Introduction
Contrary to some people’s beliefs, invoking angels could be readily accessible. This is one of the key messages conveyed in Damon Brand‘s The 72 Angels of Magick. Made of the material in Magickal Angels and Greater Magickal Angels, the book outlines a method developed by GOM 30 years ago. Employing sigils and talismans, the system works with the 72 Angels of Shemhamphorasch, serving various purposes.
The 72 Angels of Magick is split into three parts. The first comprises most instructions. The second is the largest and includes all the sigils, divine names, and purposes for conjuring each spirit. And the third is the smallest, packing additional thoughts and guidance. I find this order identical to Magickal Destiny‘s, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Respecting the author’s work, I won’t examine any of the sigils included in this review but rather focus on the text.
The Power of the Angels
From its very beginning, The 72 Angels of Magick begins with the notion that no matter what you wish for, there’s a spirit you can use to get it, and that spirit is one of 72 included. While straightforward, this system demands great responsibility, and thus being most serious with your workings is essential.
“It is vital that you read the instructions thoroughly and take the work seriously. Although I encourage playful confidence with magick, you should consider every magickal act a pact with reality. You are asking for magick to bring you a new reality, and you should be prepared to accept that reality…” p. 7
Like in Magickal Destiny, Brand stresses the enormous significance of intention and desire for any magickal success.
“You don’t need to be pure or worthy. All you need is a real desire, a strong desire for something to change in your world. If you have that desire, the angels will take you where you want to go…” p. 8
The Secrets of Angelic Contact
The author clarifies that all angelic contact takes is desire, name, and a sigil. He further notes that adding ritual work ensures a connection is established. Angels don’t dislike humans, and it is their sacred duty to help when called.
The 72 Angels of Magick emphasizes that the angels help everybody, no matter how rich or poor, good or evil they are. Surprising to the ritual magick practitioner, Damon Brand assures that bathing before working isn’t mandatory. Contact is achieved through genuine desire, yet many people don’t know what they want. Figuring that out is done by reflecting on your life and acknowledging what made you feel happy and fulfilled.
“Look for the experiences that make you happy. Look for the situations that make you able to express yourself and feel love for your journey through life. To live a happy and fulfilled life, you need to find to find a balance between your animal desires and love, between material goods and pleasant experiences…” p. 10
In Qabalistic terms, this is to reconcile your ego or ruach with your animal soul or nephesh. Damon Brand explains that the purpose of the magick is to change yourself and the world to get the desired results. It’s crucial to be mindful of what you wish for because you might as well get it. Also, never put your life in the hands of another entity.
No Judgment
After explaining what to expect out of magick based on your desires, The 72 Angels of Magick introduces a talisman to use with all invoking procedures. Damon Brand also teaches the reader to focus on one task at a time. This reminds me that usually, in ritual magick, you do the same by setting and attuning the field of operation to a specific element, planet, or sign. Magickal Destiny also encourages you to start now without worrying about whether your performance is spotless
“The beauty of angelic magick is that once you put effort, contact is instant. The contact will be made. It is better to perform imperfect magick often to worry about every detail and avoid magick until you’ve set everything perfectly…” p.12
The Force of Connection
Addressing the numerous mentionings of lighting and thunder in grimoires and ancient texts, The 72 Angels of Magick likens magick to electricity.
“When you looked at the science behind lightning, it hints at the beautiful occult truth of electricity. Electrical flow is caused when electrical charge is out of balance. If there is a negative charge, a flow of electrons come in to restore balance. This is what magick does; it creates a flow of change that brings balance to your life…” p.13
Like he does in Magickal Destiny, Damon Brand stresses that the best magickal secrets are so simple that people don’t bother using them. The same applies to the role of your imagination and how visualizations might be different for each person.
The Angel of Universal Secrets
Here Damon Brand introduces the readers to the archangel Raziel. Most important for all operations, you can think of Raziel as a mediator between you and other angels. Raziel is most easily contacted through another angel Arzel. And Arzel is an aspect of Raziel. Damon Brand recognizes experimentation as the best method to test whether your pronunciations work. He also highlights how angelic names are often encoded in psalms.
Pronunciation
The 72 Angels of Magick assures the angels respond even if your pronunciations aren’t totally on point, but your desire and intention are. Based on personal experience, I’d say that such a tip should be essential to any book with Enochian entities.
Singing to Angels
One of the best ways to connect with an angel is singing to it. And that is depicted very well in my favorite Anime Toaru Project, which I analyzed in my previous post. While synchronizing singing with visualizations might take time, Damon Brand encourages you to channel your intent to the best of your ability.
“It can take some practice to get this right because you are doing more than one thing at once but do not worry about getting this perfectly right. Your intent is more important than perfection…” p.17
Preparing for Contact
Here The 72 Angels of Magick introduces the actual talisman you’ll use in all operations. Damon Brand explains that the same is traditional, but its presentation inside the book is unique. The section notes that you can photocopy the talisman to add convenience to your workings. Once activated, the sigil remains charged on all your platforms.
“So long as you see a sigil while it is being charged, it will remain charged, even when used on a different device at a later date…” So you could charge the sigil in the print book and use the sigil in the e-book, and you will get results. Or you could charge the sigil on your laptop, and it will work on your iPad. This is because when you charge a sigil, you are actually taking it within yourself and binding yourself to the angelic energy…” p.21
Choosing an Angel
Further advocating using one angel at a time, The 72 Angels of Magick assures you this would be more than enough if your choice is correct. Damon Brand warns you to consider that the powers of each angel have numerous interpretations. You must find how the angelic power translates into your life. You also must dig deep to discover your deepest wishes and desires, which apparently is one of the most challenging tasks in magick.
“Also, be aware that some of the more obscure-powers are actually some of the most useful. When scanning through the book to see which powers you want to use, it’s tempting to go straight to Poiel for fame and wealth and to have all your desires met.” “If you are planning wisely, though, you might first want to Learn About Desires Through Dreams. This doesn’t sound half as impressive as instant wealth, but one of the most difficult jobs we have in magick is choosing exactly what we want. Often, we think we know what we want, perform the magick, get what we asked for and regret it greatly. I could fill a book with such stories. So learning about your desires through dreams has its value…” p.23
Learning about an angel’s powers is done by reading thoroughly about it and then allowing your intuition to kick in and show you whether using it is appropriate.
Crafting Your Request
The 72 Angels of Magick includes a section on the powers of each angel. Your requests, however, are something you should build on your own. Without interfering, the author recognizes the practice of writing clear and concise requests as somewhat superior to merely coming up with something in the middle of the rite. Besides instructions on constructing the workings, Damon Brand warns to not handicap your magick by being too specific unless wanting something extremelly particular.
“…when you are seeking general success in an area, phrase it so that you give the angel room to surprise you.” “When you leave the magick open, angels have more ways to bring you the results you want. Unexpected results that give you what you want are often the best results…” p.26
Damon Brand reveals that learning when to be specific and when to ask for something general is a skill you must develop. Also stressed is acknowledging the totality of the transformation you seek. Called the moment of alchemy, that is making the conscious effort to genuinely experience how your current situation with all its discomforts eventually transmutes into what you want. Perfection is not mandatory. Conciseness, focus, and clarity of statement are.
Feeding the Angels
The 72 Angels of Magick stresses how sharing some of your magick is extremelly beneficial. The genuine act of giving doesn’t only help others but also increases the potency of your workings. Besides addressing when that’s more or less appropriate, Damon Brand outlines a method for incorporating it into your workings. He also unravels a fundamental truth the Law of Attraction folks kinda omit.
“Giving works best when you actually enjoy it and when you revel in the knowledge that giving will bring you more as well…” This is true whether you’re giving away cash, gifts, or magickal results and energy. There are two main reasons that giving is good. The obvious reason is that it helps others. As you become more powerful, it just seems like the right thing to do. We’ll not talk about karma, but lets us just say it’s wise to share the love. Another reason, and the more ‘selfish’ reason, is that when you get good at giving, you get better at receiving. This is what all the new age and self-help books tell you. What they don’t tell you is that you can give magickal power instead of money, and this works best when you are using spirits such as angels…” p. 29
Pronunciation and Sigils
Here the readers first found instructions on pronouncing the Hebrew words, such as alternative invocations with the corresponding psalms. The 72 Angels of Magick notes that the pronunciation will always vary based on your living area and native tongue. After this, Damon Brand includes a few pages to break down the sigils, examining their elements.
The Master Ritual
Emphasizing how important it is to comprehend the instructions on crafting your request, this chapter explains the Master Ritual. The 72 Angels of Magick offers you to gain familiarity with the rite’s segments, so you plan things accordingly. Also, how to proceed if you break the working’s 11-day cycle.
What is the Experience of Contact Like?
Like Magickal Destiny, The 72 Angels of Magick explains that contact experiences vary depending on the person. Damon Brand clarifies that sensing or perceiving the spirit is not mandatory for results. This is interesting because numerous people obsess with that, believing magick won’t work unless they do so. Some take a bit further, anxious to see the entities.
Imagination
Rather than wasting time on that, The 72 Angels of Magick recommends maximally mobilizing your imagination, doing your best to experience each line you pronounce. Damon Brand teaches how and when to alternate between visualizing and making your mind completely blank. Seeing or sensing the spirit is not essential; doing your best to imagine it is. (Again, this reminds me to suggest watching Episode 1 of Toaru Kagaku no Index Season 3.)
An Actual Person
Here, Damon Brand recommends not forcing anything but letting yourself sense the entity, as it’s one of a friend. Then you ask to make contact without any expectations. Giving up the lust for result, he explains, removes a great deal of tension, allowing things to happen naturally.
“When you perform magick, one of the most difficult things to do so is ‘let go,’ and yet most people agree that if you long for results, they evade you. The best magick usually happens when you perform a ritual and genuinely forget about it. Letting go helps because you get out of the way of the magick. It’s as though you’re handing it to somebody else to deal with it and trusting that they can do the job…”
“It is perfectly fine to desire your result, even though many occultists would say you should let go of all desire. If you find yourself thinking about the result you’re aiming for, you shouldn’t panic and worry about your Lust For Result is ruining your work. Instead, simply imagine that the end result has already come about and feels good…” p.43-44
Establishing a connection with the spirit should be your primary goal. Once you achieve it, the angel will come whenever called. Yet, direct contact always depends on who you are and your current state. Direct contact could be experienced in various ways by seeing or hearing things. Or by merely recognizing synchronicities making you feel some type of way.
Getting Involved with Your Magick
Next, The 72 Angels of Magick reiterates some of its key ideas. One is that thinking deeply about what you actually want should precede all your operations. Another is that you won’t be judged for what you wish. And a third is that while solving particular problems is done best by using a single spirit, other issues require breaking them down and engaging multiple. Also crucial is to ensure you go with the correct entities based on the powers listed in the book while giving them room to do their best. Damon Brand explains that working in the real world is just as essential as the magick itself.
“To get magick working, you need to do two things. You need to keep working in the real world to make the results come about, and you need to let go of Lust For Result.” (…)”When you perform magick, you are making a pact with reality. You are asking reality to promise you a result, and you are promising to live with that result. If you are serious about getting a result, you should do everything you can to make that result come about. The more effort you put into a situation in the real world, the more magick works…”
When Magick Works
Last but not least, The 72 Angels of Magick reminds the readers to have a certain confidence and not doubt the effectiveness of magick. This means maximizing your intent while also perceiving the workings as if you are handing them to a higher power to get the job done. Instead of worrying about whether this or that will happen, facilitate the magick by doing things in the real world. And always, always, consider that what you think you want may not always be what you actually want.
