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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
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):
- Using your signature building blocks (at a medium scale), broaden your signature to include all signature building blocks you know.
- See which of those building blocks connects with the system’s signature.
- Discard any that don’t connect.
- 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”).
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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