One-Off Magick vs. The Great Work

So I hadn’t intended to do a second post this month, but my inbox felt differently.

Most of the time, when people come to me seeking magickal work or advice on magick, they have the same complaint: “My magick in the past hasn’t worked. I did a spell/ritual/pact to become famous, and nothing happened. Why?”

Oftentimes they’re just searching for that one spell or ritual that will change everything and give them exactly what they want, creating the happy-ever-after they’ve been using magick to find. Or they want to do a pact, thinking that’s the answer to all their earthly problems.

The following is a brief section from a book I’m working on and I think it explains this quite well:

Keys to High Performance Magick

1. Have a clear goal of your intended manifestation. Know what it looks like. In many cases, you need to know exactly what you want. Now, that said, some books about magick argue that you shouldn’t be specific and I’d counter that it depends on your goals. I’m also convinced some magicians like leaving things open ended so even the smallest gains can be counted as successful magick. Regardless – you still need a clear goal whether it’s a feeling, a desired lifestyle, etc… You also need to have the wisdom to know when you should be specific, and when it’s okay to be unspecific. Some magicians will tell you that leaving things open ended is better. Others will tell you that you need to be specific. I say it depends on the situation:
   Some instances where you may want to be specific: 1. Healing Magick 2. Career Magick 3. Creating a specific situation.
   Some instances where you may want to be nonspecific, but very clear in the desired outcome: 1. You’re doing love magick to bring more love in your life. 2.A Raise in pay (unless you need a specific amount) 3. A better job. 4. Guidance 5. Creativity Magick – like for inspiration.

But I don’t want you to just throw things out willy nilly. I want you to sit down and ask yourself, “What does my ideal outcome look like?”  Then — ask yourself “Why?” because the why of the situation may  reveal a different angle to the situation. Oftentimes when people want more money and success, they’re not envisioning themselves being showered in cash or driving luxury cars. They’re thinking of being free from debt and not having to work as hard so they can spend more quality time with loved ones. Or maybe more time playing and being out with friends than being shackled by excessive responsibility. Or if they’re creatives, they’re not imagining spotlights on themselves or walking down the red carpet – they’re looking at all the eyes on their creative work.  It’s their WORK they want known, not necessarily themselves (though I imagine some people really do want the spotlight).  When we’re defining what we want, sometimes it helps to envision what life would be like if you already had that thing, whether it’s a physical thing, an emotional thing, or a mental thing.

2. Properly apply energy work. Know exactly where to apply your energy and what to work on magickally. Know exactly what needs to be done (both magickally speaking and in the physical realm) to accomplish the goal. Most of you know that in my day-to-day life, I’m a novelist. I make my living weaving fantastical stories. Many years ago I said I wanted to have a book that sold like wildfire with tons of fans.  It’s great to throw that intention out into the universe willy nilly when you don’t know what that really entails.  I hadn’t done the research or the homework to find out what it was that bestselling novelists did all day (aside from writing). I didn’t know the skills required, or if I even had those skills. Aside from the writing – I honestly didn’t know what I was doing. Not. One. Clue.

So, one Sunday afternoon, I brought all my novels (it was only 5 novels at the time), blessed them in the name of the nine Daemonic Divinities, invoked Belphegore and Belial over them for the books’ success, and walked away. One of my novels and two novellas went viral within three months. I was making bank, drawing down five figures a month just from three stories I’d written. Imagine that. It worked like a charm. But I had no idea what I was doing and about two years later, my sales trickled off to nothing. I was back to where I started. So why did it fail?  Daemons can give you great windfalls, but if you don’t know how to properly manage the windfall, it will be just that. A temporary injection of good luck that eventually tapers off. However – if you want LASTING prosperity, health, etc… that’s where the self-work, or The Great Work as many magicians call it, comes in. This is a combination of Daemonic intervention and making choices and snagging opportunities in the real world that will speed you along to your success. This is why dabbling in magick only results in the occasional windfall and rarely lasting results. Let me share yet another example of what that entails.

Several years after my windfall, I decided I was going to work magick to reclaim my bestselling author status. I wanted to be both bestselling and well-known. This time, however, I was armed with more knowledge of the industry, marketing, etc…  Once again, I threw caution to the wind, called on the Daemon Sorath, and said the equivalent of “Hey, I want a six figure writing career!”  In my mind, Sorath was likely snickering when I said that.  But ultimately, he agreed. He was like, fine – here you go. You want to be in the spotlight? He shoved me right into the spotlight. 
What did I do? I froze like a deer in the headlights.  I hadn’t considered the public speaking aspect, or how involved in the publishing world I’d have to be, but when I approached the Daemon and asked, “Public Speaking?” He was like, “Uh huh. Go get ’em, Tiger.” 

It took all of one conference for me to realize I had a problem, and it was a big one. Public speaking was not my cup of tea.  So I did what a lot of magicians in my place (who have an idea of what they’re doing) would do. I sat down and did an ascension session with Lucifer (a Daemon of communication among other things) to figure out a plan on how I would overcome this seemingly impossible barrier to my own success.  Because, see, to be a writer – and a famous one at that, I had to have the skill of public speaking.  When you’re a socially anxious introvert, it’s not a skill that comes naturally to you.  I began speaking at conferences. Doing online videos. Hosting writer events. When it was all said and done, I was making six figures, one of my books had won an award, and I was named my writing group’s independent writer of the year. THAT was the right path to success. I still work on my career daily by taking classes and learning new things, and by jumping on opportunities the Daemonic throws my way, and my career keeps moving forward inch by inch. Much slower than a windfall, but this has been more of a lasting success because I’m working on myself to make ME into the person who can withstand the spotlight and continue producing novels that readers love. The Daemons just provided the opportunities, turned the tables in my favor, and helped me to strengthen my skills and overcome fears and bad habits that were holding me back from my own success. 

Both of these are PERFECT examples of how we may initially apply energy to the wrong things in magick. We apply them to the main goal, then wonder why it doesn’t work. Or in both of these cases – it did work, but required side tracks along the way. Mainly, I had to fix all the problems within myself FIRST before the final goal could be realized. This isn’t a sprint – it’s a marathon and magick, and working with the Daemonic, is a lifelong practice.  My writing career has been ten long years in the making through magick, fear facing, and a lot of self work. I wouldn’t say it’s been “hard” work (since I love it), but sometimes frustrating work because the Daemonic doesn’t stop you from falling and failure. Without failure, you learn nothing from it. Daemons are lesson teachers. They exist as sentient energy forces to elevate consciousness. They help you learn, overcome, and emotionally, mentally, and physically become better to help you manifest your Great Work.

Some of the other keys that haven’t been fully fleshed out yet in the context of the book.

3. Statement of Intent. Your intent is your emotional commitment to what you want/desire. Lack of sincere intent does nothing to help manifest your will. Your intentions should be strong enough that you feel them on an emotional level, not just a mental one. After all the statement, I want a sandwich is an entirely different emotional feeling than, I want people to feel my music to the core of their being. And yet – both of these statements may spur you to action in order to manifest your will. The problem is a lot of people don’t know exactly what they want, or they’re not fully committed. Hence their magick continually fails (or appears to) because they have no idea what they’re looking for except change. This is where a lot of self-exploration comes in, so when your magick doesn’t have the result you expected – you can figure out why. Otherwise you’re literally just shooting in the dark hoping to hit a target that will change your circumstance.
4. Non-metaphysical Follow Through. Regardless how bad we want shit just to drop in our laps, long-lasting, successful magick does require follow through. Hence the reason it is one of my main points for magicians to focus on when they want high performance from their magickal work. Can you just do a one-off and get what you want? Absolutely. But you can expect it will be fleeting if you don’t do the work to MAINTAIN what you’ve been given. After all, I was given a bestselling book, I just didn’t know how to maintain it, and I lost the opportunity for additional success as a result. But through that failure — I learned how to do it properly. Sometimes we have to fail in order to learn what we need to learn so that we can move forward.
5. Glamour Magick to get what you want. Occasionally we have to morph into a person we don’t recognize to get what we want. Go against our nature. If what you want goes against your nature, that may be something to think about. Reflect on this and how you can change your internal thoughts, feelings, and even external reactions to situations to influence those around you and perhaps change your nature to be more agreeable with your intentions and ultimately your will. Yes, magick can help with this, but again, this comes with A LOT of self work.
6. Fear Facing. I don’t know why more magicians don’t address fear facing more directly in relation to magick and magickal success. If we spend all our time reading books, but never getting our hands dirty, that’s the same thing as knowing a lot of “theory” and “philosophy” about a subject, but not understanding or having any real knowledge of practical application.  If magick isn’t practical, it becomes useless, right? A lot of times our magick fails because we haven’t faced our fears. Sometimes they’re fears we didn’t even really know we had, or didn’t understand the weight of them. Kind of like my fear of public speaking. I knew I wasn’t comfortable speaking to a crowd, I just had no idea how big of a handicap it was to my writing career until Sorath threw it right in my face. Expect that with lasting magick – you will be confronted with a lot of fears that you will either have to learn to overcome or navigate in some way so they won’t be a hindrance to you moving forward.

In conclusion of this blog post – magick isn’t black and white. There are a LOT of factors to consider, as each situation as unique and multi-faceted as every individual person reading this post. We all have our internal “demons” (in the Christian sense) to work on, and our Daemons (divine intelligence) can guide us through these obstacles so that we, ultimately, can better manifest our own will and move forward on our individual Great Work. So consider the above keys and remember, magick is not just a one-and-done kind of deal. Not if you want lasting results.

And my friend, Charme, pointed out that in the days of COVID19, one-off windfall magick for wealth or financial gain may not be such a good idea anyway. More of a chance for the Daemonic to knock off your favorite relatives in order to give you that windfall you want. May be best to be specific with one-off money magick at the moment, or just commit to the long-term magick and self-work to make your improved financial situation more permanent. ?