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Clearer Communication

Monday, October 20th, 2014

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This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

The next section of this book is about using ethereal software for manifesting, energy healing, and protection. All those techniques require you to accurately transmit your intent to the software. So this last step of the Magick Quickstart Guide is about communicating more clearly with ethereal software.

This chapter covers two techniques. They build on each other, and each will take practice to learn. Learn the first one, then practice it as you learn energy healing and manifesting. Then return here, learn the second technique, and see how it improves your results.

These techniques work with any ethereal software. You can use them with most systems of magick, including Direct Magick, ritual magick, and energy healing.

Technique 1: Quiet Your Mind

Your mind has a hundred distractions. Stray thoughts, memories, fears, the other dozen tasks you have today.

When you talk with ethereal software, it reads your thoughts. It wants your magickal intent, but it has to sort through everything else. Quieting your mind makes this easier, and it’s the first communication technique.

Most meditation practices include a technique to quiet your mind. Feel free to use any of them. But if you don’t meditate, here’s a technique I like:

Focus on your breath. Make it rhythmic, slow, and deep, so it expands your stomach rather than your chest. (This engages the lower lung, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system, relaxing you.) When other thoughts occur to you, acknowledge them and return your focus to your breathing. Do this for 5-10 breaths. This should take less than a minute.

Practice that (or another mind-quieting technique) several times a day until it’s comfortable.

Once it’s comfortable, notice how your mind feels during this quiet, gentle focus. Let yourself sit there for a few seconds, not focusing on anything. Then focus on just your magickal intent, the same way you focused on just your breathing. If other thoughts occur to you, acknowledge them and return to your intent.

To use this quiet focus in your magick, enter that state, then stare at the sigil to connect to the ethereal software. Focus on your intent, holding the quiet focused state until you’re done, then disconnect and relax.

Practice this with the commands from this Quickstart Guide. Once that’s easy, use this quiet focus as you learn energy healing, manifesting, and shielding in the next Part. And once that’s easy, return here for the second technique.

Technique 2: Steady Energy

Let’s talk about how communication works for a minute. As you think your message, your brain makes energy. The signature of the energy reflects your thoughts. Some of this energy is absorbed by your own ethereal structures, like your aura. But some of it gets picked up by the ethereal software you’re communicating with. The less that’s absorbed, the more is available to be picked up, and the clearer your message is.

In this technique, you’re going to hold energy in your head. This will satisfy your ethereal structures, making them absorb less of the energy of your thoughts, leaving a louder message for the ethereal software to pick up.

Instead of giving you a visualization, I’m going to tell you the goal, and let you make your own visualization. You can base it on the energy meditation we just did. It should represent the type of energy we’re going for, and it should speak in symbols that feel good to you. (Those symbols are probably different than the ones that feel good to me, which is why I’m having you make your own visualization.)

We want the energy to stay in your head while you communicate with the software. The energy should be steady, like a calm stream or a slow breathing. Tumultuous energy is bad, and will add noise to the message, making it harder for the ethereal software to read.

Static energy is also unhelpful. If you’re fiercely holding the energy in place, that will disrupt the quiet focus we just worked on. Let the energy flow, but have it flow smoothly.

This is easier with a moderate amount of energy. There’s no need to make a lot of energy, and too much energy can overwhelm your message. If you feel strong tingles or pressure, you’re using too much energy. It should be gentle and relaxed.

What about the energy’s signature? (Signature = Type of energy.) It should match the normal energy signature of your head, because we’re trying to boost the signal, not change it. As you build the energy, think about how your head feels normally. Also, energy tends to adopt the signature of wherever it comes from, so build the energy in your head, rather than your torso.

Practice building and steadying the energy until that’s easy.

When you’re ready to use it, first build the energy, then focus on the sigil, then focus on your message. Once you’re done, release the energy (ground). As with Technique 1, practice this as you learn your other magick.

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Strengthening Your Ethereal Muscles: Mental Posture

Monday, September 22nd, 2014

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This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

Your physical posture is how you hold your body: Which muscles are engaged, which are relaxed, how they move.

Your mental posture is how you hold your mind: Which parts are engaged, which are relaxed, and how they move. You know how your mind feels different when you’re watching TV vs driving vs writing? Those are all mental postures.

In Direct Magick, we use mental posture to engage our ethereal muscles, so they’re listening and ready to respond to our intent.

By the way, most mages learn mental posture at some point. If you can put yourself into a magickal state of mind, congratulations, you already know mental posture. Skim this section, but feel free to skip the exercises.

Step 1: Finding Your Posture

Step 1 is about noticing the mental posture you use for magick.

When I do magick, I’m focused and alert. It’s a trance, but not zoned-out or unthinking. It’s close to the flow state when people write, play music, dance, or otherwise create. (Or play video games.) I’m focused on my ethereal muscles, and less aware of my body.

To recognize your mental posture, start by relaxing, and notice how your mind feels. Not your head or face, but your mind, your thinking. Create an image that represents this — maybe a glowing brain, or a serene stream, or something else. Remember, the point of a visualization is to speak to your unconscious, so use whatever feels natural.

Then, do your energy meditation. Note how your mind feels. It’s often easier to feel changes as they happen, so pay special attention as you start and end the meditation. Do this several times, until you get a feel for it.

(Note: Don’t build energy in your head. If you do, you’ll notice the energy, not the mental posture. Also, remember to release the energy after each energy meditation.)

Once you can feel your mental posture change, watch your posture through a whole session, from relaxed to energy meditation and back again.

Once that’s comfortable, you’re ready to make a visualization. If your calm mind was a serene stream, ask what kind of stream would represent your magick-focused mind. If your calm mind was a glowing brain, ask how your magick-focused brain would look. Remember, this is just symbolic, so it’s not important to be neurologically accurate. (Unless your unconscious feels that an accurate visualization is important to you personally.)

Optional: Now that you’re familiar with mental posture, notice how your mind feels as you read or listen to music. You can even create a visualization for non-magickal focus, then use it to get into the right state for your everyday work, too.

Step 2: Maintaining Your Mental Posture

In Step 2, you’ll do an energy meditation, then use Step 1’s visualization to maintain that posture. This is easier than using the visualization to engage your posture.

Do your energy meditation as before, and notice your mental posture. Now, alongside your energy visualization, do the mental posture visualization you created in Step 1. Hold both in your mind. Then ground and end your energy visualization. Maintain your mental posture using the posture visualization.

Notice your mental posture, then start another energy meditation. You should notice your energy responding instantly, without the several-second lag that typically happens as you engage your ethereal muscles.

Practice this until it’s comfortable.

Optional: Step 2.5

Do Step 2, but rest for a few seconds before doing the second energy meditation. During this rest, stop focusing on your mental posture. Let your mind relax.

After the rest, focus on your mental posture (using the visualization from Step 1) before doing the energy meditation. You should notice the same instant energy as in Step 2.

Step 3: Engaging Your Mental Posture

In Step 3, we’ll do the full technique: Using the visualization to engage your mental posture before doing magick.

Calm your mind, and focus on your calm-mind visualization from Step 1. Then, transition to your magick-focused-mind visualization. Do this before using any other visualization.

Once you’re in that posture, do your energy meditation. As in Step 2, you should notice an immediate result.

Success: How to Know You Did it Right

The point of mental posture is to engage your ethereal muscles, so they respond to any visualization, even a new one.

So let’s try that. Pick a new visualization for energy: Fire, stars, water, plants growing, etc. Make it something you haven’t used before, and something not 100% intuitive to your mind.

Now repeat Step 3 using your new energy visualization. As you do the visualization, hold in your mind, “water = energy.” (Or whatever visualization you’re using). It should work roughly as well as your normal energy meditation, and it should respond immediately, as in Steps 2 and 3.

How to Use Mental Posture

How do you use mental posture for other magick?

The same as in Step 3: Use your visualization to engage your ethereal muscles, then do whatever magick you’re going to do. That might be a visualization, a ritual, an energy healing, a psychic intuition, or anything else.

Note that different types of magick use slightly different mental postures. In this chapter, you learned the mental posture for working with energy. It should work well for any magick. But if you want, you can create postures for each type of magick you do. Just replace the energy meditation with a simple ritual, energy healing, or other magick, and create a new visualization for that magick’s posture.

Aside: The Limits of Magick

What happens if you engage your mental posture, then visualize flying or shooting fireballs?

Nothing happens, sadly. The mental posture will help you communicate your intent to your ethereal muscles. But your ethereal muscles need to know how to fulfill that intent. Energy healing, manifesting, and other common acts of magick usually work well. Flying and fireballs do not.

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Magick Quickstart Guide – Introduction

Monday, June 23rd, 2014

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This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

Remember the three steps that make up most magick?

  • Engage your ethereal muscles.
  • Contact your ethereal software.
  • Send it your intent.

This guide is designed to teach you those skills as quickly as possible.

First, we’ll connect you to a piece of ethereal software built specifically for this initiation, and give you an easy way to send it your intent.

Second, we’ll give you exercises to awaken your ethereal muscles. The software will help with that awakening.

Third, you’ll learn to engage your ethereal muscles at will, consciously, and use them to instruct the ethereal software more clearly.

Once you know those core skills, you’ll be ready to learn energy healing, manifesting, and protection. That’s the next section of this book.

Practice Time

If you’re new to magick, try to practice for 10 minutes every day. That’s better than occasional long sessions. Expect to spend 1-2 months on the core skills, then another month learning energy healing, manifesting, and protection.

If you already practice magick, you already know these core skills. They’re the same for every system of magick. Use this book’s exercises to connect to this new piece of ethereal software, so you can see how Direct Magick works. Also, you may find that Direct Magick strengthens your ethereal muscles differently than other systems, like an athlete playing a new sport. But you’ll go quickly. Expect to spend a day or a few weeks getting up to speed on Direct Magick.

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Examples of Magick

Monday, June 9th, 2014

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This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

Let’s see how all those pieces work together.

(Each scenario is an example of how that magick might work. Any particular act of magick may operate differently.)

Energy Healing

A man goes to a Reiki healer. She listens, calms him, and channels energy. His pain decreases for a few days.

What happens when she channels that energy?

First, she gets herself into a mindset for energy healing. This engages the parts of her mind that drive magick (her ethereal muscles). Getting into that mindset might involve visualization, meditation, physical gestures, or something else.

Her ethereal muscles contact the force she channels. She first connected to it during her attunement, and now connects to it whenever she does healing sessions. She calls that force The Universe. In Direct Magick, we call it ethereal software.

She connects the software to her client. It figures out the energy signatures to reduce inflammation and increase cellular growth, and sends him that energy.

Manifesting

A woman does a ritual to find a better job, then sends out her resume. A few days later, her interviewer happens to be in a good mood, and she gets hired.

What happened between her ritual and her lucky interview?

As with the energy healing, she starts by getting herself into a mindset for magick, which engages her ethereal muscles. They contact her ethereal software. During the ritual, she focuses on her intent, sending it to the ethereal software.

The ethereal software first connected to her during an initiation into a ritual order. Her mentor didn’t name the force, and she hasn’t either, but she feels its vastness whenever she does magick.

At her interview, the software sends her interviewer energy to shift his brain activity into a happier state. It also guides her, giving her a warm tingle when she’s about to say something good, and a pressure when she’s about to make a mistake. She sometimes misses a warning, but combined with her own common sense, it helps steer her away from trouble.

Psychic Intuitions

A man is about to cross the street, but feels a tingling in his head, like a hundred people staring at him. He pauses as a car runs the red light, almost hitting him.

Where did that warning come from?

The man says that sometimes, the Universe just has something to tell him. We agree with him, but in Direct Magick, we call that force ethereal software.

Sometimes, he asks a question, engaging his ethereal muscles to contact the ethereal software. But warnings are different. If he knew he needed a warning, well, he wouldn’t need it. Instead, the software sends him energy, creating sensations that get his attention.

His mother got these warnings, too. She got the ethereal software from her aunt, and passed it along to him. She never said, “Ethereal software, please protect my son,” but it read her thoughts and knew what she wanted. Some day, he’ll probably pass it along to his children, too.

Summary

That’s how most magick works:

  • The mage engages the parts of their mind that drive magick (their ethereal muscles).
  • They contacts the forces they channel (their ethereal software).
  • They send out their intent.
  • The force provides energy, luck, warnings, or other aid.

Does magick sometimes work in other ways? Sure. Some magick involves spirits. Other magick comes entirely from ethereal muscles, with no outside forces. And there are more options, too.

But if you followed these examples, you’ve grasped the terms and concepts of Direct Magick.

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Glossary of Direct Magick

Monday, June 2nd, 2014

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This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

This chapter covers Direct Magick’s terminology, along with the major moving parts of magick.

Most systems have terms for these same moving parts, because we’re all working with the same forces. I’ll note corresponding terms as we go. Think of them as near-synonyms, like how “novelist,” “author,” and “journalist” all describe a person who writes, but with subtle differences in meaning.

Ethereal Muscles

The parts of your mind that drive magick. Engaging them makes the difference between imagining vs doing magick, like how engaging your leg muscles makes the difference between imagining vs actually walking.

Other systems call these the unconscious.

Ethereal Software

The external forces that mages channel. You pick one, tell it your intent, and it handles the details. Kind of like using Google — you tell it what you want, it handles the details.

Chaos Magick calls these forces egregores. Reiki healers and psychics call the force they use The Universe.

Spirits

Spirits are intelligent entities, like people without bodies. We sometimes ask them for help or training.

Many systems of magick use spirit in this way.

Note: Spirits are not ghosts. While Direct Magick is compatible with ghosts, ghosts are not part of Direct Magick.

Energy

Energy is one of the basic building blocks of magick. It makes magickal structures do work. Most people first encounter energy during an energy meditation — it’s what makes your skin tingle.

Many systems use energy in this way. Similar terms include prana and chi / ki / qi.

Note: Magickal energy makes magickal structures do work. It doesn’t make objects move or make cells grow. Don’t confuse it with the “energy” of physics or biology.

Energy Signature

The type of energy. It determines what the energy does. For example, we’d use one signature in energy healing for an inflamed knee, and a different signature to create pleasure in the body.

Synonyms: Energy frequency and color.

Connection

Another of magick’s basic building blocks. Connections carry energy. They’re used for energy healing, shielding, and many other techniques.

Structure

A catch-all term for “stable magickal matter.” Basically, everything here besides energy.

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What is Direct Magick?

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

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This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

Magick comes from the mind, usually the unconscious. You can guide your unconscious with symbols, like in rituals, runes, and visualizations. You can guide it with temporary beliefs, like in Chaos Magick. And you can find other methods, too, like self-hypnosis.

Direct magick takes a new approach: We make those magick-driving parts conscious. It’s like using biofeedback to control your heartbeat.

Guiding magick consciously feels like moving your hand. When you type, you’re not visualizing your fingers, or believing you’ll press a key, you’re just typing. You think about your intent, but also about spelling, paragraphs, and metaphors. You feel the keys, the resistance as you press. You notice if a key sticks, and adjust for it. You can even learn to touch type, consciously guiding your fingers through new motions until they become automatic and unconscious. That’s what Direct Magick is like, only with connections and energy instead of a keyboard.

Other Features of Direct Magick

No Rituals: While compatible with ritual systems, Direct Magick itself doesn’t teach any rituals.

No Prescribed Religion: Like the sciences, Direct Magick is silent on matters of religion and spirituality. You can follow any path that speaks to you.

Works with Other Systems: You can practice other systems of magick alongside Direct Magick. Becoming more aware of the magick-driving parts of your mind might even help your other practices.

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What is Magick?

Monday, May 19th, 2014

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

This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

A man goes to a Reiki healer. She listens, calms him, and channels energy. His pain decreases for a few days.

A woman does a ritual to find a better job, then sends out her resume. A few days later, her interviewer happens to be in a good mood, and she gets hired.

A man is about to cross the street, but feels a tingling in his head, like a hundred people staring at him. He pauses as a car runs the red light, almost hitting him.

Energy healing, manifesting, and psychic intuitions. These are the main domains of magick.

Real Magick = Real Change

It’s tempting to water magick down until it’s socially acceptable. “I don’t know if that healing result was placebo or real energy, but isn’t it wonderful that the man feels better?” Or, “Maybe the woman’s ritual simply gave her the confidence to keep interviewing, but her intention was fulfilled, so that’s a success.” That vagueness feels safe.

But if we do that, we’re talking about placebo and psychology, not magick.

So let me be clear: Magick is not placebo, and it is not suggestion. It is not about positive thinking or changing your perceptions. Real magick changes the external world.

(Many things we call magick, though, are placebo and suggestion, not real magick. We’ll talk about how to tell the difference later in this book.)

Why Magick?

I study magick because of what it can become:

  • Energy seems to influence cells, especially nerves. If we could affect nerves more strongly and precisely, how might we help depression, epilepsy, or paralysis?
  • When you do a ritual, some force influences events on your behalf. How does it alter the physical world? What problems could we solve if we understood that mechanism?
  • Instead of auto accidents, what if psychics could predict natural disasters, famines, and wars? How many people could we help with that information?

No one can do those things yet. But if building magick into a science lets us do even one of them, it’s worth doing.

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Preparing Your Mind for Magick

Monday, February 10th, 2014

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

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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Using Ethereal Software

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014

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

This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

There are hundreds of forces you can channel: Chaos Magick’s egregores, Reiki’s “The Universe”, unnamed forces that respond to Hermetic (and other) rituals, sources of psychic information, and other forces built by spirits to handle communication, manifesting, and other tasks. In Direct Magick, we call all those forces ethereal software.

To keep this quickstart guide simple, we’re focusing on one piece of ethereal software. It’s designed to behave like most other software, so the techniques you learn here will apply to other forces you might want to use. This chapter will show you how to connect to it, and an easy way to send it your intent.

Also, a special thank you to the twenty-some readers who helped me test the software. You guys rock!

(Write-up of that test: magickofthought.com/2012/07/help-beta-test-my-ethereal-software/)

Connecting to Ethereal Software

Focus Sigil for my ethereal software on the sigil on the opposite page for 15-60 seconds. The whole thing is one sigil — each symbol that makes it up is independently bound to the ethereal software, then combined into the sigil for redundancy. There’s no particular technique to looking at the sigil, but focus on it, don’t just glance at it.

(Focusing for longer won’t do any harm, but shouldn’t be necessary.)

The software will connect to you, but it will wait for a command before doing anything else. You may not even notice the connection, especially if you’re new to magick. That’s fine. We’ll teach you some commands in a minute.

Incidentally, most ethereal software works the same way. Focus on a sigil from the Golden Dawn, OTO, or Reiki, and that system’s ethereal software will connect to you. Whether you can command it is another question entirely — this book’s software is designed to allow anyone to work with it, while other systems typically require initiation. But connecting to ethereal software seems pretty universal.

For experienced mages: Once you notice the software’s connections, pay attention to how they feel. That’s the software’s signature. Think of a name (like “Direct Magick Software”), and mentally associate the signature with that name. Later on, you can connect to the software by thinking of its name and signature, without looking at the sigil.

Aside: How Do Sigils Work?

(Asides are extra information I find interesting. I think you might, too. But they’re not required for the quickstart, so feel free to skip them.)

I’ve always been puzzled by sigils. I mean, if I meet someone in person, or touch an object they held, it’s not surprising that one of these forces might connect to me. But how can looking at lines on a computer screen do anything?

So I stared at some sigils, watching for magickal connections. I noticed two distinct forces, with two distinct signatures. The second force was the ethereal software associated with the sigil, the one I expected to connect. But the first force was a surprise.

That first force was the same no matter which sigil I looked at. Golden Dawn, Reiki, Enochian, others. The force was always the same, with the same signature.

So I did what Direct Mages do: I connected to that force and told it, “Give me your usage instructions.” It explained that it notices when a person is looking at a symbol and connects them to the symbol’s ethereal software. It’s like Google for magickal forces. (For my fellow computer geeks, it’s closer to DNS.)

I used that Google-force when I made the sigil for this book’s ethereal software. I told it, “Associate the sigil I’m looking at with this ethereal software I’m connected to.” It told me the command was successful, but I had doubts. How could it notice if someone I’ve never met stared at similar-looking lines? (I still have no idea, by the way.) And what if there was a step I missed? Other systems of magick use rituals to bind sigils — no one would expect a single command, done in 10 seconds, to be successful.

So I tested it. I posted the sigil on my blog. Readers focused on it. They’d never met me, and never connected to my ethereal software before. Their only link was the sigil.

It worked. Experienced mages overwhelmingly got positive results, and many notices got good results, too. That one command had bound the force to that sigil.

(You can also bind ethereal software to a ritual, so anyone performing the ritual gets contacted by the software. I suspect that works in the same way, but I haven’t done it myself, so I’m fuzzier on the details.)

Commanding Ethereal Software

Once you connect to the ethereal software, you’ll want to send it your intent: “Make me successful in finding a job,” “Heal this person,” and so on. There are lots of ways to send your intent. We’re going to learn two in this book.

Here’s the simplest method: Focus on the sigil, to get the ethereal software’s attention. Repeat your command in your head (or out loud) for about a minute. The ethereal software should read your thoughts and act on them.

A few notes:

  • Focusing for more than a minute won’t hurt anything, and some people only need to focus for a few seconds. One minute is just a general guideline.
  • This only works with this ethereal software. It’s designed to be easy to use, so we added this feature. Other software requires other methods, and often requires initiations.
  • Magickal communication happens in concepts, not words. If you speak another language, translate the commands into your native language. If a phrase feels awkward, replace it with something more natural for you. And if you think in pictures rather than words, translate the command into whatever imagery feels natural to you.

Aside: Why Learn Other Communication Methods?

This method is so easy. Why learn anything else?

Because this method puts 100% of the work on the ethereal software. It has to figure out how your mind works, then read your thoughts. What’s easy for you is hard for the software.

This method also tends to be imprecise, like talking on a phone with static. It works for simple phrases, which is all we need for now. Later in this book, we’ll learn another method that lets us communicate details more clearly.

For experienced mages: Do whatever you normally do to send out your intent. This book’s ethereal software should be programmed with all the normal methods of communication, and they should work better than the extremely simple method we just discussed.

(But remember, the forces you normally use have had time to learn their way around your mind. This force hasn’t had that time, so for now, keep your commands simple, and follow the exercises in the next few chapters.)

Success: How to Know You Did it Right

I like to end each exercise with a self-test, so you can verify it’s working for you.

To make sure you can successfully command the ethereal software, tell it, “Give me obvious connections.” Within a minute, you should notice a tingling or pressure. That’s the obvious connection. When you’re satisfied, tell it, “Stop making that obvious connection.” (Otherwise, those sensations can eventually turn into a headache.)

Congratulations! You just did your first bit of Direct Magick.

My readers helped me test this on my blog. About 3/4 of them noticed the obvious connection, including quite a few people new to magick. About 1/4 did not notice anything, and most of them were new to magick. It’s common for novices to not feel connections or energy, so if you don’t feel anything, that’s OK. Just continue with the exercises, and return to this test in a few weeks.

Aside: Magick and Placebo

Let’s say you’re in the 3/4 of people who feel this. How can you be sure you were feeling connections and not placebo?

First, I don’t want to over-promise. This chapter isn’t about convincing hardcore skeptics that magick is real. That’s a bit much to expect from a novice mage (that’s you) or a short book. But let’s see what we can do to decrease the likelihood that you’re feeling placebo, so you can be more confident in your magick.

Instead of creating the sensations in yourself, let’s create them in a friend. Get a friend who’s also interested in magick. Give them this book. Have them practice until they can each feel the obvious connections, too.

Then get together. Both of you look at the sigil, then have your friend close their eyes. Touch them and think, “Give them an obvious connection.” Verify that they feel it.

Now, the control condition: Repeat that, except sometimes, touch them but don’t think anything. Verify that they do not feel the connection when you don’t ask for it. (And make sure not to change your breathing or touch, or do anything else like that.)

See what happens. Don’t expect 100% accuracy — nobody is perfect, and sometimes your friend will anticipate the connection, or be distracted and not notice it. But when I do tests like this, I’m impressed with the results, and I think you will be too.

(Why touch the person? It makes it easier to tell the ethereal software what you want. Later, when you have more experience with ethereal software, you can make the tests more rigorous.)

What if your friends aren’t interested in magick? Then do the exercise solo, and be proud that you’re testing your results as best as you can right now. We’ll have more tests soon.

Disconnecting from Ethereal Software

Whenever you’re doing magick, it’s a good idea to disconnect from ethereal software when you’re done. If you don’t, the connections and energy may cause a headache.

This book’s software is designed to be easy for beginners to use. By default, it will disconnect from you once you ignore it for around 30 seconds.

If you’re working with other ethereal software, perhaps from other systems of magick, you may have to choose to disconnect. For example, thinking, “I’m done with magick for now.” You can use that command with this book’s ethereal software, too.

Aside: Multiple Commands

What if you do some magick, then think for a minute, then want to do more magick? Won’t the ethereal software disconnect from you?

As long as you’re thinking about magick, your mind will probably keep the software engaged. Also, when you focus on the sigil again, the software will re-connect. So this shouldn’t be a problem.

Aside: What If You Don’t Disconnect?

What if you’re using some other ethereal software, perhaps from another system of magick, and it doesn’t automatically disconnect? What happens?

Like most errors when working with energy, the worst case is a headache. If that happens, just disconnect from the forces, and rest. You should feel better in around an hour.

If you know how to work with energy, you can heal yourself in a few minutes. First, release the energy in your body, then build new energy with an energy meditation. (We’ll cover that soon.)

“Hold on,” you may be saying. “I got a headache from too much energy. Now you want me to fix it by building more energy? Won’t that make it worse?”

The amount of energy doesn’t actually matter. What matters is the energy signature, or type. Energy influences your body, and the wrong type of energy will make you feel off. After releasing the energy, we replace it with new energy, which will have your body’s normal signature. This helps get everything back to normal faster, and works better than just releasing the energy.

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Part 2: Magick Quickstart Guide

Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

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This is part of An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

In Part 1, we saw that you need two things to do 90% of magick:

  • Ethereal software — the forces we channel, present in most systems of magick under a variety of names.
  • Alert ethereal muscles — the parts of your mind that move magickal stuff and connect to the ethereal software.

Each system of magick has a way to do this. Initiations, attunements, even just growing up with people who do magick, they all do basically the same thing: Connect your mind to that system’s software, and awaken enough of your ethereal muscles to become aware of it.

For this book, I’ve boiled that process down into this quickstart guide. First, we’ll connect you to ethereal software by having you focus on a sigil — not an ancient mystical symbol, just an image I attached to some ethereal software. Then, we’ll use that software to start awakening your ethereal muscles. At each step, I’ll explain why we’re doing it that way, and how to know if you’ve succeeded.

If you’re new to magick, this will probably take a few weeks, practicing 10 minutes a day and an hour on weekends. If you already practice magick, you can probably complete these exercises in an afternoon, though if an exercise is tiring, spend a few days on it — it might be a skill you haven’t practiced yet, and learning it could help you become better at magick, including the magick you already practice.

By the end of Part 2, you’ll be ready to start using magick for energy healing, manifesting, and protection, which we’ll cover in Part 3.

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