Copyright (C) 1998 by William Mistele.  All rights reseved. 


Negative Spirits or the Dark Side of the Force (From a description
of the positive spirit Tagora and his negative counterpart)

 Remember that in the Bardon cosmology, for each positive spirit in
the earthzone  there is also a negative counterpart.  Like Bardon, I
would suggest at the outset that you do not evoke negative spirits. 
Bardon says a magician should only contact those spirits which are
compatible with his high ideals.  Since I actively work with the
Judges of Saturn who preside over both positive and negative spirits, 
a study of negativity is not outside the range of my work and
responsibility.  And, as a matter of experience, I have met
individuals whose negativity could qualify them to be incarnations of
negative beings.  I have to deal with this kind of thing on a regular
basis. 
     One difference between negative and positive spirits is that the
negative are closer to the physical world and have darker colors in
their auras.  For these reasons, they are easier to contact.  You do
not have to be as pure nor do you need some noble purpose to catch
their attention.  You neither have to elevate your consciousness into
a profound trance nor journey far on the inner planes in order to
encounter them.  Their activities are more familiar--their actions are
sensational and full of scandal.  Instead of uplifting and
transforming, they supervise obsession, degradation, and
destruction.
   This is not to say that they serve no purpose.  They too grant an
opportunity to learn through experience.  They give you a taste of
life and a chance to find out who you are and what you are made
of.  
     In fact, they like to challenge and test you.  If you do not have an
absolute commitment to the divine,  if your will is in any way weak
or undefined, they will visit you on occasion or send an emissary
deputizing for them--someone you work with or meet in school or
in your social life.  These spirits are happy to offer their services as
your tour guide, your confidant, counselor, and the author of your
life script if you need a ghost writer. 
    If you lack meaning and purpose, they are happy to fill in all the
blanks in your application for incarnation.  If you do not know what
you are after in life,  you can be sure they will find something for
you to do.  Is life drab and boring?  They will find you a task
completely captivating and demanding.  After all, this is their job--to
get you completely involved with life if you do not want to play a
part or else deny you the basics so you come to realize how precious
the life is that you gave up.
   And if you despair for any reason?  Oh, wow, look out.  That is
like shouting or sending  an SOS sent on their private wavelength
saying, "I am here.  Come rescue me for I am lost."   You see,
akasha is so sensitive to will and imagination that your choices in life
automatically activate its resources either for creation or destruction. 
Human choice and will are that dynamic and powerful.
     Negative spirits may appear to be exotic and otherworldly, but
they merely reflect things with which we are already familiar.  I have
a friend whose uncle is in the mafia.  Occasionally, he runs into mob
figures.  They always offer him "free" gifts out of respect for his
uncle.  But he knows that if he ever accepts a gift he will be bound
to the mob forever.  Once you take a free handout, they will call on
you for special favors.  You have a permanent relationship. 
   I have another friend whose grandfather was a kahuna, a
Hawaiian priest.  Whenever he meets kahunas, they tell him about
the various Hawaiian spirits with whom he has a special connection. 
But he wants no part of this.  He has never accepted the psychic
warfare his grandfather, as a kahuna, participated in.  He has
switched religions thinking that in this way he will escape from that
kind of negative spiritual action.  Each religion actually has its own
way of dealing with negative spirits, performing exorcisms, and so
forth.  
    The topic of negative entities covers a vast area of study.  Some
conceive of negative beings, devils, demons, and such as being
insidious, hideous, and violently destructive.  This seems to be the
case but you have to distinguish between lower astral plane entities
and highly developed negative beings.  
   As with the mob, if you go to a loan shark and default on your
loan,  the loan shark will come round and cause you physical injury. 
If you run, he will hunt you down. The situation is like survival in a
jungle.  If you suddenly encounter a wounded animal, an animal
whose territory is invaded or an animal with a raging appetite, you
may find yourself attacked with an amazing ferocity.  Behind the
teeth, the jaws, the claws, and the venom is a pain, a rage, or the
blind desire to survive.  Entities on the lower astral plane can turn on
you with a pure, devouring hatred.  And these negative beings, like
the mob or an animal interested in survival, have a powerful sense
of territory and of who is in charge. 
    But in the case of the loan shark, there is something more subtle. 
The negativity takes the form of entrapment. Nothing is a matter
with what is given--with the money itself.  It is the terms attached to
the loan which make the transaction dark.  Often negative spirits will
sense the power within you.  They see that you have a destiny, a
mission, or something wonderful you are meant to accomplish. 
What they do is tempt you with a shortcut.  
   You may have something you really want to do with your life. 
But you do not have the money, the experience, the connections,
the friends, the influence, the knowledge, or the magick.  It seems
what is meant to be will never happen.  Your conviction is
inadequate.     
    In steps a negative being. It says, "I will give you power,
connections, and all the knowledge you will ever need."  Because
you lack experience,  the offer appears friendly and generous.  But
you have to be sensitive to what is missing.  Negative spirits often
will grant very positive things or gifts on two but not all three of the
physical, astral, and mental planes.  
    For example, they may dramatically increase you powers of
concentration on the mental plane.  And they will give ideal physical
circumstances where you can work toward you dreams.  But the
astral life they provide is contaminated.  Even as your opportunities
in life increase, your emotional life becomes a toxic wasteland
devoid of love and affection.  They humiliate you and cause
degradation to fill your astral body so you lose the self-esteem you
need to make independent choices.
     Consider another example.  As in some groups, there is a
physical community where you belong.  And there is love and
support nurturing you and drawing you into a life of sharing and
caring.  But what is at stake in this case is your mind.  You have to
think in a certain way.  Any deviation from acceptable doctrines,
beliefs, or interpretations is intolerable. You are not permitted to
think your own thoughts.  
     If you have complete control of individuals' bodies or their
emotions or their minds--just one of these three--you can pretty
much put an end to their spiritual growth.  If you can block a
peoples' contact with the spiritual, then you can destroy the world or
cause untold suffering.  
       The higher negative beings of the earthzone are intelligent and
conniving.  We can see the equivalent in human life.  The Drug
Enforcement Agency sent an undercover female agent to infiltrate
the drug cartels.  She was set up in a business which launders
money.  She succeeded marvelously with the Columbians and so
forth.  But when she went to meet the Italian mob, she ran into
something else.  
    The Italian mob did not know her.  When she got off the plane in
Rome, the mob photographed every single person arriving at the
airport that day.  They wanted to see if there were any other known
agents who came in as her backup.  The Italian mob operates its
own intelligence service similar to the FBI and the CIA. 
   This agent succeeded in a securing a large number of arrests and
also the confiscation of $50 million of mob money.  But the mob
also put out a four million dollar contract on her life.  Running into
higher negative spirits is somewhat similar.  You are up against
professionals.  They have a lot of resources to draw upon to
manipulate and to harm you.  
   The mob may live down the street.  You may go to school with
their children.  You may have business associates or friends who are
under their influence.  In some countries like Japan, there is an
unwritten agreement between the government and the yakuza.  The
Japanese yakuza keep juvenile delinquents off the streets.  They
have their own system of internal discipline.  Like the IRA in Belfast
or the mob in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, thieves are not permitted to
operate in their neighborhood.  The mob controls evil like a
monopoly. In effect, it provides order.  Like a thieve's guild, it
insures that negative actions take place within prescribed limits. 
Individual initiative is not tolerated. 
    Hitler, during the Third Reich, gave occultists a choice.  Either
join the Nazi party or be sent to a concentration camp.  He wanted a
monopoly on magical power.  Even in the United states, since the
1970's, the CIA has run its own research and operations involving
remote viewing.  This is so effective as an intelligence tool that the
U.S. government wanted a monopoly on its use.  The government
actively interfered with individuals and private organizations
researching this skill.
     You can read on the internet and in books a great deal about
this.  It appears the U.S. government used disinformation, character
assassination, and ever physical assassination to control the spread
of information.  Negative beings are like that.  If you are developing
power, they want you to work for them or else they attempt to do
you in. 
    The way to escape evil is to say, "I am committed to a higher
purpose.  I identify with it with my whole being.  If you proceed
against me, you proceed against the powers behind me."   In other
words, once you encounter evil--a highly potent negativity--it is no
longer life as usual.  You have to make an enormous commitment if
you want to regain balance and harmony.  This commitment must
transcend your own life.  It must be to the highest light you can
imagine and your commitment must be sufficient that your life then
becomes a vehicle for this light's expression.  In other words, you
need to find a source of power greater than the one which has
control of you.  If you are on a spiritual path, then you need a
source of spirit of greater power and might.
   There are times when there is nothing else that can save you than
your own absolute commitment to the light.  Everyone of us will
one day encounter this situation in one or more of our incarnations. 
The Buddhist's refer to this as the motivation to seek enlightenment. 
For the Judges of Saturn, enlightenment is much, much more than
something an individual attains to free himself from suffering.  It is a
state of mind in which you are free to celebrate the beauty of the
universe.  It is not just personal.  It is a cosmic event. 
    Elemental beings can not approach an individual whose mind is
centered within akasha.  In a similar manner, negative beings can
not approach an individual who, in his faith and at his core,
identifies with Divine Providence.  The thing is you never want to
underestimate the influence of power either in a positive or negative
form.  You never want to make the mistake of assuming that evil
will go away, that once it has contacted you can ignore its touch and
go back to the life you had before.  You can count on negative
spirits to wait life times for you to make another mistake and then
they will offer you an invitation similar to one you accepted before.  
    On the other hand, it is interesting how much power Christians
ascribe to the devil. Jews will tell you that the devil is a minor
annoyance.  It is God you have to look out for--fear Him and
nothing else.  It is only with God's permission that evil enters the
world.  All power is under God's supervision.  If you read the
psalms of David, it is clear that David never forgets for an instant
that God is in charge and not the enemy or negative spirits. 
    In our solar system, according to Bardon,  the spirits of the
sphere of Saturn are the Judges who govern both positive and
negative spirits when it comes to karma and cosmic law.  On a
planetary level and in the cases of black magicians, it is the Judges
of Saturn who determine for how long negative spirits may be
unleashed to cause destructive effects.  
   It is the task of Saturn to insure that the paths of spirit remain
open and uncontaminated.  They see the physical world and time as
helping us to discover the divinity within us.  Both negative and
positive spirits serve this same end.  The negative spirits bind,
confine, and destroy.  Again, it requires immense will to be free of
their influence.  
    The positive spirits teach how to take into your hands the powers of
creation.  It requires immense will to work with them.  The eyes of a
magician can see and understand the work and appointed purpose of both
kinds of spirits.  Consequently, a magician neither fears how this or that
experience may rob him of his purity nor does he close himself off from
the world to protect his devotion.  Ideally, he is able to offer
assistance and insight to whoever comes to him regardless of their
situation. 
   What black magicians have in common is not their malice, domination, or
evil works.  If you search their hearts, you will find they have lost a
sense of the wonder and beauty of the universe.  In other words, their
hearts are closed.  They no longer seek or desire to see how akasha is
active in guiding and inspiring all things through the power of love. 
    For myself, therefore, one of the most important tasks in developing
magical equilibrium is keeping myself inspired.  For me, power serves the
purposes of love.  It is an aspect of being creative. 
    When I discover something negative in myself, I seek to capture the
energy and will within it.  I find an ecstasy, a divine purpose, or
natural way of growing which allows the energy and the power within the
negative to be expressed in a totally new way as part of a larger whole.
   The negative is an expression of isolation and destruction.  It
contaminates and steals. But the power within akasha is such that anything
can be brought into a greater harmony, anything can be turned around or
remade so it leads to fulfillment and deep satisfaction.  Love can unlock
any gate or heal any soul.  Part the work, for me, is in retaining my
commitment to and appreciation for this love during all parts of my
journey.