Copyright ©
2006 by William Mistele. All rights reserved.
Problems in the Study of
Magic, Part III—
The Magnetic
Fluid
Note 1: Some parts of this
essay are taken from my other articles.
See also yet to be published book Undines.
Note 2: This essay is a
response to a woman’s question to me: Can you tell me how women might become
more feminine by working with the magnetic fluid? The following topics amount
to a first draft. I will continue adding
to it from time to time.
Note 3: This article can also
be construed as the curriculum for a seminar at the
Topics:
Introduction: The Electric
and Magnetic Fluids
The Electric and Magnetic
Fluids in Magic
Two Problems (includes
beginning exercise)
Warm Up Exercise
Profile of an Undine’s
Personality
Profiles of Magnetic Women
Exercises Using Water Imagery
A
The Ocean: from the undine Istiphul
Iceberg: from the undine Amue
Ocean Trench
Lunar Gravity
A Thunderstorm
A River
Water as Omnipresence
From Pop Quiz for Magicians:
Distinguishing
a Real Undine from an Imagined One
The
Rules in Communicating with Nature Spirits
Nature
Spirits Don’t Follow the Same Rules
Peace,
Contentment, Rapture: Self-Evaluation
Tone
Magic
Journal of Meditations on the
cosmic letter M
Becoming a Whale: an exercise
in mental projection
Several Poems Relating to
Water
An Essay on How to Write a
Poem: the Focusing Method
A Field Trip: One Minute
Seminar on Relationships
Final Summary
Introduction: The Electric
and Magnetic Fluids
From a magical point of view,
two of the most dynamic energies of transformation in the universe are the
electric and the magnetic fluids. These
are not the same as the electricity and magnetism in nature but are roughly
analogous to them.
These fluids arise out of the four elements,
earth, water, air, and fire. These
elements and fluids are equally active within the human body and particularly
in sexuality and attraction between the genders. They can be pursued on physical, emotional,
mental, and spiritual levels.
The Cultural and Spiritual
Problem
To
put it briefly, there is a profound conflict and imbalance in the soul of
humanity. In terms of the two fluids,
the electric is far more developed and pronounced than the magnetic. It is a kind of global, social,
psychological, cultural, spiritual, and archetypal imbalance.
The electric is seen our war machines, our
military industrial complexes, our science, our applied technologies, our
research and development. We understand
well about having dominion over the earth—hard work, ordering, producing,
taking, using, and building. There is a
mastery that comes from assuming power, being in charge, organizing,
systematizing, standardizing, planning, commanding, and taking control.
The opposite, however, seen in the
magnetic fluid is not so developed. If
it were we would know what it means to feel a “peace that flows like a stream
from the dawn of time to the ends of eternity.”
We would know what it is to feel one with the universe. We would know what it is like to cease
thinking for hours on end, to be as calm and still as a mountain lake that
reflects in its depths the stars, the night, the moonlight, and the treasures
of spirit hidden within us.
We would be able to flow into and unite
with, to share heart to heart with anyone else on earth. Empathy—sensing what others’ feel,
experiencing what they experience, perceiving the world through their five
senses—this ability would be as advanced and as powerful as our knowledge and
application of nuclear physics.
You see, the magnetic fluid is so
astonishingly beautiful and overwhelmingly ecstatic that prior to this time we
may not have been ready to work with it.
We would have risked destroying human history as we know it had we focused
our attention in another direction, one that would have strayed from our
appointed course of development. Our
greatest scholars, teachers, and leaders just might have been inspired to put
their best efforts into unlocking the feminine mysteries rather than the more
extroverted masculine powers.
But now the time is right. What has been previously hidden should not be
held back. The powers, the treasures,
the wonders of the undines and the magic of water should be familiar to all who
desire them.
The Electric and Magnetic Fluids in
Magic
(From Four Archetypes of the Feminine)
The Electric Fluid
In brief, the electric fluid
is hot, burning, expansive, dynamic, intense, powerful, and explosive in
sensation. It has the capacity to
produce great light. In psychological
terms, it is commanding, full of faith and conviction. It reaches for sovereign power seeking
absolute control. It annihilates and
destroys obstacles that stand in its way.
In more spiritual terms, it seeks to
manifest its vision using all the previous qualities—with certainty, with
dynamic will and expansive power, with implacable dedication and electrifying
conviction. An example in the earthzone is the spirit referred to as Anamil
in Aries or for that matter the archangel Michael. For both of these spirits, there are no
problems that exist on earth that can not be solved.
You could say that independence, strength,
courage, conviction, faith, will, determination, dedication, self-reliance,
self-mastery, uprightness, clarity, order, adaptability, practicality,
planning, productivity, excitement, exhilaration, creativity, and vision are
qualities that are present when the electrical fluid is operating successfully.
In my other essay, Christianity and Judaism, I give the example of the “dark vision”
that came to Abraham about his descendents suffering in
Had these individuals possessed sufficient
will and conviction they might very well have done whatever was necessary to
avoid the destruction they intuited. But
they did not. Their electric fluid,
their faith and conviction, their will and decisiveness lacked both strength
and quality necessary to prevent the disasters that followed their inaction.
Obviously, the electric fluid can be done
in a positive or negative way. In the I-Ching, the great yang is describe
as the most creative of all things. The
prefect expression of its nature is the easy that it might overcome the
difficult. In other words, you take a
great task, project, or purpose and break it down into its steps and parts and
master them one by one.
A great father systematically and
persistently teaches his children in a simple but continuous manner so that
when they are older they are fully equipped and prepared to face the challenges
of life. He foresees the ends and
objectives in advance, makes plans, and persists in carrying through with them
so that the most difficult of problems can be solved. A father’s great accomplishment is in
preparing his children to undergo the great transitions of life in a smooth and
harmonious manner.
Once the decision is made to build a
What you do want is a commander in chief
(Eisenhower) who knows that he is completely responsible for the outcome, who is
willing to assume great risk, to act decisively, and yet who is willing to
resign his commission should the invasion fail.
The electric fluid can be very destructive
as well. As such, it’s burning and
consuming power acts to dominate the wills of others. It tortures and torments, hazes and
subjugates. It absorbs others’ wills
into itself. It utilizes every means
possible to corrupt, divide, undermine, and enslave others to its
purposes.
An example of the electric fluid operating
in a negative patriarchy is when the man in charge hazes those under him. One way he does this is to ask that they do
something completely absurd that they know he knows is absurd. Doing this task degrades them but nonetheless
doing it with full devotion is a test of their complete loyalty and
obedience.
In
For the negative electrical fluid, the
light is there but it lacks purity and clarity--the vision is distorted and
twisted. The faith and conviction are
there but are often expressed in a degraded form such as through arrogance and
self-righteousness.
The positive electrical (or patriarchal
for that matter) is seen in George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Gandhi—all
acting to revolutionize society in a more just and inclusive manner. The negative is seen in Napoleon, Stalin, and
bin Laden—all grasping after power in a regressive and exclusive manner. But in either the positive or negative forms,
the electric fluid is willing to put itself at complete risk to accomplish its
mission and manifest its vision.
The Magnetic Fluid
The magnetic fluid, by
contrast, is cool, soothing, contracting, and attractive. It is nurturing, and supportive. It contains within itself so as to shelter
and protect. Instead of intense and
explosive, it is rhythmic, receptive, and gentle.
In psychological terms, it is empathic,
sensitive and responsive. It draws
together, bonds, joins, and unites. It
accepts and affirms.
On the mental plane, the magnetic fluid
calms the mind exchanging the process of thinking for an expansion of sensory
perception. It amplifies awareness so that water becomes part of one’s nervous
system. You become aware of vast
distances and the subtle nuances of physical and emotional vibration.
In spiritual terms, it reaches toward all
embracing, all-encompassing love. It
presents us with astonishing states of awareness that transcend individual
identity. Such states involve wonder,
ecstasy and beauty.
Again, in the I-Ching
the great Yin is the most receptive of all things. The perfect expression of its nature is the
simple that it might overcome what obstructs.
The yin in this case is known for its devotion. It is the mother whose love is always there,
whose support is always felt and present.
There is no end to its nurturing capacity physically, emotionally,
mentally, and spiritually.
The Great Yin conveys an inner feeling of
affirmation, of support and love. This
devotion or conveyance of love serves to unite the individual from within no
matter how dissecting and dividing, conflicting and stressful the circumstances
of the individual’s path in life. This
is a feminine, a mother’s set of qualities and powers describe by King Wu in
ancient times in
We could say that peace,
repose, calmness, happiness, contentment, serenity, tranquility, well-being,
delight, kindness, gentleness, affection, empathy, tenderness, sensuality,
pleasure, bliss, ecstasy, compassion, and love are qualities that are present
when the magnetic fluid is operating successfully. Whether positive or negative, whether life
giving or life destroying, the magnetic fluid is the
guardian that reveals the deepest feelings and the mysteries at the core of the
self.
Two Problems
First Problem
The problems in working both
with the water element and with undines probably reduce to two things. The first involves learning to focus
completely on direct sensory perceptions and impressions. It is necessary to hold, gaze upon, enter,
immerse yourself within, taste, touch, listen to, explore, survey, and record
your full spectrum of your feelings and emotions.
To work with the magnetic fluid an
individual needs a personal inventory, a mental repertoire, and memory data
base to draw upon to compare and contrast so as to interpret new and unusual
experiences. When dealing with the
unknown, it helps to be very clear about what you already know. Your body and your feelings are your primary
reference books in exploring the magnetism within water.
Magical and Non Magical
Methods in Working with Water
To be brief, we can recall
and to some extent relive our past experiences with water. We can also interact with water through our
imaginations. This can be carried out in
a casual manner such as is done in daydreaming.
We can also extend our imagination a little further by imagining we are
inside of a dream. This method is
sometimes referred to as pathworking—you go on a little mental excursion
following a certain theme.
We can be playful—I imagine or recall
being on a beach. I feel the spray on my
face from waves breaking. I smell the
air. I hear the roar from the
waves. I watch the wind as its gusts
play upon the surface of the lake or sea.
This is all perfectly normal and within everyday modes of brain
activity. There is nothing magical about
this at all.
But what if I extend the
process. What if I focus on one
detail for a minute or more. I imagine I am floating in my favorite tide
pool by Makapu’u on
And I continue now within a waking
dream. The water in this dream responds
to me. It is ready to show me new
sensations and feelings I have never felt before. A shiver of bliss curls down my nerves as if
my nerves are the strings of a harp and the winds of my desires and longings
begin to play music upon them. Except
for this: the notes and melodies are not my own; the musician doing the playing
follows themes that use the sensations and feelings of water.
I breathe deep. My chest rises slightly in the water and then
sinks slightly again as I exhale. The
edges of my body fade. My nervous system
feels like it extends though the pool and then just as easily through the
surrounding ocean without limitation.
The sensation of water in nature and the internal feeling of being
accepted and at peace become interchangeable.
It helps of course that I am fairly well
acquainted with being able to stop my mind from thinking. I am here without thoughts occurring. I am focused on the physical sensations and
receptive to the faintest nuances of feeling without distractions arising. That
comes from training.
It helps also that I do not worry as the
definition of my body or ego identity dissolves into nothing. I am not afraid of becoming nothing or a
mirror that is empty and clear so that its nature is pure receptivity.
I linger here. Time—the part of my brain that tracks a
sequence of moments unfolding as a linear activity—it disengages. The clock in my brain has lost reference to
seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, eons and ages. I could just as easily be dreaming with the
sea of that moment when life first took birth and began its journey. I could just as easily be in that place when
the seas shall wash the shores of this planet and mankind shall be no
more.
I linger here as the sensations and
feelings within my brain conjure images of places familiar like moments of
intimacy with women I have known. And
just as easily images appear of worlds so far away they have been created by my
imagination as a tribute to what I long for.
A therapist might call this free
association. A clairvoyant might call it
divination. I call it another way of
being—it is passing through the gates of dream and imagination to taste the
powers of the magnetic fluid and the treasures of spirit hidden within water.
Have I started doing magic yet? It is a tough call. Technically speaking according to one
definition, magic occurs when you use your psychic powers.
A sense utilizing tactile sensation or
visual perception is cancelled. The
energy within the sensory system of touch or the eye’s receptivity to external
light is suspended. The physical sense of the skin or eye is then turned within and free to
be utilized by the brain which perceives now through the eyes of imagination,
dream, or the astral plane.
This action subtracts an amount of
physical vitality from your body. It
puts a tax on your nervous system and it submits a charge to be paid at a later
date from the integrity of your personality.
Magic is very, very expensive.
You have to pay back what has been taken
away during your imaginary or psychic journey if you want to return fully to
the light of day—if you want to be, feel, and act
normal again in this world shared in common with other human beings. A lot of people never make the transition
back.
This is where practicing a rigorous system
that trains the mind and concentration pays off. You are able to balance the accounts—the
debits and credits, the interest and taxes, the fees and assessments—so that
things remain harmonious when your payments come due.
And now you return from these magnetic
dreams that feed on divine passions. You
have your cup of coffee with sugar and cream or your green tea and you notice
right away the subtle tensions in your nervous system that remain. With a breath or a minor mental adjustment
you focus and they begin to drain away.
The blood vessels dilate and the warmth and
circulation return to the parts of your body that experienced a very minor form
of hibernation as you focused your attention on another world. And you make a few mental notes on what to do
during the day or week that will keep your body and mind healthy. You want to be extremely careful to avoid any
residual strain or anything that might distract from your everyday
activities.
And then the real test for both those who
use magic and those who use ordinary methods of reflection appears. The question then is, What
part of your experience with watery magnetism can you apply in a way that
enriches your life and your world? Does
the feeling of peace carry over to your personality so you appear calm, serene,
and clear? Or are you still caught in an
otherworldly dream like waking up in the morning after some profound dream that
you just can’t quite recall?
When you dealing with someone in a moment
of conflict, can you look into the other’s eyes and easily imagine where they
are coming from and what is driving them?
Can you project (or spontaneously flow) something of your peace toward
them so that somehow they feel good amid the interaction? In this case, your empathy expands so as to
increase your knowledge of your fellow human beings.
Or does your heightened sense of empathy make
your vulnerable? You want to give and to
heal but the application and the situation never quite match or express your
intentions? For an undine, there is a wild serenity, an engaging
peace, and an enticing stillness that reign supreme within any situation. Some of the undines are fabulous
magicians. But once we start talking
about dialoguing with undines we are now operating within a magical universe or
so it would seem.
Note: There are times when concentrating on nature
images actually produces a charge of energy inside your body. For example, it is possible to accumulate an
extra amount of watery energy within oneself.
This can have a healthy, balancing effect. It can produce disharmony the
way attending a basketball game can be draining if you remain in a heightened
state of excitement after the game or if upon getting up in the morning you
remain in a semi state of sleep. In the
case of having a surcharge of watery energy inside of you, the remedy is to
imagine it draining away. You can
“breathe” the water element out of your body through your breath or body pours
or you can imagine it slipping out your feet or hands.
First
Step
A first step, then, a
beginning exercise is imaginatively recall the highlights of your experience
with water in nature—being out in the rain, swimming in a lake or river,
watching the waves break on the shore, the fog drift over the water, the smell
of the ocean, drinking water from a well, sailing in a boat with the spray of
the waves on your face, a picturesque lake you camped near, being out on the
high sea, ice, snow, seeing the fog in your breath when it is cold, etc. And then there are the images we get through
movies, magazines, and TV—icebergs, the artic poles, streams within caves, huge
waves, water spouts, etc.
Here are few more descriptions from my
dialogues with undines:
Water
is the sparkling white drops in a waterfall, the color in the rainbow, the
spray in the wave breaking on the beach, in the white cap, and in the water
splashing your face. It is soft, foamy
bubbles slipping around your ankles as you walk in the surf and the drops of
water thrown into the air as the water in a stream slaps against a rock. It is the water dropping down, sprinkling, or
drizzling as you walk beneath the leaves of trees still wet from the rain. It is the smell of salty, moist air when you
are near the sea and the cool, moist scent when you approach a desert stream.
And
while sitting on a rock in a stream with an undine next to me I become acutely aware
of tiny currents crisscrossing at the edges of the mirror like surface just
where water begins to fold around a rock.
As the water dips and turns around my ankle, I sense how the stream's
bubbling ripples are like the hands of a dancer telling a story as they turn in
countless swirls and curves. The streams
across these islands seem suddenly near.
Their sounds breathe and sigh, caressed by air, hiding in sand, seeping
beneath rocks, falling in space, and circling in mountain pools. Drifting downstream to the sea, these waters
laugh like young girls carrying baskets of fresh fruit to a celebration.
These are part of my personal
experiences that make up a repertoire of my memories with water. Some of our memories will be highly emotional
and others will be playful and innocent.
It is important to note the temperature of the water, the currents,
waves, tides, and all the sounds, smells, feelings and sensations that are
especially vivid in our memories. We
will need a crystal clear set of images and sensations in order to proceed.
In so many ways it is not
difficult to open to the astral realm—when your body sensations and perceptions
are completely immersed in the touch and embrace of water in nature. There can be a pleasant memory of water. Something enjoyable to
recall. A time
when you had fun. A time when you forgot yourself. Something thrilling occurred. Something joyful and
playful and full of delight.
This is normal stuff. But there is a moment if you pause and let go
just a little more than usual. You make
that small shift into your feelings. And
then touching water, even placing your hands in a bowl of water and your
emotional receptivity opens to a far larger expanse of the magnetic field that
is water’s vibration in nature.
Then it is possible to feel water in a way
that is giving, receiving, embracing, flowing, letting go, yielding purifying,
renewing, with depths and breath, currents, tides, and streams. This water encircles the earth, extending
without center on and on full of life, dreams, and songs.
The vibratory field of watery magnetism is
such that every desire can be satisfied here, every dream experienced in its
fulfillment, every vision purified, every craving and hunger released so as to
know the wonder hidden within them, and every love tasted, touched, and felt to
the that end that human beings are destined to achieve.
And then again the trick is coming back to
the normal mode of perception and the familiar range of feelings you left
behind. If you overdose on watery
magnetism you are not really here but still wandering around out there. And that can be a nightmare—being haunted by
what you can not express or share.
And if you come back too quick or without
artistic sentiment, the wonder and beauty, the harmony and all-embracing love
you felt and touched gets left behind.
If you are not careful, it gets erased from your mind. The brain can not retain a consciousness so
far away from the ordinary. Then again
it is like a dream from which you awake having forgotten even the taste.
Second Problem
And so the second problem is
with letting go of and then returning to one’s personal identity. I do not think I could get the famous depth
psychologist, Carl Jung, to let go of his identity sufficiently to work with
water. I think he was probably too
caught up in identifying with his mental activity. I do not think I could have gotten the poets
T.S. Elliot or W.B. Yeats to work successfully with water. And I know that Tolkein,
C.S. Lewis, and Rowling would be incapable of this quest.
On the other hand, the
poet Theodore Roethke yes. He would have in an instant embraced without
hesitation or a second thought the undines’ domains had he known about
them. And if I had showed the poet Dylan
Thomas a meditation for undines, an undine personality profile, and a few
stories as well he would have gone so deep I don’t know if he would have found
his way back.
And if the photographer Ansel
Adams and I had gone hiking together and I had explained to him about the
energies underlying nature, he would have added nude women to his spectacular
photography. I am sure of that. I also think the German poets Holderlein, Trakl, Schiller, and Rilke could have handled undines with their imaginations and
their hearts. These poets were hard core
mystics. They knew how to surrender
their egos and identities for the sake of their art.
But I am not so sure about the English
Romantic poets. They knew how to take a
perception, a feeling, or a sensation and explore it endlessly in their
poetry. But to be honest with you I
think they would have been scared shitless of a real queen of undines had they
run into one or two. It is one thing to
write about a fairy queen when you know you are the artist and you are in
control of the words, the rhythm, and the intonation of the poetry that comes
through.
It is altogether a different thing when
the touch of a queen of undine’s hand on your skin takes you into a dream in
which you feel simultaneously the waves breaking on all the beaches of the
world. No, I don’t think they would have
been ready, even though they were poetic revolutionaries, to embrace a beauty
that would have annihilated their concepts of nature as being passive and
pretty.
It is not that I am asking more than what
most artists would be willing to give or to attempt. It is more like this: you have to be able to
say “here is everything I am, know about myself, and have experienced in this
life; and now I am putting that off to the side for a little while (I’ll be
back shortly and it will be waiting for me)—I am putting off all that I am so I
can do something completely different.
“I am going to enter a waking dream and a
realm of the imagination so deep and vast that it overlaps with the energies
underlying nature. And in this realm I
am going to learn to perceive and feel like an undine as if this is my home and
no longer that tiny zone of consciousness we call humanity.”
It does not really matter if you believe
in undines or not. That is quite
irrelevant. What is at stake is another
mode of perception that takes place outside of the normal range of human
consciousness.
Am I suggesting that it is inexcusable for
mankind to have missed such astonishing beauty, to have been so blind to the
all-embracing love that vibrates all around us in every ocean, lake, and
stream, to have failed to explore the bliss and ecstasy so intense they destroy
human conceptions and philosophy?
It is inexcusable. It is absolutely inexcusable. It is also completely understandable. You think other things have not been hidden
or held back? How about this? “Say Moses, in regard to the Arc of the
Covenant, it is known to be made of gold and to generate like an electrical
condenser a whole lot of electricity.
Could you give us the schematics and electrical circuitry for the design
along with an explanations and suggestions for applied technology?”
“And Jesus, could you tell us about what
went on during all those years of your life for which there is no record? What was your process of self-discovery? And could you tell me in detail what it is
like to be joined to God and how exactly and to what extent you expect or
anticipate that others will join with you in accomplishing this? In other words, could you give us some tips
on the nature of this romance that had made the two of you one? I am only asking because I sense that the
entire history of Christianity has been blind to the reality.”
“And
“Oh yes, and Buddha, could you transmit to
me, well, at least to those who were a part of your history a direct taste, a
direct transference of your state of bliss and enlightenment? I know you can do this. It would have revolutionized Buddhism and put
enlightenment into the curriculum of every university. But I guess someone just didn’t ask you so
this treasure was lost forever.”
After all, Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching
just as be was about to disappear forever from history because the guard at the
outpost gate asked him to share his wisdom.
If you don’t ask or, like Jacob with an angel, strive or wrestle with
the Mysteries they are quite content to return to the Silence from which they
arose without a word of farewell, without a regret, or the postscript—“transmission
lost.”
You see, from my perspective, history has
been full of all sorts of spiritual blunders.
We have these windows of opportunity for seizing what might otherwise
vanish. We are surrounded by so
much. I don’t imagine that
astrophysicists anytime soon are going to give up trying to discover the 95% of
matter in the universe that is missing from their observations, the stuff they
call dark matter and dark energy. As
with them, it is about making it a habit of looking very carefully until you
find what you are after.
The only
advantage I have when it comes to entering and seizing the treasures hidden
within the unknown is that my curiosity is insatiable—searching very carefully
has been a life long habit. I possess
more than a little determination. But for
some strange reason Divine Providence has become my patron. You could say I am under orders to find a way
to express the beauty of the universe such as this one: the magnetism and
all-embracing love hidden within the element of water.
Personality Profile of an
Undine
A
while back I worked my way through a college textbook in personality
theories. It was pretty neat
actually. I mean these psychologists put
a lot of work into developing their various theories.
They did not do as much as I would have
liked in terms of field work and research.
They did not conduct enough first hand interviews; primary data was
lacking and certainly they were not very good at ethnography, at understanding
family history and oral traditions. And
obvious they never talked to my father or mother and they sure do not know much
about politics or politicians. But then
again I did not think they would.
It was very funny, though, because they
also did not seem to read much of each other’s work. Kind of like the heads of the various
religions on earth. Sometimes you
suspect they deliberately brainwash themselves into pretending that other
religions do not exist. And if other
religions do exist, well, it is like something the dog dragged back during the
night and left for you to find on the front steps.
The hermetic saying is “as above so below,”
in other words, your spirit and your personality (or personal identity) reflect
each other in beauty, power, and harmony.
Personality is very important. It
is not your spirit that does the juggling in terms of balancing all your
activities and interests.
Your spirit does not write the checks to
pay your bills or figure out how to please or not please someone with whom you
are intimate. No, this is your
domain—you as a person. And your
personality is the style, the manner, the mode of operation, and center of
accumulated experience through which you act.
OK?
We are going to talk about the personality of undines. Take a moment, as in five seconds, and
imagine an undine. Take five more
seconds and imagine the personality of a great queen of undines who knows the
magic of water beyond the knowledge of the human race.
In the following I am going to describe
briefly the personality profile of an undine.
Consider it in these terms. Our
To get a good grade in their classes—that
is, between the first day of class and the time of the final exam—you have to
be able to pass yourself off as an undine, a mermaid,
or a merman. You see, magic is
technically not about being academic. It
is a way of being and experiencing that is first hand involving field research,
original sources, and careful observation--perception is always the primary
mode of verification.
So you have to put on their personality,
acquire their kind of awareness, enter their dreams, allow their deepest
passions to flow through your soul, and perform their magic. This is not about shape changing. It is about extending one’s imagination and
feeling and opening our hearts, not just to theirs, but to the dreams hidden
deep within us.
How to describe the
personality of an undine? Well, how do
we describe the personality of a woman?
As a point of reference--and we are going to need one--notice the
language used in describing women according to the twelve signs of the zodiac:
She likes to be in charge. She is good at solving problems. You do not want to mess with her. (Aries). She is down
to earth, grounded, practical, sensual, loving, and hard working. (Taurus). She is
sharp, no-nonsense, witty, communicates well, and has
a variety of interests. (Gemini).
She is nurturing, sweet, takes care of
herself, cautious yet also she gets what she wants. (Cancer). She is attractive, romantic, inspiring,
enjoys parties especially when she is the host and the center of
attention. (Leo). She is analytic, astute, works together well
with others though she equally enjoys solitude. (Virgo).
She thrives in loving another though the
relationship has to be balanced and harmonious.
She is very attractive and adept at understanding others. (Libra). She is intense, passionate, and knows how to
express her will from a gut level. (Scorpio). She loves quests and seeking out new
experiences. She is high minded and does
best when her life is guided by an ideal. (Sagittarius).
She is ambitious, determined, realistic,
and practical. She will work as hard as
she needs to in order to arrive at her goal. (Capricorn). She is spacey, dreamy, visionary, and when
she gets it right she sees the bigger picture. (Aquarius). She is giving—she has to give. And in giving too much she has to retreat
from others in order to recharge. She is
intuitive and receptive. (Pisces). That is the personality of women in terms of
the zodiac.
Of course, I am not about to describe the
personality of just any undine. I am
going for the equivalent of one of the most glamorous, a supermodel, you might
say or a
Michelle Pfeiffer has unusual capacities
for receptivity and for getting into her role without letting a hint of her
stardom interfere. Angelina Jolie has a larger than life personality. She is extraordinarily articulate and able to
live out the intensity of what she feels within. Catherine Zeta Jones has an overpowering
level of vitality. She is in fabulous
physical shape and she can sure dance and sing.
And Meryl Streep,
winner of a life time achievement award, takes the heart of the person she is
playing and lives it as if it is her own.
Her empathy is extraordinary.
David Letterman, the evening talk show
host, once said to another actress, Sandra Bullock, “You could do anything on
the screen, cook noodles for example, and I would enjoy watching.” Such women at the minimum possess a quiet
charisma and a subliminal way of capturing your attention.
Now then, consider the personality of a great queen of
the undines. The undine Istiphul has a
resemblance to women in the signs of Libra and Taurus that are governed by the
sign of Venus. Imagine the beauty and
love of Venus falling into the sea and giving birth to the soul of a woman.
And then imagine that this woman has her
own professional skills and subliminal arts—she can extend her consciousness
through all the oceans of the earth, the dark depths of the ocean trench, the
currents, the tides, the wind blown foam from the white caps across a thousand
miles, the icy poles, the iceberg and the freezing wintry darkness, and yes the
lightning storm raging with electrical bursts.
In other words, her heart embodies the
femininity and love hidden within flowing water that yields, receives, absorbs,
purifies, renews, and gives birth to and sustains all life on earth. These qualities summarize to a small degree
the personality of Istiphul.
Istiphul certainly is sweet, kind, and
tender. Is Scorpio passionate and
erotic? Is Libra beautiful? Istiphul is perhaps the most beautiful
creature on earth and no other being can match her erotic skills.
Is Istiphul romantic? When you enter her presence she automatically
is aware of your deepest desires, longings, and dreams. And not only that. She is aware of those desires and longings
that are hidden in the depths of your self.
It is her nature to alter her own qualities
and powers so as to fulfill the deepest cravings in your soul. But this is not a trick or a subterfuge. Her magical knowledge includes creating a
space of wonder and receptivity in which two separate souls can join as one in
an ecstasy that only the mystery of the seas unfolds.
Is Istiphul sensual? When Istiphul touches you arm, you can feel waves breaking on
beaches all over the world. With a note
sung from her lips, she can call the flowing essence of the entire sea--all
that languid and tranquil receptivity and nourishing presence--to caress her
shoulders, to shine from her breasts, or to shimmer in the soft curves of her
hips.
A description of an undine’s personality
is not exactly an academic activity. By
necessity, it involves your imagination.
Therefore, imagine taking all the sensations, feelings, and moods that
the seas create; imagine binding that
beauty and wild passion into one light, one dream, or one vision of
completion--and then to be able to transmit this to another through your eyes,
a touch, or a kiss. This is precisely
the natural and normal mode of interaction that you experience when you are in
Istiphul’s presence. Now that is quiet
charisma and subliminal attraction!
Does Istiphul have an agenda? Does she conspire to undermine your
personality or subvert your will to comply with her purposes? Does she give to you in order to get what she
wants in return?
Does the sea absorb the heat of the sun
and return that heat so as to cool the equator and to warm the colder northern
regions? Does water purify, renew,
restore, and give birth? And do our
feelings not reach out through our desires, our dreams, and our longings to see
and to believe in what we are meant to be?
Istiphul is a force of nature and an intelligence
within the element of water, yet her most unique abilities are found within the
art of uniting with another.
The personality of an undine is, like the
sea, ancient and primordial. And like
water an undine’s affection is as intimate as water that is in our blood, flows
through our breath, and quenches our thirst.
An undine can interact exactly like a human woman who flirts, teases,
laughs, cries, listens, shares, and gives of herself.
But when an undine like Istiphul relaxes,
her aura is nearly indistinguishable from a vast expanse of open
ocean. To be with her is to be
aware only of the sounds, scents, and sensations of waves stretching from
horizon to horizon.
If Istiphul wishes to share anything it is
that we as human beings learn to perceive and extend our awareness as she does:
to let go and sensually flow with a billion waves dancing to a thousand
separate winds; to sink down into our inner bring and to know what it is to be
whole and complete and to become one with another as she is one with the sea.
Do the queen of
undines have will like an Aries or a Leo?
Let me put it this way. From what
I can tell their magic is such that they can conjure up an entire thunderstorm
by charging the magnetism of the ocean.
They can contain any will within the depths of their love and then
purify, refine, and redirect it to attain a higher vision.
Are they practical and down to earth like a
Taurus or ambitious like a Capricorn?
Try as sharp as a diamond and as clear because their feelings are that
pure. They sense intuitively the
possibilities contained in any moment.
The peace within the depths of the seas and the vision arising from the
distilled essence of the stars—this is within their dreams.
The undines wish to share with mankind
the wonder, beauty, peace, serenity, bliss, and ecstasy of the water element on
earth. And there is one thing more which
our religions on earth have done nothing to prepare us for—the seas are alive
and possess an ancient dream to love and to be loved in return. And I suspect that sooner rather than later
the undines shall accomplish their mission of transferring their vision to human
women.
There you have it,
the personality profile in brief of an undine.
Of course, other undines have different qualities. Isaphil is under the influence of the moon
especially since she is custodian of treasures of spirit hidden within
serenity. She possesses an ancient gift
that mankind has not yet received. Amue
is nurturing like a woman with the sign of Cancer. And Osipeh? Maybe she is a Scorpio with some Libra and
Gemini thrown in—passionate with art and a knack for communication.
If this were the first day in a college class on undines, think about
how you might be different once you have completed the curriculum. Or imagine someone else you know and think
about what he or she might be like having worked through all the exercises, home
work assignments, group projects, and field research that the class
entails.
What? Joe, you have a question
from the back row? Does the University
offer a correspondence class on undines?
Well, I think some of you might consider writing up your class notes,
experiences, and designing a group project that would present the curriculum
for a correspondence class. How about
that?
Personality Profiles of Magnetic Women
Katie?
Katie you seem to have that look on your face I know all too well. What is it that you think I am not
explaining?
Katie: You have given us a profile of an
undine’s personality. And you compared
her personality to human women. Could
you just briefly say something about what a human woman might be like if she
were to study and develop the magnetic fluid within her self so as to increase
her femininity?
You sure go for the heart of the matter,
don’t you? Thank you for asking. I always love a good question. OK.
Let’s give it a shot.
Take you for example. Consider that time I had you imagine a sea of
water around yourself. And then that
this sea was love. And then I had you
flow that watery ocean of love through other people, down through their head,
through every part of their bodies, and then out their feet. That worked remarkably well on people who
were in no way psychic and who didn’t even believe in this stuff. But I knew from your aura that you had a gift
in this area.
Other examples. Of
course there are cases where the woman acts like a medium to channel an
undine. But in these cases the women
often do not recall the words they speak or the life energy that moves through
them.
Of course, there are those rare moments when I have talked to women and
they have been totally accepting.
Listening, giving, receptive to every feeling I was feeling. Their hearts so open it was as if I were
alive within them and a part of them.
How can you put a value on that or try to explain it to someone who has
never experienced it?
So yes there are women who know how to love so that you are one with
their heart. It is a lost art. Everything another person is you embrace within a sacred space of your soul and spirit. You wish for them the best. You hope for them. You feel their pain and suffering, their inspiration
and dreams, and you seek to hold and heal them with the strength that is within
your self.
It is not all that rare for lovers to be in constant psychic connection
to each other. Some sense how their
partners are doing during the day. They
can feel the other’s ups and downs and if there is distress, hunger, or
elation. Their connection is that
profound. I meet couples like that. I just can’t get them to keep notes of their
experiences with their lovers in a journal.
They feel embarrassed as if writing it down would make them appear
weird.
I knew a woman who learned a Taoist meditation for integrating and
rejuvenating her own vitality. The thing
was she could also do the exact same meditation within anyone else no matter
where they were. Focusing her attention
to transform vitality was just as easy when she did it within another person as
it was doing it within herself. This
made her a psychic healer. That kind of
activity would be completely natural for any undine.
I could mention my still incomplete Travel Guide to Life. In it I describe the astral plane of the
ten sephira each of which I have observed being
active in actual women. We start with
well-being and peace. Around a woman
like that you experience timelessness.
You are a part of a boundless time frame in which you sense that all
that you seek will come to you naturally in due season. I have only met three women who have that quality
of water so strong that being around them is like being in a dream.
The image here of water involves to some
extent all the other images of water also.
But it perhaps is seen in a huge lake beneath a mountain. The water is still without a ripple and as
you float in it you find yourself also on top of the highest mountain. It is as if you can see to the ends of the
earth—you are both in the water and full of vision in the same moment as if
time and space were suspended.
Then there is Yesod,
the sphere of the moon. Here there are
women who embody happiness, serenity, and contentment—qualities extremely rare
in women these days. The undine Isaphil
is an absolute master of this domain.
Still, I have met women at whose touch you can let go and experience the
pure of flow of water.
They possess a divine sensuality in which every desire enters the house
of satisfaction, every dream experiences the
completion of its vision. This kind of
contentment and happiness gets inside yourself and makes you into a new
person. This feeling of inner life keeps
renewing itself like water overflowing from an Artesian well. It is easy to miss because it is so
gentle. And the affection is so
natural.
In Hod woman are
vivacious and spontaneous. They bring
out the best in others by living on the edge of the moment. They have a way of being fully engaged and
taking delight in whatever is going on.
It is like seeing the light sparkling in drops of water falling into a
mountain pool. Its
constantly new.
This magnetic quality of feeling animates people because it interacts on
so many different levels at the same time—the physical body language, the
emotional language, the verbal play and mental focus are all active. It is like the woman is using subliminal
sonar—she is bouncing off the other person a variety of responses in order to
discover what will maximize the participation.
Associated with Hod is the Greek god Mercury
who was known for his persuasion. He
could persuade Demeter to abandon her depression and to return to participating
in life. And he could tell a story that
would cause Argus to fall asleep and close a thousand eyes.
The equivalent in terms of magnetism is that the woman uses an
incredibly range. She is relentless in
seeking a fair exchange, a vitalizing give and take that creates the feeling of
being fully alive. To summarize, she is
animating, scintillating, vivacious, sparkling, and captivating.
In Netzach,
women have that deep, empathic magnetic embracing love. They take you into themselves so as to make
two into one through art, through beauty of expression, or through the
mysteries of intimacy. These women are masters of “a secret sharing heart to heart” that occurs
when two people are in love. They have a
passion that possesses courage and determination.
To be precise, they are aware of and have a
great appreciation for the way people are attracted to each other. They know how to modulate and to enhance that
attraction so that it goes deeper and also reaches new heights.
This is actually not a romantic thing they are doing. It is more subtle and internal. It is less about falling in love and far more
about the process of discovering who both people really are. They treat intimacy as if it is a sacred
ritual of the heart. The image is that
of a holy well or a still pool of water beneath a mountain that is luminous
with its own inner light. (See my poem, The Feeling of a Woman)
In Tipareth, the
empathy is more universal. In the
woman’s heartfelt embrace you are joined to the depths of life. Her compassion, empathy, and love are so
bright and dynamic they unite you to the inspiration within you. Some of the undines are like this: they
simply will not be satisfied until they discover the deepest source of life
within you. To do this they make
themselves perfectly clear like the purest mirror and in a state of complete
stillness they allow your inner spirit to appear. Some cultures treat sacred lakes like this or
for me it is the tide pool at Makapu’u.
I
know several human women are just like that.
If I touch them I am immediately transported into the presence of my
Guardian Angel or into the sphere of the sun and the presence of some high
spirit who in his innermost being is united to God. But these human women for the most part are
acting as mediums.
They are neither aware of the gifts they possess nor are they willing to
learn to consciously take hold of and use them.
Nonetheless, if they did utilize their gifts consciously then they would
certainly be equal in magical quality to the queen of the undines. I can not deny this.
In Gevurah a
woman has that age old and well-known ability to spur men onto action. Or, then again, maybe she is not interested
in men. But here too she has that
primary quality of water that is called daring. Her feelings automatically tell her what is
possible and she will hold nothing back in her pursuit of her course of
action. It is being possessed by
fearlessness.
I know women like that. They
could get Rommel, Patton, and general
Eisenhower to get off their butts and strive to fulfill their missions with
greater precision. You could say they
are not a cheerleader or a quarterback who calls the plays but rather an angel
who inspires the craving for accomplishment.
The magnetic fluid in this case, like the cosmic letter N, generates an
ecstasy that originates in the moment of action. It is an internal thing—a feeling of the
energies of the universe flowing through you as you strive for self-mastery. The feeling is that of water possessing the
momentum of a flash flood.
In Chesed, the
woman’s magnetism inspires universal visions.
She is the love that makes a community work. When we all feel a part of each other—this is
her doing. She is the motivator, the
unifier, the one who gets us to sense directly that all our hearts beat with
the same blood. To care for another is
to care for your self.
Do I know women like this, who make serving mankind feel like your best
course of action? I have met a few. They are reformers. They carry the ideals on their shoulders—they
tell us in spite of the opposition to get rid of anti personal weapons; they
say something should be done about the millions who die each year from
starvation and disease.
If there is someone out there who is striving to turn a ghetto into a
community—it might be their voices you hear; it can be as simple as someone
noticing you when your life is utterly lost: her hand is on your shoulder and
she says in effect “Come on back. I miss
you and like having you around.”
I know women like that—they keep track of you and you feel as a result
that you are part of the circulation of life within them. Something of them is always flowing through
you. They never forget you. You remain alive because you are a part of
their heart. How can you put a price on that?
A lunar spirit once said to me, “The greatest treasure in all the world is a woman who loves a man with all of her
heart.” Think about the internal resources of soul and spirit, of empathy,
love, and compassion that a woman would need to possess in order to accomplish
that—to be able to extend her self freely so that she is one with your
spirit. Such treasures exist precisely
when and where the magnetic fluid is in full effect.
The sphere of Chesed is not about romantic
love. It is not about sex though those
who dwell here are often the best. And
so in my screenplay, The Fall of Atlantis,
there is an age old order of women who pass down their lineage from mother to
daughter.
And in their tradition they act as others’ guardian angels. They love them in a way that imitates the
divine. They are pure inspiration and
they are as much a part of another’s life as it is possible to be. And all of this they do from a distance only
occasionally revealing who they are to their targets.
A woman once said to me quite spontaneously, “You are my guardian
angel.” The Hopi Indians have what they
call a “spiritual uncle” or “spiritual aunt.”
The person watches over you your whole life. It’s a minor vocation. There is an inner connection. It is completely altruistic.
You practice it because to some degree we are all spiritual beings. And when you taste in full measure the
magnetic fluid then it becomes the most natural of things. The image is like a sacred cup of inspiration
that is treasured and passed around a community to accentuate those moments
that mark life’s great transitions. I
knew a community that used an actual chalice in that way. The physical symbol evoked the feeling of
sharing with everyone.
Next is Binah and the sphere of Saturn. The prime feeling that goes here is joyful
reunion. The depth of feeling is so
great it turns life into a celebration.
When you embrace a woman who has this feeling (and by embrace I mean you
share a heart to heart space), you are again experiencing a suspension of
time. The connection is internal and it
underlies all the seasons of life. It
reunites everything that is separate.
At my last high school class reunion, some of the women danced with a
wildness and an abandon that just might have shocked the most wild of
teenagers. They forgot about their age
and how they looked and where they had put on wrinkles and pounds. They forgot that some of them were now grandmothers
and they just gave themselves to the dance.
And this was just an ordinary high school class reunion.
A woman mentioned to me the Burning Man get together out in the
But what was most interesting was that she broke down and cried the
entire time she was describing it to me.
She was longing to return to the next get together and she missed the
full impact of that boundless and free community of sharing. This is a magical kind of feeling underlying
a community—like I say it takes you outside of time and into a mythical
place. Here we can experience others in
both a wonderful, mysterious, and also very tangible way.
Now in all honesty you can lose your personality and not just in a
positive way in this kind of magnetic embrace.
Take Islam which was handed down to Mohammed by the angel Gabriel,
archangel of the lunar sphere. I am told
that in Islam each year in the
It is a kind of get together and reunion that dramatically states that
we are all one with each other without separation of class, position,
occupation, language, or race. The down
side to a religion that is locked into a lunar magnetism is that it never
embraced the full force of its opposite—the electrical fluid.
The dream of unity and of a golden age of peace and
prosperity in which all of those who believe are under one caliph—it is too
hard to return from a ceremony like that to a world in which all those things
that separate are still in full force.
Corruption is thrown in and other religions run the world from things
like the UN and the World Bank.
Rather than embrace the future there is a return to tradition in a way
that demonstrates a lack of precisely those electrical qualities involved in
faith and conviction. These are not
about beliefs. They are the dynamic will
that takes hold of what is and makes a difference. It is to move into the future with clarity
that seizes opportunities that manifest in a real and concrete manner an original vision—these are sadly missing.
So naturally they want to blow themselves or others up. They can not handle the tension between the
dream and the reality, between the inner feelings of the ceremonies and the
knowledge required to effect beneficial and enduring change. But then again, they are not learning about
the magic of water.
I have been inside the mind of bin Laden and I have written about my
experiences with Gabriel. If you have a
great tradition then it is worth the effort to upgrade and do maintenance on
it. The pyramids and the Parthenon need
maintenance. So do religions. You just have to get out there and do your
homework so the cultural tension dissolves into something creative.
Well, that is the magnetic fluid and feeling of Binah. The woman I knew who went down to
If she had she would have found a way to reach the CEOs and chairman of
the boards of the oil corporations who were playing the paramilitary against
the guerillas. She would have found a
way to inspire those corporate giants to improve their public image by sponsoring
improvement in the Indian reservations. Maybe a casino with a landing strip and a luxury resort. I don’t know.
But as the saying goes, “The dead have no rank”--she forfeited her part
in the show.
A woman with the magnetic feeling of Binah acts
to preserve the life of a community. And
negotiating with time in order to survive is part of her art. On the Isle of Iona off the West coast of
Scotland there is a pool near the top of Dun-I.
It is called The Well of
Immortality. You have to get there
while it is still dark, right before the sun in the morning touches the
water. It is a nice image for water in Binah which reminds me of my essay on Eros and Psyche.
In the ancient Greek mythological story, Psyche is given impossible
tests by Aphrodite as the only means to win the god Eros as her lover. The story reaches it climax when Psyche
undertakes her last quest. She is to
enter the land of the dead and there to secure from Persephone an elixir that
the goddess possesses. Psyche is to return
with the elixir back to the world of the living.
“The elixir of eternal beauty,” Persephone
warns Psyche, “Only death knows the secret to eternal beauty and the elixir I
have placed in this box carries that mystery.” It is the life animating the
form of all things fused into an essence that is beyond all form. It is the perfection of nature’s energies—the
entire mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms refined, combined, fused, and
united.
To work this process within yourself, you must first embrace and penetrate and