Copyright (C) 1997 by William Mistele.  All rights reserved. 

                       The Cosmic Letter "E"

 In Franz Bardon's third book, The Key to the True Quabbalah, he describes
twenty-seven cosmic letters.  These letters are the building blocks from
which nature, man, and spirit have been created.  They are the link
between matter, energy, history, consciousness, and spirit.  Bardon
explains a very specific way of training with cosmic letters and says one
lifetime may not be enough to master them.
       A letter is not a function of or derived from any cultural image or
even any human thought, symbol, or conception.  It is simply an energy
field which is extremely malleable and susceptible to being shaped by
consciousness and will.  At the same time, these letters amplify energy.
The stronger your concentration the more energy you create.  
      A cosmic letter can easily express the qualities and powers various
spirits possess.  The letter is always more than the way any specific
being or spirit expresses it.  It is as if Divine Providence has said,
"The letter E expresses an aspect of omnipresence.  Each spirit with the
letter E in its name embodies a small part of that omnipresence."
    The Letter E is practiced in a dark violet color, with the note of
"D," and with a sensation of penetrating through space and time.  In
Bardon's cosmic language, there are a number of letters which use the
violet color in a light or dark shade.  Letters "CH," "H," and "B" are
examples of these.  There are also three other letters which use the
sensation of penetrating through space and time.  The letter "U" I mention
in my evocation of the Venus spirit called Guru.  The letters "UE" and
"OE" also use the penetrating sensation but combine it with a sensation of
density as well.
   The violet color Bardon attributes to the sign of Aquarius in the
earthzone.  It is also the color used in mentally projecting into the
sphere of Saturn.  And it has a certain analogy to the sphere of the Moon.
The majority of the lunar spirits' names begin with the letter E and also
have more than one E in their names.  
     On the other hand, when I initially began meditating with the letter
E, it was easy for me to feel disoriented and weakened from working with
it.  The work required that I develop a stronger magnetic field in my
aura.  Also, none of the thirty-six spirits of Mars have a letter E in
their names.  Mars is the mastery of self correlated with the will and
power which overcome obstacles and accomplishes missions.  The individual
who accepts the greatest problem as a personal challenge usually does not
take mystical breaks to feel the oneness of the universe. 
   In summary, the letter E embodies a vast range of mystical, spiritual,
and cosmic states of awareness and magical abilities.  It is generated by
using the three sense concentration to create an energy field.  If you
practice with the letter E for many years, it becomes very natural and
familiar.  Yet there is always more to discover about it.  
     The letter E involves states of awareness which are much more
familiar to Buddhists than to Western magicians or sages.  Often magicians
talk about mastering the akasha, but it is only in the use of their
clairvoyant abilities that they utilize this energy.  Placing their entire
consciousness within a vast, formless state of awareness is not something
they specialize in.  More often, it is through sheer force of psychic will
that they accomplish their evocations.  The tantric feeling of
omnipresence and being one with a spirit or, for that matter, another
human being is not part of their art. 
    In Bardon's first book, "Initiation into Hermetics, he refers to
akasha a number of times.  In the magic psychic training (VI), he says,
"Imagine you happen to be in the center of an unlimited space.  Here is no
above nor below nor any sideways.  This unlimited space is filled with the
finest energetic matter, the universal ether.  Ether is colorless, but to
our senses it appears to be of an ultra-violet, near black-violet color
and this is the color in which we do imagine the etheric matter."  He then
goes on to describe a visualization you can do within this akashic state
in regard to mastering the four elements.  
   In the magic psychic training (VII), Bardon mentions that a magician by
this point in his basic training should be able to hold with his mind any
sense or imagination concentration for fifteen minutes without the
slightest disturbance.  This is Raja Yoga, the training of the mind.
Bardon goes on to mention the outlook of one working with akasha.  You are
focused in the present moment.  You observe the world as it is and engage
it with the power of your spirit in the here and now.  
   This act of being fully present leads to feelings of kindness,
compassion, and gentleness.  It is hard to judge others because you can
see how they have suffered in this life or in past lives.  And it is easy
to recall how you have caused suffering to others in past lives as well.
You are aware how transitory society and culture are because it is easy
for you  recall civilizations which have come and gone vanishing from the
face of history.  In fact, it  seems there are past lives you can recall
so clearly it seems like you were there only yesterday or even a few
moments ago.
     And you realize how fragile an individual's astral body and
personality are.  The elements animating and giving them life will begin
to dissolve at death.  And so you cherish others' ability to taste and
experience life for themselves with what they have been given in the here
and now.  You see the opportunity and the purpose underlying the other's
life.
     This alertness and openness is so important to you because akasha is
both the complete acceptance of what is and unlimited possibilities.  But
few discover this.  Cynicism, arrogance, revenge, depression, sorrow, and
regret have a way of settling in and grabbing hold of the human soul.  It
is hard to let them go because the void that is left in their place is too
unsettling and too great to embrace.  The isolation and strangeness of
this void dissolves as we discover that akasha is full of wonder, freedom,
and new life. 

AKASHIC PLANE

Practicing a cosmic letter on the akashic plane is a way of uniting our
awareness with the light of Divine Providence.  Bardon states that the
letter E on this level represents a state of omnipresence.  Bardon
mentions this state is referred to as Nirvi-Kalpa-Samadhi in oriental
wisdom.  
   An individual who has developed an awareness on this level has a
profound mystical feeling of being connected to the universe.  The mother
has contained the fetus within her body and seeks to protect and enhance
its life once it is born.  There are spirits whose aura and awareness
encompasses entire planets, solar systems, galaxies, and the universe
also.  There seek to care for and nourish as the mother does her child.
And so feeling connected to the universe has many qualities and levels of
awareness within it.
   This realization is not like the light of the sun which shows itself
openly and dramatizes its presence for all to see.  This consciousness is
more hidden though nothing is hidden from it.  It is a part of both the
light and the dark and everything is within its heart. 
   Some individuals love only the bright, the good, and the righteous.
Motivated by their devotion, they shun what is dark, unclean, and unholy.
But all-embracing love encompasses everything.  It knows every secret and
fear is not within it.  It does not get hysterical when something unknown
appears which does not confirm and validate its own philosophy.  Instead,
it glances deeper into the fabric of space and time until it understands
the law and the pattern of life governing what seems to serve no purpose
and is not ruled by familiar and well-known ideals. 
     The question arises for those who practice here, How do you share
this experience with others?  What is left unshared in life tends to
create a feeling of isolation and disorientation.   The answer is that you
can celebrate it through music, poetry, stories, etc. and then it can be
shared.  
    Or you can turn it into a ritual of adoration to the beauty of the
universe as a way of celebrating your inner connection to the divine
world.  All the akashic levels of the cosmic letters are a celebration of
being one with Divine Providence.  You practice the akashic levels of
realization as a form of greeting, as a homecoming, as the joy of being
where you belong.   But this is not an escape.  It is the source you draw
upon and the well from which you drink so that as you move through life
your inspiration is inexhaustible and complete. 
    Occasionally, I will meet an individual who has had a spontaneous
experience with the akashic level of the letter E.  Ray Brown, the
naturopath, was featured on In Search Of when it covered the topic of
Atlantis.  He has a crystal ball with four pyramids within it. He says
while he was diving with some friends he  found it in the Bermuda Triangle
after a storm shifted the sand of the ocean bottom and reveal a number of
pyramids.  
  Ray Brown also mentions how he as once struck by a boat while coming up
from a dive. He drifted in the water for several hours unconscious before
he was revived.  During that time, he says his consciousness slowly
expanded into the ocean around him.  He felt he was becoming a part of the
consciousness of every fish within the sea.  
   As with others who have experienced something similar, I ask them, "Do
you ever try to enter into this state of awareness again?"  But they look
at me and say it would never occur to them to do so.  Western
consciousness is focused on identity, action, choice, and responsibility.
We are so involved with mastering the dynamic elements shaping history
that we rarely have time to enter and celebrate the oneness of life.
   Let me briefly mention a Buddhist practice which draws directly on the
letter E on the akashic plane.  In the end of the book, Heart of Wisdom
(Tharpa Publications), by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, the author mentions a very
well-known Buddhist ritual based on the Heart Sutra, Prajnaparamita, and
the Buddhist concept of emptiness.  
   In the Heart Sutra, Avalokitesvara tells Sariputra, "Form does not
differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form."  The sutra
also goes on to say that perception, conception, volition and
consciousness are also like this.
    Often at the center of all Buddhist practice, regardless of the
tradition, is this probing and attempt to master the akasha, a formless,
timeless state of awareness.  I have had long discussions with some
Buddhists and mentioned that, for me, they are deficient in developing
their volition.  They throw this back at me by saying,  "Volition is
emptiness and void of any inherent meaning."   Of course, I do the same
thing for them.  I pick their favorite attachment and tell them, "Then
lineage and the authority of a guru are also emptiness and void of any
inherent meaning."
    When we think of volition, we often think about controlling things,
accomplishing a purpose or a mission, and manifesting our will. Volition
involves gathering power and focusing it.  It is the ability to act
effectively.  In fact, Bardon calls power a divine virtue. 
      Bardon calls Malchjdael, the spirit governing Aries in Jupiter,
perhaps the most powerful spirit in this solar system.  When I began
working with Malchjdeal, the first think he asked me to do was to imagine
I was a state of akashic openness the size of a planet and bigger still.  
   Jupiter does things on a big scale.  The red spot on Jupiter is larger
than the earth.  For Malchjdael, you can take that state of openness, of a
vast expanses, and attune it to one thought, one image, one feeling, or
whatever you will.  For Malchjdael, volition is emptiness and emptiness is
volition.   It is the place where energy is created.  It is the womb where
spirit is born and fulfill its purposes.  
   I used to meditate with a Vietnamese Zen master.  This man is generous,
open-minded, hard working, and dedicated.  You can feel those qualities in
his aura and they are reflected in his actions.  But when he meditates his
aura vanishes.  If you could see only auras and you walked into a room
where he was meditating, you would not notice his presence.  He has become
pure emptiness.  There is no form or color within his aura.  He is
completely clear.  It is as if he has disappeared. 
    And so Geshe Kelsang Gyatso tells the story of a black magician who
tried to cross swords with a Buddhist master.  This magician was
terrorizing a region in Tibet with his ability to use magic to kill
whomever he wished.  And so one day he declared the Buddhist priest would
also die by the power of his magic.  
    But the priest simply practiced the Heart Sutra and the empty state of
awareness within  it which was in effect the letter E.  The letter E
embodies the realization that all things are one with each other.   As
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso puts it, "We can think that we, all that harms us and
the harm itself are all empty of inherent existence."  
   For an individual who has mastered the Letter E, there is no one there
whom a black magician can attack.  There is no attachment which negative
energy, thought, or will can lock in on and try to manipulate.  The mind
of malice, then, can not utilize the separation between itself and another
to bring about destruction.  There is no separation.  The destruction the
black magician sought consequently fell upon himself.  
   I used to ask a number of Tibetan lamas about this ritual.  They were
all familiar with it.  Invariably, after discussing its applications,
they would say, "If you want to use this ritual for political purposes, to
bring about peace, then you should simply hire a monastery to do it
according to your instructions."   
   And so I took their advice and hired a monastery to perform this ritual
on a weekly basis.  Initially, the head of the monastery did not believe
that akasha can be used to dissolve negative energy in political conflicts
on the other side of the earth.  But over the years this individual has
complimented me on how appropriate its political use has been. 
   
MENTAL PLANE

In his first book, Bardon has a mental plane exercise in which you project
your mind into the center of a rock, a tree, a bird, a mountain, a person,
a spiritual being, etc. and observe all the influences which effect it and
which have made it what it is from the perspective of akasha.  Bardic
magicians are particularly skilled in this art.  Without conscious
thought, they fall into the center of another's heart.  There in a moment
of time they experience the entire life of that individual, the other's
inspiration, soul, destiny, deepest dreams and longings.  Returning to our
familiar world, they then express in their art a small part of the beauty
they have seen. 
    Lovers sometimes experience through each other a passion greater than
they are able to bare.  The passion overwhelms them and takes them into
places where they are haunted by terror and loss of identity.  They do not
claim this emptiness and place of desolation as part of a sacred path
leading to their destiny.  They do not realize that attraction, in seeking
to make you one with another, also takes you into the unexplored
wilderness inside you. 
     In the akasha, there is nothing to hold on to.  There is no form you
can cling to.  If you enter the mystery of love and demand security,
akasha will present you with unknown possibilities.  And if you want to
claim a specific treasure of bliss or pleasure you have never experienced,
akasha will ask you also to respect the past by paying your dues.  It
says,   "Overcome the weaknesses within yourself and then you can have
what you want."  Akasha is balance and harmony between all things.  The
past, present, and future are one continuity, one harmony in which
everything is already interconnected and linked. 
      Akasha on the mental level is the ability to meet and interact with
any being that exists anywhere in the universe.   No matter how limited
your physical circumstances are, this is like being hooked up to a
spiritual internet.  Swami Satchitananda called this in the local
newsletter last week--the Inner Net.  You are in contact with the whole
world. 

ASTRAL PLANE

On the astral plane, you learn to distinguish each nuance of thought and
feeling in others.  It is a form of empathy.  It is also easy to project
your awareness into situations of the past or future.  In particular, it
is possible to follow the threads of deep longings and desires and visit
the future situations in which they are fulfilled.      
    Being in a profound state of akashic awareness on the astral plane
enables you to look down upon the actions of the four elements.  You can
see the causes imprinted into the fabric of the elements and how these
exert influences which lead toward particular results.  At the same time,
this is not only a vision of what will be.  In this state of trance, you
can weigh, measure, and evaluate the will and the skill required to bring
about specific situations.  
      In contrast to the great illusions which the astral plane embodies
through the attractions generated by opposite forces and images, the
letter E penetrates into and is one with every single influence in any
situation.  Androgyny, which is the joining of masculine and feminine,  is
not an adequate word to express this feeling of completeness and wholeness
the E permits.  Rather, the letter E is the practice of omnipresence in
one aspect.  It is being one with whatever exists without any distortion
or blurring of vision.  
     Practicing the letter E on the astral plane has the feeling of being
in a vast room of violet light.  If you listen very carefully you can hear
the sounds occurring in the future.  You can then walk toward those sounds
and step out of the darkness and back into the light, that is, into the
concrete situation that will occur. In effect, the letter E is a state of
being completely receptive, open, and free of any distraction as you learn
to perceive on the astral plane.  
    Another way to state this is to say our vision is so pure and our
hearts so expansive and all-embracing it is natural to be able to perceive
likely situations which will occur in the future.  You develop a prophetic
clairvoyance because you are able to suspend the veils of space and time
to look to the essential, the manifesting of what is most important in
life.  Every prophet has this ability to some degree--to focus on the work
of Divine Providence, to track and contemplate divine activity--to see
what akasha is seeking to accomplish on earth. 
     In summary, the letter E on the astral plane is a deep stillness and
receptivity.  The elements quiet down.  And then you can see where your
needs will be fulfilled and where dreams can find the gates that open to
reality. 
    
PHYSICAL PLANE

The letter E on the physical plane always evokes for me that heroic and
magical sense of the martial arts as portrayed by the mages in the movie
Star Wars.  There is a feeling of mastering mind over matter and a having
a will which shapes the fate of the physical world. 
And this will is heroic because it does not wander off to mystical realms
seeking fulfillment.  It is more present, alert, and knowledgeable about
the events and hidden influences shaping life than any materialist or
world leader or entrepreneur understands.  It judges accurately which
factors are most significant as far as advancing human and societal
well-being and it knows which treasures of spirit are appropriate to
reveal within any age. 
    In ancient times, there were sages and prophets who could decipher any
dream, sign, or omen.  A king would defer to them seeking their guidance
when he had a problem which no one else could solve.  These sages saw the
future clearly and they read the minds of any king anywhere on earth as
easily as if it was their own thoughts they were thinking.  
     It is, of course, easy for those attached to their egos to take the
tiny bit of spiritual power they acquire and misuse it.  We see this all
the time.  Throughout history as well, great martial artists defeated all
their competitors and then simply stopped growing.  They did not proceed
to explore the next twenty levels of self-mastery.
    But the greatest warriors and the most noble champions are not content
with only a small taste of the divine.  They seek to master completely
their own spirit.  For men and women such as this, nothing is hidden.  And
the force of the universe, majestic and incomprehensible,  threads its way
through their wills.  Once you taste the joy which originates the act of
creation, it becomes your muse and your guide.  Such is the degree of
satisfaction which is at the heart of the letter E. 
    The letter E is also extremely helpful with working with all the
elemental beings.  I often engage the different elementals in long and
detailed conversations about their understanding of the akasha from the
point of view of their element.  Since the most powerful elemental beings
are true magicians in their own right, they naturally draw on the creative
power of akasha.    
     But they are not as free as a human being to penetrate into the
akasha and become pure, formless awareness which can penetrate any element
as well as stand completely independent of nature.  The elemental beings,
furthermore, are unable to project beyond the sphere of the earth as can a
human magician who can set aside his astral body and proceed solely
through the power of his mind.  And the earthzone with its spirits who
represent the degrees of the zodiac are also beyond the reach of the great
elemental kings and queens. 
    In summary, I have shared with you some of my experiences with the
letter E in its human and cosmic dimensions.  Franz Bardon calls the
letter E one of the letters in the cosmic language, the language used by
divine beings in fulfilling their purposes.  For me, the mysteries of life
and the universe are full of wonder and immense power.  The cosmic
language, however, appears to be adequate to the task of enabling us to
participate in these mysteries.

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