Four points for internalizing the gnome Erami's consciousness.

Erami is one of the eight gnomes described by Franz Bardon in his book,
The Practice of Magical Evocation.  Erami has a marvelous awareness of the
energy flowing through the land.  Rather than spending a lot of time
describing his aura and so forth, here instead are four steps for learning
to do what Erami does. 

The Process:  The process is first to observe and memorize all we can
about an area of land large or small. Second, we develop our intuition and
imagination so we gain a feeling for the energy of this land. Third, we
sense the one vibration underlying and integrating the various energies
within the land.  And fourth we then arrive at the dream within the land,
that is, the way this specific land energy reflects in some way values,
qualities, aspirations, or strengths of a timeless nature. 

Step 1.  Become acquainted with a small or large area of land.  This could
be the dirt in your flower pot, a garden, an acre, a field, a grove in the
woods, a valley, a forest, a set of hills.  Choose for yourself what
captures your interest.  The idea is to observe and memorize the landscape
so it becomes part of your imagination.  Notice the land's slope, its
erosion, the forces which have formed it, and its vegetation.
   American Indians have special places in the wilderness around them
which they visit during sacred rituals.  They have visited and honored
these sites for many centuries.  There is a lady here in Hawaii who
regularly visits the sacred Hawaiian sites throughout all the islands. 
She is like a spiritual guardian of the legends and history of her people. 
    Even the geologists on the Big Island are constantly studying the
land. The use laser beams, chemistry, seismographs, and rock samples to
plot the internal structure of the hills and mountains.  They map and
reconstruct the land's history and the forces which have made it the way
it is. 
   Of course, if you are a gnome, you have all sorts advantages in this
area.  You are clairsentient and possess psychometic abilities.  As you
walk through a valley, you can stop and stand as still as a stone.  You
can feel the water table beneath your feet, the layers of earth, and the
properties of the top soil. 
   A gnome like Erami can gaze at a tree and discern from its trunk the
weather patterns during the years of its growth.  The aura of the tree
vibrates with the energy of its tree rings and Erami has the clairvoyance
to see. Erami can place his hand on a stone and tell you its origin, the
moment it was separated from the hill where it formed, and how long it has
been above ground.  For Erami, the land is throbbing with energy. 
   I remember attending a seminar given by a druid.  The next day when I
touched a tree the tree felt alive as if I had placed my hand on the arm
of a woman.  For Erami, the land is like that--it is a living being. 
    For our purposes, it is sufficient to notice all that you can as you
go for a walk through the land.  Notice the weight, shape, density, the
history or time frame, and the kind of energy that is within each thing
around you.  Think about the changes that have occurred in the last day,
week, month, year, and century.  Smell the air and listen as if you can
sense through these different periods of time what has been there. 
   You have to understand that Erami has a profound attraction to the land
and its energy.  To imitate this form of attention we would need to make
the land into a hobby, an area of study, or even a temple we enter to
expand our consciousness.  Attuning our mind to the land then becomes
second nature-- a natural and effortless endeavor. 
    In the first step, we end up being able to close our eyes and
visualize an area of land.  We have spent some time contemplating its
appearance and the forces acting upon it. We are gaining a feeling for the
energies within it.

Step 2. In the second step, we extend our awareness into the land.  Last
night I had a dream.  In the dream, I walked around.  I met other
individuals and I made choices.  Was the dream in my brain?  Was my body
involved? Did I perhaps in some way gaze out upon the astral plane?  Did I
interact telepathically with other individuals?  Did I perceive something
of the future or of the past?  Consciousness is within but also able to
act independently of the body. 
    The elementals have a closer tie to the elements than do human beings. 
When we perceive, we like to throw in a rational component which is busy
interpreting.  We filter our perceptions through reason placing a label
upon everything we experience.  But if we eat bread, do we perceive the
wheat fields where the grains ripened?  When we drink, do we perceive the
clouds from which the rain fell, the rivers where the waters flowed, the
water table or the lake where the water was gathered?  When we breathe
air, do we sense the leaf or the kind of tree where the O2 molecule was
formed? 
    Though the elemental beings have etheric, astral, and mental bodies,
their bodies exchange energy directly with the energies of their element. 
A gnome like Erami can extend his aura into the stone, the tree, the seed,
and the caverns and crevices beneath the ground.  His mind is full of
sensations, pictures, and feelings but these do not mesh with human ways
of thinking. 
   If you asked Erami if he has studied the periodic table of elements, he
would reply that as a gnome magician he is interested in wisdom just like
human beings. He would say it is hard for a gnome not to notice a race
which is so attentive and busy constructing things made out of synthetic
materials.  He would note the human fascination with mathematical and
nuclear physics and the technology it inspires.  But he would point out
that we have barely begun to understand the inner essence of the elements
in the periodic table and the energies which move beneath the ground. 
   A botanist, geologist, and naturalist would be good at visualizing and
reconstructing with their imaginations an area of land.  If they thought
about a rock, a tree, or a plant, their imagination would conjure it up as
if it were right there in front of them. They can do this because their
line of work emphasizes careful observation and detailed examination.  But
to approach Erami's mode of perception, we need a little more the American
Indian, the shaman, the poet, the mystic, yes, and the druid too. 
   Consequently, in this second step we use more empathy.  We even imagine
the land is a part of our body.  We hold it within our imagination so we
forget about ourselves and are only aware its presence. 
   In Taoist yoga, the masters sometimes say that as you inhale you can
draw earth energy into your body through your feet.  It is sometimes felt
as being cool, blue, and magnetic.  You might try breathing in that
manner. 
   For our purposes, we can begin by entering a dream state in which we
free associate moving freely among the memories and sensations we have of
the land.  Explore your senses of sight, touch, smell, taste, sound, and
the feelings the land generates.  Reason will tell you that these
experiences are within your mind.  But the gnome will tell you that if you
relax and extend your mind your consciousness enters the land. You can see
it, feel it, and experience its energy flowing through you. 
 
Step 3.  In the third step, we find and become the one etheric vibration
underlying the physical manifestation of the land.  You may recall that
odd story from Carlos Castaneda's experiences with a Yakui sorcerer.  Don
Juan had Carlos crawl around on the front porch of a house until Carlos
found the one spot which gave him the most power.  Carlos spent a long
time trying to find it and finally fell asleep in just the right place. 
He relied finally on his body to make the decision rather than his mind.
    If you are sensitive to earth energy, you may be able to find places
where the energy is strong, more healthy, or characterized in any number
of ways. You may sense energy running along the ridges and how that is
different from the energy moving along a stream bed.  The trees and plants
also have a vibration and life force.  Rocks are said to have strong mana. 
   In this third step, we want a vibration and a state of consciousness
underlying the area of land we are contemplating. You may say, "There is
not one energy that contains all of this within itself."  Ah, but we are
not just dealing with an ordinary gnome, the kind who draws distinctions
but does not seek unity.  Erami is a gnome magician.  Erami does precisely
with the earth what a Taoist yogi or a psychologist practicing focusing
does with the body. 
   The Taoist will place his mind within the water energy of the kidneys,
the wood energy of the liver, the fire energy of the heart, the metal
energy of the lungs, and the earth energy of the stomach.  He will then,
through his various methods of gathering and blending, join these energies
until they are one.  He then circulates the refined energy up the back and
down the center of his body to promote health and attain a greater
harmony. 
    In method psychological method called focusing, the individual focuses
his attention on one area of his body.  He then opens up his entire body
and all his chakras to interact with that one part of himself.  The part
becomes joined with the whole.  In doing so, energy flows more freely. The
method enables an individual to extend his awareness through his whole
body in order to generate the insight which leads to transformation. 
   In the third step, we feel the energies within the land.  Then we
search for one vibration which underlies or encompasses all of them.  In a
sense, this is discerning a pattern.  It is looking for a refined essence
which vibrates in harmony with all the other energies.  It is a creative
endeavor.  It is fashioning out of your spirit something new the way you
would ask your body--"What is behind, underneath, or the essence of what I
am feeling?" As in focusing, you wait in an open state of mind and heart
for the answer to come to you. 
    But even if you are not psychic or particularly empathic, you can
still make progress in this area.  Your imaginative review of the trees,
plants, rocks, soil, rain, stream, erosion, and shape of the land will
produce sensations and feelings within your consciousness. This will
suffice in the beginning to take you through the third step.  You find the
greater harmony or the integrated consciousness which unites all your
sensations and feelings. 
    A gnome magician is not passive when it comes to the earth element. 
If I ask Erami what he is doing in this third step, he replies, "I am
looking for the inner spirit of the land.  I am awakening the dreams
within it.  I am uniting with its beauty." 
   The impression I have of Erami's motivation is again similar to the
reason for entering a temple. He worships the land through prayer and
meditation. It is not unlike the way a man has feelings and love for a
woman.  You can see this attitude reflected in the alchemical tantra Erami
describes for human beings.  In that set of meditations, the woman's body
becomes a way of amplifying the couple's connection to and ability to
transform the energies of the land. 
   Erami's attitude toward the land around my house is quite interesting. 
His sense of the inner energy underlying the land is similar to looking at
a sand castle on a beach.  Sand can be shaped and given form very easily
but it also erodes rapidly.  The land around me is saturated with and
dominated by water. It is porous and easily eroded. 
    In a few million years or so, this island will become an atoll barely
rising above sea level.  Waves erode the shores.  The windward side of the
hills are nearly vertical because the warm, moist air forms clouds as it
rises over the hills raining more on the windward side than on the
leeward.  Beneath the ground you can sense the water table and further
down is the brackish salt water from the ocean.  It is not that Erami
frowns on the transitory nature of this island.  It is just that he sees
it under the influence of water from all sides. 

Step 4.  To put the fourth step in human terms, we could say the land
becomes sacred.  It has dreams within it which we help awaken.  The land
becomes invested with mythology. 
   The sylphs perceive the atmosphere as providing natural support for
those seeking the enlightened mind.  The undines perceive the waters of
the earth as a reflection of omnipresent, all-embracing love. 
    The salamanders perceive the fires of the earth as inviting a search
for absolute power--the will that creates from out of itself.  How then to
gnomes perceive the earth?  The earth encourages and supports
consciousness to seek endurance, stability, integration, immortality, and
nobility.  It inspires and nourishes a wisdom that outlasts the ages. 
  When Erami finds the one vibration within the land and holds it within
his mind and heart, he is giving the land sentience--the ability to feel
and to respond.  The land then becomes a reservoir filled with inner
dreams.  That is to say, there is something of eternity which Erami would
find within the land and awaken into consciousness. 
    The tour book says of the tiny Isle of Iona off Scotland that those
getting off the ferry often notice immediately the presence of a timeless
peace.  It is a place where you can go to reflect and gain insight into
the depths of yourself.  Christians claim this island from St. Columba's
arrival their in the sixth century.  Druids say they were there first.  It
was the location of one of their universities.
   But the land has a vibration predating human history. Its timeless
quality reflects eternity. Like I say, it is a place where you can go to
meet the unknown part of your soul.  When a gnome has put himself into the
land, there is often this presence of peace and well-being which is left
behind as a result of his activities. 
   I used the word mythology at the beginning of this step.  I would
suggest that gnome magicians and human beings share in a similar quest. 
We are both interested in finding and making a home in this universe.  We
are both interested in giving--of extending our awareness beyond ourselves
and, in the giving, of becoming transformed--of becoming part of a greater
reality, of something timeless and whole. 
    An individual asked me last week if it was possible to find inner
peace.  I told her yes but I also recalled my first experience with peace. 
I remembered running into four individuals two decades ago.  Each of these
individuals has a remarkable peace.  You can feel the mountains, the
forests, the deserts, and the streams of the earth within their auras. 
There is an openness and acceptance of life and the world the way it is. 
   This is not to say that they are not busy solving problems and making
life better.  It is just that they do not forget their connection to the
earth.  Oh, they get divorced and have difficulties just like everyone
else. But there remains something extra.  They have a profound feeling of
being supported and of well-being. For example, anxiety does not stalk
them. It can not seem to find anything in them to hold on to. 
    Time for individuals with high levels of well-being is not like the
flowing of a stream.  It is like a sea which surrounds us.  We are already
where we need to be.  These individuals exude a feeling of being at home. 
Like I say, it is a quality within their auras.  They have an inner
connection to the earth. 
    And what about this sand castle of an island on which I am living? 
What does Erami perceive as its inner dream and the eternity reflected
within it? For Erami, the land here is very receptive to gathering and
storing energy through ritual, chanting, and pageantry. 
   The land is dancing as it gathers, sustains, and celebrates its
strength in this isolated location at the center of the ocean.  This is
the dream within the island of Oahu--to be fully alive like a fruit that
is ripening and ready to be picked and also full of inner strength that
time can not diminish.

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