The Arjil Archive

[Moon1ight]

So, the Internet is fleeting and I trust Seisatsu, our current Admin and Webhost <3 much more than the rest . For this reason, I want to collect all of Arjil's writing on Magick as "Direct Manipulation" in one place – it's pretty much my favourite material on practical magick.


[February 6, 2013]


Just. Effing. Magick.

This is a letter I wrote about my thoughts on the practice of magick- I mostly keep all this to myself for fear of becoming a pariah, but upon reflection, I don't care.  These are things I know, they are my experience, so I shall share them:
     There is a current within the occult that is, for the most part, alternately ignored, abused, and reviled. And frankly, I'm not even sure I know how to talk about it without sounding like a lunatic.
So, you know all the worst of the internet trolls: The high archmage muckity mucks, the dragonkin elven fox furries, the astral goddess wielders of excalibur, the people who think they're a faerie queen, the demon overlords, the people who took D&D and faerie tales Way too seriously?
Yeah, whole lot of facepalm going on there-
However, if you can get past the bullshit, all these people share the same Impetus, they're all looking for the same thing- these loudest voices,  typically being unstable and completely void of social skills and Utterly lost in their own personal mythology, have cast an indelible stain on anything that even resembles what they were looking for.
I know this, because I share that same Impetus.
I get it.
I have just put forth the effort to not be a dumbass about it most of the time.
I think a lot of people, if not most of us began with that Impetus, but upon finding the occult community the well adjusted among us decide "well, obviously, since everybody else thinks that's just childish nonsense, it must be", and let the idea go.
Or they still harbor that Impetus, but have sense enough to keep their mouth shut about it.
Or they choose one of the systems, like the Fluffy Pagan Brigade, who pretend they know all about it and make it all safe and happy.
Or they turn from it with a sense of betrayal and decide there's no such thing as Magick in that sense, and it's all psychological tricks and despise everyone who dares to believe in anything that can't be measured with a ruler.
So what's the point of this?
I have learned to use the language of the modern occult systems with it's paradigms, energies, elements, programs, nexions, wave functions, etc. etc. but that's not really what I do.
I just use Magick-
Like what people believe in when they're kids.
The whole story doesn't really matter, but somewhere along the way I decided
A) everything I've discovered about the occult is boring, fluffy, unimaginative, doesn't line up with what I feel in my heart to be true, and really doesn't seem very magickal at all.
B) Somebody had to be the first one to raise up off their hairy knuckles and decide they could use magick.
and C) children all over the world play really weird imagination games, and naturally use bizarre "little kid magick" all the time- until it gets beaten out of them sometime around junior high.
I'm sure this is technically faulty logic, but bear with me-
Every other young animal in the world (well, mammals and some birds at least) instinctively plays at the skills they will need later in life. I'll spare you the list, but think about it for a second, and they Do.
So why the prevalence of Human children wandering around in imaginary realities, doing weird ass little kid magick (cootie shots, chants, bizzarre rituals to keep the closet monster at bay, jinx breaking, holding your breath so the thunder doesn't get you, etc.
Not to mention a stick can be at will, a sword, a gun, a wand, an icky poostick of doom, whatever)-  all these things that, in the normal adult world really seem to serve no practical function of survival at all?
Right or wrong, logical fallacy or not, I wondered what would happen if you took the same spiritual force, energy, gnosis, whatthefuckever, that people use in their magickal work, and applied it with the same level of dedication to these seemingly pointless beliefs and skills practiced by children with a critical eye to the most widely held occult theories, and upscaled to functional adult experience.
Apart from "it worked", I don't know what else to say about it.
I think I found the Impetus that keeps the trolls lurking, and keeps that suspicion in the backs of people's minds that says the world of the occult, the magick should be more like we thought it would be when we were kids.
There was more Fail and more Silly than I care to contemplate, and we spent an unseemly amount of time running around in the woods Pretending (we knew we were pretending, but we had to go back before we could go forward).
What I *seem* to have discovered, is kind of... Like, a multilayered reality in which we all exist that all has some measure of "Real" to it for a subjective value of "Real",
a means to influence and change that reality seemingly on the Quantum level,
and a semi-sentient Force, perhaps, that is not a god (though it might be a function of GOD, or the IS if you take my meaning) That Feels like what the idea of magick felt like so long ago.
It's got the same feel as every faerie tale, fantasy book, movie, or song that inspires people towards magick, the ones that you experience that make you say "Yes!" and make you Wish that the world wasn't so fucking mundane.
Magick.
Not energy work, not systemic entropy, not elements, not intercessional deity, or psychology, not tricks, not overblown philosophy, and not religion.
Just. Fucking. Magick.
It has been my experience that all the real, recordable results regardless of paradigm, and the people who are validly successful, tap into this "current in reality" through whatever means they happen to use.
How does it work?- it's Magick.
How do you do it- use your imagination, it's Magick.
You can't do that- why not? its fucking Magick...
I postulate, ladies and gentlemen, that this is indeed the root of the occult. It is what all the systems, and dogmas, and even the "gone off the deep end" idiots have been attempting to explain, and in the attempt, just like the words of every prophet ever- they took something really simple, and made it so complex you can hardly find the point anymore.
Every system, every paradigm, every philosophy of the occult I have ever studied or tried- every single one has, in the end, proven pointlessly unwieldy.
Yes they all work. All of them. Any of them. Make some shit up, and it works-
Because it's Magick.
Is it easy to figure out how to use it?
No.
Is it really easy to get sidetracked, or fall off into the bullshit pile?
Yes.
Tools and tricks and mental aids can be helpful, certainly, but in the end, in my opinion, it is just plain Magick at the heart of the matter.
Just
Do
Magick.
******
After my initial posting of the above essay, someone asked me to clarify what, exactly, I meant by "little kid magick" so here it is:
Ok, so a whole lot of the things children Pretend, play at, are strange imagination games.
As you know (or will quickly discover as you study) "visualization" is the most common, across the board, tool of using magick.
Kids are born doing this, and they do it better than all the adults who have all sorts of hard techniques to learn to do it effectively.  Kids can change the whole of their personal reality in the blink of an eye- it doesn't Do anything most of the time, because they're kids.
Remember when you were playing, you could Be Superman, and it didn't matter whatsoever that you were running around a playground- You were Superman?
Or the couch could Be a spaceship?
Or a pile of old bushes would Be a dragon?
And it was Easy.
So here's the short version of how to apply this to magick-
Remember how you could Be Superman?
Now, Be a Wizard.   Pretend.
On the surface, this seems silly, but bear with me- you have to let go of the silly. Kids don't feel silly when they're Superman, they're too busy Being Superman, flying around and shooting lazerbeams out of their eyes.
You know how you can recall the feeling of a physical sensation or an Emotion?  Like the feel of wind, or drinking something cold, or stubbing your toe, or excitement- and you can, if you concentrate, Feel it?
So what you do, Pretending to be a Wizard, just imagine what *Your* magick Feels like, what it would look like blasting out as a spell- Kids don't worry about How it will work, they just do it, usually with some impressive whooshing sound effect.
Or maybe your magick is quiet and creeps like tendrils of smoke, or flows like water.
Summon the vision, and more importantly, summon the Feeling, and Pretend like a kid that you're casting your spell, and like a kid, Believe it.
It took me a while, some years, to become truly effective at this. Just as it takes a while to become effective at any paradigm of magick. Apart from a certain (rather large) level of creative versatility, immediacy, and freedom, it's no stronger, better, nor more effective than any other paradigm.
However, this style does allow for a Lot more practice.
In many systems you have to wait around for the right phase of the moon, or star alignment, or you have to build a ritual, or be in a special place, or evoke some god or spirit, or create a servitor, or a sigil, or whatever.  Many people, especially among the pagan and ceremonial groups cast maybe one spell a week if they're particularly active- certainly some do more, but, I'm talking about average practitioner.
I throw like 20 a day.
Who's going to be better at magick?
So long as you have the juice left to throw a spell you can do it (you will discover this method will wear you the hell out when it works.)  I have also found that in using your Own magick, rather than relying on some spirit or non sentient "energy" do it for you, you don't have to worry as much about the unintended consequences that everybody always gives dire warnings about.
It's a part of you. It won't manifest in ways that You are not ok with-
not to say that you can't miss, or that cause and effect won't whack you in the face like stepping on a rake hidden in the grass, but it won't off your grandmother because you cast a nonspecific money spell- which is one of the favorite examples. 
One other little tidbit- You know how most systems place emphasis on visualizing the end result in exhaustive detail? Seeing your will after it has come to fruition?
Screw that. It's backwards.
Focus instead on summoning up your Magick and it going out there to do your will.
Certainly- Know what you want, use ritual tools like a sigil or a written out spell if you need something complex and specific.
But the important bit- the Really important bit to doing magick is the Doing of the Magick.
Utilize your imagination on the Front end of spellcasting, not the Back end. Trust the Magick to find the path of least resistance through reality from where you're standing, rather than hurling it into some as yet non-existent possible future and hoping it finds you again.  That, in my opinion and experience, is putting the cart before the horse.  Not that it doesn't work, especially from a particular point of view, but when I began using this mind set, my effectiveness increased dramatically. 
All paradigms have something to offer: ideas, tricks of the trade, good knowledge. Listen to everybody- it all builds your vision of the whole.
But this technique of coming at it from the little kid mind set makes it all a lot easier-
they don't have to fight themselves to make magick. 
Neither do we.
There are people of course, who's mental landscape is quite different, and as such this method doesn't work for everyone.  Many need a distinct process, a more rigid practice, a distinct trail to follow, or who's main mental process is something other than visual based imagination.
What I think people of such mind should take from this idea is license to find their own form of creative magickal expression, to feel free to explore the way their mind Does work- to use their natural inclinations in their magickal practice to their advantage.
Because it's Magick, it doesn't matter What you do, so long as you Do Something to make it work.
I've struggled for years to try to figure out how to convey to people how to find  Their Way, as I found My Way. That's the truly important bit, I think- To ponder how You would make the magick work.
If it was your ideal world- What would You do?
When you think about magick, how do you Wish the process worked?
Do That.
Keep at it till it works.
And it will.

[Moon1ight]

I asked Arjil for advice on why I can't do instantaneous things like make someone in the tram turn around or, you know, a sheet of paper move. Here's his answer, posted with permission :D
"It really just is a matter of practice.  It took me a decade of all day every day, just as a constant thing to get anywhere approaching consistent.  Try different visualizations, different feelings, different ways of holding your mind, different ways of *pushing.  just keep playing with it until you get it." (06.12.2019)

And here's some FB-DKMU material by him.


[November 30, 2018]

"Throw a little voo on it"
That's how I often describe infusing magick into... Whatever I'm doing to get my empowered Will, the Magick, to do it's thing in my day to day. It's the difference between a Mundane act, and a Magickal one (and there IS a difference, that is obvious). 
I Make it magick-  I summon up a Something, I put Power to it.  Yes, magickal Power, and infuse that into whatever I'm doing just as I would a spell.  I talk about it flippantly.  Hell I DO it flippantly.  Because I'm a Mage, and I play this shit like I was a character in an RPG.
Most people don't.  That's not how we're generally taught to think about all this, in most paradigms. 
we don't think about it like power. Like magick in stories. 
I mean, I can get as technical as one wishes, from most paradigmic perspectives, but the Reason my shit works is I throw a little voo on it.   I touch that force/current that is Magick, and I put That in there.
Mileage may vary. 
But it's a thing, and an attitude, I suggest you at least try on.
Let magick be magick, like it was in your head before you thought so hard about


[February 10, 2018]

Someone in another group was asking what's your fallback philosophy when your magick fails?
(I took that to mean- how do you justify that to yourself?)
Thought my response might be interesting for you guys here:

Though my general philosophy is to not give a shit whether it works or not (being fully prepared to do it the "hard way" if I must- which also has the added benefit of sidestepping the "lust for result" problem)

When it doesn't work I try to see if there are any variables that might have been the cause so I can readjust- such as I just wasn't feeling it and personally failed to wield the mojo right, or hold my mind right,
-if my effect was even Possible within my sphere of influence
-if there was too much inertia to the reality I was trying to change,
-if there were other Wills resisting the manifestation (either the target itself, other people who wanted that to go a different way, people in the cause-effect chain who resisted the influence, that sort of thing),
-if I didn't have a good enough link to my target
-if I was too far removed from the reality I was trying to influence (in resonance and conception, more than geography)
-if it worked, just not the way, or as well as I assumed and I missed it
-If I just straight up Missed.
-and sometimes there seems to be a Fate or Storyline aspect, some kind of spiritual Something that's supposed to happen and you're not Allowed to fuck with it *shrug*

These are most of the usual variables I've identified over the last 3 decades of heavy experimentation (there's a few that have slipped my brain, and a couple that don't fit in words, but these are the most common I find)

what do you guys think?

[Date lost]

[...] any method that you think should work, should do it.
the basic components are Intent, and some act that means *magick* to you.
use the symbols (like the metaporical things, images, objects, things that evoke the feeling of that which you're searching for)
or make a sigil (google will get you there faster than I can type an explanation)

Really, it doesn't much matter What you do to make the magick work, only that you do something that you can believe in.
If you were a witch, say, and you were going to cast this spell, what would you do, if you had magick at your fingertips? - Imagine.

now Do That, and mean it.
believe in it.

That's a spell as good as any other.
Not to say that they always work, or work how we expect them to,
But that works as well as any other sort. Finding Your way is the trick.

[Date lost]

"The whole problem with a worldview like "The Secret" is, though we can have an INFLUENCE over our reality and the currents in it, so can everybody Else. We do not exist in a vacuum, there's a whole entire universe that's going on that has nothing to do with Us, and is about it's own business. Shit happens, because shit is happening whether we knew about it, or not. The world is in constant motion and struggle, and it does not turn on a single person's whim.
Take for instance, as a crude and simple example, if you and I were both wanting the last cookie and attempting to manifest that result- Only one of us is going to get it. The one who's Will was stronger, who was better at employing it, and perhaps who got lucky."

[Moon1ight]

And now, his Direct Manipulation Class on OC, currently unreachable, but luckily I downloaded it in advance 8)
[21 August 2016]



In a facebook group (The Learning Annex) that occasionally holds classes for various magickal techniques, I held one on Direct Manipulation magick. I meant to do it as a video lecture, then Q&amp;A, but that didn't work out so I went text based with it.
I thought I'd share it here, if anyone were interested. I'm posting my essay then will gladly answer any questions on the subject. Perhaps we can have a good discussion on it.

***So, Direct Manipulation- just throwing magick at stuff, or putting your will directly upon the world as you pass through it.
In order to make this work, it's easiest to adopt a literal *mystic power* view of magick kinda like "The Force"- whether that is the actual truth of what's going on or not, is irrelevant. For this sort of practice, the ways in which it is useful, that sort of symbol set and mentality is the easiest to just roll with. It gives you something tangible that you can put *pressure* on reality with, or manipulate resonances and currents. (as an aside, I find that people who hold this view, tend to have more success with magick in general, their practice is more versatile, and they have a more immediate magickal experience than those who do not, no matter what sort of spellcraft they're using.)

The first thing you've gotta do, is Find your magick. Your principle tool here is imagination-   I'm going to tell you here to straight up Pretend like you did when you were a kid, that you can just throw magick on the world. Any spell, ANY spell- all it is, is intent, plus power/will, plus *something* that you did to make it happen. Period.
All you have to do is allow yourself to believe that you can do that with the proverbial snap of the fingers, and allow yourself to Do it. That gets you in the door at least- it gets just as complex as any other magick from there, but this is where to begin.
Face value this seems dumb. If this worked, then the world would be flung into chaos right?
You're right.
Imagination is the tool for shaping your spell, but it's the Magick that's important. If you don't get the Magick in there, it likely won't do shit. Sure, we've all had an accidental manifestation here and there, a spell that came to pass before we ever cast it- who the hell knows what's going on there? But for day to day reality wrangling on the fly, I've found nothing to compare with this.
Mine, seems to come from somewhere in my core, and I can literally Feel it as it surges up and out, and I program it with my intent through visualization.
I know this whole "Channeling energy and power" thing is out of fashion, but it is important to be able to sense, feel, manipulate the "energies, vibes, resonance, powers, minds, etc" around you as you encounter them in order to be able to do this.
By imagining what these things feel like, you program yourself to sense them in that way (or, in paying attention, you'll find you sense it in a Different way sometimes, which has happened to me a lot. Once you get into this "magickal senses" business, you'll find you spend a whole lot of time trying to figure out wtf you're sensing and where it's coming from. Be careful of assumption here.)

Ok, so what good is this? why bother with it?
A) magick, as strong as you could do with a ritual or sigil, Here and Now, in 30 or so seconds gives you far more opportunities and ways to Use magick than traditional methods,
B ) it completely destroys the argument of "why waste effort on that?" because anything you can think of to try is now fair game.

Take inspiration from fantasy books, video games, rpg's, faerie tales- any magick thing you think is cool, and try it.
You will fail, a Lot. But this is actually a good thing. See, nothing kills the "Lust for result" problem faster than knowing this probably isn't going to work, and not giving a fuck and trying it anyway. However, since most of this stuff is being done in real time, you can watch what it Does do- sometimes nothing, but sometimes it'll manifest in small ways not Quite in line with your intent. If you then alter your focus to use what it Did do, applying more *Pressure* there, then you start to get into where you can really reliably bend reality.

Jinxes, hexes, throwing a "Nope" on some shit you see about to happen, making people go away, ensuring it doesn't start really raining till the car is packed, jedi mind tricks, cursing a poker machine, Summoning objects (as in finding it while you still need it), smoothing the way through life in any way you can think of, augmenting physical skills or endeavors beyond just probability manipulation, etc etc etc. Any point in your daily life where you wish you could just snap your fingers and make that shit happen- try it. It won't all work, or work the way you wish, but this is how you learn how it Will work.

One way this diverges from most spellcasting is in the realm of exhaustive specificity. Screw that. Sure you need some, but the more specific you get, the harder it is to manifest. Throw the least specific intent you can manage. (this is another reason to just throw magick around for the fuck of it- you don't want it to screw up when it Matters. You want to know with reasonable assurance how much specificity you need in it Before you're in a pickle) Yes, you will screw up sometimes- however, I've found when you're throwing your Own power and will down on something, beyond simple cause and effect stupid, it won't manifest in ways you are inherently uncool with. If you're throwing a bit of You out there, it won't "Off your grandma because it wasn't specific enough" which is a favorite caution among the pagans.

Also, don't just focus on far-flung world rending effects- like, if things appliances, equipment, machines, whatever in life is giving you trouble- call up your magick and dump some "Work" voo in it. Once you get good, it usually will. (I use this one a lot)
(on "dump some Work voo"- how I would do this, I'd raise up my magick, and channel it into the offending thing, with the literal intent of "Work thing, dammit"... that's actually my incantation most of the time. I mean really, this is a whole other level of reality interface. You can put your will, your power, on ANYTHING to give a boost in performance, to make it do what it does Better. And I'm just talking the simplest of day to day things- you can get as crafty as you want.)

This technique Also helps boost the efficacy of traditional ritual. If you learn to wield this baseline Magick, then when you use it with Tools, that makes for a whole New level of ritual.
Or as we're chaotes here- sigils. A scribbled down sigil is one thing. One that you channel power into the symbol as you're drawing it, is quite another. And instead of wanking or other non magick specific means of firing, just channel raw magick into the motherfucker- this, in my experience and the accounts of those who do that, works far better.

Speaking of tools- If you like tools like the athame, the chalice, the wand, etc, you can create these things in your mind. You can then channel them into Any similar physical thing to serve that purpose. That way, no matter where you are, no matter what sort of cup you get ahold of, you can infuse it with the pattern of Your chalice, and it will be, at least for the space of what you're doing.
I roll a little looser with that, and will just dump a temporary enchantment on it if I happen to need one.
But premade spell constructs, or just Power enchantments channeled into physical objects is a really useful trick- however, substandard objects may often be destroyed by this. Yeah, you can make it work, uncannily, Once. You can also force something that's about to break, to keep functioning, but the more you do this, the more catastrophic the failure will be when it happens.
I don't know if that made sense, but once something be it your computer, your car, your whatever- if you have to resort to magick to do something essential, best get it done, then either take it to get it fixed or start looking for a new one. Once, twice, maybe Three times, but the longer you stave off the breaking point, the more fucked it's going to be. That's just my experience there.

Ah, I was talking about constructs up there and channeling them into tools. You can do that on Yourself too.
Once I found myself barefoot, on a slick as shit muddy rocky mountain path, with a 30 foot dropoff that I was sliding towards. It Sucked. So I decided to cast "Goatfeet" on myself. I essentially just imagined satyr legs, then dumped magick into that imaginary construct. Immediately I stopped sliding, and the rocks stopped hurting my feet.
I was really quite proud of that one, as I pulled it off as I was sliding toward the cliff.
see? versatility. A ceremonialist in that same instance would have had to hope he hit a tree.
And I danced and pranced my merry way back to the boat.

Is there more? yeah, there's more. But that's all I've got at the moment. My Video utterly failed, (remember kids, when doing magick, either ward your electronics, or enchant them, otherwise you're liable to Dresden the shit out of them) so I got this typed up so we'd have something to discuss.

Hopefully this was at least some kind of informative.
Ask the right questions, and maybe we'll get somewhere with this class :) ***

[Moon1ight]

And here's part 2 of that.
[21 August 2016]



I thought that looked awful short. There were more posts to it. They're a little scattered, but here they are as well.

LECTURE 2
a couple things as additional reading material.https://storytellerway.com/2013/02/06/just-effing-magick/ this needs to be rewritten badly, I know. The second half is the important bit.
and this: https://storytellerway.com/2013/01/27/the-banana-thing/
and one for considering "Force Sense" type precog: https://storytellerway.com/2013/01/27/rockvswizard/

LECTURE 3 Another thing of note- I never ground. I never banish. I fling magick with my Own power. All of these things, various traditions are horrified by. Perhaps they're right and one day I'll burn through all my vital essence or go mad, or get eaten by demons or something, but it hasn't happened in nearly 30 years of doing this, and very few of my detractors impress me magickally in the slightest.Making your Life, your Self, into "ritual space", making that your baseline reality rather than something you "step into when it's magick time" I find to be key to really getting the most out of this whole "Mage" business.
I'm never Not a wizard. I've literally thrown spells while sick and sitting on the toilet. That's as viscerally "Normal" as you can get.
Own your magick, and your self.
There's also a weird thing- much like The Force- I find, and this could just be me, that it takes a little while to establish a relationship with it. It's... It really does seem to kinda have it's own semi-sentience. I know this might strictly be my understanding, but it seemed that it took a while for it to learn Me, as well as Me learning It.
Once whatever I think of as "The Magick" and I had come to an understanding, like, spells or *pressure* I exert on reality worked more in line with my "unspoken" intent, and I better understood certain "heads up" that it would give me. I dunno. This is all subjective, but it really seems like a "My ally is The Force" sort of thing.
I don't talk about that much as It's an unpopular notion, but that's my subjective deeper experience of it.

LECTURE 4
Here's another little story on Direct Manipulation.So back in the day, I went to this goth club in Tulsa. In preparation for going, as I loved the idea but had never been to one, I created a Mantle- that being a Glamour construct (useful for all sorts of things, especially being what you're not. I had "helpful hardware guy" when I was in retail. like armor with certain bonuses... that sounds cheesy but, it worked. anyway) This one was heavily fae, and I made donning my black and eyeshadow and fingernail polish all part of the ritual.
So we get there, and nobody's dancing.
I was annoyed.
So I reached out with my magick and Usurped/created the reality bubble of the "Dance Floor". Then I delved that whole "Faeries will make you dance" resonance. Then I stepped on the floor, and danced a spell. So long as I was dancing, that motherfucker was Full. When I sat down, everybody drifted off again. 8 times, without fail, I jam packed that floor, and a couple of those poor bastards looked like they might die, but they wouldn't stop while I was on that floor, throwing down my "Dance, Monkey" will.
That's not the only time I've done that specifically, and I use that sort of limited area "reality bubble" effect a lot. It's Quite useful.

LECTURE 5
Spellblast- here's a game my brother and I used to play.This started back when we were in the "Remembering how to pretend without reservation" stage of learning this sort of magick.
(this is going to sound very silly, and it was, until it Wasn't)
So, playing, you just huck spells at each other. Like "splinterstorm" "mankytaint" "summon ant farm" just silly bullshit- but you take it half serious. You try to put Magick behind that construct. On the other end, you have to play fair. Sometimes that shit gets you, and you have to let it- imagining, Feeling the effect.
It's a ridiculous, LARPy kids game. Until it starts to hurt, and you have to stop, you have to tone down the infusion of magick, because it's starting to Do things.
In fact, because of all this, I have to be careful with my emphatic gestures when I'm talking to my wife, or telling stories, because my finger is fucking Loaded, and she gets really pissy when I accidentally nail her with something- but paying the price of being careful with what you're throwing around is far better, in my opinion, than having to really Work to make any impact somebody will notice.
Just a thing you guys might play with.

LECTURE 6
Something a little more advanced- Once you KNOW magick works, and have a handle on it, and don't have to Prove anything beyond a shadow of a doubt anymore, then we can get to the business of proactive casting, playing magick closer to the probability line.In doing this, the second you see a potential problem that might crop up in anything you're doing- go ahead and throw your voo on it.
Once shit has already gone sideways, it's all damage control. Avoidance is more efficient. You have more options available for ways for it to Not go wrong (or less wrong) the further out you start influencing it.
Will you ever actually know if you avoided that doom? mostly not. It will only be evident in the conspicuous lack of problems. (and yeah, you get your "reality" trained up right, or find the right *flow* you don't have to give it much thought, but this is a bit more active, along the same lines)
So this isn't something to crow about, it's not awesome and weird effects, you have to concede that maybe you had an effect, maybe you didn't.
But it's one of the more efficient secrets of magick.
Make that shit not be a problem before you ever get there.
#‎protips
(it's a good non-magickal living skill as well, just FYI.)

LECTURE 7
There's certain bits of this I can't really talk about, because a lot of it is just "DO" it, and how in the hell do you explain that? Like the literal "how do you put pressure on reality? how do you call up your magick/power? how do you throw it at something?" like the actual mechanics of "how to"- and that is frustrating as hell to not be able to express. I've pointed at it as much as I can I think, but it's that part of this business you've gotta figure out.
I will admit that it took me a whole decade of fail to get decent at it.
The reason I'm throwing down random stories, is not so much because they matter in and of themselves, they're just examples of the types of reality engagement I'm talking about, just how I deal with the world around me, magickally, and I hope they are useful and give you a point in the right direction for your own "hands on" reality wrangling.
I'm just gonna through some thoughts down here that may be useful.

I will say, if you're going to delve this- as you get good at this stuff, a caution: The better you get at on-the-fly reality wrangling, the more control you need to have over your mind and emotions.
I've internalized this magick process to the point where, if I'm not careful, and I'm having a bad day and lose my shit everything within range goes murphey's law. Most of us have this from time to time, but the better you get at screwing with reality around you, the more serious it gets and the further it goes.
It's also useful to learn how to *Grab* a spell as it's going off, in case you accidentally start to throw something. In order to do this you've gotta catch it before it actually goes. So paying attention to your own mind is a very important thing.
The *Grab and Pull* aspect is actually just as important as the "Throwing and pushing"- Like, take dropping a glass- instead of dumping *energy* into this, I'll try to suck energy Out of that happening, Instead of an "exhale" it's an "Inhale". Sometimes it keeps things from breaking that should have *shrug*. You can do this with situations too- Like if a situation has gone tense, instead of putting your will upon them and trying to enforce the calm (which is direct opposition to their will, which is something always best avoided when possible. it's harder) you draw the Tense and energy Out of it. (you can do both at the same time, but that's a weird split focus thing and it's tricky)

You can also impose stasis, Holding something steady rather than trying to cause change- this is especially useful when, like, the ladder you're on is about to slip, or the limb you're holding onto is about to break, or the wind is about to blow a campfire away and set the world alight, or things need to stay just how they are till you can do what you need to do to make it ok.

This all goes beyond mere imagining it, it's not just wishing- it's really reaching out with part of You, and Doing- and there's a serious difference there, between Thought and Actually Doing. For myself, If I can't literally actually feel the Magick, the Force, Whatever that is stir and move and flow- it's not gonna do shit. Not saying it will always succeed even if It did do that thing (I don't see why people hold magick to a higher standard in that regard than physical action- we don't always succeed at those either)
But without that- it's like the difference between just standing there Imagining throwing a ball, and Actually throwing a ball and thinking it to your target. You've gotta find the Actually in this process. And it's one thing I can't tell you how to do.

sorry to ramble. hope that was helpful.

LECTURE 8
This direct manipulation stuff is great on it's own, but what of ritual?
Here we get some Serious benefit, I find.
Like, so much of the ritual and tools route is devoted to getting into the magick mindset, raising the power, and then doing the thing.
If you're Already, baseline reality in a magickal mindset because you're a goddamn wizard who wields the forces of magick on a whim, And if you can infuse things with power and purpose just by picking them up and Deciding that they are and dumping voo into them,
Then ritual becomes Not about getting yourself ready to do magick, it becomes about Doing magick.
You also get far better at using the subtle resonances and powers that you're attempting to engage through the various tools, the experience becomes a Whole lot more visceral.
You can bust that out "on the fly" as well- snagging random objects and slapping them into place with Purpose, Using these tools as they were intended, rather than half as a prop to help you believe.
And even still, once you get good, some days you're just out of juice, you reach for it and you just can't get it to go. Tools are helpful here.
It's kind of like the "Riddle of Steel" from Conan- "what is steel compared to the hand that wields it?"
Once you grok the magickal equivalent of that, then you can wield the fuck out of some magickal tools.

LECTURE 9
Something I forgot- cool little trick but useful. You know how you wind up with Favorite Things, like a hat, or pants, or pocketknife, or jewelry, any it's a horrible wrench when they wear out ? Well, you can shift that resonance and magick of "Your Thing" to another one. Takes a bit for it to sink in, but you can retain all that mojo. Or you can do the same thing as with ritual tools, creating the construct and infusing it into whatever is at hand. It doesn't Seem very important, but it can be. Keep your mojo bound to you, so you don't have to rebuild it after loss or age. Sometimes, sure, it's for the best and new is important. But sometimes, the continuity is important. There's so.e things we shouldn't have to lose when the physical thing goes kaput. Dunno if that makes sense, but I thought I'd throw that out there


Skin in the game for the Dreaming side...