MAGICKAL ANSWERS

March 2022

© 2022 Damon Brand

I like being here. It feels like we’re having a chat about magick. You’ve
asked some questions, I’ve had some thoughts, and here we all are. But
even though I’ll keep this as light as I can, in this post, we will take a
look at some of the fundamentals of magick.

I don’t want to hype this up too much, but I enjoyed having a good look
at some topics that are difficult to cover with a brief answer. So, I hope it
still feels like a friendly chat, and I’ll try not to ramble too much.

It’s the middle of March, but it feels like March began a long time ago.
These have been busy days. We continue to experience a growth in the
energy of Empowered Magick, and we’ve also been kept busy planning
for next month’s bonus creativity ritual.

I can’t stress enough how useful that bonus ritual could be for you.
Creativity is one of the most potent currencies in the world. Whatever
your line of work, a creative approach can give you the greatest
advantage. And if you are an artist, looking for expression rather than an
advantage, then you know how useful a boost could be.

If you’ve never felt creative, this might be the time to see that you do
have it within you to start something new. Or you may find creativity is
a power that can be used in ways that are far beyond the obvious. I
believe that accessing creativity can make the difference between

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struggle and success. And please don’t think you’re not creative or not
capable of being creative. Choosing to do magick is, in itself, a creative
act, a leap of the imagination, so I know you have potential, and the
magick can take it so much further. I’ll cover all that at the beginning of
April, but please don’t think this is an obscure ritual for poets only. (I
hope the poets will enjoy it too.)

I can see from the comments that your experiences of Empowered

Magick varies greatly. Some people feel like nothing is happening at all
and are waiting for results (more on that later). Many others speak of a
shift, a sense of change. And a few have said that magick has truly been
unlocked for them in a life-changing way.

This is how it’s always been, with magick, to one degree or another, but
I’m always pleasantly surprised and pleased to see the range of results. I
know some people are working away at the new Angel magick, some
are focusing on long-term projects using their magick of choice, and
others are doing almost no magick at all. This is all good, and the
Empowerment should be affecting your world, whatever your
approach.

Back in the ordinary world, we started offering annual membership for

those who know they’ll be here for a while. It takes away any
uncertainty about payments, and you save a reasonable chunk of money
too. Thanks to those who’ve shown trust in us. We’ll reward you as well
as we can.

We also published physical copies of Empowered Angel Magick. It’s

available on Amazon with the title Angels of Empowered Magick, and you
absolutely don’t need it because the PDF works just fine. But I was very
grateful to hear from those of you who did buy it and so pleased to
know that you’re delighted with the print quality.

There have been lots of good stories about Empowered Angel Magick in
recent days, and I can sense that many of you will be using it for years to
come.

One interesting observation was made a couple of times (and I can’t

remember if this was in private messages or in the comments), but two
people said that when they were working through Empowered Angel
Magick that even though they sought no benefits, and were merely
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establishing the Empowerment, they noticed some results occurring that
were in line with the Angels’ powers. This is wonderful when it
happens, even if it only happens in a small way.

This has also been one of those months where more ‘supernatural’
things have been happening. These aren’t extreme events and are often
more like synchronicity than something classically supernatural. From
reading your messages and comments here on Patreon, I know that
many people reported seeing meaningful patterns or sequences of
images. Some people saw an unusual number of birds or feathers and
wondered if this was something to do with Angels. There were also
reports of non-magicians sensing something different, with some seeing
light or sensing that Angels were nearby. One member also wrote and
asked me if it was expected to be seeing the so-called Angel numbers,
such as 11:11, all the time. I’ve not even covered all the stories here, so
you can see it was a bit stranger than usual.

It's always difficult to talk about this sort of thing because I sometimes
forget I’m talking to people who believe in magick. You probably won’t
be at all sceptical. But I always feel like I have to say that some of this
could be down to confirmation bias. The sceptic in me knows that we
expect to see meaningful things, and so we see ordinary things and
invent patterns to make them seem meaningful. There is no doubt that
humans do this, and I am absolutely certain that it can happen when we
work with magick. But I also know that this goes much further than that,
in ways that go beyond ordinary understanding. This month has seen a
surge in such occurrences, and I’ve had more than a few of them myself.

These moments aren’t always dramatic. And if they happen, you might
be thinking, so what? I always like to think of these moments as being
like a tap on the shoulder from reality, or an Angel, saying, ‘Look, the
universe isn’t a machine. You’re involved with reality after all.’ It’s a
lovely little reminder that magick happens, that reality responds to us.
We are not ignored by a mechanical universe.

When there are more synchronicities than usual, does it mean anything?
It could be that with so much change going on in the world, at all levels
of society, from the smallest disputes to global changes and conflicts,
that there is a feeling of flux. We know things change – we can’t help but
see it - and so we are open to more levels of change.

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It could also be that this is genuinely one of those times when the veil
between reality and imagination is thinner than ever. Reality is much
more likely to change in response to us. How and when these times
occur is beyond the scope of this little discussion. And truth be told, I
don’t like to obsess about this because it can land you in the position of
feeling that you have to wait for times like this to do magick. I never
think that’s the case. As soon as you feel the need for magick, you can
use it. But with that said, if you see a sign and ignore it, that can be a
mistake. So, I have taken it to mean that this month, and for a while yet,
magick may have a somewhat excitable energy. It’s not instability but a
vibrancy. Magickal events will happen more easily.

It can also mean reality is a little more chaotic, and results might split off
at the last moment or change to something that’s not quite what you
asked for. But I don’t think this is anything to fear at all. Try to ride out
the waves of this chaos, and remember that as magicians, we can harvest
storms. When there is energy and change, we can keep working to make
sure the dust settles in a pattern of our choosing.

You'll hear from me again in early April with the next monthly
Empowerment and the bonus creativity ritual. I don’t know if I
mentioned this already, but the creativity ritual will work its magick for
more than a year. I’m excited.

Questions and answers for this month start on the next page.

Kind Regards,
Damon Brand

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Questions and Answers – March 2022
To ask a question, send a private message through Patreon or write to
magickfaqs@gmail.com. I will respond to relevant questions around the
middle of each month, in a PDF like this one, on Patreon. I respond in
the comments section when I can, as well, but it’s not always guaranteed
I’ll see your question there.

Q: When should I give up on a ritual, and how do I do that without

impacting magick?

A: This is such an interesting question and a reasonable one. You can’t be

expected to pretend everything’s great and that magick works every
time if you’re not getting results. This is a very long answer so if you’re
not in the mood for a long read, come back when you feel ready.

A lot of what I cover in this answer may be new to you. If it sounds all
too familiar, I hope you will find some interesting ideas mingling with
things you already know.

In almost every book, I say that it can be a bad thing to write off a ritual.
Doing so can send out the wrong feeling, the wrong energy; it can seal
off the magick and stop it from manifesting. But, realistically, it’s a bit
silly to go around pretending everything is ok if you’ve not got your
results. So how do you know when to call it a day?

Before we go any further, we should address the fact that this question is
usually only asked when people are seeking quite ‘solid’ results, such as
attracting a lover, or making more money, or getting the best deal on a
house. You rarely see people getting impatient when it’s a more mystical
ritual aimed at spiritual exploration. And that may be quite telling. But
as I explore this, I’ll assume we’re talking about the earthlier results.

It’s also worth noting that the answer depends on what sort of magick
you performed. If you’re working on a long-term result, slowly building
a career, for example, that’s very different from performing a ritual to

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pass an exam at the end of the month. In some cases, it’s obvious when a
ritual hasn’t worked, and in other cases, it’s less clear.

What we’re really talking about here are those times when you ask for
something, and you’re not sure how or when it would come about
(which is a good way to work), but then you get an uneasy feeling a few
weeks later, and you’re just not sure if you should do something else.

I think the best way to approach this is to look at the way the question is
phrased. It asks when you should give up on a ritual. It can be a useful
exercise to say never. Just assume it’s working, but decide to do
something else to tackle your problem. This might seem like you’re
fooling yourself, and I can understand why there might be some
resistance to this, but it’s a bit more subtle and interesting than that.
You’re not lying to yourself. You’re just staying in touch with the right
feeling.

I know from messages I’ve received in the past two weeks, that some
people have looked back over their magickal notes and gone, “Oh my
god, every ritual I ever did worked eventually, and I’d completely
forgotten about them.” And of course, that shouldn’t be a surprise
because letting go of the need for a result helps it to come about.

The idea of ‘letting go’ makes people worry they aren’t allowed to think
about what they want. Thankfully, that’s not the case. You don’t have to
empty your mind and pretend you don’t really want the result. But you
don’t obsess about when and how the result will come. You don’t pester
the magick by waiting around for results, by checking up on the magick
all the time to see if it’s worked yet.

I often see people putting time limits on magick, and it’s as though they
are saying, ‘Right, you’ve got until next Tuesday to prove magick is real,
and if you don’t, I’m out of here.’ Magick rarely works in cases like that.

Sometimes, as touched upon earlier, there’s a time limit dictated by the

problem. If you want a fair decision to be made at the end of a court
case, you can’t be indefinitely patient. The court case is closing on the 9th
of May, and you’ll either be found guilty or not guilty. Or, if you’re
trying to get a job with magick, you want to pass that interview you
have on Monday, not in six months’ time. So, in cases like this, the

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magick either works or it doesn’t and there’s no great mystery and no
big dilemma about saying so.

There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging, at some point, that a

particular ritual didn’t work. In fact, it can be the only way to learn
about magick and know what style of magick you mesh with most
effectively. So, I’m not telling you to ignore the facts. If a ritual has failed
completely, knowing that is a good way to develop.

The problem is that many people jump to this conclusion far, far too
easily and early. Over and over again, I see people perform a ritual, and
then they begin to panic if a massive bag of money hasn’t turned up in
three days. Money can and does turn up that fast sometimes, if you can
just let go and expect it to happen sooner or later, one way or another.
Demanding a rapid result is nothing more than a manifestation of fear.
You’re so afraid it won’t happen that you insist it must happen now.
And if you tighten your mind with a fear that the magick won’t work,
the magick amplifies the energy of failure that you’re putting out.

I am saddened when I see this happen, especially when I can see

somebody is just around the corner from a much better world. And I’ve
seen many people over the last few decades give up on magick because
it didn’t perform exactly the way they wanted. Which is weird when
you think about it. If magick works, even once, you should be sort of
amazed and curious and really keen to work out everything you can
about magick because let’s face it, you’ve been given a key to reality.

Most people don’t get that key. It’s a gift. If magick works at all, and if
you’ve found that to be true, then the world just became a bit brighter, a
bit more mysterious, and filled with a lot more potential. It’s not worth
getting uptight about results not coming in time.

Don’t worry. I know that’s not completely realistic. I still get impatient at
times. So, don’t be hard on yourself if you do. It’s bound to happen
because we use magick when our desire is strong. It’s like entering a
talent competition and acting so cool as though you don’t care who
wins. We all know that everybody who turned up had the absolute
dream of becoming a star, of winning the big trophy. And losing hurts.
And it leaves you feeling disappointed. So, yes, our desire is strong, and
we want our results, and we want to win this talent show, not the one
that happens in August.
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Several of you recently shared stories about getting consistent results for
years, and still dismissing them as being a coincidence. I completely
understand this. Don’t for a minute think that I’ve always had
unshakable faith in magick. There were several times when I rejected it
all, in the early days. Never for long, but it did happen. Even though I
should have known better because of the things I’d experienced and the
changes that had occurred. But I became so frustrated at not getting
what I wanted, when I wanted, and so I threw it all out after one failed
ritual. That’s the danger. And I do believe it’s a danger because, without
magick, you won't do as well. Making your way in this life is tough, and
if you are lucky enough to have found magick, it’s a tragedy for you to
lose that potential.

Magick helps us to control what we get, what we experience, and that

often means getting things faster. So why should we have to be patient?
We don’t have to be patient, but we can assume that magick will work.
And doing so is no different from assuming that every car you get into
will work. Cars break down every now and then, but you don’t
approach your car, worrying that it might not work. You know it works,
and so it doesn’t even cross your mind that there might be a problem. In
you get and off you go, without any fears.

As with so many things in magick, there’s a beautiful contradiction here.

On the one hand, I say that you shouldn’t write off a ritual as having
failed, but I’ve also said that you should acknowledge a failure and
perhaps learn some practical lessons that will help you next time. How
can both be true?

When it comes to magick, I sometimes think that if there is no

contradiction, that’s when you need to be concerned. Apparent
contradictions are quite genuinely a big part of magick, and if you read
my books carefully, you’ll see me mention this over and again. Why is
this the case? The answer to that is essentially mystical and for you to
discover, but for now, let’s keep it practical and say, ok, it’s alright to
have this contradiction. So, in effect, you believe two things at once.

This isn’t at all difficult. People do this all the time. They support one
political party while acting in ways that contradict its ideology. They
marry somebody while being in love with somebody else. They pretend
for a decade that they love their job while also knowing they hate it. I
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could go on, but I’m sure you know of many examples. They happen on
a large scale, and they happen over breakfast. You can believe two things
at once, and it isn’t even difficult. So, feel free to look at what you did,
how your ritual was constructed, and where you might have gone
wrong. You might learn from being analytical. But also, just assume it’s
still working and will bring you what you want. Trust me; it’s easy.

Back to the main question. When do you decide a ritual has failed? Well,
you don’t pick a time. You will feel this for yourself. Our intuition is
quite clear and speaks to us loudly. The only problem is that our hopes
and fears can be even louder. Learning to know what's intuition and
what’s the rattling of your expectations and doubts can take time. But if
you get a gut feeling that your results should be here now, not because
that’s what you want or feel entitled to but because that feels right for
the magick you performed, then it’s a good time to move on.

And how do you move on? Some people want to repeat the ritual,
perhaps to iron out any mistakes. If you’ve really stuffed it up by
missing out major steps or by lusting after that result every waking
minute rather than leaving it to manifest in peace, maybe you should.
But generally, I say don’t repeat a ritual. Doing so can make it feel like
this is a tough nut to crack. In other words, it feels like failure and effort,
whereas a ritual should feel like it’s bringing relief. Repeating a ritual
just feels like knocking on the door when you know there’s nobody
home. So, go next door, and they might let you in for a cup of tea.

There is no timetable, but if you feel that enough time has passed and
you’ve not seen the results you want, all you need to do is accept (or
pretend if need be) that the magick's going to work fine, and then
approach the problem from another angle.

On the beginners’ guide, over at The Gallery of Magick website, there’s

the answer I’ve been slowly working my way towards, and it may be as
simple as this:

What if it doesn’t work?

Try again from a different angle. I remember when I first heard you could make
a diamond fall in half if you just tapped it in the right place, in the right
direction. A diamond can grind through hardened steel, but if you know just

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 where to tap it, it slides apart. Reality is like that as well. Most of the time, if
you ask for what you sincerely want, it works. If it doesn’t, small adjustments
usually do the trick and the details are in the books.

If it’s as simple as this, why all the preamble? I swear I don’t like the
sound of my own voice (or keyboard), but I’m addressing many of the
thoughts and ideas that have been shared with me by readers, and by
members here, in recent weeks. So, it’s been a way of looking at this
whole topic from a few angles.

And that answer from the beginners’ guide is quite brief. What does it
mean to tackle a problem from a different angle? Usually, when we seek
a result, there are other results that come on the way to that result, or
that come after it. Imagine, for example, that your house has been
broken into and vandalised. You suspect that it was done by a known
enemy, but you have no way of proving it. You might perform a ritual to
have him arrested. Ok, that’s a good plan, but there are many other steps
to that moment. For that to happen, there needs to be a good
investigation by the best people. It will require some good luck. It will
require people to talk when they know something. And it will probably
require some moments of inspiration or intuition by the investigators.
And then they might find their man and arrest him. Assuming you are
right. It might be better to perform a ritual to ensure that the true
criminal is arrested.

Assuming you are right about the suspect, there are many other aspects
of the situation that you could put your focus on. But let’s remember
that you don’t just want him arrested. You want him to be charged and
convicted (I presume). So that’s the end result that you want. Probably.

Perhaps the end result you really want is for the day to come when he
apologises to you. Or maybe the day when you get past the enmity.

Along the timeline, there are other aspects of the situation that you
could influence with magick, and many other moments you could seek
as a result. And always, you should keep in mind the feeling you want
to have when this is all over. Do you just want to feel safe, or do you
genuinely want to punish your enemy? Know that, and it will be much
easier to get what you want.

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Looking at the timeline of events isn’t the only way to approach a
problem from a different angle. You may get an intuition about a better
way of getting what you want, or a different aspect of the situation that
needs to change. I knew somebody who performed quite desperate
magick, every month, to scrape enough money together to pay his
mortgage (on a house that was way more than he could afford). He’d
locked himself into a horrible struggle, and I never managed to convince
him to take a different approach. But there were much better solutions.
One was to think bigger and seek a much higher income, to take away
the monthly stress. The other was to buy a house within his price range,
and that didn’t even require any magick, although magick could
certainly smooth that process out.

The question we started with was, when do you give up on a ritual, and
how? I think I’ve covered some of the better ways to deal with a
situation where it feels like something has failed, but there’s one last
thing that’s worth mentioning. Sometimes, when a ritual ‘fails’, you get
a really strong feeling that you didn't want that result anyway. When
that happens now, I see it as a result. It’s a glimpse into my deeper self.
The magick has helped me see who I am and what I want, and it’s saved
me so much misplaced time and energy.

You don’t need to convince yourself that magick will always work, or
think positive, or keep smiling and pretending it’s all ok. But if you
focus on the beauty you can see in the world, if you focus on what you
can genuinely be grateful for, even when things haven’t worked out, you
stay very close to the power of magick.

Q: I’m still waiting for my results. Where are they?

A: To a large extent, the (very) long answer above should cover most of
that. But I’ll add a few other thoughts. One is a phrase I heard
somewhere, in relation to magick that goes something like, “Three steps
are worth a thousand hopes.” And I take that to mean that when you
put in some real-world effort, rather than sitting back and waiting for
the magick to work, things happen so much faster. Magick can make
things turn up out of the blue, but real-world action amplifies magick as
much as magick amplifies real-world action.

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And, as a couple of people in the comments suggested, a favourite
method of mine goes like this: when you find yourself worrying,
imagine how good you’ll feel when everything’s gone your way. It’s a
pleasant daydream that feels good. Don’t worry about how or when the
results will come. Just enjoy the feeling. Being in that state takes your
grip off the mechanism of magick and lets it get to work on your reality.

Q: Nothing works for me. What am I doing wrong?

A: If you never get results, and if magick is a struggle, this Patreon is

probably not going to help in the way you want. It’s not meant to be a
trick to make magick easier. I have encouraged people to come here
when they want to expand their magick. If you find magick doesn’t
work, ever, there may be fundamental things you need to change about
the way you approach magick. What things, you may ask. I’ve covered
most of them in the blog posts on the website, so if you’re really blocked,
and finding that magick never works, start off by looking at the Fears and
Problems FAQ on www.galleryofmagick.com. It has all the links you’ll
need.

Q: Are the powers listed in The 72 Angels of Magick in alignment with

the Empowered Angel Magick?

A: Yes. If you have that book and see a power for an Angel, you can use
it with the Empowered Angel Magick book.

Q: Is there lettering or text in the sigils shared here?

A: There isn’t. The sigils all use lines and patterns to create the required
connection. Quite a few people have reported seeing text that appears to
look like Hebrew or various magickal letters. There is nothing present in
the images, but people seeing magickal letters when they enter a
magickal state is something that’s been described for centuries. In some
cases, it may be an effect of the printing process, but I think some people
are also picking up on the background work that goes into this magick.

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Q: Now that I’m using Empowered Magick every month, can I skip a
few steps or simplify other rituals?

A: No. Although we’ve shared Empowered Angel Magick, which is much

simpler than the original method we published in The 72 Angels of
Magick, it is an entire system created over a long period of time. It only
works quickly and easily because a lot of time has been put into making
it that way. The monthly Empowerment you find here should work as
described, making your magick stronger and more effective, but that
will only be the case if you’re doing the magick as it’s meant to be done.
Otherwise, it’s like giving a racing driver the fastest car on the grid but
taking the wheels off just before the race.

Q: If I choose an Angel with several different abilities, can I create a

ritual that calls on all those abilities at once?

A: Generally, this isn’t a good idea if you’re just trying to pack several
rituals into one. The magick is so brief anyway that there’s no need to
speed it up. But if a single Angel’s powers apply to the result you want
in two or more ways, you can call on those powers in a single ritual.

Q: How can we possibly have the right to ask Angels to do our

bidding?

A: I can understand this feeling, but the simplest answer is that Angels
are there to serve as a connection between humanity and the divine.
That will mean different things to different people. The Angels don’t
judge our requests and respond to our sincere desires, but we’re not
cheating or tricking them into compliance. They respond to requests
because that is how it’s meant to be. I believe that as you work with
magick more, this feeling becomes clear.

Q: Everybody keeps talking about seeing signs, feeling amazing

sensations, and experiencing magick, but I feel nothing. Why not?

A: Some people never will, and I can’t say why. What I can say is that it
doesn’t matter at all. It doesn’t happen as often now, but in years gone
by, people spent way too much time conjuring up ‘effects’ which had no
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spiritual or material use, other than to create a magickal sensation.
Mostly, it was wasted effort. So, don’t worry about this. Magick works
even when you feel nothing at all.

Q: Can you do too many rituals?

This gets asked a lot, and I may write something new about it, but for
now, please see:

https://galleryofmagick.com/2015/07/03/a-rush-of-occult-power/

and also:

https://galleryofmagick.com/2016/08/03/targeting-your-magick

Q: I love the monthly Empowerment ritual, so can I perform it every

day?

A: You can, but there is no need to. I am quite reluctant to say you can
because it might make people worry that maybe things would be better
if they did the ritual every day. From our point of view, if you do it once,
it works. But there’s absolutely no harm in doing it again if you get a
good feeling from doing so. But nobody should feel like this is an
important step that we missed out. If you don’t have a strong urge to do
the ritual every day, just know that once really is enough.

Damon Brand, 16th March 2022

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