut level connection to the other person. 

      “With James the sensation I now have is that he is a very relaxed person, ready to let go and let his life completely unfold in any way it wants.  But if you look at James sitting here on that bar stool, his posture and facial expression suggest he is tense, uptight, and worrying about something.  How am I doing, James?”

    James: “You are absolutely right.  People keep thinking I am an uptight kind of guy.  But I have all the clients I need and I am actually cutting back in my business.  I am looking forward to retiring and I completely happy with my life.” 

    Me:  “Do you feel we know each James?”

    James: “You seem to know me better than my best friends.”

    Linda:  “What if Brad doesn’t do this once a week once he

  marries a woman?”

     Me: “Then his wife can actually do it on Brad.  Intimacy that is magical like this can be established unilaterally.  And as a matter of fact lovers in this life rarely worry about how their inner connection came to be.  They just know when it is there and when it is not.  If they have it, all the other difficulties and worries that accompany the relationship remain secondary.”

 

(If you have “won” someone, you might like to do a little relationship maintenance; kind of like making deposits to a pension fund.  Obviously two making deposits is better than one.)

 

Well, that “three day seminar in one minute” actually took less than one minute according to my watch.  What follows is a kind of expansion of the one minute seminar into other areas. 

 

Projection: Psychological and Magical

 

As far as projecting inside of another person, I mentioned elsewhere I knew a Carmelite Priest who was a therapist. When he couldn’t figure out how to work with a client he would project himself inside of the client. 

     Technically speaking this method is psychological and not magical.  It becomes magical as you add concentration, heightened perception, and a touch of telepathy to it.  You remember that Grindler and Bandler NLP stuff?  They have some anecdotes. 

    Sitting in a classroom, one guy hums silently a popular song.  Soon the guy sitting next to him begins quietly humming the same song aloud.  The breathing pattern, transferred on a nonverbal  level, sparked the other’s subconscious into action. 

    Similarly, there was comatose patient who seemed totally unaware of the world around him.  One of our two NLP men sat down in a chair next to the patient.  Over the next half hour he first matched his breathing to the patient.  Next the therapist began varying his breathing slightly noticing that the patient was now following the therapist. 

   Then suddenly the therapist turns to the comatose patient and says, “Hey, you got a cigarette?”  The patient responds, “Don’t do that.”  What?  Comatose patients by definition are not supposed to respond.  The implication is that we can link to others’ brains on a nonverbal level in ways that the conscious part of the other person’s brain may not perceive.

   So far we are still completely within the realm of psychology.  Follow me one step further (“one small step for a man”) across the boundary separating the known and unknown worlds.  So I am in a Tai Chi Chuan class with a Chinese speaking master.  There are fifty students practicing Tai Chi around me and the master is on the other side of the hall. 

    I imagine myself briefly inside of the master while I continue doing my Tai Chi.  Within a minute, the master comes all the way across the hall and begins correcting my movements as he speaks in Chinese.  Of course I haven’t a clue as to what he is saying.  Seven years later he will get a great interpreter and also learn to speak English with a little more ease.  But you get the idea.

    And I am in a Zen temple practicing the Saturday evening no mind meditation for forty-five minutes.  One of the disciples taps a small bell with a tiny hammer—“ding.”  But just before I had projected my mind inside of the Zen master. 

   I noticed his aura tends to vanish completely when he meditates.  And unlike those Vipassana salesmen I spoke of elsewhere, this master never once said anything to me about Buddhism.  If you are sitting there next to him meditating you are already on the ship “crossing over” to the land of enlightenment. 

     Now unlike other times, this time after the meditation he does begin talking.  He starts insisting that he and I should give seminars together. 

    Technically, it is also fair to say that my “projecting” into the Tai Chi master and the Zen master was easily enough detected.  The Tai Chi master walks around carefully observing the students movements.  It would easy enough for him to notice when a student had suddenly acquired an internal flow of energy similar to his own.  He notices things like that.  He tells me he can tell who has practiced on their own during the week. 

     And the Zen master?  You are sitting in the same room about seven feet apart.  Projecting inside of him changes the electro-magnetic configuration of my aura to match his own.  He too could feel something like that even with his eyes closed.  Perhaps it is like some women who have said they can feel whether their boyfriend is content or mad even in a dark room just by the heat being radiated.

    We each are distinct and have our own histories, personalities, qualities, and powers.  But for myself I conclude that on some level we are all one with each other in a way that does not harm or interfere with our individuality and freedom.    

 

 

Summary

 

Well, there you have it—an essay in response to the question, How can women become more feminine by working with the magnetic fluid?  We have traveled together a ways through quite a few different domains. 

     We have immersed ourselves in pure physical sensations.  We have used our imaginations to explore dreams, images, and inner landscapes full of visions.  We have worked with our feelings both personal and universal, feelings that are evoked through our experiences with nature and feelings that arise from the depths of our souls.  I personally have a long way to go.

     Nonetheless, I would maintain that anything that is electric such as the dominant accomplishments of Western civilization can be contained by the magnetic fluid.  All those military industrial war machines, all those technologies, all those global trade and international economies, political establishments and nationalities—it all can be embraced, purified, made new, and inspired from the depths of the hearts of those who are responsible in running the world as we know it. 

     The magnetic fluid starts with learning to let go.  But as it grows it flows from the depths of life with a peace as deep as the sky at night, as wondrous as sun, moon, and star light, and with satisfactions and fulfillments as rich as anything the human spirit is meant to envision or to grasp. 

      Love like that which is able to become one with anything will always have the advantage in shaping the direction of history.  But for divinity, the electric and the magnetic fluids are not two separate paths but rather they are forever joined as one in the unfolding of Creation.