The following essay is the introduction to my book, Twenty-Five Earthzone Spirits

The following essay is the introduction to my book, Twenty-Five Earthzone Spirits.

Introduction

The Earthzone as a Spiritual University

In his book, The Practice of Magical Evocation, Franz Bardon describes over five hundred spirits belonging the elements, the earthzone, and other planetary spheres. In my book, Sylphs, Undines, Gnomes, and Salamanders, I share my experiences with 13 of the 32 elemental beings Bardon briefly mentions. In this present book, I continue by sharing my experiences with 25 spirits of the earthzone.

The spirits of the earthzone dwell within the realm of akasha which elemental beings cannot enter on their own initiative. Akasha is a state of awareness penetrating through space and time. Beings who dwell here do not need a form or body in order to exist. They do not need to use thoughts in order to think or to communicate. They do not need an astral body or the four elements on the astral plane in order to feel. They are highly intuitive and their wills are such that they can, on their own initiative, manifest on or interact freely with the mental, astral, or physical planes.
The three hundred and sixty spirits of the earthzone mentioned by Bardon each have their own commission and exert for four minutes on a daily basis an influence over our entire planet. But what is most amazing about them and what is every magician's obligation to accomplish for himself--they each have a direct and intuitive connection to Divine Providence. The One Unpersonified Light which shines throughout the universe is present within their hearts and it shapes all that they do

     I have begun to think of these spirits are professors in a spiritual university. If you have sent a child to college, you know something about requirements and financial disclosure. Colleges these days in the United States want a parent to declare, under threat of criminal prosecution, his bank account balances, savings, investments, trust funds, the date of the house purchase, its market value, and amount of debt on it. They want a complete and accurate copy of your federal tax return with all the attachments.
     In effect, colleges want to know all sources of income, total assets, liabilities, inheritances, and even the balance in your IRA along with your retirement plans. And they want to know who outside of the immediate family might contribute to your child's education costs. In other words, colleges do not just examine a student and his qualifications. They look at who is offering him support and how much these individuals can contribute.
     Though students are admitted based on their qualifications, many students now come out of college with tens of thousands of dollars of debt from college loans. College education in the United States involves taking financial risks in order to access greater opportunities.
      In regard to the earthzone spirits, the equivalent of financial support as well as education from elementary school through high school is covered in Bardon's first book, Initiation into Hermetics. In this book, you work intensively on your physical, astral, and mental bodies. You learn to increase the vitality in any part of your body as well as strengthen your health. You are introduced to the four elements and learn how to accumulate and dissolve them at will. And you develop your mind. You learn to concentrate on any and all of the five senses. You learn to control and also to stop thoughts.
     Towards the end of the first book, you apply your concentration to greater extent in bringing about changes in your life. Depending on your skill, the mind is able to impress on the energy it has created a thought or picture which then accelerates or actually manifests a specific change you wish to bring about. Acquiring and controlling energy is like acquiring and controlling money. Both take experience, a highly trained mind, and good judgment.

      Following my analogy, the level of training in Bardon's first book is high school. You have met the requirements necessary to go to college or, in this case, to work with the spirits on the inner planes. Each of the earthzone spirits, however, sets forth its own course requirements. Each examines your academic (that is, your magical training) as well as your extracurricular activities. Your record tells them something about your character. What they will share with you depends on your experience, maturity, and motivation. Each evocation is, in a sense, an oral examine with a dean of admissions and the chairmen of a department in the college of universal wisdom:
     Do you have a brilliant mind but a low level of emotional integration? Have you demonstrated mastery of a particular religious, cultural, or magical system of training but remain deficient in originality and lack genuine curiosity? Are you obsessed with theories and esoteric histories or are you motivated by wonder and beauty? Do you desire honor and recognition so that you hoard as a competitive advantage the knowledge you now possess? Or, do you have initiative, independence, and can you determine for yourself your own direction free of craving for attention? Are you after something for nothing and want to avoid paying your karmic debts or have you demonstrated leadership and shown you can handle responsibility? These questions relate to how comfortable you will be when it comes to entering akasha and working with the earthzone spirits.
      Now any good high school in the United States offers advanced placement classes. These are usually in physics, chemistry, English, calculus, and lately schools have added advanced placement computer science. Doing well in these classes enables you to get credit for college level classes even though you are still in high school. Working with elemental beings--sylphs, undines, gnomes, and salamanders--is like taking an advanced placement class. For this reason, Bardon begins his book on evocation by listing the sigils and describing briefly 32 of the most powerful elemental beings on earth.
     Elemental beings specialize in nature and the energies of the astral and etheric planes. They also possess incredible levels of concentration relating to their specific elements. Nature conceals a path that leads between matter and spirit. The elemental beings, in this sense, are guardians of treasures from another evolution who wait for us to learn their secrets. Very few religions initiate their practitioners into methods for working with the elemental beings. Very few religions or spiritual training systems bother to teach you exercises which develop equally your physical, astral, and mental bodies so they take on universal qualities. But this is exactly what Bardon has sought so hard to accomplish in his basic training.
     Now as a high school student, I can still walk into Stanford University or the University of Michigan and sit down in a classroom. As long as I roughly resemble a student no one will bother me. I can listen to lectures given by some of the brightest professors in the world. There are great poets, physicists, psychologists, and literary critics. Most of them do not care if a curious high school student is there or not. Their job is to teach.
     One famous philosopher at the University of Chicago knew I was not a student at his university but told his teaching assistant that it was ok for me to sit in as many of his classes as I wanted. I sat in all of his seminars for two years even though the class size was only about 12 students. What did Paul Ricoeur care? Wisdom for him is like the air. It is no one's possession.
     The same is true of the earthzone spirits. You can see them, feel their aura, and talk to them without having completed the basic training. It is not a big deal. Their primary job is to teach and they love enthusiasm in a student. Like any teacher, their greatest hope is that one day they will be permitted the honor of guiding another to learn all that they know.   They would bestow on others all the power they possess because, being inspired, they would give freely even as power and wisdom has been freely given to them. Still, if you want to do real work and not just satisfy your curiosity, it helps to master the basics so your exposure to the curriculum leads to professional work and creative activity.

I give this example because a very great number of individuals are quite capable of interacting freely and immediately with spirits of the earthzone. For many it is at least as easy as going down to your nearest university, getting a class schedule, and then going and sitting in a few classes. Bardon's book, The Practice of Magical Evocation, is among other things a course catalogue. In describing in two or three paragraphs each of the 360 spirits of the earthzone, Bardon has provided an immense service to the human race. These spirits oversee every aspect of human and planetary evolution including science, technology, industry, politics, history, love, entertainment, and all the spiritual arts.

It is my hope in this book to extent this catalogue by describing some of these spirits in greater detail. This book, then, is more like a pre-orientation program offered by some colleges. A student may be accepted by a college but has not yet determined which college he wishes to attend or which program he wishes to pursue once in college. Consequently, some colleges will invite you to spend a few days on campus.

During this time, you can go on a campus tours and see the cafeteria, the dorms, and the surrounding community. You can attend seminars where a panel of current college students will answer your every question about student life--about what they have enjoyed and what they do not like. You can learn about campus security, financing, and chat with the dean of admissions, professors, and other prospective students and their parents.

Sometimes you want to walk around and check things out for yourself. During one pre-orientation program, I and some other parents and students just missed the dormitory tour. A few of us tried to catch up with the tour and instead we found a student who had experience giving tours in past years. We did not see the dorm room carefully prepared and cleaned up for parent inspection. Instead, she got us through a locked door and showed us a regular dorm room where two students were willing to tell us about their experiences with dorm life and where they thought the best places were to live on or off campus.

The "big brother," the college student assigned to watching over a visiting high school student for a night also did not show up. But he sent another student to take his place. My son ended up being shown around by several friendly students who even took him along to their night classes and also talked endlessly about majors, curriculums, and professors.

My point in pursuing this example of a preorientation college program is to say that this is what I wish to accomplish with this book. I am giving a taste and a feel for what it is like to attend this magnificent university and spiritual college which surrounds our earth. You see, I am a student in this university. These spirits are my professors. The descriptions I offer of these spirits are my class notes. And I will tell you right now I have not received one complaint from any spirit or elemental being about freely sharing my notes which describe the details of my experiences in working with them.

Decades ago, I attended a small liberal arts college. I ended up hating the school. They treated me like a second class citizen. You had to look a certain way, dress a certain way, act, think, and feel a certain way or else they became vindictive and sought to remove you from the school. Many of the spiritual training systems I have studied in monasteries or in programs with religious teachers have been similar. The teachers were possessive, jealous, arrogant, and paranoid that someone might learn something from them and then use it in a way they could not control. Their commitment was not to empowering individuals to find their own path. Instead, their first objective was to preserve their tradition without modification or improvement.

My children have been far more lucky than I was. When I tour their colleges, they speak to and introduce their professors using the professors' first names. One college offers a voucher which pays the meal of any professor a student wishes to take out to lunch or dinner. If you have a job on campus and you have to study, you can call in and they will immediately excuse you. The school is that flexible. And though one school only accepts one out of three applicants, they really want those who are accepted to come.

At a really good college, you can stop just about any student and ask a few questions and they will answer you. They will be very blunt and honest but their enthusiasm for the school shines through their eyes and it is in the care with which they respond to your questions. I hope this book conveys my enthusiasm for this marvelous planet on which we dwell and the spiritual resources which are available to those who seek them.

It is my genuine hope that one day a great many of the spirits of the earthzone will become the personal guides and teachers of our diplomats, scientists, businessmen, medical doctors, philosophers, psychologists, and poets/artists/musicians. It is my desire that beauty, wonder, and the sacred might inspire every heart and that love might be
known through direct experience to be what it is--without beginning or end.

Still, there is a great price to be paid by those who engage, as I have, in studying at this divine university. You have to confront the darkness in yourself as part of your entrance exam. This is where the otherwise really brilliant and talented students will fail--they cannot pass through the emptiness, the void, and the abysses which exist within the human heart. And opening the gates to the earthzone so universal and cosmic wisdom might be freely shared on earth is not the work of one individual but of an entire community of magicians who serve not themselves but Divine Providence.

The Franz Bardon Training System

I have lived for fifty years in a world in which national security was biased on a balance of nuclear terror. Even the most conscientious politicians considered this a necessary evil and refused to think anything more about it. The human species has placed not national boundaries but its own existence and the biosphere at risk by proceeding in this manner. It is natural under these conditions--when I was growing up--to ask for a wisdom and a love of sufficient magnitude and quality that they can oversee, guide, and inspire all expressions of power. It is appropriate for the human race to be guided in future centuries by a harmony and the ability to be responsible for its own self-destructive tendencies.

If there are new forces of destruction in the world and new challenges, then we also need new wisdom and new empowerment so that we are able to cope with our real life situations. Let me cut to the bottom line. What I have learned most from teachers in many traditions is neither their esoteric information nor their process of initiation nor mysterious and wondrous magical secrets which they have shared in one way or another. What I treasure most in teachers is their enthusiasm toward their subject matter. When they have had this enthusiasm and invited me to discover my own enthusiasm as an equal--this is when I learned something valuable.

Teachers such as this are willing in any moment to communicate to you the essence of all their teachings. It is a heart to heart transmission. If you can get this, then they know that all knowledge, wisdom, technique, and method will fall into place. Everything else is at best secondary. Everything else is empty and worthless without the heart.

This idea of transmission does not put the student in a subsidiary and passive relationship to the teacher. For me, a good teacher realizes that inspiration is beyond all knowledge and the wisdom of all traditions. Inspiration is wonder, awe, love, and appreciation. For this reason, a teacher will regard the light burning in a student's heart not as a dimmer flame than what is in his or her own heart or a cloning of his or her own power.

The student's experience is always new. It is full of incomprehensible possibilities and experiences which the teacher may never in his life time have the resources to fathom. From my point of view, the only way to tell a teacher in any group of people is by observing the individual who is learning the most. That is the one with the most open and receptive heart.

Let us consider further these issues of knowledge and initiation, of enthusiasm and the heart. In terms of methods and exercises for self-mastery, I can summarize my 25 years of experience with the Franz Bardon system in nine paragraphs. To me, this is what Bardon has a student practice in his three books:

1. You make your mind completely empty of thoughts so it is reflective like a mirror, receptive like the ocean, empty like a void, open like the sky, intense like air the moment before lightning strikes, serene like moonlight, fragile and responsive to suggestion like a dream, and solid and enduring like a mountain.

2. Next, with this empty mind, you focus your attention on something--a problem, your life path, an elemental being, a spirit, or a project you wish to accomplish. You add to this a little technique. Techniques are endless in variety. You can visualize a picture, a sigil, an image or symbol of God/Goddess; you can meditate on a prayer or a chant; you can use incense, music, or a tone; you can do a pathworking, mental wandering, construct a magical circle or perform a ritual, gaze upon a crystal ball, speak a word of power, etc. etc. Technique, methods, and procedures are employed to receive and amplify impressions.

3. And finally, through direct experience and careful study and analysis, you interpret your impressions. You translate them into words and call it telepathy, into visual images and call it clairvoyance, into sensations and feelings and call it clairsentience, into all three while connecting to a spirit and call it an evocation, into new information and call it knowledge, into a spiritual realization and call it wisdom, into light and freedom and call it enlightenment, etc. Impressions received from outside yourself can also over time become internalized so you embody their qualities and energy.

4. This same procedure can also be expressed in a more active manner typical of magick. All methods and techniques for changing oneself or the world boil down to a simple formula: you concentrate on what is desired as if it is real right now in this moment. You add an appropriate kind of energy to your picture, feeling, thought, etc. so it has some power independent of your mind and thoughts and can move with enthusiasm toward its objective on any or all planes. And you also take into consideration and comprehend every force, situation, resistance, and obstacle which blocks your vision from becoming reality. This last element insures that your course of action is forged from wisdom and results in harmony--that you can proceed without inference or resistance from the energies or environments your desire encounters on the four planes.

5. For example, in chapter three of Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics, you practice imagining the elements of fire, water, air, or earth around yourself as if you are immersed within a boundless sphere of a single element. Take the earth element. What is it to imagine you have within and around yourself a vast expanse of the earth element? This is the same as learning to think, feel, and perceive as a gnome.

6. Your mind attunes to that one element learning to amplify, condense, and transform it. After this training, it is not so difficult then to form connections and interact in a creative manner with gnomes. If you spent time concentrating on minerals, precious stones, trees, mountains, and so forth you would be undergoing the training of a gnome magician. And so it is with fire, water, and air.

7. You can also use colors instead of the elements. If you imagine yourself within a boundless expanse of emerald green light, then you are learning to think, feel, and perceive as a spirit of Libra or Taurus in the earthzone or a spirit from the sphere of Venus. The colors, then, can be used for probing the qualities, powers, and consciousness of the beings within the spheres regardless of whether you make connections to them or not.

8. In the end, when you can concentrate effectively, your thought is like electricity and magnetism. Everything else is attracted to and becomes aligned with it. The four planes cooperate with it. It is like akasha--obstacles dissolve in its presence. It is like a mating of Saturn and Uranus--something completely new and without precedent is introduced into the world and yet it feels so natural it seems like it was meant to be all along.

9. When I consider the entire spectrum of methods in Bardon's three books with over five hundred different spirits and 27 cosmic letters, this summary is what I come back to in order to understand what I am doing. Self-transformation, self-mastery, self-empowerment, and integration--aligning oneself with the forces, the laws, and the harmony of the universe--are at the heart of the process from beginning to end.

The spirits of the earthzone which Bardon describes provide for nearly every conceivable kind of assistance. There are spirits who specialize in protection, magical perception, wisdom, enlightenment, love, power, relationships, peacemaking, business, advertising, technology, science, industry, history, justice, music, art, poetry, healing, alchemy, sex, birth, death, the bardo, reincarnation, religion and ritual, any and all of the four plane, and the spheres of the solar system, etc. It is up to the student to discover and to make connections to these spirits according to his own needs and maturity.

The Four Planes

The 25 spirits of the earthzone I describe in this book dwell in akasha. Akasha oversees the operations of the physical, astral, and mental planes and this is part of the job of these spirits as well. To interact with these spirits, therefore, it helps to know how to navigate from the physical plane to the realms of akasha.

Physical Plane

Here is one way to conceive of the different planes and to learn to move between them. In the physical world, I review in my mind the density and content of the world in which I live--there is my house and its age and shape, the trees and vegetation around the house, the surrounding valley, the island and sea around me, the sky, the winds, the atmosphere, the entire planet. The physical world as well as the physical universe has a history. To understand the universe, you need also to understand its history.
The physical level of existence is also animated by life force or vitality which is present to some extent in every physical object. I just took a CPR class. If you stop breathing for four to six minutes, your brain cells begin to die. The brain needs oxygen to stay alive. Our bodies are animated by breath, food, and liquids. Our physical well-being is wrapped up in biochemistry and physiology.

In various healing traditions and the martial arts students learn to sense and work with the vitality as a force which can be consciously directed. In Taoist yoga students learn to refine and circulate chi or vitality through their bodies. In yoga, students practice pranayama which enables them to draw upon the vitality in the air and consciously directly it through their bodies.

The physical world presents us with a vast array of challenges. In the Western Hermetic tradition, science, history, and the physical world are every bit as important as any spiritual realization or attainment on the inner planes. The material plane is where our visions, our ideals, and our spiritual intuitions demonstrate their reality. Every ideal, vision, and divine presence is capable of taking on a physical form so it becomes solid and real. All of the spirits of the earthzone are interested in producing something practical which is of enduring value in our world.
To a large extent, a successful magician must acquire the qualities of a successful individual in any profession. His life must be organized. He must be free of needless distractions. He must have rugged endurance, patience, self-motivation, and determination. And, like those at the top of any profession or career, he must love his work with all his mind, heart, and soul.

Astral Plane

Next, I shift my attention to the astral plane. This is the realm of the soul and in an individual it relates to feelings and emotions. The astral plane gives great sensitivity and a sense of connection to others. It is full of all sorts of energies relating to attracting and repelling forces. When individuals fall in love, it is often an astral experience--they are within the astral plane, living within a dream which two share in common. When a couple divorces, when they fall out of love, they sometimes hate each other. The same degree of intensity is present, but now it has changed polarity so it is a force of repulsion rather than attraction.

A simple exercise for working with the astral plane is to explore you dreams. Remember them and then study them by entering them again while you are awake and playing with them and changing them. After a while you gain the ability to consciously dream and follow your feelings through various imaginary landscapes of history, mythology, religion, and the domains of astral beings as well. This is called a pathworking--you take an image, an idea, a spirit, and then imagine in a dream state of mind what it would be like to interact in some way with that being. There are earthzone spirits who specialize in dreamlike interactions such as Granona who is found at 26 degrees Cancer.

     Just as we have our own physical body, we each have a unique astral body. The astral body involves our ability to respond, to be receptive, to feel alive, and to appreciate the world around us. To some extent, discussions of the astral body relate to the psychology of personality. When we talk about personality, in part our discussion deals with an individual's emotional make up, the ability to feel, styles of self-expression, and what a person likes and dislikes.
     In terms of the psychology of the four elements, the presence of fire in an individual's astral body makes that individual more energetic and active. Water gives receptivity and sensitivity. Air gives curiosity and a casual, friendly demeanor. Earth gives stability and practicality. Traditional astrology has a great deal to say about the influences of the four elements on temperament and personality.
     Some systems such as shamanism, Taoism, and druidry also work with animals as a way of expanding our experience with the astral plane. By working with an animal in a dream or vision, an individual explores those instinctual energies and modes of perception in which the animal specializes. The tiger and lion are fiery power, aggression, and dominance. The eagle and owl are clear vision by day and by night. The snake has the mesmeric concentration relating to the earth. The deer has the acute hearing and the capacity to blend into the surroundings with the flexibility of air. In effect, the animals embody specialized drives and modes of perception which have astral components.
      Psychology, religion, and literature, each in their own way, have a vested interest in the astral body. They explore what it is to be fully alive. They each try to come to grips with the issues of how we are to deal with forces which are greater than us. And they take us as far as they can into the experience of wonder, awe, beauty, and mystery.
     The writer knows his experience to be unique and yet in the act of communicating through his art he seeks to share his vision of life with others. The psychologist also sees human suffering, pain, misery, and isolation. But what all his theories, research, and techniques of counseling amount to is an invitation to his clients to seek a more fulfilling life in the human community.
     And the priest, minister, sage, or mystic usually has very specific experiences which his tradition over centuries has come to recognize as being sacred. In terms of the astral body, the sacred often manifests through an ecstatic experience with one or more of the four elements. With water there is love, serenity, and the feeling of life flowing through you. With air there is transcendence and freedom. There is an immense increase in your awareness of harmony and beauty.
     With fire there is illumination and empowerment. You are captivated by your sense of mission. Your conviction and courage are radiant and influence those around you. And with earth, there is inner peace and a feeling of connection to nature and the earth. With earth you become so solid and enduring that depression cannot find you.

     When we move beyond the astral body of an individual, we encounter the larger astral plane which belongs to the earth itself. This is a field of psychic activity and life which is quite independent of any culture or religion. Put simply, the astral plane of the earth entails every form of inspiration, every mode of perception, and everything through which life knows and expresses itself on this planet.
     Freud considered the unconscious of the individual to be a realm of chaotic instincts in competition with each other. But Freud's student, Carl Jung, noticed that his client's personal dreams were part of a larger context. They embodied the same conflict, imagery, and, at times, the same words used to summarize encounters with gods and goddesses in various religions. Jung concluded that there is a collective unconscious containing the wealth of all human experience acquired through all ages.
      From a Jungian or transpersonal point of view, when we talk about the goddess Quan Yin, the Green, Red, or White Tara, or Prajnaparamita, we are also talking about qualities of compassion, serenity, and empathy which may become a part of our astral bodies. The gods and goddesses of religion and mythology speak to us of what it is possible for us to experience within the world of feelings and the astral plane. They epitomize astral energies which result in ecstasy, rapture, and dreamlike visions when we encounter them through direct experience. But we rarely if ever meet individuals who embody these energies and are empowered to share them with others without any restriction. Those who can do this usually are the founders of world religions.
     To some extent, then, a magician is a spiritual anthropologist. His interest is in more than the life and contents of a specific religion, a psychology, an esoteric tradition, or a community. He is interested in the full spectrum and range of astral energies which exist on this planet and which can come alive in any human being.

The Mental Plane

I next focus on the mental plane. The mental plane belongs to the whole realm of mind, thinking, analyzing, experimenting, organizing concepts, paradigms, theories, philosophies, theologies, etc. Philosophers and academics, scientists and theoreticians roam about here with ease. On the mental plane, thoughts are often very sticky--they like to defend themselves and grow stronger by overcoming opposing vibrations. But the mind itself is open, clear, and luminous. It has no need to cling to specific thoughts for the sake of maintaining its security. The mind itself has no passion for causes, perspectives, and philosophies. It is already completely free. Wisdom has no definitions or boundaries and yet it knows how to seek solutions to problems which are effective and long lasting.

Franz Bardon mentions that the three planes can be visualized as gloves inside of each other. The physical body is the densest. The astral body, imbued with deep feelings, is more subtle like a dream body. And within these two gloves or bodies is an even more refined mental body. A basic exercise is to sense all three bodies at once as you move about or engage in some activity.

The mental body is more abstract and detached than the other two. I often refer to the minds of elemental beings such as sylphs and undines. The elementals have powerful levels of concentration but they remain focused on the energies underlying nature. Their activity links the astral and etheric/physical planes.

For a human being, however, meditating on the mental plane is a little like learning to think as Socrates. The mental plane has a philosophical quality. It lends itself to standing back and questioning the way things are. But there is also an intense scrutiny present similar to the shrewd analysis of a sharp businessman, a research scientist, or an investigative reporter.

The teachers with whom I have studied in universities have similar mental bodies and have sought to pass on a certain tradition: the love of scholarship and analytical thinking; sharp and precise definition and clarity of expression; and the value of arguing in a persuasive, dynamic manner which takes into consideration all aspects of a problem.

Buddhist masters and Oriental gurus often spend a lot of time working with the mental plane. When Padma Sambhava originated Tibetan Buddhism, the mental plane is where he intended most of his practitioners to focus as they visualized their yidams and tantras. One of the Buddhist contributions to our world is found in its exploration of a state of mind which is clear, luminous, and self-originating.

In Raja Yoga and hermetic exercises, there is an emphasis on developing mental plane virtues such as a powerful concentration, a mind free of any distraction, and also to have complete mastery over the five sensory modes of perception. In other words, you learn to imagine a picture, sensation, sound, smell, or taste in your mind and experience it as if it is a real sensory impression.

As with elementals on the astral plane, it is possible to meet beings whose primary focus is on the mental plane. The gurus and masters are among these. Also, just as there are psychic, dreamlike landscapes on the astral plane belonging to specific peoples and locations, the mental plane has vibratory fields. If you enter one of these fields you may find that it is easy to think along certain lines--these fields of mental energy gather and amplify certain thoughts and act to exclude others. When someone is trying to "persuade" you to his point of view, he is in effect trying to imprint upon or penetrate your mind with a specific mental plane vibration.

There is, for example, a mental plane vibration expressing the American dream. In this vibratory field, it is easy to think and want to strive for wealth, independence, and finding your own way. Truth is discovered through the process of everyone stating openly their own point of view. There is a love of technology but also a distrust of government and even of science. Science is not something you believe in but something you use.

A lot of people are locked into this specific pattern of thoughts. When they walk through the occult section of a bookstore, it all appears as nonsense. When they read the Bible, for example, they find that it expresses the American dream because their mental plane vibration filters their perceptions. Though very powerful and dynamic, this particular field of mental vibrations is a very externalized view of life. A sense of the earth, of the inner planes, psychic awareness, and anything mystical is inconsistent or discordant with this specific mental plane perspective.

One results of studying the vibrations on the mental plane is you develop a telepathic ability to sense the inner workings of others' minds. You can view another's mind directly in terms of its vibrations. You understand not only the structure of the mind of human beings, but also the mental vibrations of animals, the atomic vibrations of minerals, and the mental perspective of higher spirits as well.

The Akashic Plane

The three hundred and sixty spirits Bardon mentions belonging to the earthzone dwell within a pure akashic level of awareness. They do not need to occupy a physical/etheric, astral, or mental body in order to be fully conscious and active. If you interact with them from within akasha, you are interacting with them through your intuition. If you want to talk to them--exchange ideas from mind to mind--you need to bring their presence down to the mental plane. If you want to feel their presence so their inspiration and auras pulse and throb within you, then you need to bring them down to the astral plane. If you want to change our physical world in some way, then some sort of energy matrix has to be set up which can cause effects within the physical world.
These spirits have already mastered the lower planes at least in the areas where they specialize. Consequently, the first mode of interaction with them usually happens on an intuitive level. It is your personal and magical experience which enables that intuition to take form so you can understand and express it.

Akasha is, of course, nothing new. It has been described in many texts such as the Heart Sutra, the Bagavad Gita, and even the 90th Psalm. I know Zen masters who slip into akasha as easily as they tie their shoes. Some Tibetan Buddhists I know configure their magical circles to express an akashic state of trance.
An Indian medicine man I spent some time with often wandered in akasha when he dreamed and he relied upon it when he wanted something done in a hurry. One Taoist master uses akasha to open gates to the inner planes to speak with any master from the past of that lineage. And I know some Sufis who enter akasha through their dance or by the way they focus their eyes.

     Life presents us with both outer and inner experiences just as a circle has both a circumference and a center. Finding the akasha within ourselves is perceiving life from the center. No matter how dramatic our actions or rapid our life transitions, there remains a calm stillness around which everything turns. To enter this still center of the heart is one of life's greatest gifts.
     Every human being has the power to enter akasha. Akasha is what makes all the limitations, sorrow, and suffering of life into such an incredible, dramatic, and mysterious pageantry. Even amid horror, terror, and loss, something wonderful is happening to us.
     There are traditions probably as old as mankind in which individuals have learned to switch into another mode of perception. They attempt to see, feel, and think as divine beings. They not only reenact this in their rituals. They relive the act of creation as if it is their own to unfold. This is not a heretical, profane, or an outlandish interpretation. These are sons and daughters inquiring into their origins and preparing to assume their rightful place as creators in the image and likeness of the Creator.
     The modern mind relies primarily on scientific inquiry to master the art of creation. Our model of the universe is experimental and subject to empirical verification. Yet the impulse underlying scientific endeavor has always been present. It is not surprising that every esoteric oral tradition on earth has its own version of a cosmology. It is inherent in
human nature to express and celebrate the powers and the beauty which brought life into being.
     Consequently, it is not an idle thought to think that the power that created and shaped the universe flows through us. Finding and uniting with the creator/Creator in ourselves is the very essence of love. And it is the final destiny which we shall attain as a race who live and dwell among two hundred billion galaxies.

     Here are four steps for finding akasha within yourself. First, imagine that the qualities and powers of akasha are part of you. That is, develop a spiritual identity which exists within akasha. Second, you strengthen your awareness of akasha so you feel one with it--it is not only familiar; it becomes second nature. Third, learn to sense how akasha can influence your life and the world in which you live. Fourth, acting with the authority and power of akasha and like akasha, you act in some larger way to benefit and transform the world.
     Step 1. To enter akasha, cultivate a state of meditation or trance in which your awareness is highly refined. Move beyond dependency on form, gender, age, historical or social identity. Here in akasha there are no limitations, no boundaries, and there is no need for names. Space and time are completely open to your scrutiny. In this state of mind, nothing is hidden and everything is available to be to studied directly through intuition or mental projection.
     This is a magical practice and activity. The emphasis and procedure are somewhat different from those taught in traditional religions. We are not starting with a devotional act. We are not sacrificing, praying, or invoking. We are not being hesitant, cautious, or self-deprecating. There is no temple atmosphere, incense, rituals, mantras, icons or yidams supporting our consciousness. There is no need for a magical circle, wand, or pentagram.
     We are also not proceeding in conformity with the rules of psychology. We are not processing our experience. We are not strengthening our social identity. We are not relying upon behavioral, emotive, cognitive, empirical, or social-linguistic methodologies. We are not exploring the personal, collective, or global unconscious. We are not using positive thoughts, guided meditations, or relaxation techniques.
     Having said all of this--having renounced dependence on form and tradition--it still remains that each of us will use those tools which best express our own aspirations. Union with akasha is personal and transpersonal. Like the answer to a Zen koan, each individual's response is always the same and yet always new. That is to say, we can turn any activity into a means for attaining transcendence. This is because in every moment we exist at the edge of akasha and we are free to draw upon its power and creativity.
     Through meditation and concentration, we enter the mind of and assume the full prerogatives of a spiritual being. If some proclaim man is made in the image of God, then in this moment we activate this divine image in its power, rapture, and sovereignty. One procedure is to use your creativity and intuition to imagine what this is like.
     A simple way to begin is to visualize dark, ultraviolet light penetrating through space and time and that you are this light. All of history, past, present, and future, stands open to your gaze. The wisdom of all ages illuminates your understanding. Think about this and consider the ramifications--there is no emotion or feeling, no thought or perception, no sensory experience, pleasure, pain, sorrow or ecstasy which you cannot comprehend and contain in its full depth, breadth, and meaning.
     All instincts, drives, desires, motives, and inspirations are clear to you. Every nuance and facet which makes an animal, human or divine being what it is is part of your awareness. As an image of God, like unto God, you are sovereign and lord over your own being. In this state of awareness, nothing can influence you or oppose you without your
permission.
     As a creator, you have the ability and the right to withdraw into yourself whenever you wish to examine the universe that surrounds you. From this position, you can consider the forces active within yourself and those which shape the world in which you live. You can consider what has been, what is, and what shall come to be. And, as a creator, from out of the depths of your heart you can originate new purposes and actions. You can set into motion forces which fulfill your visions and remake the world as a better place to live.
     This akashic state of awareness, then, is your own space. Within it, you are autonomous, independent, and self-originating. The mysteries of your self and the universe surrounding you are open to your understanding. As befitting a state of perfect wisdom, you are detached and transcendent.
     But also, according to your need and intentions, you are also imminent and omnipresent. You can be present within and fully conscious of every aspect of anything that exists anywhere in the universe. This is the nature of akasha. This is capacity of those who unite with Divine Providence.
     In summary, in this first step we develop a physical sensation, a feeling, and a mode of intuition. The sensation is of penetrating through space, time, and the entire universe should we wish. The feeling is of being in our own space, totally independent, autonomous, and sovereign--nothing can influence us or oppose us without our giving consent. And our intuition is of having full knowledge of any thing or being we
wish to focus upon.
     Almost anyone can imagine these things if they spend some time working at it. Our task is to become familiar with this state of awareness so we can claim it as our own. The point is to be able to enter akasha with ease whenever we wish.
     Step 2. In the second step, we strengthen our akasha trance. Meditation becomes samadhi--body, soul, mind, and spirit are totally engaged and united as we concentrate. In this way, we attain total faith and conviction. Our psychic senses are enhanced. And the atomic vibration of matter and our physical being becomes open to our investigation.
     We now can sense how akasha is the origin of the four elements. Fire's expansive and commanding power of will are joined with water's encompassing, nurturing sensitivity and acceptance. Air's independence and freedom are combined with earth's solidity and endurance. These four unite in a pure, clear awareness which knows itself to be divine.
     Though we talk about the four elements, it would be just as easy to say that the seven chakras in the body, the four planes of awareness, the seven planets in the solar system, and the twelve signs of the zodiac also combine and unite within this trance. This might sound confusing at first but the basics remain: akasha is an awareness which encompasses, penetrates and unites all at the same time.
     In summary, for the second step the sense of touch which penetrates through space and time is stronger. You radiate power. Your aura, which is without limit, can now influence anything you concentrate upon. The feeling of being in your own space is also expanded. You feel at home wherever you are.
     And whereas your intuition in step one gave you knowledge, you now feel omnipresence is something real. As you contemplate, you can remove every trace of separation between you and any other being or spirit. The oneness you create and sustain reflects to some extent the light of Divine Providence.
     In the first step, the task is to enter akasha with ease so that this unusual state is comfortable and familiar. In this step, akasha becomes a trance in which our whole being is present as we concentrate. This carries with it an absolute sense of conviction that we are united with whatever we focus upon so that all separation is overcome. The highest light of divinity begins to illuminate our five senses.
     Step 3. In the first two steps, we enter and become familiar with akasha. We then deepen our concentration so it becomes total. These are internal states of awareness. In this step, our internal awareness of akasha becomes strong enough that we change the world.
     As we mature as individuals within a family, we exercise more control over our body, emotions, and mind. Our personalities become more rounded. We gain in experience. We then are ready to become productive members of society. We participate in secular and religious/spiritual communities. But if we work with akasha over many years, it is possible to become a dynamic and influential spiritual being.
     This means we engage in a set of actions which are completely invisible to the society in which we live. These are not religious or devotional activities. These are the actions of individuals who embody some of the powers of guardian angels whose task it is to protect, guide, and unfold life with harmony and beauty. Such intervention is not arbitrary. It carries with it the highest responsibility.
     To put it another way, we become agents of akasha. A part of ourselves is totally dedicated to Divine Providence. In the first two steps, we are more concerned with the perfection of the self. In this step, we turn our attention to accomplishing some specific work on earth.
     This is not an odd idea. I have already referred to this motivation earlier on--there is a natural desire to contribute to the unfolding of the world or, as the Sufis might say, every heart desires to transform the world through love. To assume a spiritual identity is to become active in this endeavor. The conscious integration of the self at this point includes an awareness of the deeper purposes which are guiding history. Just as a successful personality is effective in working with the rules of society, those who have assumed spiritual consciousness are successful in working with the laws of the universe.
     They understand what is possible. They exercise foresight. They monitor the karma of individuals and societies as they search for ways to accelerate growth. Though on occasion they exercise godlike powers, it is not their intention to dominate. They seek instead to empower, to liberate, to heal, to fulfill, and to set free.
     In summary, the conviction in this step is strong enough and the intuition pure enough to change and shape life through the exercise of spiritual and magical powers. To do so requires that an individual develop a consciousness appropriate for this level of activity. This is not a social or religious identity, for the accumulated wisdom within a society can never substitute for a direct connection to Divine Providence. And the light of morality is never sufficient to take the place of harmonizing oneself with the laws of the universe.
     In brief, we know beyond all doubt and with complete accuracy the range of our powers and the purity of our spirit. Though we all remain human and in many ways limited, we also know what we can accomplish. We see with the eyes of akasha and to some extent the four elements of nature obey our will. And so, like unto a creator, we reshape the world according to the visions within our hearts. The act by which the universe was created has not ended. It is on-going and we are a part of the process.
     Step 4. In the fourth step, an individual becomes even more like akasha. What does akasha do? It grants shelter, protection, and support. It is nurturing and encouraging. It is also supremely challenging because the possibilities it offers are infinite. Akasha is both masculine and feminine. It holds the past in reverence, it understands the importance of limitations, and it is the unknown manifesting. Akasha lays the foundations for a new world offering both continuity and divine creativity.
     In the fourth step, as an individual grows in akashic awareness, he or she exercises a permanent influence on human evolution. As long as humanity exists, his or her contribution to the human spirit will remain. Its light will never die. The perfection of the individual leads to this place where there is a unending outpouring of new treasures of wisdom, love, and illumination. Like a planet, a star, or a constellation, the individual becomes a gate through which the beauty of the universe is continually revealed.

In summary, practicing an akashic state of awareness is a way of identifying with Divine Providence. To put it in the simplest terms, it is advantageous if only from a psychological point of view to put aside your fears, to relax, and then to ask yourself, "What do I really want?" This act is empowering because it frees your imagination to consider your options.

In a similar manner, entering akasha is a way of considering what is possible for your life and gaining the support you need to follow through with your choices. When you ask yourself, "What purposes will my life serve?" you are becoming your own guardian angel. You are taking into account your limitations and your needs. You are evaluating your abilities and your interests. And you are also viewing your life from the point of view of eternity--you are considering the deepest desires and longings within your heart.

When this point of view and transcendence become a permanent part of your personality, then automatically you are also asking, "What can I accomplish on behalf of the human race and the planet earth?" When you ask this question with great conviction and profound commitment, then the light of Divine Providence is already present within you and empowering you.

Negative Spirits or the Dark Side of the Force

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.

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 neither have to be as pure nor do you need some noble purpose to catch their attention. You do not have to elevate your consciousness into a profound trance or 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 then 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 and performing exorcisms as well as maintaining its lineage and power.

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 Colombians 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 thief'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 attempts at 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 spiritual source 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 cannot approach an individual whose mind is centered within akasha. In a similar manner, negative beings cannot influence an individual who, in his faith and at his core, identifies with Divine Providence. You never want to underestimate the strength 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 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.

Spiritual development neither occurs in isolation nor is it a private and individual matter. You may spend decades in solo practice with virtually no contact with others in the same field, but on the inner planes you are nevertheless being carefully watched. Recall the quaint scene from Star Wars when senator Palpatine, who is the evil emperor in disguise, says with double meanings to the young Anakin, "We will be watching your development with great interest." His meaning is that he hopes to convert the young Anakin into the future Darth Vader to replace his former pupil Darth Maul. The negative side is especially interested in winning over individuals with high potential who retain some character flaw or weakness which can be used to gain power over them.

One of the most important tasks in magick, therefore, is keeping yourself 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 of the task is retaining commitment to and appreciation for this love during all parts of your journey.

How to Use This Book

This book is intended to give an overview of some of the major spirits responsible for human and planetary evolution. I have presented the spirits following the order of the zodiac moving from Aries to Pisces. You can go directly to chapters relating to topics which interest you such as personal love, telepathy, clairvoyance, prophecy, will power, and so forth.

I have given more information on negative spirits under Ubarim, Amagestol, and Tagora. For more on the four elements in magick and psychology see Morilon, Jvar and Chimirgu. For further examples of pathworking see Jachil and Alosom. Although all the spirits reveal aspects of akasha, see Chimirgu for more about the requirements an individual needs to meet in order to feel comfortable in working on that level.

If you have some skill in visualizing and concentrating, you may wish to explore working with sigils. I have not presented in this book copies of Bardon's sigils for these spirits. I think it is best if those who are interested in using this method have in hand Bardon's original work, The Practice of Magical Evocation, in which he presents the sigils of most of the spirits he discusses. Of course, it goes without saying that the basic training presented in Bardon's book, Initiation into Hermetics, is indispensable for serious magical work.

A sigil is basically a magical diagram. You concentrate on it and your consciousness is immediately linked in some way with a particular spirit. It is a short cut. Sigils are like a phone number. You call and someone on the other end picks up the phone and answers you. Sigils are also like a doorway. If you concentrate enough, an entrance opens between the worlds and a sprit moves through it into your room. For more information on sigils, see Bialode, Radina, and Cermiel.

Occasionally I refer to the use of cosmic letters. The 27 cosmic letters are one way of representing the basic building blocks through which God created matter, spirit, space, and time. For further information on this practice, see Franz Bardon's book, The Key to the True Quabbalah. Bardon wrote that book under the guidance of a spirit named Amalomi who presides over 26 degrees Taurus in the earthzone.

I would also mention that there is some controversy about the names of these spirits. Bardon apparently encoded the names because toward the end of his life he was in a hostile environment and there were around him malicious individuals who would use this information for dark purposes. This has absolutely no bearing on my own practice. As I point out later on, I sign my own name in at least ten different ways and I respond to at least fifteen different pronunciations of my last name.

As I pointed out earlier on, if you concentrate on a spirit you have a connection. The difficulty is in asking well-formed and highly motivated questions and listening very carefully to the answer which is given. And if you want to get something accomplished by working with a spirit, it is up to you to provide the energy. This is just being courteous and responsible.

The method I use is fairly simple. Though I do not use any ritual or magical tools, my procedures are very much within Bardon's training system. I form a magical circle using my mind. This takes about five seconds. For more on magick circles, see Morilon under Common Difficulties/Imbalances.

I then ascend the planes into the realm of the akasha of the earth which I often imagine to be dark, ultraviolet in color. I may focus on the particular zodiac constellation of the spirit I am working on. And I may spend some time contemplating the nature and inspiration of the particular spirit.

I then imagine that this void of akasha is filled with the color light belonging to the sigil of the particular spirit. Aries, Scorpio, and Pisces are red. Taurus and Libra are green. Gemini and Virgo are brown. Cancer is silvery-white. Leo is golden yellow. Sagittarius is blue. Capricorn is black. And Aquarius is violet. Some individuals say Bardon's original notes indicate blue for Pisces.

Because of my psychic abilities and previous work with spirits such as Zagriona, it is easy for me to sense the particular spirit directly in front of me. This works for any spirit in our planetary system including all the archangels. You can also directly enter into God's presence. But in this case it helps to complete your preliminary practices so that you do not severely twist and distort the communication according to your own preconceptions and limitations. The difference between interacting directly with God and a particular spirit is that God is everywhere on all planes and in all spheres of the universe and his personal qualities are not finite but infinite.

A word of caution: I would emphasize that if you ascend the planes at the beginning of a practice, you also carefully descend and return to your normal consciousness afterwards. And if you visualize light or accumulate energy of any kind, it is absolutely essential to dissolve this energy completely after your practice. The exception is if you ask a spirit to use that energy for a particular purpose. In this case, the energy still has an influence on you--that is, there is a certain tension in the air--no matter where it is or who has it.

As I frequently discuss in answering individuals’ email to me, magick in our age has a peculiar quality. In a democracy, it is essential that individuals chose their own courses of action based on their personal feelings and thoughts. Power is invested in and derived from the people. The best power empowers individuals to make their own choices and to follow their own paths.

What this means for magick in our age of the world is that you have to do what feels right for you individually. Through careful observation, you have to discover your own limitations and your own abilities. Your life is the magical experiment, the great work, and the spiritual training field. My suggestion is that whatever you do you retain your personal harmony and balance and move toward the inspiration of love, service, gratitude, awe, and the wonder and beauty of creation.

Not everyone should be involved in magick just as not everyone should be a medical doctor, an astronomer, or a lawyer. But it is important for everyone to have at least an introduction to fields of study which have a major impact on society. In another book, I will present a large number of brief magical exercises which anyone can practice no matter how busy they may be. Ultimately, there is no difference between the study of magick and the study of science, medicine, literature, history, politics, art, love, and religion. Magick is the refined essence of all these disciplines distilled into pure inspiration.