The Power of Magickal Decision

There are some decisions that can trigger a flood of magickal results. These decisions come when we have no choice but to make the decision. We can resist change, we can resist putting in a huge effort for a long time, because we get by with a decent effort. Eventually, though, when we need change, we commit to change. And that’s when magick can reach new levels of power.

I often say that you should be tactical, and break down a problem into its component parts. Tackle those individual areas with directed magick, and you get an overall result. But it is also true that the decision to prioritize a change in your life can unleash your magick, and give you a powerful general result without the need for details.

I am often asked if there’s a ritual to lose weight, and I point out that there is no single working that could achieve that. Weight gain has many causes, and weight loss is complex. If you break the problem down, find out what’s stopping you from losing weight and tackle each problem directly, you can succeed. That might mean directing magick at your willpower, your energy levels, your cravings, your determination, your general health, and so on. Or, as suggested above, if you make weight loss a priority, your magick may become much simpler. Making a desire into a primary goal can make the details far less important, and this gives magick the opportunity to operate with more creative intensity.

Some years ago, after a lifetime of being enviably slim, I injured my knee and was forced to be almost sedentary for an extended period. I (very gradually) put on so much weight that people called me fat. It was shocking to me, because being thin had always been effortless. I was one of those lucky people who stayed thin so easily, and then I was fat. Not just a bit overweight, but truly fat.

My mistake was to assume that because I ‘deserved to be thin’, I thought it would happen by itself. I expected that once my knee heeled, I would be thin, because that had always been my default state. But losing weight doesn’t happen by accident. So for a while I targeted areas of my life that I thought could help. I used magick to motivate myself to walk more, to eat more healthily. It all worked. Except that it didn’t. The changes I made happened, and they seemed highly significant to me. I was consuming a lot less than I had before, and exercising a lot more, but I was not losing weight. Despite trying many methods, and obtaining the help of professionals, my weight barely changed. It felt like a curse, but I couldn’t blame the supernatural for this one.

The simple and devastating truth is that I had accepted my weight. I tackled it with what felt like great determination, but if I’m honest, I was actually just toying with weight loss. Now, that would have been fine if I was happy that way, but I didn’t like it at all. For me, being overweight was uncomfortable and demoralizing. I had never had to lose weight, so I didn’t realize that it can be so demanding. I didn’t know that for weight loss to work for me, it to be a priority.

There is a great power in a decision made at the level of your very existence. We make decisions that we don’t really mean all the time. But sometimes you can make a decision that you know is real, that makes you change the focus of your life.

I made a decision, not just to lose weight, but to make weight loss a genuine priority in my life. Not just something else I fitted into my life, but something that became a major part of my purpose. I envisioned a future where I returned to my ideal weight, and I decided to get there, no matter what it took.

What happened then was the interesting part. I intuitively knew that my usual method of breaking the problem down into smaller parts, was not required. With such a major decision, I knew that I only needed supportive guidance from my magick. I worked briefly with the sigils from The 72 Sigils of Power, and then I worked with two angels who were attuned to my need (from The 72 Angels of Magick). I lost the weight. I didn’t need to perform rituals for willpower, to ease hunger, to remain determined. I just sought general support from the angels, and they gave it to me, and I lost weight.

It was not a miracle cure, so don’t rush out and buy these books thinking this is a weight loss shortcut. It took me over a year to lose the weight. Yes, I could have done that without magick. But what changed, for me, was that when my decision made weight loss a priority, I felt drawn to one overall magickal working for weight loss, and that magick felt so much more powerful than before. A powerful decision simplifies your world. A powerful decision means you have to do less. You are so focused, there is no need to spread your power around.

It reminds me of a time when I claimed that my priority was money. I was young, living in London, in a house that was little more than a squat. We had a fun life overall, writing, creating, with lots of free time, but we were poor. Not desperately poor, but struggling. I became sick of finding coins for the electric meter, and eventually said I’d had enough. From now on, I exclaimed grandly, money was my priority. But that was not true. My priority was an easygoing creative lifestyle where I didn’t have to work much. Money was a frustration, but that’s all. As my housemate said, ‘If money’s your priority, stop writing and get a job.’ He had a point.

And at one point, much later, money did become a priority, and when I made that decision, my focus turned to money, and money came to me.

This can even work without magick. I knew a young woman who wanted to become an actor, and while her other actor friends were busy socializing and enjoying their late teens, she was training, working on her voice, meeting the right people and laying the path for a career. Without any magick, her deep decision paved the way for her success. But when you apply this sort of decision to a magickal life, the effects of the magick go to another level entirely. For occultists, there is enormous power in a decision.

It takes some care to know whether your magick should be general or precise. Should you do an overall working to improve an area of your life, or should you break it down into its component parts? I think it comes down to how much you prioritize the change. Is this something you just want, or something that is about to become the true focus of your current life?

Wealth Magick (recently re-relesed) is a book that urges you to make wealth a priority. If you don’t, if money is just a side interest, then the magick cannot find expression in your life.  But it’s important to note that magick doesn’t always require this level of dedication. Want some more cash? Use the Magickal Cashbook. Want more sales or ongoing income? Use Magickal Riches. If you want fast, direct results, you can look to Words of Power. To change your self and your circumstances, you may look to The 72 Angels of Magick. It’s worth taking the time to reflect on the actual problem at hand. In general, I still believe that the best way to work with magick, is to break the problem down and tackle the individual challenges. Most of the things we want are not life-changing, so decisions at the level of your soul are not required.

Often, you will find that when you break the problem down, there’s not much that you need to do to get the result you want. A few weeks ago, a musician wrote to me on the Facebook page, and talked about some of the problems he was having with his band, and how he wanted to solve them all. But then at the end of this he said, ‘We need to practice more.’ And there it was – a solution. There was no need to direct magick at every conflict, every creative problem, every factor that affected his band. All he needed to do was direct magick at getting the band to practice more. What seems complicated can often reveal itself to be simple.

With a crafty approach you can find lots of quick fixes and instant solutions. But if there’s an area where you find change difficult – whether it’s weight loss, money, or love – it could be that you need to change your entire attitude to that area of life. This is when you need a decision. A decision to make that change a priority. Only make this decision when you can do so with confident devotion, or you may become desperate for quick results, and desperation can shut down your magickal creativity. Dedicate yourself to change when the change feels like a requirement.

Prioritize a wish, and that wish will present many avenues to its manifestation. Make your desire a genuine priority, and your magick can begin to work miracles.

– Damon Brand