Magick of Thought

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

Direct magick is about consciously building new magick techniques. It has three core steps:

• Understand the mechanism that creates the change in the external world — the steps that happen after the ritual.
• Trigger that mechanism directly, without rituals or symbols.
• Take that mechanism apart, then use those parts to build new techniques.

Direct magick comes from my need to understand how magick works, and my belief that magick can do vastly more than we can do today, but only if we build those capabilities ourselves. I want to build magick into a modern science, and I hope you’ll join me.

In this book, we’ll focus on awakening the parts of your mind that drive magick (your “ethereal muscles”), connecting you to an external force you can channel for help with magick (some “ethereal software”), and learning to use that force for a few easy, useful techniques.

Next book, we’ll dive into the mechanism, and taking apart some of the techniques you’re learning in this book, and showing you how to customize them to a particular situation to get better results. And in the third book, we’ll take some of the techniques apart, show you how they’re built, and show you how to rebuild those parts into new, useful techniques.

You can use direct magick with a style you already know, or use direct magick as your only style. You can learn just the easy techniques, use them for as long as you like, and decide later on learning how they work and how to customize them. And if you want, you can apply this to other magick you know, taking it apart to customize it or rebuild it into something new, too.

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This is an outdated book chapter. See the latest version here: An Initiation into Direct Magick – Book 1.

What is magick? My real answer is, “The study of ethereal muscles, ethereal software, and other magickal structures.” But those are my terms, coined as I explored direct magick. Let’s start with a layman’s definition.

For now, let’s say that magick is “altering the world through thought.” That isn’t 100% accurate: Some magick requires rituals or symbols in addition to thought, as we’ll see midway through this book. And psychic intuitions are part of magick, but they don’t alter the world. So it’s not a perfect definition. But hopefully, it gives you some idea of what we’ll be doing.

Most of the practical magick I see falls into two categories: Manifesting and energy healing. There’s more to magick — we’ll explore spirits, protection, personal growth / enlightenment, and more in these books — but you’ll probably use your magick primarily for manifesting and healing.

Manifesting is about influencing events: You manifest a job, and the HR person happens to be in a good mood when they look at your resume. Or you manifest a relationship, then feel drawn to a particular nightclub, where you hit it off with a new friend. Essentially, creating luck, though it can only do so much — you won’t get a job you’re unqualified for, and reading this book won’t make you win the lottery. Sorry.

(Psychic intuitions are a subtype of manifesting, employing many of the same techniques. We’ll explore psychic intuitions in Book 2.)

Energy healing is about reducing pain and speeding recovery. Examples include Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, and other styles of energy healing. They all operate via magickal structures, so I include them in magick, even if their practitioners don’t use the word. Learning magick will help you work with those structures, and help you get better healing results.

We’ll explore both energy healing and manifesting in Part 3 of this book.

I also want to be clear about two things magick isn’t. First, real magick won’t let you throw fireballs, teleport, or turn into a bat. That’s only in movies.

Second, some people underestimate magick, imagining that manifesting equals positive thinking. (“Believe you’ll find a great job, and you’ll keep looking until you do.”) Positive thinking is great, but it’s not magick. Real magick changes the external world, not just your perception of it. And real energy healing does more than placebo, and works even if the client doesn’t believe in energy healing, or doesn’t know you did the healing technique for them.

(What about internal magick for personal growth? We’ll do that, too, though it’s hard to separate placebo from legit magick. See Book 2 for more.)

One more thing: Magick is hard. Anyone who tells you it’s easy is selling positive thinking and placebo, not real magick. Expect to spend a few months becoming a serious beginner, and a few years becoming skilled in one area (like manifesting). It’s worth the effort, but it’s not easy.

Still here? Good. Let’s talk about direct magick.

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