Does Magick Work For Everybody?

Does magick always work for everybody, the moment they finish a book? It should and it can, but it doesn’t always. Whether you have obvious psychic abilities and supernatural skills, or feel as ordinary as cardboard, magick can work for you. If it doesn’t, there’s usually a reason and a solution.

My books work for many thousands of readers, but the truth is they don’t work easily for some people. Rather than denying that, I’ve identified some of the main obstacles to magickal success.

I know how easy it is to make mistakes with magick, even when you have perfect instruction. I’ve got over three decades of magickal mistakes to my credit, so I know how easy it can be to stuff up your magick. Thankfully, the most common mistakes can be cured fairly easily.

The best news is that you don’t need natural ability, but magick is reserved for an elite group of people that can do the following:

Be Open Minded

You don’t need faith or belief, but you need to be open to the possibility that the magick will work. Without an open mind, you can’t perform the magick with commitment. If you’re attracted to magick this shouldn’t be a challenge. If you think magick sounds far-fetched and ridiculous and you want to test it out to see if it works, you need to be a little more playful. Open your mind to the possibility of results.

Be Imaginative

A lot of magick is almost like pretending. You pretend something is listening and it listens. You pretend a result has already occurred and then it does. You can call it visualization or something even more exotic, but it can be seen as quite playful pretending. This does not mean that the spirits only exist in your imagination, but that your imagination is a gateway. Your imagination gives your will a way to access the world of spirits.

You don’t need to be able to visualize with perfect clarity, but you do need to be able to pretend things are happening, or to act as though they are happening. Think of parents you see playing with children. Some are going through the motions, but others are just as involved as the kids – they can almost see the fantasyland they’re playing in, or believe they are the monster that’s chasing the children. This sort of imaginative approach, devoid of restraint or embarrassment, is a key to magick.

Be Casual

Being casual about magick is more important than having belief. If you do believe that your magick will work, great, that’s a bonus, but the ultimate way to show the universe and the spirits that you trust them, is to be casual. So don’t keep checking your email, don’t keep seeing if the result has shown up, don’t keep testing the magick. It can help to keep a record of the magick you do, and reflect later to see what’s worked best, but while doing magick, be casual. Act as though you expect it’s going to work out fine. You should be so casual that when the result turns up, it’s not surprising. (If you can’t get this casual, try this: Do a ritual for something you know is going to happen anyway. Weirdly, this can kickstart magick and put you in a more casual frame of mind about results.)

Be Serious

As well as being casual you have to perform magick as though you mean it. You are effectively trying to change the universe to align with your desires. That’s no small thing. Be playful, be imaginative, and be casual, but also be serious and know that you are working with fundamental powers.

Be Confident

Be confident that you’re doing the magick right. So many people worry that they are doing it wrong, and that the spirits might get upset. The spirits don’t care how you align that symbol or whether you’re facing East or what kind of ink you use. Yes, getting all the details right can help make things run smoothly, but a confident occultist who makes mistakes will get the attention of the spirits. Spirits sense authority and they love it. A fearful occultist who worries about every detail is easily ignored. Be confident that you’re doing it right, whether you are or not. Stop obsessing and do some magick.

Be Patient

Do not panic if results don’t come immediately. It’s often said that results can come in three days, three weeks, or three months. I work with that in mind, but the results often come faster than three months. Sometimes they take much longer. Hope is nothing more than glorified doubt, so every time you sit around hoping for a result you are doubting. Really powerful magick can work despite your doubt, but a lot of magick can be mangled by impatience and doubt. Not least, an impatient person is less likely to be calm and intuitive and pick up on the synchronicities that lead to a magickal result.

Be Clear

Know what you want. There is no more important magickal act than knowing what will make you happy or relieved. It sounds easy, but it’s probably the most difficult one to get right. People often ask if they can do lots of magick at the same time. Of course that’s fine. But it can indicate a sense of panic and a lack of clarity about priorities. It’s better to know what you want and work on it until you get it.

There’s more, but those are the main points.

Magick can work for anybody who adopts the correct approach and mindset. A natural ability can make you better at magick, and give you faster results. But somebody with enormous natural magickal talent who uses the wrong approach and mindset will get rubbish results. If you have zero natural ability, but have the right approach and mindset, you will get results. This means all readers can succeed. I have seen magick work for complete beginners, and it usually does.

Most of the messages sent to this site are from people who have had amazing results. Readers who don’t get results often reveal that, one way or another, they are closing themselves off to the magick. A man wrote to me the other day and said he was doing all the magick he could think of but then added, ‘I work and work and work and never get any reward.’ What a powerful spell that was. He was cursing himself with that statement. I pointed that out to him, and he replied by saying, ‘I’m always making mistakes like that.’ Another powerful spell, directed straight at himself.

That’s not to say you need to go around being a New Age positive thinker. Magick gives us the ability to rise above our personalities and our flaws, and to get results that exceed who we would ordinarily be. But there are some personalities that are unable to be casual, imaginative, confident, patient or clear, and so the results stay away until the personality eases up.

What I like best is that when I’ve pointed this out to people, many of them are able to work on these aspects of their personality and – as if by magick – they start getting results.

– Damon Brand