Book Report Damon Brand - Success Magick: The Hidden Power of Enochian Rituals

[HoldAll]

Some have called it "the most spiritual book by the Gallery of Magick" and that's true in a sense - it's not result-oriented, rather a year-long program of self-transformation. And strictly speaking it's not really about success either, for example about developing more self-confidence or being more assertive. I guess Damon Brand could have also put "happiness" or "fulfilment" as goals in the title but then fewer people would have bought it, I guess..

Whether all those Enochian sigils, angels and god names are put together correctly or meaningfully I don't know, I'm not familiar with that system. Anyway, you do a brief ritual involving a sigil each day for seven days and then move on to the next sigil. There is a short text about the particular theme you're supposed to read before the ritual so you know what you're trying to achieve. The clever bit is, that you give that particular quality, power, virtue, etc. away to the whole world at the end of the ritual, mahayana-style, you know, like "May this my attainment benefit all sentient beings". And you can only give away what you have, thus hopefully making sure that you are given this gift by the universe or whatever in the first place - at least that's what I think.

I'm currently on Ritual Five, "Desire". I have not been haunted by any wrathful Enochian angels yet (maybe my noob's thickness makes me impervious to such apparations) but what I got out of it was this childhood memory I can't get out of my head. Brand writes:

"But you may sense that you have a true nature, a core self, and that beneath the shifts and changes of your personality and the current trends and needs of society, there has always been a secret wish, a deep desire, or a certain style of longing."

Sounds sappy, doesn't it? I don't believe in that "true nature" and "core self" crap but "style of longing" surely hits a note. Now I don't want to sound like that annoying friend that regularly gushes about his/her insights after his/her latest therapy session but the embarrassing fact is that I realized because of this memory that I was a romantic fool after all and that many of my present difficulties stem from past "romantically inspired" failures, mistakes and rash decisions. It wasn't a vision or anything but it annoyingly sticks in my head. Makes my personal history appear in a new light.

This could very well have been another book of self-improvement, so don't expect to become a miracle worker after reading it; still, I think it's a great system for inner work (with the added Enochian spookiness factor).

Just posted it in Book Shares:

Book – PDF - Damon Brand - Success Magick: The Hidden Power of Enochian Rituals

You don't need to wait for the best time or the perfect economy. With magick working for you, now is the time to become successful. Even when everything is falling apart around you, magick can open the pathway to success. You may have sensed you are meant for something more. You may have longed...

wizardforums.com

 

[KjEno186]

I was reading it this morning. I see the point being made in this book. If there's one thing a lot of potential magicians are actually afraid of, it's change: sudden and possibly catastrophic change. Now, if one is living a life that cannot get any worse, or is already in a state of flux, then one may embrace change in a big way, knowing that through magic the outcome is more likely greater success. What is more appealing is the concept that the magic works by getting one into a flow of smaller synchronicities that guide one toward greater success over time. One is emotionally more prepared to adapt to this kind of change and benefit by it.

The other aspect of magic Brand acknowledges is where the individual is picking and choosing a particular thing to happen. Yet, few things happen in isolation, so how is one to know that winning the lottery by magic, for example, will really bring "success," as in long term fulfillment of one's dreams?

I realized because of this memory that I was a romantic fool after all and that many of my present difficulties stem from past "romantically inspired" failures, mistakes and rash decisions. It wasn't a vision or anything but it annoyingly sticks in my head. Makes my personal history appear in a new light.

Back in the early 1900s, car companies started putting pretty women in their advertisements. The guy wants the girl (because hormones), so he buys the car. To pay for the car, he has to get a better job. To get a better job, he has to spend more time in school. ... So, one has to wonder how much of one's life is spent chasing things that are only a tangent to what we really wanted in the first place? Sure, there's nothing wrong with having the things and doing the job and getting the education. But with the assistance of magic and angels, perhaps we do it better? One does the rituals and gets the right girl, the job that gives satisfaction, the education that provides new opportunities, and the synchronicities that lead to things one never could have imagined to begin with.

Well, now that I put it that way, I'll have to try it out for a month and see what happens. Thanks for sharing the book. Positive manifestations during this time will result in me purchasing the book.

 

[HoldAll]

The chaotic changes, the sudden disruptions and the painful transformations are what you tell your friends about or put on the internet, makes for a great story. What I'm really looking for and what I would prefer right now is the kind of change that is subtle, that slowly creeps up on you and does not fit into any spectacular narrative, a transformation that you only notice in hindsight after some time has passed (I couldn't take the first kind in my sorry state anyway). I'm already on Ritual Five, "Desire", so have I really gained "Vision", "Clarity", "Confidence" or at least a "Pathway", the stages that went before it? Hard to say... Some people on reddit had some dramatic experiences with this book right from the get-go but I'm glad I'm not one of them.

 

[KjEno186]

I'm already on Ritual Five

Are you doing one per week as suggested by Brand?

​

If you use the book in the way I advise, the very fastest you could complete all forty-nine rituals would be in seven weeks, by working one ritual each day. I do not recommend going that fast, ever. It would either be overwhelming or too abstract to be useful. To get the most benefit, work with each ritual for at least three days. I believe you will get much more from the book if you use each ritual for a full week. That means that if you take occasional breaks, and work at the pace I suggest, this entire working could take almost a year. It could take longer. As I said, it’s not a quick fix, and it’s not meant to be. Success isn’t something you can patch up in a few minutes.​

​

A year may sound like a long time, especially in an era of five-minute rituals. There has been such a push for fast and easy magick that some readers believe that is how all magick must be. If you want, you can stick with five-minute magick, and it’s something I still use. But if you want more, it will take more involvement with your magick. The great news is that it isn’t complicated or difficult, and none of the rituals are particularly time-consuming. You might also want to acknowledge that a year is not long at all. The real danger is that you might ignore this advice, and then a year from now, you’ll look back and wished you’d taken the time to perform the magick.​

 

[HoldAll]

No, I do each ritual for seven days. I did "Pathway" for eleven because I just could not conjure up the feeling inside me that Brand describes; I haven't needed any break so far. Those short rituals are part of my daily practice now, I'm not looking for a quick fix.

 

[Boswellia]

I was reading it this morning. I see the point being made in this book. If there's one thing a lot of potential magicians are actually afraid of, it's change: sudden and possibly catastrophic change. Now, if one is living a life that cannot get any worse, or is already in a state of flux, then one may embrace change in a big way, knowing that through magic the outcome is more likely greater success. What is more appealing is the concept that the magic works by getting one into a flow of smaller synchronicities that guide one toward greater success over time. One is emotionally more prepared to adapt to this kind of change and benefit by it.

The other aspect of magic Brand acknowledges is where the individual is picking and choosing a particular thing to happen. Yet, few things happen in isolation, so how is one to know that winning the lottery by magic, for example, will really bring "success," as in long term fulfillment of one's dreams?



Back in the early 1900s, car companies started putting pretty women in their advertisements. The guy wants the girl (because hormones), so he buys the car. To pay for the car, he has to get a better job. To get a better job, he has to spend more time in school. ... So, one has to wonder how much of one's life is spent chasing things that are only a tangent to what we really wanted in the first place? Sure, there's nothing wrong with having the things and doing the job and getting the education. But with the assistance of magic and angels, perhaps we do it better? One does the rituals and gets the right girl, the job that gives satisfaction, the education that provides new opportunities, and the synchronicities that lead to things one never could have imagined to begin with.

Well, now that I put it that way, I'll have to try it out for a month and see what happens. Thanks for sharing the book. Positive manifestations during this time will result in me purchasing the book.

That was beautifully said Kj.

 

[Friggasdottir]

I started reading this book and finally got round to doing the first ritual last night. I'm going to give a whirl and see where we go.

 

[Lolo]

I just started with that book, I am on the second ritual. I' ve been trying to get info about Dee and the Enochian Magick... First, I got this feeling is not Enochian, but echonian, and they are aliens, not angels. Or as I "saw", ascended earthlings that want to save the Earth, they don't give a about humans (that's why the magick feels weird) they actually dislike humans, but they need us to stop destroying their home. Does this make any sense to you guys?

 

[HoldAll]

I just started with that book, I am on the second ritual. I' ve been trying to get info about Dee and the Enochian Magick... First, I got this feeling is not Enochian, but echonian, and they are aliens, not angels. Or as I "saw", ascended earthlings that want to save the Earth, they don't give a about humans (that's why the magick feels weird) they actually dislike humans, but they need us to stop destroying their home. Does this make any sense to you guys?

I'm on week 20 now, no visions of angels or anything. It's more a contemplative exercise for me although the strange letters and patterns make me sometimes feel strange.

The general modern consensus seems to be that these entities are not really angels (Dr. John Dee saw himself as a god-fearing man so he just had to conclude they were angels) but utterly alien beings - Donald Tyson e.g. believes that their aim is to bring about the apocalypse. I wouldn't know about that but the whole systems is so outside the parameters of the Western tradition that 'weird' sums it up rather neatly.