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This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.
Like most skills, magick has an external part and an internal part.
Ethereal software is the external part of magick. It’s the outside force you channel that drives the changes in the world.
Ethereal muscles are the internal part of magick. They’re the parts of your mind that let you sense and use energy, connections, and the other building blocks of magick.
Last chapter, you got some ethereal software. We started there because it’s easier to give you the external part than to awaken the internal part. Now that you have it, let’s use that ethereal software to awaken your ethereal muscles.
While we’re at it, we’re also going to have the ethereal software learn its way around your mind, so it can communicate with you better.
Afterwards, we’ll strengthen your ethereal muscles, then start doing practical magick.
Aside: Why Isn’t This Automatic?
Most initiations include these same steps. Magickal forces connect to you, learn their way around your mind, and awaken your ethereal muscles. The adept might trigger these steps, or the ethereal software might do them automatically.
Why doesn’t Direct Magick make this automatic, too?
I certainly could have. I chose not to.
Part of my design philosophy with Direct Magick is to expose as much of the inner-workings of magick as possible. I want all the steps of this initiation to be explicit, conscious choices, so you’re aware of what’s going on and how it works. By letting you trigger this command, it forces us to discuss the changes that happen during an initiation. I think that’s a good thing.
How To Do It
The command is, “Prepare my mind to communicate with you.” Send it using the technique from the previous chapter.
The ethereal software will start awakening your ethereal muscles and learning its way around your mind. It’ll do what it can today, then do a bit more each time you practice magick. This awakening will happen over months or years, just like any strengthening process. It’ll happen as you do energy meditations, manifesting, energy healing, and other magick.
You’ll get the most improvement per minute of practice by doing a short session each day. Practice for 10 minutes, let the software do its thing, then repeat. This works better than one long session on the weekends.
You only need to give the command once. But as a beginner, it’s hard to be sure that your message went through, and there’s no harm in giving it again. So, I’d recommend repeating the command a few times over the next few weeks.
If you go more than a week without practicing, the software may think you’ve quit. When you’re ready to start again, just give the command again. Don’t worry, you’ll keep any progress you’ve made.
If you want stop this process for any reason, simply tell the ethereal software, “Stop and disconnect.”
Once you’ve given the command, you can rest, or you can go on to the next chapter and start strengthening your ethereal muscles.
Aside: What If You Already Practice Magick?
What if you already practice magick? Aren’t your ethereal muscles already awake?
There are lots of different ethereal muscles. Ones for building energy, others for noticing energy, still others for communicating with ethereal software. And there are many more.
Different systems of magick use different ethereal muscles. Sure, many are shared — just about everyone builds energy, for example. But your other system probably uses some muscles we won’t use in Direct Magick (at least for now), and vice versa.
(Also, the ethereal software we use in Direct Magick still needs to learn its way around your mind, no matter what else you do.)
So, even if you already practice magick, make sure to do this preparation. It’ll probably go much faster than for someone new to magick, but it’ll probably still do one or two important things.
Success: How to Know You Did It Right
I don’t have a simple answer here. Awakening your ethereal muscles sometimes doesn’t feel like anything. Often, it feels like energy. How can you tell if those sensations are awakening, or ordinary energy, or placebo? It’s a tricky problem, especially if you’re new to magick.
But I think it’s valuable to acknowledge tricky problems, even if we can’t solve them 100%.
For now, let’s make an assumption. Remember last chapter, when we created an “obvious connection”? If that worked, let’s assume this command worked, too. Just for now.
We’ll verify that assumption in Part 3 of this book, when you learn energy healing and manifesting. When you see those results, you’ll know everything is working.
What if that obvious connection didn’t work for you? Practice the energy meditation in the next chapter, then try the obvious connection again in a week or two. Hopefully, you’ll have enough ethereal muscles will awake to feel it then.
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Tags: Book Chapters, Ethereal Software, Learning Magick, Mental Activation, Mental Muscles
This is cool. I’ve discovered your blog a couple days ago, and just tried this command right after connecting to the software and asking it to give me obvious connections. I think i noticed it connecting to me the first time because of the sigil becoming kind of alive, pulsating. May be some optical illusion though. At first, i didn’t notice clearly the obvious connection, but i certainly noticed a change when i asked the software to withdraw the connections.
I tried engaging and withdrawing the connections a few times, and noticed it kept a certain connection that i felt at the front of my head at all times, while switching on and off another stronger one that centered on my chest, but felt kind of on the whole front of my body, when i asked it to give me obvious connections. It seemed to me that the obvious connections were flooding me with energy (that felt pleasant, by the way), and tried asking the system if it was giving me energy. I didn’t get any clear answer. Nevertheless, i tried asking it to give me obvious connections without sending me energy, which made a fainter result, and then to give me obvious connections the way it did the first time, which felt stronger again. I also noticed that once i phrased the command “stop all connections”, but meaning just the obvious ones, and it was able to tell my intentions, not stopping the connection in my head. Another thing is that i was starting to feel a bit of a headache, and i asked the software to make the connection to my head gentler. I kept feeling an intensity on my head, but it stopped hurting. Was that supposed to work like that?
Last thing, when i asked it to prepare my mind to communicate with it, the connection on the front of my head seemed to surround my head to come from all directions (sidewise in a ring, not from above or below) and then kind of went into the background, making itself less obvious to me, but still being there.
I’d like to ask you if what i experienced makes any sense to you, regarding the way you programmed the software, or if you can tell some way i’m deluding myself in the results i perceive to get. I’m not that good in telling what’s really happening from what i’m imagining (i suppose that’s a huge part of the reason why i’m here).
Thank you for your teaching!
Hi Alex, good questions. My reply: https://magickofthought.com/2014/02/how-obvious-connections-feel/
I have been trying the sigil for a while now, on and off for a few months, and more frequently since the recent post about it. I have not noticed anything. I’m beginning to think I either don’t understand how to do it, or my brain just isn’t capable, for whatever reason.
Thanks for trying it! You shouldn’t necessarily feel anything on this step. If you haven’t felt anything with the “obvious connection” command, that happens to about 25% of the population, based on beta testing. Just keep going, awaken your ethereal muscles, and come back to that in a few weeks. (Also, I have a project to make the obvious connection more obvious. Expect updates later this year.)
And wait for rest of Part 2 to be complete before you invest too much time — you don’t even have the exercises to use with the “prepare my mind” command yet.
Do we just continue to practice the energy meditation until the next chapter is ready? Just wondering what the next step is after the meditation.
I’m glad you’re so excited for the next chapter! We’ll be getting there soon.
Hi Mike Just to let you know, I have read most of your old articles.
I am new to magick and probably read a little about articles and everything regarding to it. Just to cite some: About Wiccans, Thelema, and some about India (Yoga/Mantra)
When I saw your blog. I want to try it out for some reasons:
1. Out of all that I read, this is the tutorial having steps and know when you did it right, half right or even a fail.
2. You don’t have any bias about kinds of magick.
So what I did is:
https://magickofthought.com/2014/01/using-ethereal-software/
and the results are:
1st try: I did felt a connection but it is hardly noticeable to extent that I want to ignore it and try again.
2nd try: I felt a tingling sensation on my left part of chest – it’s like a drop of oil poured on my chest. But I want more strong so I could say it’s good enough.
3rd try: I said in my native language but It did not felt any connection.
A. Ngayon, Magparamdam ka sakin – Now, Make me feel your presence.
B. Ngayon, Lakasan mo ang pagpaparamdam sakin – Now, make your presence stronger.
C. Ngayon, Itigil ang pagpaparamdam sakin – Now, stop the feeling of your present.
Something like that. 1st try and 2nd try, I did A and C. I’m using C to close the cycle of opening and closing of the connection but to make sure I am making the most out of it and separate the fact and my failure I said the B part.
what makes me wonder:
Well I did try energy meditation and meditating (I’m not doing and magick yet meaning :rituals, sigils etc.) by using this guide:
http://www.angelfire.com/empire/serpentis666/Yogic_Breathing.html
http://www.angelfire.com/empire/serpentis666/Complete_Breath.html
and I felt tingling sensation almost always and did experience headaches.
I try to ground also by:
1. Visualizing energy mustering in my brain.
2. Coming out to me downward or projecting energy on my palm and touch the ground sending energy back to the earth (that’s what the definition says).
Now my point is this:
1. Where did I fail on ethereal software sigil? My instruction? Or is it because I am new? (Makes me wonder because I felt this tingling sensation before so I expect that I could feel something even a little connection).
2. I always want to try directing my energy (which I think exactly the same as commanding the energy) but still I fail. Is there something wrong with my muscles? Or how should I start myself making at least obvious results even if its little?
I hope that you could answer my questions
If any of my statements is vague or need rephrasing kindly ask me please
I like your passion of making magick more easy to assess I hope someday I could try using it.
Thanks!
Hi Ron, thanks for reading and writing. I’m so happy my work resonates with you.
On feeling energy: This is an area of research I hope to return to next year. What’s going on when an experienced mage feels energy, and what’s not happening in the rest of the population that causes them not to feel energy? I hope it leads to techniques that reliably create sensations in the majority of the population, which would be great for our credibility, our teaching, and our research in general.
For you right now, I have a few thoughts:
– Many things cause tingling and headaches, not just energy. So the fact that you felt tingling and headaches when doing breathing exercises doesn’t necessarily mean you’re feeling energy yet. Make sure to keep your hypothesis space open as you debug this.
– For your next step, practice the energy meditation in the next chapter, then try the obvious connection again in a week or two. Hopefully, you’ll have enough ethereal muscles will awake to feel it then.
Good luck!
Hi Mike! I just tried giving the command to prepare my mind to communicate. It didn’t really feel like anything but since that weird tingly feeling on my forehead whenever I connect is there, i’ll trust that the software is making it’s way through my mind little by little. Maybe I’ll feel something eventually if I practice everyday. I have one question, If you command the software to disconnect, does it happen like instantaneously or a few seconds after issuing the command? I thought it would disconnect instantly. Is this the lag you were talking about? Also the sensation is so addicting that I want it to be connected for a long period of time but then I get lightheaded so I’ll probably disconnect after 10 minutes. Keep sharing your updates with us and thank you.
Hmmm, I’d expect the software to disconnect after a few seconds, and for the sensations to persist for a few seconds after that. I might have called that “immediate,” not sure — I also have situations where something takes 30 seconds to a minute, which is what I call a delay.
I’m really pleased you like the energy so much. But yes, stop before you get lightheaded.
On most commands, and most techniques with energy, the sensations are side-effects. Someone really experienced at noticing shifts to their biofield will probably notice them, but many people will not. The “prepare my mind to communicate” command isn’t designed to have any specific sensations with it. (For this ethereal software, only the “obvious connection” command used for testing is designed to produce sensations.)
Is the short, ten minute session mentioned in the ‘How to do it’ segment the practices in the following chapter or is it ten minutes of waiting for the software to prepare the mind (i.e. meditate)?
Yes, the 10 minute session is the energy meditation and exercises in the next chapter. The ethereal software will connect to your mind over several weeks or months.
Hi, thank you for sharing your information, question do you think Yantars are a form of ethereal software?
I’m not familiar with Yantars. Sorry.
Yantras, they’re 2D geometric patterns that are said to be the body of a certain Hindu god/dess. They’re basically visual mantras.
Ah, that sounds similar to sigils — drawings that are energetically charged in some way. It’s possible that a Yantra would have ethereal software bound to it. Certainly a hypothesis worth testing. Thanks!
No problem. New here. Fan of your work. :)
Ok I’m completely new to magical others then a small excursion in to Wicca, where no sensation came. This is important because when I did both the obvious connection and the command to prepare my mind I got a splitting headache and with the one to prepare the mine I also got sick to my stomach and almost throw up. This is even odd considering I very rarely get headaches and was feeling perfectly fine before the commands.
Wow, that sounds awful, I’m so sorry that happened. What sort of help would you like — guidance on how to use this ethereal software differently, guidance on finding another system that might agree with you more, or something else?
I’m not really looking for anything more it’s simply wished to report on an odd occurrence that some might wish to research into. If it happened to me there must be some part of the population that will react in a similar manner and finding out why might be of use. (Oh and don’t worry about it I’m not fearful or really mad more intrigued. I’m going to continue and attempt to find an answer.)
Thank you. I love that attitude, coming back to explore more. I’ll see what I can find, but it might take a few weeks before I can get to it.
When you ask it to set up your mind, specify that you want it to go “slowly.” That seems to result in a slower, gentler setup. I’ve tested various terms, like “gently,” and the only one that seems to work is “slowly.” And please let me know how it goes. Thanks!