Magick of Thought

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My girlfriend, Lisa, has been using the techniques in this series for a few months. She can connect to a single domain (her mind, her body, her mental muscles, etc), but she can’t follow the paths between domains. Instead, she jumps to the next domain, guessing at its signature. This has some limitations:

• If she doesn’t know a domain’s signature, she can’t find it. I can show her where it is, but you might not have that option.
• Many techniques require manipulating the paths between domains. Examples include deeper-than-energy healing, consciousness integration, and mental activation. If you can’t trace those paths, you can’t manipulate them.

This post explains how to trace paths between domains. It’s for Lisa and anyone else who jumps instead of tracing.

Note: A path is one or more connections. Think of it like co-ax cable, with many wires bundled together. A path can also be multiple connections that go through several domains in series, like going from your mind to a system then to a spirit. If that confuses you, just replace “path” with “connection” and you’ll get almost everything in this post.

If you haven’t read the rest of the series, start with the first post.

Why Trace Paths Across Domains

If you want to see how your mind connects to your body, how your mental muscles connect to your brain, or how a mage uses a systems, you need to trace paths from the first domain (your mind, your mental muscles, or the mage) to the second (your body, your brain, or the system).

I trace paths for just about everything I do, including:

• Exploring anything I haven’t worked with yet: Tracing all the paths lets you see how each part interacts with the whole.
• Finding the systems that another mage uses, so I can use them too. (Particularly useful for learning psychic talents, which always require systems).
• Deeper-than-energy healing: You need to work with the paths between energy and the deeper layers.

Basically, it’s a fundamental skill you’ll use everywhere. It lets you see and understand magick better, and it’s required for any technique that works with multiple domains, which is most of them.

Learning To Trace Cross-Domain Paths

Seeing a path within one domain is easy. It only has one signature, and as long as you align your sensory connection to that signature, you can see it.

The hard part is tracing paths across domains, where the signature shifts.

Before we can talk about this, we need a bit of notation: Say a connection goes from point A (in domain A, with signature A) to point B (in domain B, with signature B), transitioning the signature as it goes. Halfway across, the signature will be (roughly) 50% A and 50% B, which we’ll call 50/50. Closer to A, it might be 75% A, which we’ll call 75/25. Very close to B, it will be 10/90. Make sure you have that before going on.

So, you align to signature A, then start tracing. Remember, you can only see signatures that you’re aligned to. At 90/10, you can still see fine. At 80/20, you can see OK. But by 50/50 or so, there’s not enough of signature A in the hybrid signature for you to see clearly, so you lose track of the connection. That’s where I used to have trouble, it’s where Lisa has trouble now, and it’s where lots of mages can’t see magick clearly.

Here’s how you learn to trace paths:

1. Connect to both ends of the path (A and B), so you know the two signatures.
2. Make a third connection to side A, and align to signature A.
3. Move it along the path a  short way, to maybe 90/10 or 80/20, so you can still see the path. (Alternately, you can make a fourth connection a bit down the path).
4. Re-align to the signature at that point (remember to broaden first, adding signature B into your connection, then align it).
5. Trace a bit further, then re-align, until you’re through the path. You’ll feel the connection you have to point B when you’re done.

For better results, align all the scales of the signature you work with, from large to small. Align even the parts of the signature that don’t change (it will give you a better overall alignment). It’s OK if you can’t align all the scales at the same time, but do each scale before tracing the connection further. By aligning each step better, you’ll make it easier to trace the rest of the path easier.

Lisa imagines this as walking through a canyon, passing different layers of rock as you ascend, and making a smooth shift from one layer to the next.

General Path Tracing

Often, you’ll only know the starting point (signature A), but not the ending point (signature X). The technique is the same, but for step 4, use the general broadening technique from last post (for broadening when you don’t know the other signature). I’d recommend getting good at general broadening (meaning it’s easy and doesn’t tire you) before trying this.

Harder Cases

If you’re tracing a connection that a malicious spirit is intentionally hiding, it will often go from you (domain A) to someone else (domain B) then to the spirit (domain C). The last connection has zero percent of signature A. To trace it, you need to realize you’ve arrived at point B, then use general path tracing to find the spirit’s connections, and start tracing those to point C. It’s easy once you have experience tracing paths, but I wouldn’t recommend it for your first try.

Mastering Path Tracing

Like sounding out letters when you’re first learning to read, tracing paths will be slow at first, because you’re consciously training your mental muscles how to trace a path. But, like reading, with enough practice it will become fast, automatic and unconscious.

I find it easier to practice a skill when I’m using it to accomplish something, instead of just practicing to practice. So practice tracing paths until it becomes comfortable (but still slow), then use path tracing as you do other magick. (See the list of in-depth guides to the left for ideas).

You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.

This series is about seeing magick accurately, so you can see how it works, improve your skills, and learn new techniques quickly.

Today: How to make a quiet connection so you can accurately sense signatures, without disturbing whatever you’re connected to. This is the most important part of sensory connections, and will let you see magick more clearly than most mages.

If you haven’t read the rest of the series, start with the first post.

Why Make Quiet Connections

Magickal sensory is more like touch than sight. In order to sense anything, you must connect to it. A quiet connection is like a gentle touch: It lets you sense what’s there without disturbing it.

What “Quiet” Means

This quiet, gentle touch requires 2 things:

• Not pushing with your arm.
• Moving your fingers slowly.

In terms of a connection, “not pushing with your arm” means “don’t send energy through the connection.” I emphasize this because many mages primarily use connections to send energy. You can’t sense if you are sending energy; you would only see your own energy.

“Move your fingers slowly” means “low, steady activation.” Activation is the power inside your connection that makes it move, rather than the energy that the connection delivers. Activation has the signature of the structure it powers (your connection, in this case), and it flows like heat, from highly active structures to less active ones. If your connection has too much activation, or suddenly changes how much activation it has, it will disturb the structures you’re connected to.

How to Make Quiet Connections

Making Your First Connection

If you don’t make single magickal connections yet, see this post for instructions. Also, click here for some good general info on connections.

Not Sending Energy

The key here is to control your connections separately from everything else you’re doing by making a visualization just for the connection. It should mesh with the visualization you use energy: If you visualize energy as water, you might visualize your connection as a hose; visualize energy as light, and your connection might be a glass tube; and energy as electricity might go with a connection as a wire. Remember, you’re just directing your unconscious, so use whatever speaks to you.

Here’s how to use that visualization to make a connection without energy:

1. Make the connection normally, by touching your leg, sending energy from your hand into your leg, then moving your hand a few inches away while sustaining the energy flow. (This was the exercise from the previous section’s link).
2. Use your connection visualization, with the energy going through it.
3. Visualize the energy flow stopping, so the energy stays in your chest and doesn’t flow down your arm. It’s not enough to stop visualizing the energy; you need to visualize the energy stopping. While you do this, maintain the connection visualization.

That last step is important. Even when you make connections without actively sending energy, keep track of your own energy to make sure it doesn’t accidentally flow get into the connection.

Testing It

If it worked, you should be able to resume the energy flow visualization and feel the tingling of the energy in your leg, as though you were touching your leg. It may take a few tries to sustain the connection properly, just start from step 1 if it doesn’t work.

Want another test of your connections? See this post.

Don’t Drain

Remember, just let your connection absorb the energy or activation that naturally flows into it. Don’t try to suck it up like soda through a straw. That will drain them, which is not only not nice, but is also ineffective for sensing signatures. When you drain, you draw in a particular signature (the signature you drain will match your connection’s signature), which means you just see that signature, not the signature that they actually have.

Low, Steady Activation

That covered how to avoid sending energy along the connection (not pushing with your arm). Now you’re ready to use low, steady activation (move your fingers slowly).

A reminder: Activation is like energy inside the structure of your connection that makes it move. In the examples above, activation isn’t the water / light / electricity that your connection carries. Rather, it’s the heat inside the hose / glass / wire that makes its molecules vibrate. Like heat, activation doesn’t exist separate from the activated structure. Heat is an emergent property of the vibrating molecules, and activation is an emergent property of the moving structure.

Start by creating a visualization for the activation. Since it’s essentially the energy inside your connection (as opposed to the energy flowing along it), your energy visualization is a good place to start. Seeing activation as the luminosity of the connection, or visualizing the molecules of the connection vibrating, are good places to start. For me, activation feels like breathing, and low activation feels like holding my breath in my mind, though my body still breathes normally. Simpler visualizations are better, since we’re combining a lot of visualizations here.

Follow the exercises in the last section to make a zero-energy connection to your leg (or anywhere else). Also, use your energy visualization to make sure your leg doesn’t have a lot of energy, so you can feel the connection instead of the energy’s tingling. Then use the activation visualization to make your connection less activated. Move the connection around (visualize the hose (or whatever) moving a few inches inside your leg), change how activated it is, then move it again. If the connection is too activated, you’ll feel a mild energy sensation in your leg (tingling, shifting, etc). If it’s not activated enough, you won’t be able to move the connection, and you’ll feel a mild energy drain(if you haven’t felt it before, it feels like energy, but cooling instead of heating).

To keep the activation steady, just continue to consciously keep the activation low. You don’t need to focus on it, but you need to keep it somewhere in your thoughts. If you become distracted, or stop thinking about the activation, it will return to whatever your default level is, which is usually higher than you want.

Next

That’s the first step of making good sensory connections, and probably the most important step. Using a quiet connection lets you see magick more clearly than mages who don’t consciously control their connections, which is most mages. Over the next few posts, I’ll show you how to see more details by using smaller signature building blocks, multiple connections, and a few other tricks.

If making quiet connections is new for you, take a few weeks to become comfortable with them before continuing with this connections series. It’s important that these steps are easy, and that you can maintain the connection for a few minutes, before adding anything.

The best approach is to use quiet connections as you practice other skills. Learning to awaken your hibernating mental muscles is a good next step, as it will help you learn all your other skills faster, including sensory connections. And leave a comment if anything isn’t working for you.