The Cosmic Letter U

Introduction

Among the 27 cosmic letters, the letters E, U, UE, and OE specifically refer to the akashic principle. Letters such as CH and H, by virtue of their violet color, have some analogy to akasha. Akasha, as the source of the four elements, is also the source from which the entire physical universe manifests. For some, these akasha based letters may present a higher level of difficulty. Let’s take a look.

Franz Bardon attributes the color black as in shiny or ivory black as the color for this letter of U. The sensation is akasha as in penetrating through space and time. What is the color black doing among these cosmic letters?

Bardon refers to akasha as actually being colorless. It is outside of the visible spectrum of light. He uses dark ultraviolet as in the cosmic letter E or black with U as a way to approach the vibration of akasha.

The color black has many cultural and spiritual associations, some good and some not so good. While on Iona, Scotland, I entered a Christian hermit’s cave by the ocean. The energy in the cave was remarkable. The early Christian saint who lived there had a sense of a great war between light and darkness. Christ has sometimes been referred to as the light of the world. Darkness must then be bad, huh?

The Hawaiians have a saying, “When the sun appears, everything falls into place.” But we also have the song, What a Wonderful World:

I see skies of blue, clouds of grey, the bright blessed day, the dark, sacred night, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

And of course,

Silent night, Holy night

Of course, we could say God is the creator equally of light and darkness. I mentioned to someone one time that given the rate at which black holes form from exploding stars, our galaxy probably has around ten million black holes in it. I then asked, “What does that tell you about God?” The person replied, “God likes darkness.”

And ninety-five per cent of the matter in the universe is dark matter. It does not emit any radiation detectable by science. In other words, no light shines from most of the universe—it neither radiates nor reflects light.

Human beings are said to be a microcosm of the greater macrocosm. We are described as being in the image of God. In Quabbalah, we reflect in ourselves the wonder and powers of creation. If we assume this, then any genuine system of initiation or spiritual transformation will have to come to grips with the side of life and spirit that is dark—the part of life that is unseen, not easily known, and completely outside of the normal range of our perceptions.

We have been working with the sense of sight and the perception of color. We could also relate the color black to a kinesthetic sense of touch. Instead of black, we could say empty as in nothing to touch. Space is empty and obviously has no color. Is empty space bad? Nothing can appear, no light, no form, no objects without space to contain it.

Various religions have attempted to work with akasha along similar lines. In Buddhism, Prajnaparamita is described as being the Mother of the Buddhas. Prajnaparamita is emptiness.

In Taoism, Wugi is like the Tao: it is formless, undifferentiated without opposites existing within it. Everything derives from Wugi.

In fact, there is a movement and form involving Wugi in Tai Chi Chuan. One master refers to “raise hands,” the first movement in the longer form as starting from a state of Wugi in which masculine and feminine or yang and yin are undifferentiated. As you begin to raise your hands, you move from Wugi into the feminine. As you raise your hands to where they are fully extended, you move to maximum yang. Then as you lower your hands you return to yin or feminine.

Raise hands contains the entire longer form within it. Some masters have students practice raise hands for six months before learning any other moves. That was the old way. Taoists like Wugi. They might even say at times, “No one can push me over because there is nothing here to push against.”

Imagine the incredible difficulty prophets of the Old Testament had in trying to present a religion, unlike the surrounding pagan religions, that emphasized akasha exclusively as being the primary attribute of God. How do you teach that God has no form or image? He is not a bull, cow, or calf. He is not a reptile, dog, or cat. And he is not in human form hurling lightning bolts at his enemies to retain his power and authority.

But like akasha, he wishes to assert his presence and perspective when it comes to establishing harmony on the three lower planes—in clarity of thought and plans on the mental plane; in inspiration and purity of motive on the astral plane, and through justice and prosperity in the physical world. We might easily conclude that the prophets of such a religion had an impossible task and were doomed to failure from the beginning.

In Psalm 90, however, the writer makes exactly that commitment. He says, “Oh Lord, You have been our dwelling place through all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever You did form the heavens and the earth, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God.” The writer of this psalm says our dwelling place is with a being who predates the creation of the universe. To make a statement like that you have to be in love with akasha.

Of the 27cosmic letters, the letter M is called the mother letter. All that is feminine and yin arises from it. CH with its ties to the moon is another of the most feminine letters. But if there is a third, it would be this letter U. Though within it there are no opposites, it is still fantastically feminine. And, as I mention on the astral and physical levels, it is quite romantic in practice—when separation is overcome, two become one.

In a group discussion one time I described a woman as being empty, meaning she has a marvelous receptivity. Another woman who was present took immediate offense at that description. But I meant it as a compliment. The womb has the quality of being empty as in Lao Tzu’s saying,

One who has the wings of a man and also the wings of a woman is in himself/herself a womb of the world and being a womb of the world continuously, endlessly gives birth.

Akashic Plane

Three Sense Concentrations

The cosmic letters are energies created by three sense concentrations. For color, shiny black or ivory black. As I practice this, I get a sense of the color as being completely receptive, almost tactile. It takes you back to the origin of something before any form appears. As black, it can receive impressions of anything or of any nature.

For the sensation, this is not the sense of penetrating through space and time typical of what Bardon attributes to the dark, ultraviolet color. This sensation is like the Taoist Wugi—it is undifferentiated without the presence of any form, mass, or energy of any kind. This is not penetrating because there is nothing to penetrate. It is a state of being without separation or differentiation.

The sound is the note of “B.” In this case, it is like the “sound of silence.” It synchronizes with the color and sensation as if it is vanishing into or merging with them. As with this sound on the three lower planes, it dissolves anything that distinguishes or differentiates one thing from another.

Basically then the letter U on the akashic plane is underneath all opposites. It is the source from which they arise. The four elements are spun out of it. There is no Aries or Libra, no Leo or Aquarius. It is the source of the entire Zodiac. There is no earth, air, water, or fire. It sings each of these into being through its voice.

The Buddhist Heart Sutra discusses the issue directly by taking the point of view of akasha in regard to human experience:

Sariputra, form does not differ from emptiness: Emptiness does not differ from form. Form then is emptiness. Emptiness then is form. Sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness, are also like this.

Sariputra, all Dharmas are marked with emptiness.... there is no form, no sensation, perception, volition or consciousness. No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind; nor form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or Dharmas.... No wisdom, and no attainment, with nothing to attain.

Because the Bodhisattva is the Perfect Wisdom of emptiness, his mind has no hindrance. Having no hindrance, there is no fear….

In feudal societies, most people have their role in life assigned to them. They have very few options or choices when it comes to making plans for the future. Consequently, it is beneficial to retreat into akasha. It makes sense to just let go of your frustrations and passions and become nothing as you mediate in the temple. Done meditating, return to your assigned place in life refreshed. Your worries and anxieties have dissolved.

The Heart Sutra above is a superb example of viewing life from akasha. Of course there is no fear—if you have no identity, no ego, and nothing you need worry about then you have no hindrances confronting you. It may sound very strange our ears, but someone way back when really understand the cosmic letter U at least in terms of the akashic plane.

I am from a different society. Freedom of choice, of expression, and determining one’s own direction in life are absolutely essential and part of the foundation of good government. I am from a pluralistic, post-industrial, and democratic society. How on earth does akasha, as in the cosmic letter U, find a way to enter my consciousness without undermining the need for individual choice and action? If you have within you an awareness of being nothing, how do you act and take responsibility for the world?

The image that comes to my mind as I mediate on the U in akasha is sitting in a theater after a play has been performed. Perhaps you acted in this play. Perhaps you wrote it or directed it. Your friends were in audience and among the actors. You even know critics who will review it. You had dinner with one last night. You know the two individuals who financed the play. You know the janitor who cleans up. And you know the custodian who will lock up the theater tonight after everyone has left.

Now everyone has gone except you. The lights are out. The theater is empty. But you have decided to sit in front of a large mirror which you have dragged to the center of the stage. A few beams of moonlight from a high overhead window dimly reflect your image. The moon soon sets. You watch as your reflection disappears into darkness. No more your handsome face. Not even the mirror is seen.

Now there is nothing. No applauding audience. No bowing actors. No play. No images, no form, and no action.

And you reflect--the mirror is not gone. It has not lost its reflective power. There are just no images appearing within it.

And you reflect—this could be the original Globe Theatre in London late in the night after the first performance of King Lear. It could be a theater in ancient Greece after the performance of Antigone. It could equally be after a performance of Hamlet in a theater in a Mars’ colony a hundred years in the future.

Briefly, you slip inside the mind of Sophocles. You see the play through his eyes and why he wrote it to reflect the issues of his age. “Bitter is the price of wisdom,” Sophocles’ thinks and your face briefly takes on his expression.

You slip inside the mind of Shakespeare. His thoughts become your thoughts. You laugh to yourself the way he laughed when he wrote one of his jokes into the script.

You ask yourself, why has art appeared among human beings? What part does it play from the cave paintings in 35,000 B.C. to all the variety and forms it takes today? What is its origin in human consciousness and why do we seek reflections of ourselves? Why all this passion for action? Why drama? Why desire and pleasure? Why pain and the quest for gratification?

Consciousness is like the mirror. In the darkness, the mirror is unseen. When the light is on, we use the mirror in so many ways. Endless is the array of images and motions. And you reflect—we are the mirror. We are the origin and within us rests original being.

In the movie 2001, in one moment apes acquired tools and advance. In another moment, we stepped onto another celestial body. And in a third moment we made the transition from material being to pure spiritual being. Time and history separate these moments of transformation.

But in the mirror, in the awareness that underlies all consciousness, there is no separation of these moments—no ancient Greece, no modern world, no future colonies. All action arises from the same origin: the power to shape and to create has always been within us. Like the mirror in the darkness, we know it is there but only ask about its nature at the moment when everything is about to disappear.

Yet this source is closer to us than our breath. Our five senses are spun from out of it. Every fiber of our being is a part of it.

Art reminds us of this truth—how easy it is to identify with characters who are not us. How familiar the conflicts and passions of those from other ages. And whether past or present, how incredibly easy it is to become trapped in our self-image, the images, roles, and routines assigned to us or that we have invented, fabricated, and made up. How strange that we identify ourselves with the brief images that appear in the mirror and forget that the creative power of the mirror is also who we are.

This creative power? It is to understand anything and to discover the original purpose underlying anything.

From the point of view of U akasha, when we wake up in the morning from dreaming we could be the mind, soul, and body of anyone on earth. U akasha is this awareness of everything—time, history, every individual thing and identity—there is no separation.

I am sure you imagine how easy it would be for someone who suddenly sees life from the point of view of U akasha to feel overwhelmed. All the everyday things they used to take for granted as being important are suddenly called into question.

But as the Mahabrata might say, “Original being is never without action. It remains decisive and strong when all others’ wills fail them.” Let us move then to the mental plane to see how this mystery plays out.

It is too bad that Christianity has no practice involving akasha. It is counterproductive to say the least to talk about compassion and love if you have no actual method for feeling empathy with others—with establishing a connection to them on some level. And if you stir into the pot the spice of seeing others as sinners and evil, well, you write off the opportunity to love right from the start. I suspect if Christianity has such methods at its disposal they are sealed off and locked away in first century manuscripts hidden down in the forgotten corridors of the Vatican library.

Tibetan and Mahayana Buddhism do have such methods. I used to hire Buddhist monasteries for five years to visualize specific world leaders and practice the Prajnaparamita ritual while meditating on them. Part of the Prajnaparamita ritual is reading aloud the Heart Sutra.

A story. An evil magician in Tibet has the power to kill others with his magic. And now he has stated that he is going to kill a Tibetan priest. The Tibetan priest meditates on Prajnaparamita, a lot like the letter U. In fact, the cosmic letter U on the akashic plane would be virtually the same thing.

The priest meditates: there is no separation. There is no enemy. There is no attack from an the enemy. And there is no one here to attack. There is no identity—only emptiness and oneness without separation.

And now the evil magician unleashes the full power of his magic against the priest. It is the power to destroy, annihilate, and obliterate. But gee, this massive will and energy can’t find anything to attack. It looks and looks, but there is no priest anywhere to be found.

Like a torpedo launched from a submarine with its own sonar, it goes looking for its target. But if it can not find its target the torpedo returns to its source—the only thing around that is available to attack. The black magician falls dead victim of the magic sent by his own will.

The Prajnaparamita ritual/cosmic letter U akasha dissolves evil and malicious intentions. But individuals still have the freedom to choose and to learn from the consequences of their actions. You can never take that away without causing new karma. So in some cases, if individuals desire to destroy they end up only destroying themselves.

If I might be so bold, the repertoire of any genuine world class peacemaker would certainly contain such a practice. It would be one of many methods at his disposal and to be used at his discretion. And when he used it, he would not be acting as a human being but as a servant and agent of Divine Providence. It is about acting, as the beatitude states, as “the children of God.”

Mental Plane

The shiny, ivory black color on the mental plane says “I am the source from which all the specific opposing forces and polarities you are considering arise. They take their birth from me; they are a part of me, and yet they do not express all of me.”

Is capitalism opposed to communism? What is the source from which they both arise? Or, what do all systems of economics share in common? What basic problems must they resolve regardless of the ideology?

Are you in conflict with another person? What is the source from which you both arise?

Like the akashic plane, the sound dissolves into the color and sensation. Here it heightens your vision in the process—it dissolves your illusions and limited concepts allowing you to perceive more clearly from the whole rather than from a specific perspective.

The sensation also is like the akashic in that it is undifferentiated but here it is more specific. Take the opposites and various components of whatever you are considering and unite them as one energy so they are no longer separate.

Fire and water? Try gasoline, a liquid but with a high potential to ignite. Or how about alcohol or liquor? A liquid with “spirits” in it. You can drink it.

It depends on the situation confronting you. Put them together, unite them, and find their common source.

How about will and love? Their common source? Compassion. Or altruism, justice, idealism—it depends on the situation you are considering.

What is in common source between a writer and the big publishing houses? Their common source is a reader enjoying what has been written. This is what unites and draws the writer and the publishing houses together.

How does the akashic plane differ from the mental plane with the letter U? I site the example often as mentioned in Wikipedia: At the age of fifteen in 1950, the Dalai Lama was enthroned as the head of Tibet. This was one month after China invaded Tibet. In 1954, the Dalai Lama met with Mao Zedong in Beijing. In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet.

However, in 1954 at the meeting with Mao Zedong, Mao told the Dalai Lama that religion is the opiate of the people quoting Marx. China had been treated terribly by England. The East India Company during the 1830’s, acting for and within the national interest of England, shipped tons of opium to Canton, China. It traded the opium for manufactured good and for tea. The trade wrecked havoc on China producing vast numbers of opium addicts.

So when Mao said that religion is the opium of the people he was saying that religion is a means to enslave and repress a population. Religion is an economic disaster that destroys industrial development due to its close alliance with imperialism.

Tibetan Buddhism has a truly magnificent understanding of akasha on the akashic plane. But when it comes to how akasha asserts its harmony by balancing the four elements on the mental plane, well, Tibetan Buddhism is a disaster waiting to happen.

If the Dalai Lama had wise counselors, they would have kept their minds attuned to mental plane questions like what is the situation and what are our options and choices. And what resources are available to us to solve these problems?

But the young Dalai Lama did not have access to such wisdom. Entranced by akasha and entangled in the routines of a feudal society, Tibet failed utterly to establish embassies and alliances with other nations to guarantee its survival as a nation. It had no cultural exchange. Entranced by akasha, it failed utterly to acquire even the most rudimentary understanding of how it was a nation among other nations.

If the Dalai Lama had wise counselors, he could have handed Mao a copy of John Nash’s 1949 thesis which explained that there is no class warfare. There is instead a nonviolent point of harmony between any two opposing parties. Furthermore, for any economic system to succeed you must factor in individual motivation in order to reach the highest level of productivity.

In other words, Chinese Communism will somehow have to allow for the people to be represented in the government if it is to succeed. The Dalai Lama could have said simply, “The karma is that if China represses religion and individual freedom it will inevitably change into its opposite—before you know what has happened your communism will become capitalism regardless of what you call it.”

The Dalai Lama could have applied akasha to the mental plane by saying “Obviously you are about to invade Tibet. Nonetheless, here is the situation and here are your options and choices. If you continue to blindly follow an aging ideology, you will end up killing thirty million of your own people through your economic mistakes and seriously delay your inevitable rise to power among the nations.”

[On the other hand, if the Dalai Lama’s counselors were intelligent enough to have read and understood obscure papers on economic theory and conflict resolution, Mao probably would have seen them as a resource to be put to work rather than as an obstacle to be overcome. He would have placed them in charge of running his economy.

Trust me on this—any dictator or other on a quest for absolute power for good or for evil design will, without doubt, always and forever be on the lookout for wise and trustworthy counselors he can rely upon. They ease his burden and make life more satisfying.]

The conflicts, the components of conflicts, and the entire set of variable and options we confront as we think about the future are derived from the akashic plane. Akasha is their source. You can bet that there will always be a path of harmony somewhere to be found on the mental plane. You just have to attuned your mind to akasha to understand the specific shape that path takes.

Franz Bardon says “The ‘U’ oscillation evokes the highest form of intuition and inspiration in the mental body….” I imagine that intuition here would indicate what the right thing to do is from the point of view of akasha. Again, it would indicate the path of harmony between the opposites and conflicts we confront with our minds.

In the movie 300, the wife of the king of Sparta says to her husband, “Forget about religion. Forget that you are king. Just ask yourself as a man, “What is the right thing to do?” To say what she said was actually a greater act of courage than the king who was moved to action by her question. The right answer to this question will lead you to akasha as it moves through the mental plane.

The poet Gary Snyder’s Zen master said to him at the end of his studies, “The perfect path is always easy; strive hard! (to attain it).” The path between opposites is always there. The world is created from a oneness that knows no separation. The obstacles and opposition and conflicts can be incredible. But a path is there to be found.

In Homer’s Odyssey, the Greek gods looked down with favor upon Odysseus. This was because he was clever. When there were problems no one else could solve, he could find solutions. He did not limit himself to one point of view or perspective. Over and over, he takes everyone’s point of view into consideration and then he acts.

As for inspiration, I imagine that it is to move through life without feeling that anything is opposing me. As in, “I am not in opposition to anything.” We have heard the command, “Love your enemies.” From the perspective of U, our enemies are not our enemies. They are a part of a greater mystery unfolding.

The Dalai Lama was asked, “How can you feel compassion for the Chinese when they have murdered a million Tibetan monks?” His reply was in effect to say that “like all of us they are struggling to find their way through life, to have their basic needs fulfilled. How can I not feel compassion for them?”

The cosmic letter U is rather insistent when it comes to the things that oppose us. It says, “Use your intuition and inspiration to figure out what you have in common with your opponents. Discover the awareness that underlies both of your lives.”

Imagine two American Indian tribes in the seventeenth century. It is true that some tribes were known as peacemakers such as the Menominee in Wisconsin. But we are considering two warring tribes as a simple substitute for warring nations. Akasha says to them, “Do I not provide the same sunlight to fall on both of you, the same rain, and the same moonlight? Do I not provide the same fruit and crops and animals to hunt?

“Is the breath in one of you more valuable to me than the breath in another of you? Is the blood in the veins of one of you more valuable to me than that in the veins of another? When you meet your enemy, you should treat that person as if his soul is part of your own.

“I have created both of you—I am the same electricity beating in your hearts. If you know me you would also feel and understand this.
“You can go on striving against each other and carrying on your wars. You can go on doing this for a very long time. But in the end if you wish to survive you will learn to work together. And if you wish to ascend—to create with my power—you must learn that you are one with each other.”

Franz Bardon also says that that the U oscillation “renders it possible for the Quabbalist to explore and master his own karma and its modification.” In other words, you can step out of the role you are playing on the stage of life. You can leave the stage stepping out of your assigned role and go out and sit in the darkness of the theater among the audience. From there you can observe the drama of your life being played out.

You do not have to play the role assigned to you. You do not even have to act in a particular play. There will always be drama and choices to be made. But amid the drama and choices you can shine like the sun and the moon or you can be a candle that has burnt out. By your choice you determine your fate. And your choice is shaped by the light within your heart.

And so we return to Shakespeare’s drama of a prince. Hamlet confronts one of the most difficult decisions found in world literature. Hamlet is commissioned by a ghost to establish justice in a kingdom when there is no real evidence of a crime having even been committed—just the emotional utterances of a ghost, now a lost soul or worse, maybe a demon in disguise, claiming to be his father and that he was murdered by Hamlet’s uncle and mother who are now the king and queen.

Review the mental plane questions: What is the situation? What is the bottom line when it comes to options and decisions? What resources are available for arriving at the right solution? And as always, What is the right thing to do?

At first it appears Hamlet rises to the occasion. He must conduct an investigation without anyone knowing he is doing so, otherwise if the ghost is right and any suspicion arises as to Hamlet intentions, Hamlet will be dead in the night. And so Hamlet trusts no one. He pretends that he has mental problems.

His investigation is brilliant. One of the resources available to him? A troupe of players are to perform a play in the court. Hamlet rewrites the play (you have some privileges if you are a prince) performed for the royal court that gets the king to betray himself by revealing his remorse. And later Hamlet obtains on the sly an actual confession from the king as the king prays to God of the great wrong he has committed. There it is: proof way beyond all reasonable doubt.

At that very moment, Hamlet has the power to strike. By his own hand, justice he can met out—kill the king and no more haunting by the ghost and justice is done after a fashion. After all, Hamlet is prince. The kingdom by all that is right now belongs to him. A king establishes justice in accordance to the options available to him—winners get to write the history books and in doing so set up the lighting for the foreground and the background—so readers have a “clear” perspective in viewing a chain of events.

Hamlet hesitates. Because the king has confessed, he will not go to hell if he is killed this night. And Hamlet feels that such a crime this man has committed in killing a king out of greed and lust for the king’s wife does not merit heaven as a reward. Better that justice is done after the king has sinned.

But this is all pure, unmitigated rationalization. Hamlet’s hesitation in no way moves toward answering the question, What is the right thing to do?

Options? Back to our resource—actors are also capable of improvisation. After all, Shakespeare wrote this play so that people like me a long way away could sort out Hamlet’s options. These questions face anyone and not just an imaginary prince—the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Mao, Hitler, Nixon, Mandela, Yeltsin, Putin, Napoleon, George Washington, Bhutto, etc. What are my options as in what is the best way to revolve conflicts amid opposing forces?

Hamlet could have sequestered the actor’s troupe in a barn somewhere. Offered gold now and a theater later when Hamlet is king. Grant them royal patronage. And mention that if they betrayed his secret he would know because they would be dead before Hamlet—to kill a prince you must use caution; killing actors can be done by whispering one sentence to a few hencemen.

And so Hamlet his actors in a barn. He explains to them the inciting incident about the ghost appearing to a prince and so forth. And now Hamlet commands, “I want to see some spontaneity and truth as you act out five scenarios about what this prince can do.”

Our actors rise to the occasion. I mean, who has ever asked them to really act, to perform art, so as to decide the fate of a kingdom. They throw themselves into their parts.

In the first scenario, the actor playing Hamlet pretends that nothing is wrong. If the prince acts like nothing is wrong, then there is no problem. The prince publicly proclaims his loyalty to the new king.

And one night when having a night cap with the king in private, the prince says he feels awkward saying this, but his mother looks so much happier married to the new king. She is so radiant. Her previous husband was a real drag and Hamlet never did like him. And then the prince stumbles off as if, since he is drunk, he has already forgotten what he said.

The actor/prince then says in an aside to the audience, “The king and queen actually trust me. They come to rely on me. And now I wait for the king and queen to slip up. It may be soon or it may take years, but I will have my revenge and it shall be sweet.”

Hamlet says, “And now for your second scenario.”

The actor playing Hamlet pretends his has mental problems and disguises his investigation in search of solid evidence of the king’s wrong doing. But as the actors play out this arc of the plot, Hamlet gets killed. It is all just too obvious. The king and queen are suspicious right from the start.

Hamlet says, “I have seen enough. And to think that I thought I could get away with doing precisely that.”

I think you get the idea. Consider your options. Discover and use your resources. Learn to ask the right questions of the right people at the right time. Is Hamlet done? Not by a long shot:

Hamlet: “I understand the wisdom of the first scenario. I call it survival. But I find it very distasteful. Can you explain how you as an actor could possibly remain silent knowing that such injustice has been done and appearing to do nothing about it?”

Actor playing Hamlet: “That is quite simple, my lord.” And taking another actor and whispering in his ear, the actor sits upon the throne and says, “In this brief scene, the prince has now been king for ten and five years. And, having married his sweetheart, who has not committed suicide, they have a son. And the son asks his father, “Tell me father, how could you have managed to remain silent all those years knowing that the king had actually murdered your father the true king?”

“My reply?” says the actor speaking rhetorically. “I tell my son this: I did what was right--I waited for the right moment to strike. Rather than risk a civil war with so many innocent killed to make a point, I found a way to establish justice without having to build on a foundation of destruction.”

And Hamlet walks up to the actor, puts his hands on his shoulder and says, “I see your point. I just do not know if silence such as you portray does so deep through my soul flow. If patience be a virtue, will my soul not rot under its tutelage? Will I awake in the dead of night with a ghostly fright and think to myself, ‘I would rather be dead than to live one more day having to pretend that the king and queen are righteous knowing in truth that they are malicious.’”

I would like to introduce into the play Krishna and the Bhagavad-Gita. Remember Krishna, he is the one said, “I am never without action.” Krishna spoke to Arjuna amid two great armies about to engage in war. And Arjuna’s heart failed him for he look across the field and saw his life long friends and teachers among the enemy.

But Krishna spoke to Arjuna saying, “I have become your friend that light might be preserved on earth.” And then Krishna guided Arjuna through the deepest fibers of his being. He said,

I am the infinite, eternal, and the immortal Self--no fire can burn, no water dissolve, no air dry, and no sword pierce…. Before such gory space melts away into nothingness, time vanishes into non-existence, and causation dwindles into emptiness. Ranging beyond names and forms, passing free into woods and forests, mountains and rivers, into day and night, clouds and stars, passing free into men and women, animals and angels, as the Self of each and all am I. Truth flows from me just as light radiates from the sun and fragrance emanates from a flower...I am the transcendental bliss, the absolute intelligence, the supreme synthesis of consciousness that shines in the shrine of every heart.

Krishna is a nice stand in for akasha. You can write characters and dialogue like that into the Mahabarata. But this is impossible for Shakespeare in Elizabethan England. Instead, we might imagine our little troupe of actors suddenly having an inspiration.

An actor says in an aside, “I take you to King David’s bed as he dies and speaks now his last words. And these are his very words spoken not to his son Solomon but rather to our prince when he awakes at night in a fright. Let the prince recall this scene we are about to play out:

King David: “The spirit of God spoke to me these words—He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.”

“Think about it,” the actor goes on, “if he shall be as the light of the morning, there must first be a night. I mean you have to listen carefully and analyze the verb’s tense. I know that you already like comparisons involving predicates--“to be” and “not to be.” But consider carefully he “shall be” but he is “not yet.”

“Hamlet, it is the way of nature—if you want to be the dawning light, you will have to find your way through the night. You recall that saying, ‘You have to die if you want to bring forth new life. Power, if it is to be just, requires sacrifice. Hamlet, with all due respect, distaste is a small price to pay. Patience and waiting performed in silence are more deadly than any sword.”

What does the cosmic letter U say about all of this on the mental plane? What underlies Hamlet and the king and his mother the queen? What is their common source in regard to this conflict?

I have said it before,

Power exists in order to be of service to others. If you use power with love, wisdom, and divine purpose, then its accomplishments endure through all ages of the world. Or, put simply: discover your resources. And find the path of harmony between opposing forces. Otherwise, fate (that is karma under the laws of akasha) rolls the dice to determine the time and place where you face the consequences of your actions.

Astral Plane

The color takes us to the source of any feeling or astral situation, vibration or polarity.

The sensation is being malleable. It has an extreme flexibility. It is capable of being anything similar to the way touch can express any emotion—you can grab to save or to enslave; you can touch as lust or as purest love. The sensation says in effect “I will be anything you wish.” It is rich. It is thick, and can take on the life within anything.

The sound dissolves any astral polarity revealing the source that underlies it.

Bardon mentions that practicing letter U on the astral plane enables you to transfer you consciousness anywhere and so learn to master it. And it enables you to evoke any state of trance.

Put simply, you learn to assume any astral vibration within your consciousness. You can experience opposites: you can be A or B that opposes A or you can be both A and B at the same time in a state of unity or the source from which they arise—this is speaking in terms of feeling, motivation, and emotional force.

Robert McKee, perhaps the foremost teacher of how to write screenplays, is skeptical about romantic movies. Studios want to pay him a million dollars to write a modern romance but he says he can’t do it. For a modern romantic movie, you have to have a great obstacle that keeps lovers apart and so the movie is about them overcoming the obstacle.

Then McKee tells you about the real problem: he says, “Feminism is a good thing. But it has killed romance.” I think what he means is that if you have the same capability in women as in men that feminism proclaims, then there is no longer enough polarity between the two genders to produce genuine romance. You can always pretend and act like there is romance. There is still a lot of fun to be had. But this is no more than playing a part in a romantic comedy. Genuine romantic feelings are nowhere to be found.

His point—the knight in shining armor, the navy seal coming out of the water, the captain of the nuclear submarine, and the space shuttle commander could just as easily be a woman as a man. It was not that way in the old days and so what went before is now gone.

Bruce Willis might star in another Die Hard movie but as a matter of fact Catherine Zeta-Jones is probably in far better physical shape than Bruce Willis ever was. I asked two people about this and they both replied, “Die Hard is a man’s role.” But in fact a woman could play the role these days just as easily as a man.

Be that as it may, from the cosmic letter U’s point of view, romance is still alive and well. It is very simple: it is two people sharing with tenderness their two bodies in common or, put another way, it one consciousness sharing two bodies—you share every perception, thought, sensual and emotional experience.

You may have very different histories, ways of thinking, feeling, and perceiving. You may have very different ways of growing and goals you are hoping to fulfill. But you share so the other’s goals are also your own and the other’s needs are yours equally.

If you have the letter U developed on the astral plane, it is extremely easy to get inside of another person and share that person’s deepest experiences. Even the other’s nervous system is open for you to experience. I give a simple example of how to do this under Four Planes at the end of this essay—see One Minute Seminar.

A story. Imagine a city in ancient Greece. The king has magical powers. He sits on his thrown but he is master of cosmic letter U on the astral plane. Without need of advice or counselor, he can quite easily see through the eyes or hear the words spoken by anyone anywhere in his kingdom. And he does this without security cameras on every corner or a video camera mounted on the hood of police cars.

Actually, the CIA with its remote viewing program attempted to accomplish something like this. They wanted to view the enemies’ military installations, locate their submarines, and find kidnapped individuals. Pretty strange, huh?

As a spiritual anthropologist, over the years I have come across one or two individuals who are gifted in this way. When she dreams, one woman I know can see and hear what others are doing and saying in remote locations. She even perceives events about to happen to them. She does not have the mental plane awareness of how to work out karma or find solutions, but she does quite nicely on the astral.

I read an individual’s palm once and told him, “In this life time, you will only experience deep love from one woman. But what have you done that she is so incredibly angry at you? I can feel her wrath right now as she sends it to destroy your aura.”

We talked and I have him a meditation to do in which he pictured the two of them lovingly caring for their child. The next day she called him and wanted to get together again. This was an astral meditation. You make a direct and inner emotional connection to another as if there is no separation between the two of you. You feel one with each other.

The problem that I did not work on with him was that he did not have a sense of inner contentment. As one of the foremost investors in the world, Warren Buffet, points out you have to be content in yourself in order to do well with success. Otherwise, you reach too soon for you goal or overreach and fall when you are on top.

The individual in this example was gifted at succeeding, but he used other people’s energy to get where he was. And most people will only put up with that for so long.

I should have had him do the mental plane exercise of imagining that you are in the audience watching your own performance on the stage. And then you ask, “What would be different about that character if he were successful in life?”

If he had been perceptive, he would have said, “Is that really me? Do I really exploit people in that way? What can I do about it?”

Answer? “Simple, always give back as much as you take. Now get up on the stage and let me see you act in a few scenes where you first give back before walking away.”

As for Hamlet, Hamlet too would have needed to role play a few scenes in order to explore his emotional reactions. It is not enough to think. You have to feel the part as well.

I once had a class enact a role playing session in which the goal was to get the keys away from a friend at a party so he does not drive home drunk behind the wheel. We broke into three groups and had three presentations. The first group ended up wrestling the guy to the floor to get his keys from him. They were very emotionally involved with their parts even though it was role playing.

The second group simply had someone go out to the car and pull a wire so it wouldn’t start. But the third group won the competition. They had a girl go up to the guy at the party who was drunk and talk sweet to him. He ended up giving her his keys and agreeing to have someone else drive him home.

When you are dealing with emotions, it is not necessarily about reason or options. It is about the right emotional interaction that takes you to where you want to go. Astral energies are what make you feel alive. When they are bad, everything else, like an electrical system, can short out. When they are good, you feel like you are right where you are supposed to be.

My mother had something of this U awareness on an astral level when it comes to conflict resolution—as in identifying with the underlying common ground of the relationship. She had a sorority sister in college who picked on her and gave her a hard time. My mother could have reacted by being passive, a victim. She could have reacted by getting even, by attacking.

Instead, she started doing little things for the other person. Helping her out in any she could. In effect, my mother became the other person’s best friend. Presto, no more conflict. You could say that my mother was being submissive to this person. But that is not the case. My mother knew exactly what she was doing. She acted in a way so as to destroy the other person’s opposition. I have seen her do this many times.

Physical Plane

The color is the state of awareness that underlies physical matter whether animate and inanimate.

The sensation is an awareness like delta brain waves. It is intensely awake and aware when normally deep sleep doe not allow for perceptional activity. This energy or power underlies any set of polarities or components making up physical matter.

The sound dissolves opposites taking you into the state of underlying unity.

In other words, U is an awareness that senses the dense vibrations of the physical world. It puts itself easily within these vibrations. Bardon says the U on this level reveals the mysteries of akasha as it influences physical matter. And it reveals all aspects of the four pole magnet.

Bardon is referring to the electric and magnetic fluid in its active and passive aspects and the way this force is the matrix from which all matter arises. A very simple illustration of the four pole magnet is seen in male and female attraction. The man has electric energy around his genitals and magnetic around his head and the woman is the reverse with the magnetic around her genitals and electric around her head.

As sometimes occurs, a man wants sex to express love. Don’t tell me you have never seen this. Whatever sex is for the woman, it is not the same as for the man. She gets pregnant. She delivers and nurses a baby. She may or may not appreciate any of this but she does in fact have a chance to experience a level of bonding before and after delivery that a man will never know. Still, she may then feel stuck in the home wanting to get out and have a life, a career. He still wants sex and the role sex plays for a man most women will never understand.

Typically, in the old days, he had a career. He is out and about and active in the world. His electric sexual/instinctual energy makes him active. Her magnetic/instinctual energy gives her easier access to nurturing and bonding.

For him, he has to develop the magnetic energy around his head if he is to grow. Sex grants him straightforward, direct, and easy access to magnetic energy which is embodied in this case in the lower part of a woman’s body. There is a learning curve but it is indirect and round about. He becomes a father and provides for a home. He learns to nurture and care but only in an indirect way. In no way or very rarely will he learn contentment and inner peace from experiencing a woman’s sexuality.

Similarly, a career represents for a woman a straightforward, direct, and easy access to electrical energy which is so prevalent in our society. A career grants her a chance to make decisions in concert with others, to be productive out of the house and in society, and to learn how to take charge of herself. There is a learning curve but it too is indirect and around about. In no way or very rarely will she learn self-mastery and putting all her being on the line to accomplish a mission through work or through a career.

If the man masters the magnetism around his head, he becomes nurturing, caring, empathic, and loving. And he attains inner peace. If the woman masters the electric energy around her head, she becomes dynamic, a leader, and fearless. Her independence and autonomy are then not derived from something else but part of her own being.

The letter U is the awareness of the electric and magnetic in both active and passive aspects all together and throughout the entire process of development. If the man masters the U awareness, he realizes sex is a sacrament. Easy to say the words in a marriage ceremony. But to perform a transformation is required. You have to attain to an inner union with the woman.

Similarly, if a woman masters the U awareness, she realizes that a career is a sacrament. It is a form of service to the world. One sacrament is inner. The other is outer. If you have watched this kind of U awareness in action, you may come to agree that the inner is as powerful as the outer in shaping the unfolding of the world.

To summarize this simple illustration for what it is worth:

The male:

Fire/electric sexuality: makes him aggressive. He is forced to learn to take charge of himself and to act. Through contact with the world, he becomes dynamic, decisive, and strong.

Water/magnetic head: poorly developed emotions, insensitive, sentimental.

When developed, he becomes caring and empathic. He learns to understand with clarity and impartiality.

The female:

Water/magnetic sexuality: makes her receptive. She is forced to learn to bond and nurture. Through contact with children and family, she becomes sensitive, connected, and maternal.

Fire/electric head: dependent, poorly developed decision making abilities, opinionated and/or prone to adopting other’s ideas, beliefs, or ideologies without thinking.

When developed, she can accomplish what men rarely comprehend—how to be organized, in charge, decisive, and yet completely empathic and sensitive at the same time.

This is the four pole magnetic on the physical plane in terms of social relationships. It is a simple illustration. You can make up your own illustration in terms of your experience and background. The point is that the U awareness easily comprehends both male and female experiences in all aspects during the entire process of development. It is not limited to just Homo sapiens. It encompasses anything that takes physical form.

Four Planes

In summary,

On the akashic plane, the U is a consciousness that exists before anything manifests in separate forms. It reveals the original purposes behind anything.

On the mental plane, it is the source that underlies all the components and forces giving birth to any situation in which you will make a decision. It enables you to change karma and grants the highest intuition and inspiration.

On the astral plane, it is the ability to assume any astral vibration or feeling without limitation.

On the physical level, it is the awareness/energy underlying anything that manifests in the physical world.

A One Minute Seminar

In the following brief, humorous scene, the U manifests through the skill of active listening, projecting your mind into another person, getting a body sensation, and then mentioning what you feel. This leads to a deep level of connection underlying two people.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Me: “So he is kind of picky.”

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

Me: “And what is that?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Susan: “You got that right.”

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

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

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

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

Me: “Do you feel we know each James?”

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

Linda: “What if Brad doesn’t do this once a week once he marries a woman?”

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

In summary, the U awareness allows you freedom of movement so your consciousness can move back and forth between yourself and another. In so doing, you discover the one energy and connection that underlies and joins both of you.

The Ghost of Christmas Future/the Magic Mirror of Peacemakers

On the akashic level, I told the story of a Tibetan priest who overcome the malice of a black magician. I mentioned any genuine world class peacemaker should have such a method in his repertoire. Let us explore this concept further.

In the Old Testament, a prophet actually acted out what I call the Magic Mirror of Peacemakers. He told King David about a man who stole from his neighbor and killed the neighbor in the process. King David was outraged and immediately wanted to know who this man was so that justice might be done. The prophet said, “You are this man” referring to how King David had the husband of Bathsheba killed so he could marry her.

Consider A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Ebenezer Scrooge is taken on a tour through time by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. The three ghosts show him the love he lost, the needs and love of those in the present, and his future. The ghost of Christmas future shows him his final end, where he will be when he dies and how no one any longer cares about him.

The ghost of Christmas future is silent. He does not speak. But he has the power to reveal the fate of a person. This is again our magic mirror of the cosmic letter U.

I am planning to develop a scene in my screenplay from a little piece of dialogue: “Imagine that you have power over anyone on earth. Imagine further that you can not interfere with an individual’s freedom of choice. And you can also not interfere if an individual decides he wishes to learn from the consequences of his own actions.”

This is the cosmic letter U on the mental plane. It easily can determine another’s fate and how he or she has strayed from his or her original purpose. It can not interfere with freedom of choice because each person has akasha inside. Each person can determine his own fate.

But if an individual’s choices create great harm to others, then more than this one individual is involved. In this case, the extent of the harm can be altered. It can be reduced.

Individuals collectively learn from bad examples. But if the injury is too great, the collective learning curve falls dramatically. An asteroid can crash down and hit the earth killing millions. Or it can illuminate the entire sky as it burns up glancing off the atmosphere from at angle. In this case, in which the world economy is not thrown into recession from the devastation, human beings might get the idea that perhaps a little prevention is in order.

When suffering is too great, people are numb. They go into survival mode. Figuring out what happened is left to future generations who may not appreciate the lesson because they did not witness the events.

With the letter U, you can not only show people their fate as did the ghost of Christmas future. You can determine when that fate will happen. You can suspend time, bringing closer to the present the karmic consequence that would otherwise take years or decades before it arrives. You do not change what is to occur to an individual. You just change the time frame.

In this case, an individual still has his freedom of choice. But if he wishes is to destroy, as much as is possible, you are free to allow his destruction to be limited to himself and not to many others he would take down with him.

This is the Prajnaparamita ritual: you let the malice return to the one who sends it.

This is Krishna: Krishna in the Mahabarata. He talked to everyone involved. He saw all sides. He did everything that could be done to prevent the war. In a sense, just by being present with his transcendental awareness, Krishna determined the outcome.

This also Psalm 90: “You turn men to destruction and say, ‘Return you children of men.’” Karma is the law that brings about destruction as individuals allow the negative side of the four elements to work within them. But there is an akashic voice that says, “Return”—your dwelling place is with the divine. If the silent ghost of Christmas future were to speak, he would say one word, “Return,” that is, return to your original purposes and not the ones that result from your twisted ways.

Cigila is one of the spirits of the earthzone who specializes in offering divine missions according to your own interests.

http://williammistele.com/cigila.html

What Cigila attempts to do is simply to reduce suffering on earth. His nature is compassion.

What I am suggesting is that a few individuals, when you are ready, assume oversight for human evolution. We are due for a great deal of suffering in the future no doubt. But much of this suffering can be prevented or reduced, especially that part that derives from abuses of power.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” To be a peacemaker, you have to find akasha in yourself. This is not a casual study. It is not an act of devotion or religion. They do not teach this in seminaries. No evangelist or preacher has a clue as to its existence. No monk in any monastery places it at the forefront of his consciousness. All the same, it takes a lot of work and commitment.

As with all these cosmic letters, the idea is to practice them until they are a part of you. Then using them is a natural action like a river flowing to the sea.

The Voice of the Cosmic Letter U

Below is my own version of Prajnaparamita, the Bhagavad-Gita, the 90^th Psalm, and Lao Tzu. It is

The voice of the cosmic letter U:

There is no vice I can not twist or bend

And make again into its opposite virtue

There is no compulsion or obsession I can not

So fill with light it becomes kind and bright

There is no ill will or malice I can not

Convert into chivalry or true nobility

There is no crunch or karmic bind, no evil intent or design

I can not refine within my mind

Into contentment and absolute satisfaction

There is no suffering

I can not so enfold within my palms

Spit on, blow upon

And recreate as beauty hidden in the heart of life

Such is my power and might

Such are the depths and the heights

Where my wings fly

But there is a difference you see

Between you and me

When you breathe in

You nourish your body

And expel your doubts

But in one breath

I consume entire lifetimes:

Grasping the horns of sorrow

I flex my will

Gather my strength

And sing songs of joy.