Copyright © 2009 by William R. Mistele. All rights reserved.

Week Six: Mermaid-Human Interactions

Objectives

Read the stories:

The Changeling

Double Changeling

A Mermaid’s Story

Then answer the question: What would it take to persuade you to take the time and to make effort to learn undine empathy?

The word undine is not important. It is about learning to feel what others’ feel, sensing their energy and what is hidden in the depths of their hearts.

For me it is giving love its proper place in shaping human history. But I need to learn what motivates others such as your self.

Send in your thoughts and comments:

pagios@lava.net

The Changeling

Note: See Mckennitt, the Stolen Child, for example, on youtube.com from W.B. Yeat’s poem

Come away, Oh human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the worlds more full of weeping

Than you can understand

Introduction

I once knew a Hopi Indian medicine man 1978. I was his only student. He told me how he acquired his healing powers.

The day he was born another child died at birth in his village. The elders who were priests performed a ritual. They encouraged the child who had died to study herbs and healing on the astral plane in order to grow wise. Later in life, after the living child had completed his assigned tasks in life, the two would reunite. At that time, the departed child would become a spirit guide, assisting the living person to become a shaman.

For the Hopi Indians, this kind of magical action made perfect sense. Our world and the next are not so far apart. They interact. What would otherwise be considered a loss was turned and made into a creative act. Both worlds are enriched.

And also I realized from this first hand report that there must be a great many interactions occurring between the spiritual realms that our world knows nothing about.

The Changeling

In a large city in France (not Paris) in 1996, a baby girl was born. Out the window of the hospital nursery, in that quiet afternoon, you can see a storm camping on the horizon. Dark, with vicious lightning, the clouds wait for an order before they advance.

At 4:37 PM that afternoon, approximately fifty-two minutes after the birth, the air in the nursery briefly turns cold, dropping five to seven degrees in temperature.

If you were standing there and could sense these things, you would feel a sudden accumulation of energy, like a flash flood or a storm surge running through the ground. The air is thick with a cool, contracting, fluctuating, pulsing magnetic field.

We normally do not notice these things, but the ground continuously has charges of energy moving through it. When the charge is strong enough, we witness lightning coming down. But the lightning is but a small display of the forces arrayed in the earth and the clouds.

On this unusual day, the magnetic field within the ground beneath the hospital is remarkably powerful. So much so, that a gate opens to the fairy realm of the undines. Because of this opportunity, this open door between the realms, two undines, invisible to all by a clairvoyant, stand over the human child. They are silvery blue, translucent in appearance--tall, slender women.

The one undine places her hands down to touch the child and then carefully, as if plucking the strings of a harp, she draws out its soul. As that bundle of complex soul energy leaves the body, the other undine lowers the soul of a mermaid child into the body in the crib.

The infant’s heartbeat and breathing stop for an instant and then continue on. There is no cry, no squirming, and no complaint. The entire procedure takes place in less than a minute.

I realize some will insist that the soul does not enter an infant until at least four months after the birth. Others say that the soul, though not in the body, is nevertheless already attached—the choice as to who will incarnate has already been made. Perhaps this is why the exchange could proceed so rapidly—the soul was not so closely bound to the body that it could not be carried away to another place.

The soul of the baby girl and the undine who holds it vanishes as they both return to the undine realm. There the human soul is placed in the body of a mermaid on the astral plane while the mermaid infant is now within the body of the infant in the crib. It is the souls, you see, that are exchanged. The infant’s body remains the same and has not been moved.

Though the exchange is now complete, one undine shall remain near at hand to watch over the infant for several weeks. Caution and attentive care are essential lest a flaw appear in the process. The binding of spirit to flesh and bone requires a total commitment. No hint or clue can be left behind; no one must suspect that the water spirits have intervened. To say the least, the magic used to accomplish this was intense.

The infant now in the crib has become a changeling. Conditions under which such exchanges may be made vary on a case by case basis. In this situation, it is the unusual accumulation of magnetism in the ground that presents the opportunity seized upon by fairies.

But why? Why would undines do such a thing? For undines, being composed solely of the water element, a better question is, Why not? Why does water seep into the cracks of a granite cliff and split it open as it freezes eventually bringing down a mountain?

Why does water slowly wear away solid rock, digging into the schist to form a river canyon? Why does water move along unseen in underground streams? The answer is that water flows to where it wants to go. It is the way of nature.

From the point of view of human morality, taking a soul out of a human body without the purview of humanity is reprehensible. But we are not the only players on this planet. There are other races present. The earth is no ones possession. The human body is made mostly of water and over water the undines have an authority that is independent of human morality.

Contrary to the fairy tales we are told, the realm of undines and mermaids take no interest in humanity. And if there is an interaction such as this one, the explanation falls outside of the confines of human reason. The undines see our race as irrelevant to the greater purposes for which this planet exists. We are here but for a little while and then we shall be no more. The mermaids have been here long before we came and shall remain ….well, some are nearly immortal.

It is true that from time to time a mermaid will materialize on a beach or in the sea. You could touch her or communicate with her if you know telepathy. But then she vanishes away, dematerializing as if what you had seen was only a dream.

It is an energy thing. If the energy accumulating is strong enough and of the right type, it is like the mermaid puts on flesh and blood and a heart begins to beat. You can do the same if you have a highly skilled medium. The air in the room grows cold and a white mist of pure vitality seeps out from the body of the medium. And then a mermaid stands before you in a physical body. But then the energy is quickly used up and she is gone.

There is little need to fear. Genuine changelings of the kind in this story are very rare. There are only four known cases of this happening on earth at this time. It requires a magical action for an undine to have a child. Genuine magic of this kind is rare even among the undines. And only such a magical child can be exchanged for the soul of a human being.

What will the mermaid now in the body of a female child know as she grows older? Will she realize that she is from another world? The answer is that in this example no one tells her. She is on her own.

It is even rarer for human beings to sense these things. Only once in the last hundred years have parents realized their child was inhabited with the soul of a mermaid. And in that case they viewed the exchange as an act of God, as something sacred that was not to be looked down upon.

What does our mermaid child look like as she grows up? She is very pure. She is innocent, tender, fragile, and gifted with the ability to feel—she responds to the impressions of her senses and to her environment with about ten times greater sensitivity than either the children or the adults around her.

A chair is not just a chair for her. Look at it or touch it and she can sense its history, the emotions of those who have sat in it, the trees from which the wood was made, and the feelings of the workmen who formed it.

A face is not just a face for her. In the eyes, the hair, the lips, and the skin she sees reflected the love and the hate, the joy and the fear, that have settled there. A person’s face is a poem, a song, or a story that speaks with its own voice. The eyes, the lips, and voice reveal things that the person would break down and cry over if he or she thought they were no longer hidden.

The girl would make a great model for some painter because of her haunting eyes, eyes like a full moon that call you to come dance in a grove, lips like the rose light of dawn that warn sailors of storms; and her hair like the black tides of a night with no light, neither stars or moon, where the roar of a distant surf bids you walk without thought of self or any care, only the desire to be free of human need. Like I say, she would make a great model for a painter in need of inspiration in order to sit down and paint.

She keeps her inner feeling carefully hidden from other people. She knows that what she feels should never be shared with others, for she has learned early on that they are blind to these things—how to give all of your self as you love, how to be unafraid, and how to explore the intricate labyrinth in a moment of time without knowing what the next moment will bring.

Her parents think that she is pretty girl, somewhat shy, who likes to play by herself. She is fascinated by animals; she sits in a tree or hides in the backyard in the bushes watching the calico cat, the timid mouse, the owl waiting for a rat, and the doves bobbing and singing.

Lately, now that she is thirteen years old, she has taken up photography, using a digital Canon camera. She walks though the woods and along streams. She takes pictures of the same river at different hours of the day and at different seasons of the year. Why?

It is like the river is trying to talk to her and she wants so much to hear and to decipher its message. She photo edits the pictures, turning them transparent, doing overlays, and then making them into drawings—a few lines on a white background; as if she is looking for what remains when the river banks and the waves are taken away?

There are no people in her pictures, just nature scenes and abandoned barns, trees, flowers, paths in the woods, etc. Her pictures sometimes look like paintings. Change the light and the entire picture changes.

Her personality is detached. There is something precious about her, but what that is unavailable to others.

She obviously knows what is expected of her. She can say, “Thank you,” “How interesting,” or ask a meaningful question, if the social interaction requires such things. She can play at school with other children. She does her homework. She learns foreign languages almost without effort. She draws. She jogs.

She is on the swimming team—swimming, in fact, is the one area in which she exerts the full force of her will. She has no desire to win. It is more like the water responds to her will when she swims. Without anyone knowing why, she is made captain of the team in spite of being shy. And this choice is never questioned.

If you watched her carefully you might suspect that she is playing a part like an actress. She participates according to the social context and responds well to subtext. But she is always holding back, pulling her punches, showing only a small part.

As I have pointed out, no one has told her she is a mermaid and she has no connection to that realm in dream or in vision.

Yet what about this? If you sit with her in a corner café some fine summer night, and if she totally trusts you because you listen as well as she can feel, perhaps then you might ask her straight out, “What bothers you deep down?” In that moment, she would reply, “I do not belong here. The world is all wrong. The people are not fully alive. And I do not know why.”

There is one last thing. If you stood in front of her and sensed her aura, you could tell right away that she is not a human being. If you were three or four feet away and felt the energy of her aura pass though you, you would see yourself out on the open sea at night before a path of moonlight reaching out to the horizon.

You would feel serenity pass through you, deeper than thought or imagery, deeper than a dream, from a place beyond even dreamless sleep. And then you would feel yourself sinking down into the ocean a thousand feet deep. You would feel that vast body of water around you and that it contains one quality and one feeling, namely, a sense of peace. Mermaids such as this one embody qualities that human beings can not easily imagine or fathom.

What of the human child now in a mermaid’s body on the astral plane? What is growing up like for her?

As she grows it is like being in an aquarium, except instead of fish there are mermaids swimming all around her. The mermaids come right up to her and there is this instant connection from inside without having to speak. She feels the other’s feelings flow through her. In this way she learns to sense and perceive as a mermaid, not though speech, not though imitative behavior, but intuitively understanding what water is, what it does, and how life exists within it.

If there were language, it would be like this: “Let us spend the summer watching over the reefs of this island, sensing each fish and its habitat, or flowing with the tides, feeling the sun and the moonrise. Watch the tiny algae, the larger fish coming and going, the young and the old. This is home; this is play; this is work; doing these things is what we are all about.”

It goes on: “Next, let’s flow with the current as it takes us to the North Pole. We’ll watch the seals and the whales and what could be more exciting than to sense the fresh water melting, mixing with the salt water, changing temperatures, sinking down, down into the deep, flowing back around the circumference of the world.

“If you want, you can slide along the edge of a wave as its rolls a thousand miles, as it breaks on a beach, moves on in a wave again and again since there is no end; feel that subtle magnetic swirl in the curling wave--it has its own taste, like a wine you can drink, bringing to life new things in your self you have never felt. Or just lie back and float on the surface of the sea and feel starlight as its sinks into your being, absorbed, coming to life as a song or a dream.”

It is not like there is a one on one mentor or parent. It is more like being part of a community or a large, extended family. Anyone can become your teacher or your friend. If you open you heart, you can draw near and share in the actions of any other water spirit. There are no social barriers here. The sea itself is your friend. Water is your breath. And there is always present the subtle vibration of love. It is everywhere and it is absolutely impossible to miss.

Being a mermaid certainly beats being unemployed, being in a bad marriage, or being a social reject. Here there are no bad marriages, no ill will, no suffering due to poverty, unemployment, failure, poor motivation, or to shame.

Does this human child ever think human thoughts as she sojourns among mermaids? Words from a dictionary are not in her mind. All the same, she is well aware she is not as these other beings. They are so innocent and pure. Their feelings are always perfectly clear.

She, however, is composed of five elements, even though her body is that of a mermaid. She senses something is missing. She can do what mermaids do. But the spontaneity and the total engagement in the moment is lacking.

Does she go on a quest to uncover the reasons for this? No. To be a mermaid is to go with the flow. Mermaid existence has its own bliss which often will reduce the desire for a quest or dampen the need to be curious.

But if she could put into words what she senses it would go like this: “They are never building anything. They do not make things. They have rank and power. This is clear. But no one is ordering anyone else to do something. There is no strife, no competition, no striving, and no struggle.

“They can learn a great deal and very quickly, but they do not test their own boundaries. They do not seek to overcome their own limitations. Yet the best is that they know how to let go: they can feel the entire sea of the earth flow through their souls in any moment. And as they do this the only things that exist are the sensations, the feelings, and the vibrations of being one with the whole.”

One day the mermaid shall return to her own realm, after the physical body she lives within dies. At that moment, she will awaken in the realm of mermaids and be greeted by her parents, those undines who brought her into being.

There will be a period of transition. She has inhabited a human body, thought with a brain, spoken with human languages, and remains in possession of human memoires. All the same, perception, especially sight and sound in the realm of undines is far more vivid and real than these things are to human beings. It is natural, then, to want to look around, see what is here, and to begin to explore.

Time is not the same, but soon enough she will appreciate that her soul belongs in a mermaid body. And then she feels that she has awoken from a bad dream.

She shall ask, “Why was so much kept secret from me about the true nature of reality?”

With this coming home, seeing it for the first time, and realizing this is where she truly belongs—she is genuinely puzzled why she could not have been here all along. There is a great sigh of relief like the moment when you realize the truth, that everything you were taught to believe has been false.

And then she thinks using both human and mermaid thought, What does it matter? I am now free. The past is no more. This is where I belong; the human was the illusion.

Human experiences, memories, thinking, language capacity, and the human mind still remain; they just are no longer of much use. It is like a wedding gown you use once and then put in a closet and forget about, unless years later you take it out only to weep about what you once dreamed.

There is one further thing to say about the mermaid side of this magical changeling exchange. As the undine parents, as they come up and greet their returning child, they open their minds. And then in a few moments, the entire life experiences of the mermaid passes into their own minds and hearts.

It is a mermaid thing: you can feel what another feels. You can also, if you are skilled, replay the entire set of memories in the others’ mind. I’ll try not to say too much but let me just point out—the mermaids keep records of all the experiences of their entire race. In a pinch, they can access wisdom far beyond what human beings can imagine.

And what of the human child after her counterpart returns to the realm of mermaids? Unlike what legends suggest, a child with the human soul does not remain in that fairy realm. She incarnates as a human being.

As she finally grows up in a human body in the way that was originally intended, she will not have any mermaid magic unless that was taught to her while she was in the other realm.

But she will have the magic of water as part of her personality. She will sense this automatically from her past life experience with the mermaids: that human beings are very silly in this way—they have a compelling need to be selfish. Greed, jealousy, hatred, animosity, possessiveness--all of these feelings seem like a self-destructive act of binding a ball and chain to your own leg. There is no need to be tied down to something negative when you already feel free inside.

And if you could stand in front of her, this human child returned to humanity, and feel the energy of her aura pass though you, you would not doubt that she is completely human. You would, however, think that here is a person of great emotional force.

When she is upset, it is like standing on the shore and watching a hurricane move in with storm surge, rain, and violent winds. And when she is happy chances are you would feel like you are in a sauna, a mineral spring, or floating in a tide pool at the beach. Her happiness flows though you and you let go and feel release and at peace.

In other words, you would feel she has an emotional force unlike anyone you have ever met. And whether you thought about it or not, you would find your self being careful not to get her angry. You would not want those tides and currents of emotions like riptides taking hold of you or throwing you about.

Epilogue

Is there more to be said? Some ethical question to be clarified?

It is said that young children, age eleven or so, are still unable to understand both sides of a question. They think that something is either right or it is wrong, it is black or it is white—complexity escapes them. The idea of having to act with ambiguity, to make choices without full knowledge of consequences—they can not live with that kind of stress. And so they decide on a simple answer and attach themselves to it in order to feel calm.

Almost all theologians in Western history have been like this. And so they have failed to seek out new answers or to explore unknown horizons.

But if you insist and press me on the question of how a changeling can come into being, I will say this: The message from the divine to humanity is, Either explore the realms of bliss and make them part of your self or cease to exist.

The Double Changeling

Introduction

The model emailed me from out of the blue. I had never visited her continent. And she had never been to Hawaii.

After reading her email, I looked at her portfolio. She had worked with a great many photographers and posed in many different styles. Yet of all her pictures only one appealed to me—where she was standing on a beach facing the sea.

If it had not been for that photo, I would have missed working with her. When I look at a model’s portfolio, I can not easily read her energy unless the picture is of her out in nature free of objects made by humanity.

As I gazed upon her standing on the beach, I briefly entered her astral body and felt her energy from within. And then I wrote a poem and sent it to her. (See the poem, The Beach, at the end).

She had the aura of a high ranking undine. In such a case, the undine’s aura is pure magnetic energy. Based on what I sensed, I scheduled three days of shooting on five different beaches. We ended up shooting for six days.

When I began my undine project, I had thought it would take me five years to find a model that could portray the feeling and sensuality of an undine queen. I thought that maybe if I were lucky I would get the right light, the perfect location, and just the right pose from a woman. The image would enable the viewer to use his imagination to see the beauty that exists on the inner planes.

As it turns out, my project was poorly formulated. It does not matter how sensual, loving, or skilled a model is, if she does not have the actual vibration of an undine, then the picture, even if it is a well-constructed symbol, can not represent what exists in the other world. The girl has to actually have the energy from the inner planes to serve as a guide to viewers in our world.

Yet here I was a mere six months into my project and I already had found what I wanted. Or rather, it was as if the undine queens sent her to me. Like me, they were curious to see if human beings could see and appreciate the essence of the feminine mysteries when they are placed right in front of them.

The girl tells me that no one takes pictures of her the way I do. In the moment they are taken and in the way they are presented, her magnetic energy shines though. Contemplate them and you enter another world.

I also had the girl tell me her life story which I videotaped. In one story, when she was young, around nine years of age, her father took her on his boat out to the Great Barrier Reef. For reasons no one has yet explained, he left her floating on a rubber raft, the kind you find in a swimming pool. There she remained for six hours by herself without land or ship in sight. And then he came back.

When she told me this story, I thought, Ah, that explains it then—why she alone of any woman I have ever met has an undine’s magnetic aura around her.

I imagined that the mermaids came up beside her as she floated there on a raft. And then they thought, “How many centuries has it been since we have found a young woman abandoned at sea, and she is not even in a life boat but floating inches above the waves? Let us therefore make her one of our own. We shall imbue her with our energy that she alone among mankind might learn to be free.”

But another woman with close ties to the realm of mermaids explained to me that I had the story wrong. She recognized this woman as one of three mermaids with whom she long ago swam in the sea. In fact, several psychics mentioned that I had a model loved by the undine queens and who they considered to be their sister.

In another life time long ago, the girl had been a human being. And in the entire history of humanity, she alone, on her own initiative, gained permission to enter the realm of mermaids and to become one of them, with all privileges and gifts extended.

And she alone has returned after a thousand years as a mermaid to incarnate again as a human being. I took the opportunity to look into these things with my clairsentient abilities. And so this story I have and will now tell you of a woman I know who, once long ago, converted into being a mermaid and then returned to walk again among mankind.

The Time of Atlantis

Her name was Suramyn. She lived in Atlantis in a time when that land had attained a high level of civilization. She was a beautiful woman, friendly, outgoing, and caring. She had something that was of value in any age of the world—her life was satisfying and fulfilling.

If Suramyn had a flaw or a disturbing quality, it was this: she possessed an uncanny, an unmeasured level of curiosity. It was not an obsession. It was never a distraction. She just made observations concerning unusual things that other people did not see.

And then she took time to follow up. She tried to discover a reason to explain something that was out of place or that was not in accord with conventional modes of understanding.

At the time in which she lived, there were genuine neighborhoods. You could walk down the street and see familiar faces. It was not at all odd to strike up a conversation with a stranger and go on talking for hours. It was possible to meet someone by chance and make a life long friend. It was a time and a place where it felt good to be alive. The city was in harmony with nature, with the earth and the sky.

One day Suramyn met a young couple and their five year old child. The child loved to play in the water for many hours each day. Suramyn told the parents a number of stories about similar children.

The man, Jaham, was an initiate of the mysteries. Though Suramyn was not undergoing any formal magical training, she was highly intuitive. Jaham did not mind answering her questions or speaking at length about his training. He sensed something different about her. She had the light in her eyes and the vibration in her aura of a person whom you can trust without reservation.

In fact, all four of them formed an instant rapport. If you walked by and notice how relaxed and comfortable they were you might think that they were family. This small group radiated a feeling of peace.

All the same, in spite of the instant rapport, the trust, and the sharing, Suramyn’s nerves were on high alert. Suramyn knew from some mysterious depth of wisdom within herself that this woman she was speaking with, a woman so casual and content, was not a human being.

Though this was Suramyn’s conclusion, she also accepted the woman. There was no sense of foreboding or of something being amiss. Suramyn had already come to the realization that life has many things within it that defy explanation. Yet Suramyn was also patient. She would wait for the right time and find the right way to talk to this woman about the unique qualities the woman possessed.

Suramyn also saw something she had never seen before in any relationship between a man and a woman. The two were connected to each other from within, as if vitality was continuously flowing between them.

Lovers can become entwined, co-dependent, and need each other to an extreme degree. But this was different. A spark is fired within the heart. The heart beats. Blood circulates into the lungs and through the rest of the body. There is vitality present for actions or for simply maintaining the body’s health and physical functions.

But these two shared some sort of psychic mechanism or magical connection. The vitality in one was free to flow through and join with the vitality in the other. This is not typical of normal human beings no matter how much they may depend upon each other emotionally.

What Suramyn could perceive but what she did not have the words to describe is that this was a case of a mermaid who had been called by a magician to enter and to take possession of the body of a woman. One day a woman, who was anemic and who had pneumonia, died of respiratory failure. But within a minute or two of the heart stopping, the heart resumed beating.

The girl recovered quickly. The fever, the infection, the respiratory problems were gone. She got up, acted normal, spent time with her parents. And then within a month, she walked out the front door and never returned home.

The mermaid had been called by the mage to enter a woman in order to become his lover. Having done this, the two were now bound together. She required his love in order to remain in a woman’s body. And his soul was so blended with hers that if they ended their relationship, the suddenly loss of soul energy would have been so great he would have died from the shock. The matrix joining his astral and physical body was integrated into the connection of her body and soul as well.

Jaham had met her in this way. He was very gifted in magic and had the makings of a true adept. However, he was a shy and quiet kind of guy.

As a member of an elite magical order, he was permitted to study in an arcane library. There he came across an obscure magical text quite by accident. He opened the book at random. There on a page were sigils drawn by pen in blue and silver ink. When he gazed upon one sigil, the magical lines and circles came to life. Like a picture in a comic book or scene in a movie, bright light of turquoise fire blazed up from out of the lines five inches into the air.

Then the mermaid’s whose sigil it was appeared in front of him. Understand. He had not done anything. He had spoken no word of power. He waved no wand. There had been no meditation, contemplation, or trance like concentration. This all happened of its own accord.

Having described the moment, it should also be said that if he had wished he could have called this mermaid to appear or to enter a woman’s body as well. Those actions would have presented him with no difficulty. It would have been next to nothing for him to accomplish these things.

Arcane libraries such as this one are quiet and formal. They are serious and those who enter exercise rigorous mental discipline. On this particular day, no one else was on the same floor. He and the mermaid were left to themselves.

She shimmered, her blue-green, silver, and violet colors pulsing in the air. And then the transition was complete. She fully materialized from out of the air right there before him.

I have been in what was at the time perhaps the largest occult library in the world. It is attached to the Theosophical Society grounds in Wheaton, Illinois. A young Wiccan took me there and showed me around.

I was fascinated by the Tibetan and Hindu yoga texts that could not be easily found anywhere else. I doubt very much that a mermaid would ever appear in that place. At tea time the library is abandoned. If I was there they would tell me, “Watch over things until we return.”

The theosophists I met there were very nice people--well-intentioned and gentle. For genuine magic, however, you would have to look elsewhere.

Atlantis was a different time and a different civilization. If you practiced magic you probably knew a few individuals personally who spoke with spirits from the inner planes a few times each month. Something of the others’ capacity and possibility would rub off on you.

Spirits sense these possibilities. It is in the air. The distance between our world and the next is not so far.

What was it like for a magician to have a mermaid appear out of thin air? Sometimes an individual will work for decades on a project and finally find what he is looking for. In this case, the man faced the epiphany, the conclusion and resolution of all his questions without having to spend the decades of searching.

Deep inside of him, Jaham felt that underlying the elements of nature was a profound love. He just never knew how to get in touch with it. And now here, standing in a gate that opens to another realm, was a spirit whose entire being exists to celebrate that love.

Sometimes these explosions of emotion happen by simply meeting the right person. The flow of energy occurs outside of the conscious mind. Briefly, the ego is denied. But this is not an apocalypse. It is the beginning of a journey to a destination that exists beyond imagination.

What was it like for her to appear without intention or volition in another realm? She extended her field of awareness right through his body. She could feel what he feels. She felt the heartbeat, the pulsing of blood, and the muscle tension. She sensed his mind and his emotions. She sensed and entered dreams he had as a child.

Beneath the outer events of his life, she felt the inner flow like a stream on its way to the sea. She heard the questions he formed in his mind and also the questions he had yet to ask about the major choices he had made in life.

She felt very safe and very comfortable in his presence. This is in part because he was a good man. And this was also because her specialty was the art of transformation. She saw that his changes were things she could assist him with. And finally, she thought, here, with this man, the love can flow very deep.

As a skilled magician, when she appeared his mind went into high gear. He stopped all thinking. His was empty like a mirror.

And as a mirror is unafraid of the image that appears within it, he opened himself to sense what was in front of him. He found himself surrounded by the sea—the sky, the winds, the waves, and the depths. But this was not a set of sensory perceptions. He felt their energy flowing through him.

The wind was relaxing and he sensed the air within water and the way fish were breathing. The waves and the white caps were rolling. But he felt them to be like children playing, shouting with glee and dancing to some silent melody.

And at the core of his being, speaking with his own heart and voice, these words appeared through telepathy:

Come home. You need no pardon or quest before you take your rest. Love is a way of being. On this path you will be forever free.

And then she vanished. Jaham was left to himself in a library among men given to prolonged study. It was quiet as before. Nothing stirred in the shadows. But the phrase, “initiate of the mysteries,” took on a completely different meaning.

He stood up. He looked around. He sensed that the memory of what had just happened was already fading away in his brain. The sights, sounds, routines, and behaviors of daily life were already asserting themselves. They demanded that he forget and return to the world he shares in common with other human beings.

But this he would not do. He looked again at the page in the book and then he carefully copied the sigil. He rolled the piece of paper up and put it in his vest pocket near to his heart. He returned the book to the drawer from which it has been taken. And then he went home to take a nap. Though elated, he was also exhausted.

There was a festival at night two weeks after Suramyn first met Jaidin. The two sat next to a lake. The celebration was on the other side. They sipped a fermented tea. They splashed their feet in the water. They laughed as they told each other stories about the ways of men.

Then Suramyn says casually, “Tell me about your race.”

Jaidin replies, “Why do ask me this?”

Suramyn answers, “Because whenever I am near you I sense there is a sea of love that encircles this planet. It is like a song. It fills my ears with wonder and beauty.

“Do not hold back. I wish only to make this song part of my self.”

Jaidin sits staring into Suramyn’s eyes.

Suramyn goes on, “You are more feminine than any woman I have ever met. Yet there is nothing vulnerable about you.”

The two sit quietly. What is passing between them now is beyond the commerce of language. Some ancient skill is being activated within Suramyn. Some latent and hidden ability rises up from unknown depths within her soul.

Jaham had sensed it. He saw that Suramyn had a quality of character that was beyond the knowledge of magic. He let it go by because he knew that some things in life you can only witness and not comprehend. They are beyond all understanding.

There is a back story to these events. Suramyn herself does not recall them. But I will share her story with you. In a former lifetime, Suramyn had asked for a gift to help her understand the divine. In response to her request, she was given the ability to get inside of anything or any spirit—to sense it from within.

On a level deeper than telepathy, she could sense the inner essence, the magical name, or the inspiration and motivation that defined the nature of any creature or being. This gift was on par with the gift given by God to Solomon. Solomon was granted wisdom beyond the knowledge of all mankind. To a similar extent, this woman’s gift allowed her, when she fully concentrated, to penetrate the mysteries of time and to see the unfolding purposes of the divine.

Unlike Solomon, she was not the judge of a nation. She built no temple to God. She founded no new religion. She had no scribes or disciples recording her words and actions. She kept her gift to herself. And yet, though all her many incarnations, the divine turns to her again and again to fulfill its purposes. After all, she knows how to listen; she recognizes the voice of the divine when it speaks.

Jaidin and Suramyn sit silently for at least ten minutes. Suramyn gives herself completely to the feeling of Jaidin’s aura as it flows through her. And as mermaids are capable of doing easily, Jaidin just lets go so that she no longer senses her self at all. Though her lungs continue to breath and the heartbeat maintains its rhythm, she is no longer confined to a woman’s body. She has returned to the realm of mermaids. Her consciousness joins with the sea that encircles the world.

Then Jaidin speaks telepathically to Suramyn, “You are like a sister.” But on another level Jaidin notes beyond thought or mental vibration, “She is like one of us. There is barely a trace to be found that signifies a difference.”

Jaidin speaks aloud, “You ask me about my race. Words can do nothing. Take my hand.”

As Suramyn takes Jaidin’s hand, Suramyn is transported into the realm of mermaids and among mermaids whom Jaidin knows well. Some are singing. Others are in meditation or trance. And others go about doing things that mermaids do.

What do mermaids do? Consider water where there is a flow of energy, temperature shifting, ice melting or freezing, currents and tides moving, waves breaking, white caps forming, fish flourishing, reefs growing, etc. In any of these situations mermaids are free to take an interest, to observe, to learn, or to become involved by enhancing the process.

Jaidin asks Suramyn speaking telepathically, “What do you see?”

After a few moments, Suramyn responds, “My body is not right for this world. I do not have the right senses to perceive.”

Jaidin calls another mermaid over. This other mermaid approaches and Jaidin says to her, “She wishes to feel the love we feel.”

And then immediately the other mermaid and Suramyn join as one within the mermaid’s body. And this second mermaid sees as well that Suramyn is no longer a human being but one of their own kind and of their own heart. For some, when they taste this expanse of love, it is not something they can ignore or find it easy to leave behind.

A short time later Suramyn and Jaidin return to their physical bodies. Jaidin says to Suramyn, “Go swim in a lake. Spend time in the sea. Float in a pool. When you are ready, simply concentrate and you may join with this mermaid or another for as long as you want. You may do this but remember not to remain so long that your body suffers damage from the journey.”

Suramyn spent time in water every week and sometimes for hours every day. She also spent a similar amount of time in the realm of undines. She did so until that realm became part of her life, more right than human life. She entered the bodies of many different undines until she found the undine queens themselves and entered them as well to experience and taste their innermost essence.

Some women I have met have a similar ability. They can simply blend their souls with another person’s so the two share the same feelings and perceptions. Call it transference of consciousness, mental or astral projection; call it undine empathy; call it the study of omnipresence; call it love; call it what life is ultimately all about: becoming one.

Suramyn had two other close female friends. Both of them notice how Suramyn was changing as the years went by. There was a great power that surrounded Suramyn. It was hard to define. It was like sitting next to the sea with a great storm bearing down on the shore.

But the storm was silent and invisible. There were no splashing waves crashing down or winds blowing through your hair. All the same, the power was there—a force of water thick in the air though there was obviously no change in humidity.

One of the friends warned Suramyn saying, “Don’t get carried away with whatever you are doing.”

The other friend’s response was different. She felt that whatever Suramyn was doing was very deep. Her attitude was “it is beyond me.”

Over the years, Suramyn used her spiritual abilities to carefully explore the undine realm. She made contacts. The undine queens were all aware of her presence. For example, Suramyn joined a number of times with the undine queen named Isaphil.

As a general rule, those with magical training would never do such a thing. They are cautious when it comes to spirits. They worry about things like “magical authority.” They may talk about the importance of love; but you would be hard pressed in any century to find one magician who favors love over will.

And so mages keep a distance. They stand in “magic circles” and evoke spirits into mirrors or triangles drawn on the floor. They love duality—“It is a matter of keeping the spirit there and myself here so there is a separation that is not violated.” In this way, things remain formal and clear.

Such is the nature of magic when it is defined and pursued by men. They forget their own training—the mind is a mirror and so it is unafraid of what appears within it. If your mind is indeed clear, then there is no separation between you and the spirit. And if you focus so that there is no ego in your consciousness, then you and the spirit that appears are already one.

Suramyn had no need of academic or theoretical discussions to pave the way for her to make spiritual connections. Her knowledge was of the heart. This was the case when she met Isaphil.

As with Suramyn’s interaction with Jaidin, when Suramyn was in front of Isaphil, she felt the undine queen’s aura flowing through her. In this case, the magnetic field of the undine was extremely pure and refined. Looking at the undine is like looking at the light of the moon shining through the form of a woman.

Being in the presence of the undine queen and blending your energy with hers is like entering a state of stillness. The universe is free to be reflected though you—its movements, its seasons, rhythms, and ages, its changes, and visions of what shall come to be.

The undine queen was impressed that a mortal could share her heart. As one who carries a great mystery within her soul, the queen sensed that one day her burden would be lifted. If this girl could come so far, then soon enough another would come further. And then she would be at last free. The love and stillness in which she exists would be passed on to a race capable of embodying the wonder that this planet was created to share.

What kind of conversation does a mortal such as Suramyn have with the undine queen Isaphil? If we put it into words, it would go like this. Suramyn: “I see what you see and I feel what you feel—the drive to make a dream real of the earth and the inner peace with the universe of the moon are not separate; in you, the earth and the moon are one. I stand as you, free of time; I see the ages unfold.

“Time is a sea. And for those who perceive its depths, they see where every need will be met and every dream fulfilled. Like a navigator who plots a ship’s course, the heart charts with purity and love a path to its home port.”

In this way, by joining with their auras, Suramyn came to know things no other human being has ever learned about the undine queens. And so one day Suramyn spoke to an undine queen saying, “I belong here with you and not with the human race.” Here is the poetic version of the same--

She addressed the undine queens

With words never before heard

Is not my love of water the same as yours?

The lakes, the rivers, the streams, the seas—

One taste, one embrace?

Is not my love everywhere in every moment

Your own reflection, your own perfection?

Do I not know how to let go and flow?

There is no past or future

No wisdom or destiny

The sea shall encompass each with ecstasy.

Others had tried before. But no mortal had every joined with the race of undines. Too much of the human remained alive to make the transition. They were unable to become one with water.

Magic will only take you so far. You can acquire a temporary visa or a travel permit. You can enter in disguise as an illegal alien and try to blend in.

Even great words of power that create the essence of the undine vibration can only carry so much water. The spells wears out. The soul finds itself in over its head. And then the person washes up on the shore so to speak, cast out, because to fit in here you have to find pure love in your heart.

What followed has only happened perhaps once or twice in the history of the human race on this planet. The undine queens met in a council to discuss this thing--Suramyn’s request.

There were arguments pro and con. The issues had to be carefully weighed.

Against her: She is a human being. She can visit but she can not stay. She thinks she knows what she wants but she does not. She will not fit in. She can not share our dreams.

A greater objection was this: the divine sets the boundaries separating the different evolutions. The human race has a destiny quite different from our own. Allowing her to remain here would create an imbalance. There would be unforeseen consequences—the fates and destinies of the two realms would be joined.

And for her: She can change her aura so there is only a faint trace of yellow brown light down the back--if it was not for that she would be so much one of us that there is no other difference.

Other mermaids already respect her as an undine of high rank. She loves with our love, though her dreams may never be fully our own, it is not for us to forbid entrance to one who has already so fully crossed over.

It came down to this: It is not our decision. She is guided by an inner vision and is under the protection of the divine. So she may remain until she is called away.

Or, as the poem states:

Council is taken, all problems debated,

A decision rendered:

If you will step aside from mankind

All privileges and gifts of the undines

Shall be granted

For as long as you wish to remain

Until that day the divine

Sets before you another way

As Suramyn grew older and was in her forties, she could have risen to a position of power and honor. Her very presence was charismatic. People she met felt a satisfaction just from being around her. But she chose not to go that way.

Though more and more she focused on another realm, you have to understand the bottom line. Fairy itself was not her fascination. She was seeking to embody within herself the mystery of love. And if her path led her to cross over the boundaries that guard mankind, then she was willing to leave mankind behind. Sometimes the divine authorizes a quest on the basis of what is sought. The goal itself overrules all objections.

Did she have no lovers? There were men who approached her. Like men do, they viewed her as a potential partner with whom to share love, or as an asset that would enhance their lives. They flirted with her and tried to bargain. But then they backed off. They sensed that she was strangely protected from their desires. Her path was in another direction.

One man, however, understood. She was not meant to be a lover, rather a muse. She poured out inspiration for someone who was receptive to what she had to give. Like the husband of Jaidin, this man was an initiate of the mysteries.

She liked him and was friendly. But he always felt somewhat awkward in her presence. He was unable to attain mutual empathy. Though she was aware of everything about him, he could only see her as a creature from a dream.

But as I said, he appreciated her as a muse. And you can see this perhaps in the words he wrote:

I love your eyes

So quiet and peaceful--

A place to let go and forget who I am

Until I awaken to the sound

Of waves breaking on the shore

And the scent of the sea

I see the man I was meant to be

Walking toward me

Your eyes dream him into being.  

The description of her effect on him suggests that she was already acquiring some of the traits of the undine queens. Namely, without effort and from being in her presence she could bring to life the desires of the heart that were hidden in others.

It was not until she died that she crossed over to the Otherside. While still alive, she lived as a human being. But when death came, her soul made the transition. Her intentions and the welcome of another realm were sufficient to determine her destination.

She remained as a mermaid in the sea for a thousand years. She swam and played in a group of three. I have already described in A Mermaid’s Story one of the two other mermaids in her group.

What is it like to spend a thousand years as a mermaid of high rank in the sea? You have your identity, your curiosity, you make decisions every single day, but there really is no you: there is just this boundless embrace of unending love that surrounds you.

Beyond the knowledge of mankind, at the core of one’s being and many levels deeper than what the conscious mind of a person could ever conceive, she felt a completion—a love that only the hands of the divine could ever imagine or define or call into being.

One mermaid described her this way—she was funky. She fit in fine. No one ever objected. But she was always curious, willing to try new things that mermaid would most likely never imagine or dream.

Whereas a mermaid would take something for granted, like a reef, and blend with its energy or enhance it so it flourished, Suramyn was thinking options. Why is no reef surrounding that atoll? Why can a reef not thrive deeper beneath the water? How do reefs in others seas flourish as compared to these?

The feminine is different from the masculine. Men go off by themselves. They may chart their own course. They set their own goals. They do what they must do because that is what it is like to be a man. They separate and then they come back. They reunite when the time is right.

Women are like a circle that expands and contracts. They maintain close contact. They flow in and through each other, preferring to stay together.

If one should separate and go off by herself, the separation remains external. She is still joined to the others from within. The self does not need to separate to the same extent in order to define one’s identity.

In a way this is the difference between fire and water. The man needs to test his boundaries to find his strength and claim his power. He must go on a quest to define and refine who he is.

By contrast, the very nature of a woman’s body contains the mystery of being one with another. Sharing feelings and experiences with others is a celebration of the mystery within. Mermaids may join in a group of three because in this way love flows more freely.

At the same time, each member of this group had her own unique interests. One was like Isaphil. She sang of serenity and the moon and earth joining the inner and outer worlds in peace and harmony.

The other preferred to explore the ocean depths, the ocean trench, and the mountain ranges and valleys of the ocean floor.

Suramyn learned from both. She could capture the beauty of the world, reflecting and holding its images in the stillness of her heart.

And she could also focus her being on the power of water—how it turns solid as ice and remains itself even with the pressure of a mile of water pressing down upon it. She was aware that water has the power of solid rock and can also pick up boulders and hurl them about. That kind of power was becoming part of her.

One day, as the undine queens had foreseen, Suramyn received the call. The sea became silent. The songs of whales a thousand miles away, the splashing waves, the moaning deep, the sounds of fish nibbling a reef, even the electrical pulse in the presence of a shark—in her ears, everything was turned off.

And in the silence she heard these words spoken clearly even though no one else on earth could have heard:

Return Oh human child

From the sacred and the wild

From the sea so filled with beauty

It is time

Walk again among mankind

Who spoke those words? And for what purpose was she called?

Murjel is one of the twelve highest spirits who exist within the sphere of Jupiter. She presides over the astrological sign of Cancer. Her specialty is water, and all manner of fluids and every form of magnetism.

The planet earth has water on its surface in liquid form. But other planets have seas of liquids, even if these are of other chemicals such as methane. Murjel is aware of fluids everywhere they flow. Even the sun has great flowing masses and a powerful magnetic field.

Murjel is an example of a spirit whose heart can embrace the diversity of an entire solar system. Amid all the complexity of a star with planets and moons, an asteroid belt, and an Oort cloud further out, she can sense the entire system as one encompassing vibration.

As a great spirit with immense vision, she takes an interest in a specific planet when a civilization is undergoing a major transition. In such a case, she is free to intervene at her own discretion. She offers a path of love, illuminates it, and assists those who travel upon it to attain completion.

Murjel spoke to Suramyn, “You are needed elsewhere. I would not call unless the same love that created the realm in which you exist did not set before you another task. I promise you this: the sea of love that you taste today will in no way be less but soon enough far greater and more wondrous.”

Suramyn could not refuse the voice of the divine that holds in its grasp the fate of mankind and the entire planet in all its spiritual domains and separate evolutions.

Suramyn felt the sea slowly drain away. And not long afterward she awoke as a human child. She still felt the sea of love inside of her.

But on the outside she was surrounded by the desolation that is an advanced human civilization. It is a place where there is little or no sharing heart to heart, in which human beings have not learned how to become one with each other in any moment, in which feelings are secondary to other commitments, and in which love is rationed and treated as a possession.

She was born into Atlantis in a later age. There were three women present who assisted with the birth. Everything went well. She took her first breath. And shortly later they heard her make a sad, plaintive cry. Two of those women went home that night and cried themselves to sleep. They did not know why.

She grew up to be a beautiful, loving woman. She knew key players in that civilization. She was ignored in that time just as she is ignored and unappreciated now. Men love her physical beauty. But they do not perceive the soul inside.

Human beings are obsessed with knowledge, technology, and power. Even those who knew better failed to offer love or honor. Their hearts were elsewhere.

If Murjel herself appeared to one of the leaders of the world in a dream saying, “I have sent this woman to teach you about love before it is too late and you destroy yourselves.”

The response would have been: “I just don’t get it. Nothing in me responds to what you are revealing.”

Darkness was beginning to fall over the civilization of Atlantis. Still ahead of us in technology and science not to mention magic, powerful factions were forming that would tear that society apart. When given too much leisure, individuals can be brilliant, creative, adventurous, and playful too. And yet their hearts can become jaded. If a people lose their sense of wonder and an appreciation for beauty and love, they can still do amazing things. But the glory they seek is short lived and they may come to a sudden end.

I have written more about those times in my story, The Feminine Mysteries, and in my screenplay, Fall of Atlantis.

Still, from the point of view of Murjel and other higher spirits who preside over entire evolutions, Suramyn was not just a gift to Atlantis. She would be offered again to another civilization as it too moves inevitably toward its own destruction.

Yet those with sufficient clairvoyant vision see that she shall be offered and finally received by a race that is ordained to replace mankind, a race more suited to living in harmony with the full beauty that is this planet. All the same, the opportunity is offered by the divine in case there be a few who change their minds. A few hundred would be enough to create a new destiny for humanity. With a genuine response, the world as we know it can become a different place.

The poem that the story unfolds:

Double Changeling

The tale is told

How fairies from the Other Side

A child exchange, a trade is made

But I speak with ease

Of greater mysteries than these:

She addresses the undine queens

With words never before heard

Is not my love of water the same as yours?

The lakes, the rivers, the streams, the seas—

One taste, one embrace?

Is not my love everywhere in every moment

Your own reflection, your own perfection?

Do I not know how to let go and flow:

There is no past or future

No wisdom or destiny

The sea shall encompass each with ecstasy.

Council is taken, all problems debated,

A decision rendered:

If you will step aside from mankind

All privileges and gifts of the undines

Shall be granted

For as long as you wish to remain

Until that day the divine

Sets before you another way

And so for a thousand years

In a group of three she does play

Among the waves, as pure delight,

A song unlike any other

The sea does sing and dream at night

But now she returns

The divine intervenes

For what purpose am I called?

My peace disturbed?

What service am I to render to mankind

That the realms of bliss I must leave behind?

Return Oh human child

From the sacred and the wild

From the sea so filled with beauty

It is time

Walk again among mankind

Think not that humans

Are selfish and greedy

Vulnerable and needy

Blind to the beauty that shines

In the sky, the earth, the trees, the seas,

Rather, imagine what they shall be

If freed of all need

If they were but to taste the love you feel

They would be healed

As once before you did implore

Another realm to open its door

Persuade mankind with your receptive grace

Every moment boundless love does embrace

Return Oh human child

From the sacred and the wild

From the sea so filled with beauty

Walk again among mankind

For what purpose do you ask?

Fulfill this task:

Set them free.

The poem I wrote the model when I first saw her picture:

The Beach

Can a woman be an image of the sea?

If she stands on the beach

Is there more than a naked woman to see?

If I say to her,

“If you feel it, someone will see it—

I want you to be for a few moments

The entire sea:

I want you to feel that the blood

Surging through your body

Is the currents and tides

And the waves circling world,

I want you to feel your breath is the winds

The drives the white caps,

That your skin vibrates

With all the waters of the earth

That the beauty of the seas, lakes, and streams

Is your beauty

That when your lips part

It is the songs of the sea that sing

That where your eyes gaze

You see the dreams of love

That have yet to flow

Through the hearts of humanity ….”

If I ask these things of her

And she gives me what I want

Will others see what I see?

Can anyone do what I can do so easily?

Enter her soul as she stands there

And feel the sea flowing though me

Without limitations, without anxiety,

Without restraint or a ravenous need to take

But rather the desire to celebrate

The power of the heart

To embrace all life on earth

And the wonder of being alive?

In this moment, for a few seconds,

Without any limitations, I am one with this woman

And, I tell you,

I am surrounded by the beauty of creation.

A Mermaid’s Story

Introduction

The story I share next comes from a woman named Ronda. She states that she was a mermaid long ago, but then she acquired a human soul. This acquisition was permanent, but she retained her mermaid psychic powers and empathy.

In the genre of fairy tales that I write, I sometimes treat real human beings as if they also belong to other spiritual realms. In this way, wonder and awe can be studied by observing how these individuals interact with others in everyday life. In this case, a fairy tale is not “once upon a time” but here and now. It invades our world with its power and delight.

It took over two years to gain Ronda's trust: I listened carefully as she told me the story of her life. We also corresponded via e-mail, generating some 100 pages. Eventually, she was willing to meet me and then permitted eight hours of videotaped interviews. Now, she shares with me things she has never told anyone else.

It takes a very good listener to write a modern fairy tale. Researching individuals’ experiences demands more time than was practical for writers such as the Brothers Grimm and W. B. Yeats. But to get the best stories, I have to journey at least half way to the Other Side.

I listen with magical empathy. I see through the other’s eyes. I think the other’s thoughts. I feel the feelings in the other’s heart. To some extent, the other’s memories become my own.

When I do this with someone like Ronda, I am standing between two worlds. The gate to another realm opens. Now the story is ready to be told. The invasion of wonder, awe, and beauty begin.

At the same time, as a writer I am not just a detached observer who wishes to offer a fair and impartial presentation of folk tales. I have an agenda. Note, for example, the epiphanies of Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. When Newton said, “Ahh, gravity!” he in effect answered all questions in physics that existed before him.

When Einstein said, “Ahh, gravity!” he in effect created the paradigm through which all questions of physics would be asked for 100s of years in the future. In each case, there is a paradigm shift and a new way of asking and perceiving. Of course, they had mathematics to back up their empirical observations and define their data.

I, too, am looking for a paradigm shift, and this is how it will happen: One day, I will meet a woman who embodies the powers of the undine queens. And in that day, the human race will be able to dissolve the negativity of anyone on earth who wishes to harm others in a significant way.

Newton and Einstein gave us astonishing technologies for fighting wars and destroying the world. But the day will come when the powers of the heart shall overrule those whose power is derived from external methods.

In reviewing reports on unusual spiritual experiences, I am looking for new insights, psychic abilities, intuitive skills, empathic skills, inner connections to others, and an understanding of love as a free flow of energy that nurtures, heals, and makes life new. Women such as Ronda provide steppingstones that offer a different destiny for mankind.

A Mermaid’s Story

Toward the end of Atlantis, a number of powerful magicians became obsessed with increasing their magical and scientific powers. These men developed entire fields of research about which modern scientists know nothing.

For example, they could link their minds together in a telepathic and mesmeric, trancelike manner.

While modern men rely on wires to transmit electricity and use satellites and cables to communicate, the Atlanteans could transfer energy without wires, could observe different parts of the earth without dependence on technology, and could communicate directly mind to mind. They also had mastered flight using antigravity engines.

But this was not enough. They wanted power over matter, to strengthen metals and alter molecular bonds without using a factory, a metal shop, or a nuclear reactor. This same interest extended to biology. They redesigned DNA and created new, experimental species.

One of the great Atlantean mages named Asor noticed that there were essential states of awareness missing from their consciousness. This observation by itself is not so unique. When the current Dalai Lama was a boy, he took an interest in electrical engineering. He was curious about how car engines and movie projectors worked. He saw that Tibetan culture, so masterful in the arts of meditation, was deficient in its understanding of technology. But his tutors and advisors quickly returned him to the traditional curriculum designed for a Dalai Lama.

Recall that Sir Isaac Newton not only formulated the basic laws of modern physics but also sought the alchemical philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life. Since analytical chemistry had not yet been invented, he used what was available to compensate for what was missing from the knowledge of his world.

In a similar manner, Asor noticed that the element of water as a spiritual, psychological, and scientific object of study had been neglected. In earlier ages of Atlantis, knowledge of the spirits of water, the mermaids and undines, was far more common. In those times, women and mermaids blended their personalities together so that Alanteans could walk down the central street of the capitol city and meet women whose auras were similar to those of actual mermaids.

It came down to this. The Altantean scientists and magicians had developed their powers of concentration to such a degree that there was a residual tension in their brains that interfered with their ability to relax, to feel, and even to fall asleep. For Asor, this felt like a band of metal was squeezing his brain. The tension never went away. Many of those affected did not notice any symptoms. But Asor was quite sensitive to energy. He was an expert in the human aura.

Once Asor made this observation, he reflected on the problem and then imagined a remedy. He created a meditation that rejuvenated the astral body. He seized on the feeling of letting go, holding onto nothing, and being free of all ambition. To this he added a sense of total detachment and also a sense of being so sensually involved in the moment that he used these words to describe the experience: “It is like flowing water; like feeling a part of all the waters of the earth.”

Now, as is typical of an individual fully certified in both magic and scientific methodology, when one of these disciplines offers no insight into a problem, he turns to the other for practical solutions. Asor set a quartz crystal ball before him. He put on a magenta and violet robe. As he gazed on the crystal ball, he entered into a state of concentration that no modern scientist can duplicate. Modern scientists also do not possess brain waves this mesmeric and focused. Using the power of the crystal ball to enhance perception, he searched the inner planes of the earth for the precise being that would reveal what was missing from the culture of his world. To his surprise, he could not find it. Nothing of any relevance appeared. Being a patient man, he took a break.

He came back the next night. He decided that he was so used to forming telepathic connections that he had been scanning the wrong inner planes. What he wanted was on the astral plane. He wanted the living presence of a nature spirit of water and not the contemplative realization of a mind seeking knowledge. He said to himself, “It is not a formula or an idea I am after. I want a friend and a lover.”

So he let his heart rather than his mind do the searching. Rather than relying on magical ritual, he went to the bath house next to his private temple, and there he sat in the water, meditating.

This action was not without humor for him, because it was so unlike him. (Imagine a very serious person dressing up and playing the part of a clown in a circus.) But no matter what was required to attain his objective, he would do it. So he put aside his adult state of mind and became childlike, free of any work ethic, schedule, or scientific endeavor.

It took about two and a half hours. He sent his consciousness into the ocean. He waited, in search not for the idea but for the feeling. While he waited, he visualized images such as floating on his back on the open ocean on a calm day and then on a still night. He imagined sinking down beneath the waves and drifting with the current. He tried forgetting that he had a body and simply extending his awareness out into the sea for miles in all directions.

Then he focused on the magnetic field that encompasses the oceans of the earth. He felt this magnetism flow through his body. Then he felt the pull of the moon on the ocean and the rotation of the planet until all that existed in his consciousness was the sea encompassing the earth.

She appeared before him, sitting on a rock in the center of the sea beneath a full moon. She was perfectly clear, in the form of a mermaid, only five feet away. She was singing one note, a song of ecstasy.

There was a very great temptation in this moment for both the scientist and the mage in him to ask, “Why would any creature be doing what she was doing?” At this point, most other Atlantean magicians would have broken the connection out of surprise or confusion, but Asor possessed some of the habits that existed in a previous age of Atlantis. Teachers in that earlier time taught methods for attaining an enlightened mind. Asor possessed a few of these methods. He knew how to put aside the person he is in order to become something he is not, in fact, how to become completely empty, without form or content in his consciousness.

He knew the trick of high-caliber contemplation, that is, become the thing observed without in any way referring back to the observer. And this he did almost to perfection. He became the mermaid, the sea, the sky above, the moon, the stars, the waves, the wind, and the song she was singing.

After returning to his room from these observations, Asor sought for the words to describe his experience. It was well known among mages that if what appears at the edge of sensory perception is not put into words or fashioned into images, the wonder observed is lost. Though the observer returns to his world, he fails to bring back the treasure he has found. This is because at the edge of the senses lies infinity, and those who make this journey into the unknown cross over an abyss that protects the mysteries.

Asor used these words to describe what had entered his consciousness:

This mermaid is the moon in the form of a woman. She is the fabric of space and time expressed as a stillness of the heart and as a peace that binds the astral plane of the moon to the earth and to the sea.

She is the voice of a dream dreamed by the earth and the moon working together to create beauty. The magnetism in her aura is a chord of harmony that enhances the beauty of this planet. She is one of the great songs that the sea sings at night. For those who can hear and translate her inspiration into words, she is the muse who illuminates what is missing for any civilization. No wonder this is the one who appears in response to my search!

Asor got out of the bath, dried off, dressed, and went for a long walk. He was charged with nervous energy as might be expected, not uncomfortable or irritated. He was not unnerved. It was more like a puzzle now for him, how to frame the right question to determine his next course of action. As he walked across bridges and alongside canals, he reviewed the entire range of his memories of this life and of others.

He sat at an isolated table beside a fountain on a quiet street, sipping a drink that was common in Atlantis. Coffee had not yet been discovered so there was no Starbucks, no lattes. But they had a drink similar to what is known in present-day India. It is called a lassi and his was made of yogurt and mango with a hint of chocolate and cinnamon. There was one more ingredient, a fermented herb that tasted like mead and induced a feeling of just having awakened within a dream.

This is when and where, sitting there so casually and sipping his drink, he made a great mistake. He took his own needs and the needs of Atlantis as his reference point rather than the purposes of earth and the greater universe. The typical alpha male maintains a special support system to sustain his level of performance and movement toward his goals. For him, he must seize whatever is required in order to succeed.

Add the powers of a mage to this alpha-male profile and you develop a magically enhanced support system. No fault or blame applies at this point. A skillful leader does not need to resort to coercion or blackmail, intimidation or force, in order to gain others’ support.

Rather, he stages situations and events so that another discovers on his own that the best course of action just happens to be the very thing the alpha male wants from him. Technically speaking, this is not manipulation. It is the art of personnel management. It is persuasion and charisma in the right proportion, inspiring others to sacrifice for a greater good, or, in this case, to fulfill the will of a man who has complete command of himself.

But how do you manage a wonder of the earth? How do you arrange for the sacred to offer loyalty and support? The very idea sounds profane. But a great mage understands how to proceed. He splices together dreams of what shall be, uniting them to power and imagery so that they inevitably become reality. A mage who has any divine connection at all will explain that everything about the future is negotiable. What is needed is simply to find what is required to make a trade.

But as recent events have illustrated in modern times, some individuals in powerful leadership positions such as corporate CEOs often think to themselves, “Because I can reach out my hand and take what lies in front of me, it is most likely the right thing for me to do.” Seeing themselves as the center of authority and responsibility, they assume there is no higher law to be acknowledged. Asor was simply doing what human beings do so well: solving the problem in front of him and getting on with his life in the best way he knew how.

Asor’s first move was to form a relationship with this mermaid in order to gain her trust and support. To do this, he changed his astral body into the form of a merman. But form is not enough. He also changed the entire vibration of his aura. He changed the intense, radiant vitality of his etheric body into a vibration of deep, still water. He put aside the dynamic, intense emotional force that characterized his personality, changing the very feeling of his presence. He became a rhythm of water, waves from a storm a thousand miles away blending, crisscrossing, and flowing through waves forming from a wind near shore.

He put aside his mind. The only presence now in his awareness was of the magnetism flowing between the ocean and the clouds above during an electrical storm. Then he transferred himself, projecting his astral body in this form into close proximity to the mermaid.

She was not always serious about joining the beauty of the earth and moon in her consciousness. Like many mermaids, she played in the sea in a group of three. She leaped above the waves and laughed as she fell with a splash. She dove and rose, freely exploring reefs and caves.

The mage, now merman, waited patiently to encounter her when she was alone. Knowing how much mermaids love attractive energy, he added one final touch. He changed the vibration of his aura so that, like a powerful magnet, it matched and enhanced her energy.

Even though she was a creature of beauty, harmony, and peace, she was not yet beyond all need. Asor was a master of the arts of enchantment. He knew that longing and desire can be created in any being, no matter how complete it feels in itself, by offering it ten times more power than it now has. This is done by assuming an opposite polarity that automatically amplifies the energy in the other.

Asor became a magnetic field, gathering and conducting electricity that extended from him and flowed right through the core of her being. The energy flow was such that what was in her was in him so that their two auras joined as one. Without him uttering a word, she felt overcome with passion in his presence.

What is passion for a mermaid? For some it is the sight of great waves smashing against a granite cliff—the spray thicker than falling rain. For others, it is the roar of waves breaking on a lonely beach, where water throws itself forward onto the sand and then returns as an undertow sliding down into the depths. Then it is also countless shades of blue, green, and white taking form in endless ways in icebergs drifting free from their glacial moorings. Passion is need dancing with freedom in which every desire explodes in delight and reaches a new height as it attains a new form of completion.

To put it another way, this is how she gave voice to her passion:

At first it seemed like entering a dream

He was me in another form

It was not his words I heard

Nor his eyes, his smile

It was what he was inside

I felt the tides rise

The sea whispering to me

This is the one

With whom you can celebrate love.

I felt the moon rise

I became a riptide

A whirlpool, a tsunami, a flashflood,

What is love when it is out of control

And only another

Can restore peace and calm to your soul?

Though in her meditation she was a wonder of the earth, her personal will was no match for an Atlantean mage whose skills include binding another’s soul into a stone of crystal and quartz. It happened like this. After repeated encounters, she fell in love with the merman. She trusted him and was in awe of his power. She felt that the connection was one of those special things that only occur once in 1000 years. He then persuaded her, based on their shared love, to return with him to his human realm.

She would enter the body of a receptive woman in order to be with him. At first, it was for an hour. Then the visits grew longer. She felt safe, because love created a path between the realms of undine and mankind.

But he wanted more. He wanted her with him permanently. So, before she understood what was happening, he enchanted her with high magic so that the water that composes a mermaid’s soul was joined to the other human elements of air, earth, fire, and akasha.

He did this so that she could not return to her own realm. This was within his power to accomplish. He did it, because it enhanced his performance as a mage to have beauty such as this by his side. He did it, because she filled in for what was missing from the soul of Atlantis. He did it so that now he could return to his studies on controlling matter without feeling any residual tension in his brain. All he had to do was gaze upon her, and he felt release and peace anointing him. It made perfect sense to him to spend some time with a woman who was once a mermaid, whose soul embodies a magnificent love which human women have never felt.

With her in his room, he could let go and be nothing at all and still feel that beauty and harmony, sensuality and serenity, had become a part of his own nature. Again, an alpha male tends to seize what he needs in order to insure the success of his ventures. And this was something of value that immensely enhanced the treasure trove of Asor, a mage who possessed an insider’s knowledge of the mysteries.

What happened to the soul of the woman whose body the mermaid had entered? The original woman’s soul slowly faded away until only the mermaid's remained. In this the mermaid had no say.

How did the mermaid feel about this? At first, she felt genuine love for the mage. But when she realized what he had done to her, she was appalled. She, a creature so adept at feeling and empathy, had been tricked. Love had been betrayed. It was grievous because of what he had done to her and doubly so because she had failed to sense his intentions.

She could no longer play among the waves with her two friends, skim the reefs, and dive into the ocean trenches. She could no longer use her magical voice or even sing. Her very memories as a mermaid began to fade.

Before, when she fell asleep in the body of a woman and dreamed, she always awoke in mermaid form and reentered the sea. Now, returning to the sea was no longer an option. Now, when she awoke after falling asleep, she awoke in human form, she met and spoke with dead human beings. She would try to help them, because she still embodied the purposes of love. Yet she knew that this was not her calling.

She retained many of her psychic abilities. She could transport her mind over distances and visit other locations. She caught glimpses of the future. She could heal others. She knew how to take away pain and to free others from dark memories. But her mermaid soul, the part that united the beauty of the heavens and the earth, had been taken away from her and hidden beyond her reach.

But beyond being tricked, deceived, and betrayed, she had been given a human soul against her will. A mage may only do this if he has the permission of Divine Providence. That is, he must have a purpose that encompasses the ages and is acceptable to the realm from which she has come.

Asor had no such purpose. No divine permission had been sought for or granted. And to be perfectly clear, this was not a case where a mistake eventually leads to some greater good. Rather, to give a simple example, it is like walking out into your garage and unscrewing one of the fuses in the electrical box for the house. The lights in a room go out because the energy is no longer flowing.

The beauty in the soul of the earth and the moon lost a degree of its sparkle and life. The magnificence of nature on the entire planet was diminished. The wonder of water and its divine sensuality was reduced in a significant amount.

The mermaid's two soul companions, the other mermaids with whom she swam, sensed that something horrible had happened. They searched but could not find her. When they consulted with the undine queens, they were informed that the entire race of mankind would soon pay a terrible price for its actions. But this is no consolation when something that is part of your own heart mysterious vanishes without explanation.

How do mermaids grieve when the essence of their being is love? For them, to love does not mean that they must ignore their own limitations. One of the remaining two mermaids chose to abandon all contact with the human race. Even today, there is not a trace of anything human about her, even in her deepest memories.

The other mermaid has a story unlike any other. To briefly summarize, this mermaid could see when the three would be reunited—perhaps 10,000 years in the future. To be one with the sea is to be beyond all grief. Love is never lost. Remorse and sorrow are human feelings. These beings journey along a path of beauty in which separation leads to reunion and conflict attains harmony. She foresaw a time when mankind and mermaids would walk side by side and share equally the mysteries of love. But her story stands alone, and her journey is very profound.

To make matters worse, Asor desired to carry the mermaid’s soul with him into death, that is, onto the astral plane. As some Chinese Taoists still practice, he wished to maintain his consciousness after death so that he had the full awareness and the same powers that he had here on earth. To do this, he bound her soul into a crystal ball. Although the crystal ball was material, he only needed to take the astral image of the ball with him to accomplish his purposes. Practitioners of magic know that everything physical in the world can be intensified, mummified so to speak, so that a more refined or subtle vibration of it is transferred intact to the Other Side.

For the mermaid, it felt like her soul was trapped in a cage. She was mentally restricted. Imagine what it would feel like to be a Beethoven no longer able to compose music or a Picasso unable to paint. Imagine having amnesia with no memory of being an artist. From that point on in life, everything would feel wrong. For the mermaid, part of her was ripped from out and taken by the mage to the astral plane.

So for these many long ages and eons, she has been forced to reincarnate as a human being. But in her heart of hearts, she knows that in every lifetime, regardless of whom she may be, no purpose exists for her here on earth among human beings. She was designed and commissioned to be within the sea and to express its mysterious beauty.

In context, this was not the first or the last time that the human race has committed serious violations against the laws of the universe. But certainly the 49 Judges of Saturn took note of this event. This taking of a mermaid against her will in itself did not cause the end of Atlantis, but it did not help. Actions such as these, in combination with others, inevitably led to the sinking of the continent and the complete destruction of that advanced civilization.

The Curse

The undine queens had no need to make a complaint. In order to prevent further abuse, the spiritual Guardians who watch over evolution on this planet issued a judgment and a geas. They pronounced a magical command that binds all of mankind and still remains in effect:

Access to the realm of undines is henceforth prohibited to mankind except in extraordinary circumstances and on a case-by-case basis. All world teachers are forbidden to offer to mankind the undines’ gifts in regard to pleasure and bliss, ecstasy and rapture, the power of beauty—its pure, uninhibited sensuality--the magic of empathy, and the secrets of love in regard to direct, soul-to-soul inner union. Love on the astral plane in its purity, wonder, and power may not be shared with or taught to mankind.

In order to enforce this rule, a large number of monsters were created. At the very end, the Atlanteans’ spiritual misdeeds generated extremely negative energies. These energies were gathered together and attached to a new purpose, to protect the realm of the undines.

They are not physical beings. Rather, they are astral beings who appear within the dreams and just beneath the consciousness of human beings. They are sirens, krakens, gorgons, leviathans, medusas, and all manner of terrors whose presence stops the mind from thinking. They are part of our collective unconsciousness, an invisible, unnamed archetype, or, as Freud more accurately described them, “monsters of the Id.”

It is like this. Whenever an individual begins to consider or accidently stumbles upon a path leading to the realm of undines, these monsters appear within that individual’s brain waves. Without a thought entering the individual’s mind, the sense of something too horrible to behold turns the individual’s thoughts in some other direction. This may sound overly invasive and paternalistic, but it was undertaken in order to grant humanity a new beginning.

The power of Atlantis was in its combination of magic and science. The scientists were aware of the inner planes and consulted with spiritual beings in pursuing breakthroughs and technological innovations. But these powers were terribly abused. Closing the inner planes to mankind has made the entire history of Western civilization extroverted. It is no accident that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam treat magic as if it is a path leading to darkness and horrors. The mysteries in their genuine power remain forbidden.

Consequently, the human race has been blocked for these long ages from even thinking about, much less pronouncing aloud, the names of the undine queens. When examining the entire body of literature on our planet about mermaids and undines, it is absolutely astonishing that so little material of value is presented. In many cases, what exists in literature and mythology is disinformation. The stories presented often lead not toward but away from the realm of undines by offering illusions, false paths, and misinformation.

When it comes to this curse, do not take my word for it. Observe this for yourself, and draw your own conclusions. Here is a simple set of exercises that demonstrate my point.

To get past the Guardians, to open the gate to the astral plane of the undines, requires only three things: In your mind, be the purity of the stars at night—clear, open, and shining bright; be flowing like water in a stream—moving freely, turning and yielding, receptive and giving as if innocence has been turned into a dream; and finally, feel that love is everywhere—it is in the air, the water, the sea, the sky, light itself is love’s expression, breathing air is love’s embrace.

These are simple meditations. Any minister, priest, or rabbi in any church or synagogue on earth could slip one of these meditations in just before he begins a sermon. All he would need to do is say something like this:

Before I begin the sermon, I want you to take a moment and imagine a mountain pool. There is a small water fall, a gentle spray of drops falling, moisture in the air, sparkling light dancing in the falling drops, the sound of splashing in the pool, small ripples running across the surface, and the water flowing over some rocks as it continues down a hill.

Imagine you are the water falling, dropping through the air, splashing, circling in the pool, and then flowing on. Take a few moments to explore those sensations—the falling drops and the cool, splashing water, the sounds and moisture in the air. Note the feeling of purity, release, relaxation, and peace that they awaken. Now then, let us proceed to today’s sermon.

But this little meditation or something like it has perhaps never been spoken in any church or synagogue in the last 2,000 years. I tell you, there is something missing from the soul of humanity.

Now then, imagine that you and another feel a love for each other that also embodies these three things—purity, flowing water, and being a part of and within a sea of love. Take a few moments to feel what this would be like.

Now simply ask yourself, “Have I ever seen or experienced this love?” Some have. I have met individuals who feel and live within this love every moment of every day.

But if not, answer these questions, “Is not the sea available for all to see?” Have you never floated in water and simply let go, feeling total release? Have you not seen the stars at night and felt they are a reflection of your own mind, its depth and its strength? Have you never seen the water in a stream flowing free, curling and turning, yielding, and embracing? Perhaps you have or perhaps you have not.

But now we come to the crux of the matter, the great question that defines whether or not there is a curse upon our entire civilization for the last 10,000 years. Ask yourself, “If you have not experienced this kind of love, then why have not the religions of the earth with their wise men and with all their spiritual illumination simply taught what is so profoundly obvious when you gaze at the sky at night, at the sea, and the stream flowing free?” It is right in front of us. It is impossible to miss, and yet almost everyone on earth misses sensing and feeling these things.

There you have it, a demonstration of an immense curse that Divine Providence has placed upon all traditions and spiritual teachers of our planet.

Yet each individual remains completely free to pass by the Guardians through combining these simple meditations into one. The guardians of the curse who have been commanded to stop human beings from encountering undines will not even give you a second glance. If you have no ego, then the curse has no power over you. You are free to feel the souls of undines flow through your own soul even as you are free to join your soul to any other person you may choose to love—it is an inner connection like water turned into love flowing through you.

What of the mermaid forced against her will to become a human being, who has reincarnated over and over again as a human being? I put the question to Ronda: “Would you, even now, return to being a mermaid if you were given the choice?” Her reply? “Yes,” she said, “without hesitation. As a mermaid, I dwell in a realm of bliss and pure delight. For me, human beings are not yet fully alive. There is a part of their souls that is dead. It is hard to explain, but they have a denser, weaker vibration. When I awaken each night on the astral plane, even though I have not yet reacquired my mermaid soul, the perceptions I have are a thousand time more intense and satisfying than when I awaken in the morning as a human being.”

But she also agrees that if the right purpose could be found, she would remain among humanity, even considering the sacrifice. That is, assuming she could continue to perform the original task assigned to her when she was a mermaid.

Epilogue

I practiced with Ronda the cosmic letter formula of E-M, which is specifically designed to create mermaid consciousness. This action, along with an encounter with the undine queens, restored the part of her soul that had been trapped in the crystal ball. She is now free of the mental cage that the mage had created around her.

Will she choose to return to the realm of mermaids and undo the harm that was done when her soul was bound to other elements not her own? We consulted with the undine queen Istiphul in regard to her situation.

Istiphul said to the woman, “What was done can be undone. But you are asking the wrong question. It does not matter in what spiritual realm or form you exist. It is only important that you feel free wherever you are. With a slight shift in focus, you can enter any realm you desire. You can experience its wonders and engage in spiritual activities and then return again to wherever you may be.

“There are undines that have crossed over, not just shape shifting, but actually turning into human beings. They do not experience loss or limitation during this process. The undines within them remain fully alive and active. They have just added new abilities and aptitudes to what they already are.

“As you know, one of the three mermaids with whom you once played was originally a human who has now returned to humanity and lives as a woman. She is in no way harmed by her journey and sojourn in my realm. The divine has set before her a course in life that shall traverse many realms and serve many purposes.”

Together, using our psychic abilities, Ronda and I also visited another mermaid who has acquired a human soul. She lives in Greece, and she gained a human soul in order to be with her human lover permanently. This undine-turned-human is perfectly happy. As a human being, she feels that she is still completely an undine. Like the undine queen mentioned, she just has more aptitudes and abilities.

She also has no sense of time. Does the sea experience the four seasons? For sure, the ice caps melt in summer and the poles and other areas of the sea change in temperature. But in the sea, all seasons flow together. The things used to discern time—movement toward a goal, hours and days, or progress in solving a problem—these are external. The inner self for a mermaid woman does not change. There are perhaps four or five other women in the world at this time who were once mermaids and who have acquired human souls. Each has her own story, and usually the transition involves an act of love.

So this story has been told, of how a mermaid many ages ago was forced against her will to acquire a human soul. But this action was performed at great cost to the human race. The curse on humanity still remains, but it is a curse that can be overcome. One final thing remains to be said.

The woman, even now, is reintegrating into herself her undine soul that was taken from her. As that soul awakens, it has a message for mankind, for as you recall, one of the undine’s commissions was to point out what is missing from any civilization.

This is her message. “Unless the human race develops knowledge of the inner spiritual worlds equal to its knowledge of science and technology in the outer world, it will encounter chaos. The soul of humanity w ill be like a piece of paper torn into four pieces and then cast into the wind.”

“It is no longer permissible for the religions and spiritual traditions of the earth to be so selfish and narrow minded. If they would be wise, their wisdom must encompass the entire earth. They must offer methods of self-transformation for everyone without asking for anything in return. The sky, earth, and sea are freely given. And beauty is itself a path of divinity; it is the foundation of harmony.”