William Mistele and Evocation

["peter_reist" <peter_reist@...>]

Due to the fact that the works of William Mistele have been coming up 
on a fairly regular basis upon the various Bardon e-zines, I feel 
compelled to voice my opinion on the matter. Particularly in relation 
to his work with the various spirits of the Eathzone and planetary 
spheres from the perspective of someone that is just starting the 
work of evocation. Read: Someone who is just starting to get in 
contact with various spirits via the method of mental wandering to 
establish a good rapport with a particular spirit before inviting it 
to manifest within the magical triangle. After all, you usually don't 
invite a friend over to your house the first time you meet them. The 
same holds true with the work of evocation and this misunderstanding 
seems to be one of the major failings of other systems of evocation 
such as the goeta and the sacred magic of Abra-Melin the Mage.

First and foremost, let me state that I personally feel that William 
is performing the tasks that divine providence set out for him to do 
in this particular incarnation. As such, he is going about his work 
in his own unique way. If anyone else was given the same, or a 
similar task ? which would appear to be to put forth the teachings of 
various spirits of the earthzone and planetary spheres that are 
normally only accessible to the scholar that has progressed to step 
eight, out into the public ? would perform this task in a radically 
different way. This trend can be seen in how Rawn's rendition of a 
technique central to the working of the fourth tarot card, the 
Archeous, differs from what little of what we can see of Bardon's 
rendition of the fourth tarot card within Das Goldeng Buch der 
Weisheit. That is to say, whatever I, or anyone else have to say 
about William's work, be it positive or negative: he is still doing 
the work of divine providence. However, at the same time, the manner 
in which he presents his material lends itself to some clarification 
in some places. In a similar manner that Bardon's works sometimes 
need a certain amount of clarification due to the nature of his 
writing.

William's commentaries about his workings with these various spirits 
is lush, vibrant and filled with his own personal experiences at a 
mental and astral level of density. This presentation puts forth the 
teachings of these spirits in a unique manner that is easily 
accessible to a scholar working at any stage in their progression. 
However, the fact that William presents his own personal experiences 
with these spirits can potentially lead the inexperienced scholar 
into a number of difficulties if they attempt to contact the various 
spirits that William talks about in his works. For, by presenting his 
own experiences with these spirits, the scholar reading about such a 
rendition will naturally start to form certain expectations: namely 
that if they are to contact a spirit that William has written about 
that they will be taught, and experience similar things to what he 
did. When the inexperienced scholar attempts contact with this 
spirit, they will be contacting this spirit through the veil of their 
own expectations, if not just connecting directly to their own 
expectations alone. On the other hand, the scholar that has started 
the work of step eight is able to set aside their expectations 
because of their understanding of how the human mind naturally 
creates larva, phantoms and phantasms of varying degrees upon a 
regular basis, in addition to having attained an astral as well as a 
mental equilibrium of the elements.

In some respects, this sort of problem will manifest in almost any 
attempt to contact a spirit that another person has come in contact 
with and evoked. They will have recorded the nature and degree of 
influence that this spirit has in a similar manner than Bardon does 
within the Practice of Magical Evocation, potentially creating the 
same sort of expectations that can be developed by the reading of 
William's work.

The obvious solution to this problem is simple: don't rely upon any 
grimore what so ever. Mentally wander to whatever sphere you wish to 
work within and ask divine providence to guide you to a teacher 
within this sphere that will teach you what you need to be taught. 
Which is exactly what I am doing at the present moment. It is due to 
this reason that I feel that Rawn writes within his commentary upon 
the Practice of Magical Evocation that if one really reads the theory 
section of that work, and understands it, one will come to the 
realization that the section putting for the hierarchy of spirits, 
their sigils and so forth, is essentially useless. 

Now, by mentally wandering to a particular sphere and asking divine 
providence for a teacher might potentially put you in contact with a 
spirit listed in the Practice of Magical Evocation, or another 
grimore, I personally feel that going about spirit contact in this 
manner to be more fruitful than working from another person's 
description of the spirit and it's seal. And, if after making such a 
correlation that the spirit you contacted and the experiences you had 
match up with another's then it does add more credence to both 
accounts given the fact that they developed independent of one 
another.

Love and Live well,
Peter Reist