Alice 1 (14 page)

I’m not used to feeling this stupid but it’s
all relative. Yes, humans are smarter than ants, but imagine a
super-super-being who creates universes in his spare time.

____________________

The evocation of St. Francis was held in a large
room in the Crowley home. Flickering candles provided an
otherworldly atmosphere, and there was a pedestal in the middle of
the room covered with white fur. Religious and occult symbols
covered walls and ceiling.

The Crowley group was warm and friendly. Shared
danger does that.

And to assure you I’m carefully attending to
my studies,

I have the data to prove it.

Dr. Crowley started with a short meditation and
then began the evocation.

“Let our love and joy reach out to our beloved
Saint Francis. Mother Earth needs his love and kindness to heal the
neglect and destruction caused by greedy, uncaring people. They
close their hearts and they close their minds to the harm they
do.”

Oh my, four Shadows came into the room. They
look like old frat boys. The Crowley’s aren’t aware of the Shadow
World, so can’t see or hear them.

“Saint Francis, feel our love, feel our joy. Let
our love and joy grow as we invite our beloved saint to come among
us. Send out our love and joy. Send out our invitation for Saint
Francis to come among us to help heal our beloved Mother
Earth.”

One of the Shadows began to morph into St.
Francis. The robe of the saint appeared and then the halo. Another
Shadow was changing into the Devil, with the usual tail, horns and
pitchfork, or whatever it’s called.

“Send out our love and joy. Send out our love
and joy for St. Francis to come among us.”

The other three shadows noticed the Devil and
burst out laughing as the Devil started to walk toward the
pedestal. They grabbed him and wrestled on the ground as macho guys
sometimes do.

“In the name of all that is just and holy, in
the name of beauty and truth, we ask St. Francis to come among
us.”

The Shadow boys finished wrestling and St.
Francis was moving toward the pedestal.

“St. Francis, use our love and use our joy to
guide you here tonight! Come among us in love and joy! Come among
us!
Now!”

And yes indeed, the Shadow of St. Francis
floated onto the pedestal and the faint outline of his robe and
halo began to appear. There were many ohs and ahs, gasps and
grunts, as they realized their prayers were answered.

“Yes! Yes! Feel the love, feel the joy. Yes!
Yes! I see our beloved Saint.”

St. Francis was becoming more and more solid and
gaining color. His golden halo was beautiful. There was complete
silence as the Saint materialized in all his glory. The shimmering
light around his body was a nice touch. And the great Saint began
to speak.

“Your love and your caring have brought me
forth. I feel your love and feel the goodness of your hearts. In
life I also sought to heal our beloved mother earth and her many
creatures. Evil people are now causing great harm.

“You are among the blessed, and I give you my
love, and I give you my joy, my wisdom, and my strength. Fight the
evils of the world! Fight evil with love! Fight evil with joy!
Fight evil with wisdom! Fight evil with strength and courage!”

The Shadow guys were jumping up and down,
clapping their hands at this magnificent display of saintly
rhetoric. And pointing and laughing at the gullible fools.

“My stay here is brief and I must go. I leave
you with a heart full of love and joy. Blessed followers of the
Lord like yourselves nourish all Reality. Together we will make the
world a wondrous paradise for all God’s children.”

Everyone stood with outstretched hands as Saint
Francis faded away. We overflowed with love and joy.

Not for long. The Devil jumped onto the
pedestal, there was a loud clap of thunder, and he suddenly
appeared in a midst of smoke, fire, and brimstone.

What a magnificent display of demonic glory.
Heads snapped around and mouths flew open.

“You stupid fools left the gate open and I am
now among you! I am the power behind all realities. I am the power
behind all creation. Your simple little god lives only in your
simple little minds. Poor little talkative Christianity. All the
divine words from ‘Let there be light’ to ‘It is ended’ are nothing
but the vicious threats and empty promises of fools, liars and
thieves.”

Oh my, these really are college boys and the
Devil has taken British Lit. Most of that last part was lifted from
E. M. Forster’s
A Passage to India.

Dr. Crowley was the first to gather his wits and
courage.

“Be gone Satan! I beseech you in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of God almighty. Be gone!” The
good doctor falls back on the rhetoric of Christianity in a
pinch.

“Empty, meaningless words. What pitiful,
ignorant weaklings you humans are. Your tiny minds understand only
the simplest maps of Reality. Reality itself is far, far beyond
your comprehension. I’d gouge out your eyes and take your souls,
but they aren’t worth the trouble.”

The other Shadows were rolling in the aisles. I
was beginning to feel a little sorry for the Crowleys. This guy
playing the Devil is good. I gotta admire Dr. Crowley though, he
was badly shaken but not giving up.

“By all of the love I have ever felt! By all the
good I have ever done! I order you in the name of God Almighty to
return to Hell!
NOW!
”

Well, I decided it was time to help out a
little. So at the end of that reverse evocation I stretched out my
Shadow hands and found the Devil solid enough to grab. Picked him
up, turned him upside down, lifted him in the air, and dropped him
on his head.

Oh my, what a sad, pitiful howl of fear and
pain, and then the poor Devil faded back to full Shadow. He’s
obviously not used to such rude treatment at these fun events he
and his friends attend. The frat boys looked around trying to
figure out what happened. They were scared and when they didn’t
find anything, decided it was time to leave lest further evil
befall them. Remember the old saying, “it ain’t no fun when the
bunny’s got the gun”.

Dr. Crowley quickly recovered. “Yes! Yes! With
the help of our Lord, we have conquered evil. Oh you good people.
Oh you good, decent people! St. Francis sent us the love, the joy,
the strength, the courage,
to send the Devil back to
Hell!!”

And they burst into a soul shaking chorus of
“Onward Christian Soldiers”. They really aren’t Christians but that
great march was just right. I was moved.

I heard a noise in back of me from the Shadow
World and turned around. The Shadow monk from Sather Gate was
clapping and laughing, and Ashara’s Shadow was standing next to
him, jumping up and down and waving her arms. Then they faded away.
Well as I suspected, Ashara is a little more than a sweet little
girl who steals chocolate donuts.

I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t
dropped the Devil on his head. Would Ashara and the monk have saved
Christianity?

The Holy High was still going strong a half hour
later and I had enough holiness for one night. I told them how
profoundly impressed I am by their almighty power and glory.

And what about poor old Aleister and all
those demons and monsters he evoked?

THE GREAT BEAST

Just a bunch of Shadows having a go at the
poor, ignorant man? What chuckles they must have had.

CHAPTER 35

David met me at the airport and wanted to spend
a little quality time together. So we found a cute little motel on
Sarasota Bay and chatted, among other things, for a good three
hours. He is able to maintain an extraordinarily stimulating and
satisfying level of communication for a long time. The fairy bells
were ringing and little blue and green fairies were flittering
around our shining bodies.

We had a nice, healthy glow when we came through
the front door of the Glacier Gang’s mansion in The Meadows. We
were a little late to no one’s surprise. The cake was fresh. The
ice cream still frozen. All’s well.

They’ve decided to combine the two groups. Doris
will be the leader and depend upon Maggie when she’s not around.
Thank God they like each other and have similar styles. Everyone
will go to the hunting camp summers, and alternate between Sarasota
and Carmel winters.

I told them about the 5-foot slimy slug that
poops black worms like the two they saw floating around the old man
by the sea. And warned not to get too close when mommy poops.

Everybody laughed and cheered when I told them
about dropping the Devil on his head.

“What worries me is the frat boys are way ahead
of us. They know how to transfer their consciousness into their
Shadow, how to change the appearance of their Shadow, how to
partially materialize into this solid world, and even how to create
the fire and brimstone of Hell. We don’t have a clue.”

“Yes,” Johnny said, “and we don’t know how
dangerous their Shadows or their materialized Shadows might be.
Just maybe the Holy Warriors of God from Walton know all about how
to use the Shadow World. Not so good if they find out what we did
to their buddies from Plattsburgh and come for revenge.”

“I’m pretty sure those four guys at the Crowleys
are students at Berkeley. I’ll find them when I get back and do
whatever I have to do to learn their secret.”

“Be careful, Alice,” Doris said. “If you need us
we’ll be there.”

“I’ll do some research,” Johnny said. “Maybe
there are hints in the religious, occult and spiritual literature
about how to activate Shadows.”

“So far we’ve just had fun,” Maggie said. “Now
we get serious. Alice will be here for a week. Let’s get to
work”.

We got nowhere. Our stupid Shadows just stood
there staring back no matter what we did. How hard can it be? The
frat boys can do it.

It wasn’t all work. We walked around the huge
banyan trees and great orchid collection at Selby Gardens, and went
shopping at Saint Armand’s Circle. Then off to the Friday Night
Artwalk at Towles Court, a cluster of funky little 2-story cottages
that used to be a migrant camp. Artists live on the second floor
and sell their creations on the first. Wonder if they have Friday
Night Orgy right after the Friday Night Artwalk?

And toured the marvelous Persian style mansion
built by John and Mabel Ringling.

Click
Ca’d’Zan

Then goodbyes and back to Berkeley. Gonna miss
David and the Gang.

While waiting for my connection in Atlanta, I
saw a crowd of Shadows go thru the check point and flow into the
boarding area. They behaved so naturally, talking to one another,
reading a paper, watching people. When their flight was called they
all got up and went through their final gate. Why this need for
reenactment?

CHAPTER 36

Arlene was very anxious at breakfast. She threw
up twice last night and phoned her doctor’s office early this
morning demanding she be seen immediately. I assured her it was
just morning sickness but she’s taking no chances. Her high level
of anxiety is not good for the baby and I gently tapped her calm
center.

Surprise! On my way to class, the Shadow monk
waved and smiled and I waved back, attracting the attention of
people walking by. They saw nothing and stared back at me with that
“she must be crazy” look. I walked over but he ignored me, again.
Limited conversational skills from too many years in his tiny cell
at the monastery? Where’s his buddy, Ashara?

Between classes I searched the bulletin boards
for Satanist groups. Two looked interesting.

YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO

God and Satan dance together eternally.
Neither exists without the other. We worship the power of creative
destruction. All are invited who no longer believe the Christian
God is all powerful and all good. That is an obvious lie. Come to
our group and learn the truth.

June the 2nd 7 PM

784 Bainbridge Drive, Berkeley

The second group was not quite as
philosophical.

COME TO THE RIGHTSIDE

Do all those holier than thou Christians
make you sick? Do all those self-righteous hypocrites make you
puke? If you’ve had enough flim flam Christianity come to our
meeting. We worship Reality, not sugar coated lies. We worship the
true, the glorious power of the universe. We worship Satan. 426
Socrates Lane, Berkeley, 8pm June 4th.

____________________

Half-way through breakfast with Arlene the next
morning Karla called and asked me to come in around ten. Well good,
I want to find out about the Satanist groups on campus. I have no
idea if he knows about the Shadow World and don’t want to ask. He
can be trusted to treat me well, as long as I’m useful.