Undines

by

William R. Mistele

Look for forthcoming books by the same author

Sylphs

Salamanders

Gnomes

Problems in the Study of Magic, Part I

25 Earthzone Spirits

Spirits of the Planetary Spheres

Basic Magic Training

A Travel Guide to Life

Mystical Fables

The Cosmic Language

The Fall of Atlantis—Screenplay and Novel

The Kingdoms of Ubarim

Song of the Universe—Collected Poems

Children’s Stories:

The Dragon and the Knight

Wind Elves

St. Patrick and the Elves

Magic Wars

The Story of Creation

The Blue Spruce Tree

From the undines—to humanity:

The universe is on fire

With wonder, beauty, and ecstasy.

Published in the United States in 2008 by William R. Mistele Publications

P.O. Box 25414, Honolulu, Hawaii 96825, U.S.A.

williammistele@yahoo.com

ISBN 978-0-9700712-7-9

Copyright (C) 2008 by William R. Mistele. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Preface

It is difficult to describe the nature spirits I present in this book. In thirty years of magical practice, I have met perhaps ten individuals who interact on some level with these beings. Not only are undines poorly represented in literature, religion, and folk tales. Direct experience with them is quite rare.

This book revolves around subjective and mystical experiences that lie outside normal modes of perception and that are beyond rational explanation. It took me years of spiritual training to arrive at these experiences. The chance of sitting down and carrying on a conversation with an undine as I do in this book is very unlikely to occur to any reader. For a mechanical engineer, a stock broker, a teacher, or a salesman, this book is best regarded as an exercise in creative writing, as fantasy, and a whimsical exploration of imagination.

Magic is not a part of the twenty-first century. Everyday and nearly everywhere on earth technology is transforming our lives. Our attention and our concentration are directed out into the world. Rarely do we give our full attention to what is going on inside of us.

For my own part, I love science and technology. I love the scientific explanation of the physical universe. And I am fascinated with internet and international economics.

If we turn to religion, it is only in a few instances that we find any discussion of nature spirits. Interaction with these beings, even in the nature religions such as among Wiccans and Druids, often occurs only indirectly or at a distance. There are Sufi masters and Hindu yogis whose religions have historical references to these beings. But again, you will be hard pressed to find a Sufi master or a swami who can say, “Oh yes, last Tuesday I spent some time with a salamander as I was learning to control fire” or “a sylph instructed me on how to change the course of a hurricane.”

Consequently, I have tried to present my encounters with undines and mermaids through the means of art. I rely on entertaining stories and dialogues rather than discussing rituals and employing esoteric diagrams and symbols. If I can entertain, then at least on this level I am communicating something.

On the other hand, there is something magical about life. Our sense of awe and wonder constantly reminds us of the primacy of perception, the delight of mutually shared empathy, and the depths of intuition. There are many kingdoms within the universe of our feelings.

In their beginnings, all major world religions set forth the drama of the spiritual world invading our ordinary, every day life. Overcoming suffering and the limitations of mortality like the Buddha, walking on water like Peter in the presence of Christ, moving in harmony with the Tao like Lao Tzu, preserving light on earth like Krishna, performing an array of miracles to liberate an enslaved people like Moses, or the intercession of the angel Gabriel at Christ’s inception and in transmitting the Koran to Mohammad—in spite of the rigidity of doctrines and the inertia of tradition, the uncanny and the wondrous are always lurking at the edge of human consciousness.

I suspect there remain a few problems on earth that can only be solved through magic or high levels of applied spiritual power. In my mind, such problems include replacing war with peace and limiting the use of weapons of mass destruction. It is these issues involving survival and establishing justice that motivate me. For example, developing a direct, heart to heart understanding of any other person on earth is part of this work and one of the treasures guarded by the undines.

CONTENTS

Preface v

Introduction viii

Undines

Chapter 1. Osipeh 1

Chapter 2. Amue 13

Chapter 3. Istiphul 23

Chapter 4. Isaphil 69

Exercises and Review 102

Personality Profile of an Undine 107

The Difference between a Real and an Imagined Undine 111

Images of Water 113

How to Meet Undines 135

Touch and Clairsentience 148

Conclusion 152

Epilogue 154

The Franz Bardon Training System 155

Glossary 158

Bibliography 162

Introduction

Mermaids and Undines

Mermaids and undines are part of historical literature and mythology. They go by various names: water sprites, water spirits, water nymphs, nixies, naiads, ondines, etc. Undines or mermaids are sometimes considered to be half fish in their lower extremities and half woman in the upper.

In other legends, it is said that an undine or mermaid can marry a man. In some of these stories if the man is unfaithful to her they both die. And again, if an undine wishes to assume human form she can enter the body of a woman who is about to die. Restoring the body to health, the undine then lives out the rest of her days in the appearance of a human woman. At death, the undine returns to her own domain within the ocean.

The four undines described in this book are not half fish and half woman. They are not attached to any well, lake, or specific location. No religion, race, or ethnic group has an affiliation with them. They are in the form of beautiful women and are masters of the magic of water and magnetism. They belong not to mythology or the past. Instead, they guard and possess treasures of empathy, sensuality, love, and spirit that the human race has yet to discover.

Nature, Undines, and Awareness

The four elements—earth, air, fire, and water—are gates and paths leading through the intricacies of nature into the mysteries of spirit. According to traditional lore, nature spirits dwell

within these four elements. Undines live solely within the element of water. Unlike human beings who embody the four elements plus a fifth called akasha, undines are composed solely of water.

The element of water is easy to relate to as a human being. In water are love and sharing—the experience of life giving birth to life and of flowing in and through another. In water is the absolute destruction of loneliness, separation, and isolation. For undines, each moment is a magnetic sea containing the dreams and the taste of ecstasy—each moment arises from and resonates with the love sustaining all life on earth.

Dangers

Collectors of folk tales such as W. B. Yeats in Ireland or the Brother’s Grimm in Germany did not have to worry about any dangerous side effects for their readers. But they did have to worry about being accused of promoting superstition or being enamored with occult mysticism. As a consequence, they went out of their way to remain academically detached. They presented their stories as carefully recorded collections of folk tales and children’s stories that were intended to enrich language, art, and literature.

Still, if someone recounts for us a story about a nature spirit, how are we to take this? Are they making it up? Perhaps they dreamed it or, like some elderly people, confuse fact with fiction.

In his introduction to Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland, (Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1973), W.B. Yeats says that in his collection of tales he has “Tried to make it representative...of every kind of Irish folk-faith” while avoiding any kind of rational interpretation.

Yeats goes on to quote a response Socrates made in the Phadrus when asked about the tale in which “Boreas is said to have carried off Orithyia from the banks of the Ilissus....I beseech you to tell me, Socrates, do you believe this tale?”

In response, Socrates reviews the various legends relating to this story and the various interpretations. He points out that for those who believe this allegory there is the further problem of having to continue on to ponder an entire array of similar monsters that are utterly inconceivable.

Socrates then says, “Now, I have certainly not time for such inquiries. Shall I tell you why? I must first know myself, as the Delphi inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my business, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous....I want to know not about this, but about myself.”

It is ironic for Yeats to make this reference. Yeats, as also William Blake, was a registered and active member of a Druid order. In quoting Socrates on fairies, Yeats is disguising his actual connection to the realms of fairy.

And as for Socrates, I think he was asking the wrong question. The only way to know the self is through encounters with others and with the world around us. For me, a better question is, “What is it to be fully alive?” Socrates never sat in the forest and became the rock, the tree, the steam, the wolf, and the deer in his mind. Enjoying his own eloquence and the delight of confounding others with his questions, Socrates did not take the time to explore the boundaries of sensory perception.

Humor me for a few moments and consider the possibility that undines lurk just outside of the normal range of human perception. If we gather all of our sensory experiences with lakes, rivers, and seas, we can begin to taste the awareness that undines possess. Water certainly embodies sensual release. Water invites us to let go, to flow, and to be enfolded by nurturing tenderness. Ever float on a raft down the Little Colorado and feel as if time has begun to vanish?

Ever float just at the edge of breaking waves and felt your feelings opening to the vastness of the sea? Ever float in a mountain pool and just let go into primal being as the first rays of dawn reach down into those watery depths? Have you ever experienced the clouds come down to the ground with drops of rain running down the bark of trees, poised on the tips of leaves, shivering, quivering, and then slipping into streams? In any one of these examples you may have sensed a dreamlike serenity, a thrilling wildness, and a playful exuberance.

The gate to the realm of undines opens to us precisely at this point where sensual perception and feeling amplify each other. Nature grants us a chance to step outside of our social identities. Nature revives and renews us by taking us beyond ourselves into a timeless dimension where past, present, and future intermingle with delight.

Uninhibited sensuality and extended perception are a part of almost everyone’s experience. But undines would take us further. Every undine in this book attempts to enchant through her heightened levels of empathy, magnetic attraction, and through her mesmeric sensuality that present an entire spectrum of new ecstasies. Why should this be a problem?

In going beyond the normal modes of perception, there is always a danger of disorientation. As in some of the stories I present, no matter how talented, an individual can become obsessed and seemingly possessed—for example, experiencing exhilaration and ecstasy one moment and then depression and an acute sense of isolation after returning to one’s everyday life.

Consider, we are connecting to beings from an evolutionary path distinct from the sciences and wisdom traditions of human civilization. For example, elemental beings do not have human ethics. If you receive a gift for Christmas, you assume the giver of the gift has your best interest and well-being in mind. But a gift from an elemental being may be a gift of pure power.

I was meditating one time with a partner who said an elemental being had given her an amulet to wear—something purely of a psychic nature and not material. But she found she started hallucinating at odd times during the day when she had it on. In this case, the amulet accelerated the woman’s ability to enter the astral plane of the elemental.

Being pulled into the astral plane is an astonishing experience especially if it happens when you are driving your car or shopping in a store. When you enter the astral plane of elemental beings, it is like entering a dream in the mind of a creature from a different evolution. There are no references to anything pertaining to your culture or civilization.

The elemental does not worry if his or her gift is going to present you with complications or side-effects. The elemental’s intent is solely to offer you an opportunity to experience its mode of existence. A gift of power is given out of respect. And no matter how beautiful or loving an undine may be, in their realm all interaction is based on power. Attraction and love are expressions of the magnetic properties of water and with this magnetism they are absolute masters.

Second, the elemental beings I describe are well-acquainted with human beings. I am not the first person to talk to them. Some of the elementals in this book have formed extremely close ties with magicians. They have become companions and learned from each other. For some individuals, this has been beneficial and for others the connection to the fairy realm has been their undoing.

Some of the undines also claim to guard treasures of spirit and hidden destinies that world teachers have not yet revealed to mankind. Some elementals have incarnated as human beings. Even in the twentieth century, there are reports of this happening. This usually occurs because the elemental has temporarily taken a human lover.

When I write about elementals they may discuss with me their relations with mages, poets, and sages from historical and forgotten civilizations. When it comes to cultural myths and legends, it is sometimes difficult to track down the sources of stories handed down through the generations. It may be that a poet or bard can not help but embellish and add entirely new chapters to ancient sagas in order to convey a message to his own time. It is probably wise, then, to take with a grain of salt the stories elementals tell. The astral plane is perhaps even more prone to exaggeration and to the excesses of imagination than is our own world.

Keep in mind, elemental beings are invisible except to clairvoyants. They do not eat food or drink water as do we—the energy sustaining them is altogether different. And they are not subject to human morality—they have existed for eons before human religions began.

When these elemental beings think, they do not use the lexical items in our dictionaries—neither the sounds nor the units of meaning they use relate to the Indo-European or any other human language. When a “thought” is placed into your mind by an elemental, it is your experience that becomes the vehicle for translating that thought into something familiar which you understand. If you rush to label your sensory perceptions or take for granted your connection to elementals, you lose the depth and the beauty of what is being shared.

And though the life span of elementals is a matter of speculation, it is fair to say that many live for countless ages and some have been around for millions of years. And so, when you enter the domain of elemental beings, you have to create your own reference points. Science, history, culture and the works of mankind—these beings do not need any of this in order to flourish or to practice their arts.

A relationship with another person often takes a lot of work. Working with elemental beings also takes effort, patience, and contemplation if you are going to get anything out of it. As in any kind of relationship, there are times when you have to put aside your expectations if you are going to hear what is being said or make the most of the opportunities that arise.

Once you form a connection an undine can show up unexpectedly, obtrusively, and without being called. These are the Queens and the masters of their element. Unless you possess a mastery of the water element equal to their own, they can follow their own rules. The rituals and authority in human spiritual traditions are no more than a curiosity and minor hurdle for them to leap over.

They do not speak in human language. Instead, their communication is body to body, feelings to feelings, and mental imagery to mental imagery. This is intimate and at times absolutely overpowering. Some of your experiences with these beings will be outside of anything described in human literature by any human mystic, poet, or philosopher. The undines act according to principles of psychology that the human race will not discover for hundreds of years.

Through extended interaction you can begin to see as they see, feel as they feel, and engage the natural world from their perspective. But your new perceptions are, nonetheless, outside the normal operating range of other human beings. It takes a huge effort to make sense of what you experience and it is even more difficult to share your experiences with others.

And unless you immediately write down what you experienced with an undine everything that happened may vanish from your mind within five minutes. Why? You have two hundred thousand years of neurological programming that makes you a human being. Undines have millions of years of uniting with nature. Joining these two perspectives and ways of being may not be as easy as it seems.

I have made my case against contacting undines. Dangers and difficulties aside, would it not be enchanting to meet an undine—to encounter an intelligence embodying the pure, wild, and primordial delights of the water element? If there is a real possibility, I think at least some individuals should consider it. As I suggested in the Preface, I think the survival of the human race may depend upon it.