How to Hack a System, Step by Step

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

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

A reader, Mike E, asked for a step-by-step on how to hack a system, based on it’s symbols, like a Goetic sigil, planetary sigil, or Enochian sigil. This post is my answer.

Special thanks to Mike E for reviewing this post. It’s a much better explanation now than what I initially sent him.

By the way, this is a long, technical post about fairly complex direct magick. If that’s not your cup of tea, feel free to skip.

Review: Why Hack a System

Want to use a system you’re not familiar with or initiated into? You need to hack it.

The most common reasons I’d hack a system:

  • Working with someone who knows a style of magick I don’t, this lets me see what they’re doing, read the instructions for the systems they use, etc.
  • A spirit or mage is bothering you. If you can hack their system particularly well (I’ll explain what that means later), you can tell it to remove all connections to you, stop responding to them, and otherwise stop them without needing to fight.
  • Occasionally, I need to do something but don’t have the right system.

Remember, systems can handle many simultaneous users. Kind of like a website. You can hack and use a system without interfering with anyone else.

Before Hacking a System

If you’re new to direct magick, follow The Step by Step Guide to Learning Direct Magick until you get to “hacking systems” in the last section.

If you already know some direct magick, the main skill required is making good sensory connections, in particular, aligning to a signature at a small scale. This series explains how.

Hacking a System, Step by Step

For this post, I hacked the Enochian system and a Thelemic system, and wrote each step I took.

The Enochian System 

Enochian tablet via Wikipedia

The Enochian system is used by the Enochian spirits / Angels to help them interact with human mages. Like the Wizard of Oz’s machine, it creates an impressive-looking projection of the spirit operating the system, including visions and sensations that make you think of angels. Like a well-written computer program, it can handle some conversations without a sentient spirit operating it.

When you hack it, you can connect directly to the spirits behind the system (the wizard behind the curtain). When I train with spirits, I prefer to talk to them directly, rather than talking through a system, though I can’t quantify the benefits. But it gives you a much better sense of who you’re working with. I’ll explain how to do that in this post.

I picked Enochian because the spirits associated with that system are helpful and not aggressive. Later, I discovered that spirits normally considered demonic, like the Goetia, are often just as friendly. The holographic projections are demonic, but the spirits behind the curtain just want to help.

A Warning

Hacking a system is a bit like crashing a party: Not a huge deal but not entirely polite. It will get the attention of all the spirits who own that system, even ones you weren’t thinking about. Be prepared to apologize.

Step 1: Connect to the System

Engage your mental posture for doing magick and focus on the symbol. (I often call this “meditating on the symbol”). I chose the letter Un. When you feel a shift in energy, the system has connected to you.

Meditating on Graph (the letter that looks like a rotated L) didn’t connect me to the system. I think it’s too close to English for me, so I just think of L, not Enochian.

Alternately, if you know a ritual technique like vibrating names, you can use that. Anything associated with the style should trigger the system to connect to you.

Step 2: Align to the System’s Signature

This is why this technique is intermediate direct magick. You must align to the system’s signature. Quick overview (details in that link):

  1. Using your signature building blocks (at a medium scale), broaden your signature to include all signature building blocks you know.
  2. See which of those building blocks connects with the system’s signature.
  3. Discard any that don’t connect.
  4. Repeat for smaller scales.

(For details on how to do each of those steps, see this series).

Practice aligning to a signature before hacking a system. Become good at it. Practice by aligning to friends’ signatures, the signature of systems you already use, and other tasks where you kind of know the signature already.

Mike E (the reader) requested visuals. I wish I could give you a visual to make this work, but I can’t. Here’s why:

Visuals signal your overall intent to your unconscious mind. If the task is fairly simple — one your unconscious already knows how to do, like closing outside connections — visualizations work great. But if the task is more complex, your unconscious may not know how to do some steps, a visualization won’t help. Your unconscious will know what you want it to do, but it won’t know how to get that done.

The solution? Break the problem down into chunks your unconscious can handle. Train your unconscious to do each step in sequence. Then you can associate a simple visualization with that sequence, and it becomes another single step you can use in larger, more complex techniques.

Aligning to a signature is a complex task. If I give you a visualization, it won’t help, since you need to train your unconscious first.

I explain this philosophy, and how to build these visualizations, in this series.

Step 3: Choosing the Right Alignment Scale

First, a refresher on signature scales: A complete signature is made of smaller signatures. Think of a rope, made of braided twine, which is made of twisted thread. Or a rock, made of molecules, made of atoms, and so on. We call the complete signature the “top-level signature.” We say the building blocks are X levels or scales down.

So if rope is your top-level signature, then twine is 1 level down, thread is 2 levels down, and so on.

See this post for details.

Most systems check to see if you’re aligned to its signature using the signature scales it normally works with. So if the system works at the twine scale, and you align at the rope scale, you won’t get in. But if you align at the thread scale, you’ll get in, and probably be treated as a high-level user who can issue special commands, like telling the system to remove all connections it’s made to you (in the computing world, we call that “admin access”).

Unicursal Hexagram via Wikipedia

I can feel which signature scale a system uses to check my alignment. Enochian seems to check the signature at 3, 4 and 5 scales down (if the top-level signature is rope, twine is 1 scale down, thread is 2, and so on). The Thelemic system (using the sigil to the left) checks at the top-level signature and 1 and 2 scales down. It will be easier for you to hack the Thelemic system than the Enochian system.

Not sure if you’ve aligned at a small enough scale? If the system responds to you, you have. If it won’t respond to you, you haven’t.

Mike E asked about using the easier-to-hack Thelemic system to help you hack the Enochian system. Cool idea, but it won’t work. Unless a system has a command to align to another system’s signature, it can’t help you hack another system. And if it did, the “help you hack” system would probably require you to align to it at the same scale it uses to hack, so it wouldn’t let you hack systems you couldn’t hack already.

Step 4: Guide the System Into Your Mind

You want to guide the system into your mind so it can read your thoughts. “But wait,” you say, “won’t it realize my mind is in my signature, not its signature?” If it just makes a connection to you, yes. But if you guide it along a connection that smoothly shifts from the system’s signature to your signature, it will add that signature shift to its connection, causing your commands (in your mind’s signature) to look like they’re in the signature the system expects.

First, smooth your connection. Hold the end that’s connected to the system, so that it stays in the system’s signature. (To do this, keep that end of the connection, and the signature you want it to have, in your thoughts). Hold your end in your signature. Make another connection and trace the first connection, the one that goes to the system. Anywhere you hit a large or abrupt signature shift that’s hard for you to follow, break it up into several small signature shifts. Now you have a smooth signature transition along the connection.

Now, pull the system’s connection through your connection. This is a simple command, so I can give you a visualization: Visualize a thread sticking out of the system. Grab it. Guide it into your connection. Once the system’s connection is in your connection a bit, it will follow your connection the rest of the way, adopting the signature transition you just set up. Hold both ends of your connection in their respective signatures while you do this.

Give the system a minute to connect to your mind, then communicate with it by slowly by thinking a sentence, focusing on each idea. (One idea may be several words. For example, “red ball” should be sent as one idea, rather than abstract red then an image of a colorless ball). My first instruction is usually “Requesting basic usage instructions,” which will cause the system to tell you what commands it accepts.

Contacting the Spirits Behind the System

To talk with the spirits who own the system, rather than the holographic projections the system gives most people, just ask the system “who owns you?” It will connect you to the spirits.

Introduce yourself. Explain that you wanted to see how the system worked, but that if they want you to leave, you will. (If they say yes, leave. Remember, you’re crashing their party). Pick something you’re trying to learn, and ask them if they’ll teach you about it. Let the relationship grow like it would with a person you just met, where you find a common interest to work on for a little while, then call a few days later with something else.

A good request is “Teach me how to communicate with you more effectively, so it’s easier for you to read my thoughts, and so I can read your responses more accurately.” The easier you are to communicate with, the happier spirits will be to talk with you.

Questions?

Is there a post that’s confusing you? Leave a comment or email me at mike@magickofthought.com and let me know.

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Hacking Systems

Monday, March 15th, 2010

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

This week’s theme is systems. Start with Direct Magick Fundamentals: Systems.

Today, in Advanced Direct Magick: Using systems you aren’t supposed to. “Hacking systems.”

But I’m Not Initiated

Direct mages don’t have dedicated systems. We use the same fundamental systems as everyone else, but sometimes you need to use a ritual style’s system.

When that happens, you hack the system. Yes, you’re going where you’re not supposed to. Yes, this will sometimes get you into trouble. But if you never do anything that might get you into trouble, you will lead a very boring life.

Why Hack a System

  • Hacking a system lets you access the useful things it can do.
  • Work with new types of magick, learn more.
  • Disable an attacker that relies on systems.

How Hacking Works

Systems control access by only using their signature for all connections and communications. If you can’t handle their signature, you can’t get in.

Normally, you adjust to their signature through initiation and practice. The system sets your mind up to handle its signature each time you use it, and it does a massive setup during initiation.

As a direct mage, I work with many different systems and many different parts of my mind. A system adjusting my mind interferes with other things I want to do.

Plus, the normal way is slow.

Hacking a System

1.  Connect to the system using the beginning direct magick technique
2.  Match the system’s signature
3.  Make a connection that smoothly transitions from your signature to the system’s signature
4.  Communicate normally with the system

Yes, I’m saying “A connection that changes signature lets you access any system.” It sounds like magic. Not the good kind, but the ridiculous wishful thinking kind.  Mea culpa.

Here’s why it works:

The system connects back to you with small connections that go through your connection. The small connections start in the system’s signature.  Since your connection is also in that signature, the system is happy.

As the small connections go through your connection, your connection shifts signature, and the small connections automatically follow that shift. That’s how tracing a path works. The system doesn’t complain because the transition is smooth.

When the system’s small connections reach your mind, they’ve shifted to your signature, and will interact with your mind naturally.

When your thoughts go back to the system, they go through the same signature shifts as the connections did, and end up in the system’s signature.

That’s all there is to it. If you’re working with an advanced system, you’ll need to shift your message into the system’s signature instead of the neutral signature.

Hacking Systems Well

Hacking well requires good signature matching.

I’ll do a week on signature matching at some point, but here’s the gist:

Signatures are like molecules.

Think of the top level signature is as sand, made of many grains. Each grain is made of many molecules, which are made of atoms, which are made of…

To match a signature, view it at the smallest scale you can. Line up the elements of your signature with similar-looking elements of the target signature. This alignment will be imperfect, but that’s OK.

Use those mappings to construct a signature that matches the target signature at a larger scale. The signatures at that level will look even closer because their building blocks are already aligned.

Now repeat until you get to the top-level (largest scale) signature. Each time you go up one scale of signature, the alignment becomes even better. The smaller the scale you start with, the better the top-level signatures will match.

Most systems require a very tight match to access to the best commands, like denying someone else use of the system. If you can’t hack a particular system, try matching the signature more closely by starting at a smaller scale.

Useful Commands

“Requesting basic use instructions” makes the system explain how to use it. It won’t go into every feature, but it gives a good idea of the normal usage. It ends with a list of additional topics to ask about (“Requesting instructions for X“).

“What commands are available?” gives a list of the commands and what they do. This is your user manual.

“Deny access to that person (use the person’s signature)” makes the system refuse their commands. If someone is using a system to bother you, this shuts them down*. Denying access requires much better signature alignment than most commands.

*In this case, when you trace the attacker’s connection, you will find the system before you find the person commanding it.

Finishing Up

When you’re done, disconnect from the system. Don’t just stop using the connection. Actively take it down.

If you don’t, the system will stay connected to you and start shifting your mind’s signature to initiate you. It’s not malicious, but it will cause problems.

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Directly Using Ritual Magick Systems

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

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This week’s theme is systems. Start with Direct Magick Fundamentals: Systems.

There’s a classic debate between strict ritual mages and do-it-yourselfers.

The ritual mages insist you do everything by the book, with the right correspondences and pronunciations and everything else.

The DIYers think all magick is intention so it shouldn’t matter if your ritual is traditional Golden Dawn or something you made up involving a candle, some ribbon, and a poem.

They’re Both Wrong

Behind each ritual is a system: A magickal structure that reads your intent and handles the magick. Performing the ritual connects that system to you.

Steps to doing ritual magick:

  1. Connect to a useful ritual system
  2. Be accepted by the ritual system (ie. be initiated into the style)
  3. Communicate your intent to your unconscious mind
  4. System reads your unconscious and handles the magick

A DIY ritual can communicate intention to your unconscious, but it will fail to get a good system. You can use a psychic system, but it generally won’t work as well. That’s why initiation and proper ritual elements are important.

But the details of the ritual aren’t. You can connect to a system by meditating on a symbol and communicate your intent to your unconscious just by thinking. The ritual is just to help you focus.

Directly Using Ritual Systems

At some point the rituals will become repetitive. You will stop learning.

Using the ritual system directly lets you explore again. Most ritual mages eventually do magick without rituals. It’s how to get deeper than the ritual style’s teachings will let you go.

To use a ritual system directly:

  1. Connect to the system (meditate on a symbol).
  2. Meditate on your intent.
  3. Let the system pick it up.

Remember, you have to be initiated first. Or hack into the system (tomorrow’s post).

Multiple Systems Are Tricky

Most ritual mages practice several styles (Golden Dawn, Enochian and Goetia, for example). Meditating on symbols from each style in one session will connect you to all the systems at the same time.

Each system goes about magick differently. The Goetia might send a spirit to work for you, while Golden Dawn might alter probabilities to influence which events come to pass. The strategies might work well in unison. Or they might not. It’s hard to tell until you try.

I think you should try. Trying, failing, and recovering are how you learn magick.

First, learn to directly use each system, one at a time. Then experiment with two related styles, like Golden Dawn and Enochian. Once you have that down, try combining two unrelated styles.

A few ideas for combining unrelated systems:

  • Delineate how they should coordinate their efforts.
  • Ask the systems for status reports.
  • Include a “cancel” option when you start the effect so you can kill it if it goes badly.
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Recognizing Systems to Improve Psychic

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

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

This week’s theme is systems. Start with Direct Magick Fundamentals: Systems.

Psychics handle many different types of information, often received in many different ways.

To know what to order at a restaurant, you might drag a finger over the menu, getting an intuition when you near a dish you would enjoy.

To avoid traffic while driving, you might request to arrive on time when you first get in your car, then listen to intuitions about which lane to use and where to turn.

Many psychics get automatically warned about immediate danger, with steps to take to keep safe. Unlike most intuitions, these warnings are often loud enough to grab your attention.

Each interaction is different because it’s with a different system. Using the the “immediate danger” system the same way you use the “restaurant menu” system won’t work well.

By recognizing when you’re working with each system, you can learn how each system behaves, how it wants to be used, and how to get the best results. It will be different for each system.

The first step is separating out your systems.

Psychic systems seem to vary in a few ways. A system would select one item from each of these options:

Requests

Does the system wait for you to request information, or does it automatically supply what it thinks is important?

Replies

How obvious is the reply? Do you have to be looking for it, or will it grab your attention?

Timeframe

Are the events in the next few minutes, days, or years? Systems tend to specialize in one timeframe.

Domain

What kind of information is it? A system that handles driving directions usually doesn’t give out investment advice.

Urgency

How bad is it if you ignore the information? Systems that handle urgent information tend to automatically tell you about it in an obvious, attention-grabbing way.

Finding Your Systems

Each of your systems will select one item from each of those options.

If you sometimes get unrequested, urgent information in an obvious way about events 30 seconds in the future, and sometimes request information about what to cook for dinner and pick up subtle intuitions, those are two different systems.

The best way to master both of them is to learn each one separately.

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Improve Your Magick By Understanding Your Tools

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

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

Mages use many tools:

  • Energy healers channel energy from The Universe.
  • Psychics listen to The Universe.
  • Ritual mages use tools like the Tree of Life.

They are all systems, given impressive names by the mages who use them. Same for most things mages tap into, channel, or use to perform magick.

This post shows how to use systems better by understanding how they work and recognizing what type of system you’re using.

Systems Are Intelligent, But Not Sentient

Think of systems as magickal computers. They can apply complex logic, do precise magick, and act fairly intelligently. They’re useful tools.

But they primarily respond to user instructions. They’re not sentient, like people or spirits.

Improve Your Magick By Understanding Systems

Most magick relies on systems. Understanding how they work lets you use them better.

Energy healers will benefit from knowing that most systems only require you to connect them to the healee once. They will maintain their own connection for the rest of the healing technique, and can do most tasks without your involvement.

Ritual mages will benefit from knowing that systems change your mind’s energy signature to make you better at using the system. Practicing vastly different systems at the same time can interfere with this process.

Psychics will benefit from knowing that each system specializes in particular types of information. The system that warns you of physical danger is probably not the best for finding you a new job. You’ll get the best results by working with many different psychic systems.

You’ll find more tips like these in the rest of this series.

Types of Systems

You’ll get better results if you communicate precisely with systems.

Knowing which types of system you’re working with will help you communicate with it.

Easy-To-Use Systems

Some systems handle all communication for you. They read and write thoughts from/to your brain. If a system “just works,” it’s probably this type.

Most of these systems can communicate more precisely with a particular part of your brain. Let them control their own connection into your brain.

Some of these systems can communicate more precisely if you move your thoughts from your brain into magickal structures. See the Mastering Communication series for details (coming fall 2010).

This series will focus on easy-to-use systems.

Common Problems with Easy-To-Use Systems

Easy-to-use systems have 2 common errors:

1. Incomplete information. Often, only part of the message will enter your thoughts, and you will unconsciously fill in the rest, leading to vague statements and images. Recognizing which parts of the message you received and which you filled in will help you know what information to rely on.

2. Reading too much information. Easy-to-use systems sometimes cannot distinguish between your instructions, your worries and your expectations. They simply pick up any thoughts in your head. Recognizing when you connect and disconnect to/from the system will help you know when you need to focus on just your instructions.

The best solution to both these problems is improving communication. Look for the Mastering Communication series in fall 2010. You can prepare for it by practicing The 3 Steps to Controlling Magick Consciously.

Fundamental Systems

When you connect to someone by looking at their picture, that’s a fundamental system. It handles magick behind the scenes, accepting commands so natural and simple you don’t even notice it.

You don’t need to worry about these until you can consciously control exactly what you communicate. But once you do, most fundamental systems have useful commands. For example, the system that makes connections when you look at a photo has a command to prevent anyone from connecting to you that way.

Advanced Systems

Some systems require the kind of advanced communication that spirits typically do. They usually reward a user by letting him control what they do more than easy-to-use systems do.

Advanced systems let you create other systems, organize a group of spirits, and request detailed information about events that easy-to-use systems can’t supply. Once you create a system, you can bind it to an object, so someone else can use it by touching the object.

If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.

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Connecting to Systems (Beginning Direct Magick)

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

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

This week’s theme is systems. Start with Direct Magick Fundamentals: Systems.

Consciously Connecting to a System

Mages unconsciously connect to systems all the time for ritual magick, psychic queries, etc. Unconscious connections work great for using the system in an ordinary way.

But the ordinary way is limited. Systems expect users to come in as a novice and gradually build to an adept. Systems deny certain functionality to all users except the ones that made them. In Advanced Direct Magick this week, I’ll explain how to hack a system to get at those functions.

Even without hacking, most systems will teach you how to use them: “What are all the commands you understand” and “Requesting usage instructions.”

The first step is making a conscious connection. That’s the topic of this post.

Systems That Connect To You

Overview: Trigger the system to connect to you, then trace the connection back to the system. We’ll use Enochian and Reiki because the spirits that control those systems are relatively friendly.

First, get an Enochian symbol or a Reiki symbol. Google is your friend here.

Meditate on it. You should feel the system connect to you. It may feel like a spirit’s connection or just a shift in your energy.

We want to use our own connection to the system, not the system’s connection to us. It gives us more control and lets us access systems that aren’t tied to symbols.

To find the system’s connection to you, focus on the point in your body where you feel the connection or shift in energy. I usually feel it in my head. Connect to this point, and look for anything with an unusual signature (that is, a signature that’s not yours).

Trace that unusual signature back to the system (away from you). Some connections change signature between their source and target, making them difficult to trace. But when an easy-to-use system connects to you, it usually uses one signature throughout, making it easy to trace.

Trace to the system. Most systems have protection where the connection meets the system. You’ll know you’ve reached the system when you hit that wall and can’t easily trace further.

Once you’re done, visualize your connection withdrawing from the system and its connection withdrawing from you. As long as you’ve picked a friendly system like Enochian or Reiki, it should disconnect easily.

Systems That Don’t Connect To You

Most psychic systems don’t connect to you. There are no symbols to focus on, so you need to find someone who already uses the system.

First, connect to the person and learn their signature, particularly the magickal signatures in their head. Then, have them do a psychic query (don’t talk about systems, they won’t usually be aware of them). You should notice a shift in the signature in their head. Connect to the source of that shift or the point of maximal shift and trace to the system, just like you did with the system that connected to you.

What’s Next?

Next is learning to use the systems you’ve found. But that’s for another post.

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Systems: How Most Magick Works

Monday, March 8th, 2010

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name

Image via Wikipedia.

Healers channel energy from The Universe.

Psychics listen to The Universe.

Ritual mages use tools like the Tree of Life.

Don’t let the names intimidate you. The mages who found those useful magickal structures named them. It’s just their name for the tool.

I call these tools systems. A system begs to be understood, while The Universe begs to be incomprehensible.

This series explains how these systems work so you can use them better and improve your magick

If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.

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