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I’m blogging the process of writing my book, so you can see what goes into it and maybe get inspiration for your own book.
I’d planned to start my book with an outline, but most skills build on earlier skills, so the order matters as much as the list of topics. Rather than trying to organize everything in one go, I’m going to list the main skills for direct magick today — those are also the main topics of my book — and figure out the order later.
How can you help? Let me know what I missed, or anything you were hoping to see that’s not there.
Getting Started
Energy meditation and a basic ritual (LBRP?), for readers who’ve never done any magick before. Using quartz to make your energy more obvious. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll skip these pages.
Communication
How to send each concept accurately. This could be words, images, or something else, but how to send each unit of your message clearly and reliably.
Sub-topics: Quieting your thoughts. Placing thoughts in one part of your mind. Preparing that part of your mind for a particular signature. Placing your thoughts on a connection. (Maybe I’ll cover how to package your thoughts into a message, but that’s probably for a later, more advanced book.)
Personal-Growth Type Enlightenment
Magick techniques to overcome petty emotions so you are driven by a desire to create, not a drive for power. The technique will probably be based on consciousness integration, but needs to be simplified.
Sensory Connections
A set of skills to watch all the moving parts that make your magick work. This will be interspersed throughout the book, so you’ll improve your sensory connections a bit, then use them to do something else (which also gets you practice time with that sensory technique), then learn the next level.
Sub-topics: Quieting your energy (cover that with communication?). Quieting your connections. Sensing smaller signatures. Using multiple connections to sense an area, tracing a path. Sensing energy vs sensing structures, and how to notice low-power structures.
Protection
How to prevent magick attacks from spirits trying to drain your energy, or other malicious spirits and mages. Not enough to make you an expert, (that’s its own book), but enough to make you an unappealing target.
Sub-topics: Shielding. Noticing a connection. Breaking or removing a connection (and what to do if the spirit is actively using the connection). Tracing the connection to its source. A basic attack to cause a headache (in case they don’t give up).
Using Ethereal Software
How to recognize it, find it, and communicate with it. Most of the techniques are in the communication section. This will focus on finding it, and on common useful commands.
Sub-topics: Recognizing the spot in your mind where the ethereal software wants to connect, and recognizing the software’s signature. Aligning your communication to the software’s signature so it responds to you as though you were initiated. Asking the ethereal software to communicate in words, rather than intents. Common useful commands.
Awakening Your Mental Muscles
This starts with using energy to speed up the natural awakening of your mental muscles. Later, you’ll directly activate the muscles and the paths that provide them power.
Sub-topics: Finding your mental muscles. Recognizing which ones are awakening. A general map of common mental muscles. Finding the mental muscles that your current muscles want to work with. Awakening hibernating muscles, along with the paths that provide them power. What the fatigue feels like when a new mental muscle starts awakening, and how to help it so you don’t get tired.
Mental Posture
How to engage your mental muscles, particularly after awakening new ones. Also, how to keep your mental muscles passively engage, so you’re always paying attention to the magickal world.
Sub-topics: Developing a single mental posture for all your magick. Specializing your mental posture for each task. Dynamic posture, where you engage whatever you need for the current task, without practicing it beforehand. Making it all conscious.
Energy Healing
Both using ethereal software, and doing it directly. It will address energy layer, and at least one step down the path from energy to cells. I’ll probably return to practical topics like energy healing multiple times, teaching a new better version after you’ve learned new core skills. Include some case studies.
Manifesting
This is really an application of the techniques for using ethereal software. Mostly a list of commands, and tips on how to phrase questions. It will be a short chapter, or possibly the motivation for some of the exercises.
How You Can Help
It’s so, so easy for me to forget something, because once you’ve practiced these skills for a year or more, most of them become second nature, and you forget you’re even doing them.
So, let me ask you: Did I miss anything? Are there any skills you’d hoped for that aren’t here?
Thanks.
Other posts in this series:- Final-ish Book Outline (April 30, 2012)
- How I'm Self-Publishing a Magick Book (March 20, 2012)
- Who is My Book For? (April 15, 2012)
- The Main Skills for Direct Magick (March 24, 2012)
Tags: Book Publishing
Hmmm… it seems like you’ve covered everything, I would include “definitions” of what you mean precisely by “Ethereal Software”, “Mental Muscle”, “Mental Posture” and any similar jargon unique to your system. Ultimately, this looks like a groundbreaking contribution to the Occult Community. I too have been using Direct Magik for a while and plan on publishing a book. I strongly recommend that you find a publisher. Go for Lleweylln, since they have the widest variety of audiences and some of the worst books ever published. In contrast, I’m sure many Wiccans and what-not would fascinated with direct Magik. Original Falcon is a great company, too. They have some of the best books on the subject ever written. The benefit of this, is that you can get a well-known author to forward your book and with the topics discussed, I’m sure they’ll find it an honor and a pleasure.
Oh yes, and when I said that Llewellyn has “the worst books ever published” I meant that if those books deserve to be in their catalog, then yours DEFINITELY belongs there!! Besides, the types of audiences who look at those books would be fascinated with the description and it could be the next big thing (which I’m hoping it becomes).
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I think I’ll stay with self-publishing, at least for now, but I’ll take it as a compliment that you think I could get Llewellyn.
I have a recommendation on a book that is great to train energy:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2425218/NEW-ENERGY-WAYS-by-Robert-Bruce
Sounds cool. Less ‘circular’ then the website. :D
“The Ethereal Software” — I know we’ve talked about this in previous posts but…. for me, being a true geek. It would be SO cool to have some software (a structure) in place that the reader/practitioner could connect with and get a “ping” response. (( Shade of the bit from the original TRON movie… yes/no )) I mean, to go step-by-step thru this book and then *do* the stuff and actually get a response ‘ping’ would blow the mind… and confirm that it’s not all fairy dust and candy canes.
Again, the geekier side showing.
This will be a tome I hope to have autographed some day!
Thanks! I’d be glad to sign your copy.
I’m going to collaborate with some spirits to put together a training ethereal software and tie it to a symbol or a ritual, so you can work with it as you go through the book. Can’t commit to it right now, but that’s the plan, anyway.
@ f3n1x_hvn732
I’ve had an earlier edition of Bruce’s NEW system printed out long ago. It was handy for getting near immediate body awareness and thought directed energy ‘bounces’. I too recommend it for ‘beginners’ when I can.
It was incorporated into his book from 1999, Astral Dynamics… since his primary interest is in Out of Body experiences/training. Robert Bruce’s influences include Robert Monroe and Franz Bardon; both guys I’ve read on. (and especially suggest Bardon and his Introduction into Hermetics).
ANYWAY… now we can look forward to adding a future tome to the list of ‘highly recommended’. *no pressure Mike* :p
I’d like you to include some things of the “Focusing on the technique” series, maybe isn’t a Magick skill, but it really help me a lot to develop that skills, I thinks that’s important to follow each step to the maximum to get really obvious and accurate results from an exponential learning in a practical way.
Also will be good to say the common mistakes that the initiated can encounter doing.
And like said above, the definitions on your terms, like an obvious term the “Magick” one, that in your concept in applicability sounds in a way like the Psi- gamma and Psi- kappa from the Psychic abilities or Psychokinesis, and in others the Manifesting of the common understanding of the Magickal act in much of the occult community.
Thanks Yoseqlo. Good idea about listing common mistakes, I’ll probably put in a debugging section for each skill.
On the “Focusing on the technique” series, I’m not sure which series you’re talking about. Could you reply with a link?
Thanks.
This one: https://magickofthought.com/2010/04/learning-magick-focus-on-technique/
Goals, Feedback and focus on the technique.
Wow, that’s from back when I just started blogging. Didn’t realize anyone had read all the way back there. Thanks, I’ll make sure to include those ideas.