Glossary
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Here are most of the specialized terms I use in the blog. Use ctrl+f to find a particular term.
Underlined titles are links. Click them for more on the topic.
Magick
Altering the physical world through thought.
Direct Magick
The style of magick I practice.
Mage
Someone skilled in magick.
Ethereal Software
Ethereal software is my term for the external forces that drive most magick.
When you do a ritual, visualization, or send out your intent, you’re sending out instructions about what you want to happen. Those instructions get picked up by ethereal software, which then drives the actual changes in the world. You can think of ethereal software as the force that implements magick’s natural laws, or as the provider of the energy and intuitions you channel.
Like a computer, ethereal software is intelligent, but doesn’t have feelings or emotions. (Spirits, in contrast, are intelligent and sentient, like people.) Ethereal software was programmed, and can be reprogrammed by spirits and mages.
If the concept sounds similar to Chaos Magick’s “egregore,” that’s because it is. In fact, both terms probably refer to some of the same actual forces. But the term “egregore” also tells you how to create and strengthen those forces, how to find concepts with strong egregores, and so on. I use my own term because I don’t want that baggage.
Note: In old posts, I used to call this a “system,” used as a noun, like “computer system.”
Mental Muscles
Mental muscles are my term for the parts of your mind that drive magick. Engaging them makes the difference between imagining something vs doing actual magick, just like engaging your leg muscles makes the difference between imagining moving vs actually walking. There are techniques to awaken and strengthen your mental muscles.
In most magick, your mental muscles will contact the ethereal software, then get out of the way. But in direct magick — that’s what this book is about — we make our mental muscles conscious, then do magick with just our mental muscles, without relying on ethereal software. You’ll see how that helps us do new magick and get better results later in this book.
Note: In old posts, mental muscles were called “mental areas.”
Energy
Energy is widely used by mages and healers to refer to “that thing that makes you feel tingly.” I use it the same way.
(Other common terms for what I call energy include “prana” and “chi,” along with alternate spellings like “ki” and “qi.”)
One trap to avoid: Just because it’s called “energy” doesn’t mean it has any similarities to other things called energy. The physics definition of energy (which we’ll write as physics::energy) is “the ability to do work,” but that doesn’t mean that magickal energy (which we’ll write as magick::energy) has an ability to do work. Why? Because we arbitrarily chose to name it energy, and could just as easily have named it something else. Naming a rock “barbecue” wouldn’t make it delicious, and naming the thing that makes you feel tingly “energy” doesn’t make it able to do work.
Have you ever seen a question like, “Does energy healing work by giving cells the energy they need to grow?” It sounds pretty plausible, right? Well, try it with that notation: “Does healing with magick::energy work by giving cells the bio::energy they need?” No, no it doesn’t, because magick::energy isn’t bio::energy. (Remember that the name “energy” was an arbitrary decision.)
In general, assume that “energy” refers to magick::energy in my writing.
Connections
Connections are how mages interact with most of their magick. Think of them like your arms. You connect to someone to send them energy. Ethereal software connects to your mind to read your intent. You’ll eventually follow the connection from your mental muscles to your mind, so you can connect to more mental muscles. I’ll say “connect to X” a lot, and every time I do, that means you’re using a magickal connection.
Form
Form is my overarching term for stable, solid, long-lasting magickal stuff. I’ll talk about a “mental form” for a form that interacts with someone’s mind, “physical form” for a form that interacts with someone’s body, and so on. Or, to speak generically about all forms, I’ll say, “solid form.”
Most of what we’ve covered so far are forms: Connections, mental muscles, and ethereal software. Energy isn’t a form because it’s not stable: It flows through connections and other solid forms.
Note: In old posts, form was called “structure.”
Fractal Signature
You know how each person’s energy feels different? And how some energy calms you, while other energy makes you excited, and so on? I use the term “fractal signature” to describe these different types of energy, though I’ll often just talk about the “energy’s fractal” or “type of energy.”
This concept is often called simply “signature,” though “vibration,” “resonant frequency,” and a few others are also common. You probably already have a term for it.
Why “fractal signature?” Well, you can think of an energy’s signature as a color, but when I really explore a signature, it’s closer to a Jackson Pollack painting than a solid green or a rainbow. And, when I explore a color of that painting, it turns out that each color is made of its own Pollack painting — the building blocks of a signature are themselves signatures, like a picture of Abe Lincoln made of smaller pictures of Abe Lincoln. That’s why I call it a fractal signature. This comes up a lot in more advanced techniques.
Form also has a fractal signature. Energy and form only interact if their fractals match in certain ways.
Note: In old posts, I simply called this “signature.”
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