How to Troubleshoot Your Magic: Get Better Results with Practical Magic: How Magic Works, #4

By Taylor Ellwood

Do you want to get consistent results with your magical practice?

Of course you do...

But you can't get consistent results when you don't understand how magic works. And there's nothing more frustrating then doing a magical working and not getting the result you worked for...

You're left wondering what you did wrong, or trying to figure out why the magic didn't work, even though you did everything in the magick spell book. 

In How to Troubleshoot Your Magic, I share my method for troubleshooting magical workings that aren't getting the right results.

And I show you how to fix your magical workings and get the results you deserve.

This is a practical magic book that helps you understand why your magic isn't getting you the results you want...

and shows you how to fix your magic workings so you get the results you want.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Taylor Ellwood
• Release date: Sep 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393838531

Taylor Ellwood

Taylor Ellwood is a quirky and eccentric magician who's written the Process of Magic, Pop Culture Magic, and Space/Time Magic. Recently Taylor has also started writing fiction and is releasing his first Superhero Novel, Learning How to Fly later this year. He's insatiably curious about how magic works and loves spinning a good yarn. For more information about his latest magical work visit http://www.magicalexperiments.com For more information about his latest fiction visit http://www.imagineyourreality.com

Book preview

Introduction

I’m curious about how magic works. I want to understand how it works, why it works, and just as importantly, what’s stopping it from working. I wrote The Process of Magic as a way to provide a foundation to a person’s magical practice, but also as a guide that explores how magic works. I’ve written this book to explore what happens when magic doesn’t work and show you what you can do to learn from such failures, to figure out how to make magic work in the end. Something I’ve always found perplexing is the lack of curiosity in the occult community at large when it comes to why magic does or doesn’t work.

I don’t care how magic works. I just care that I get the result I want.

Or...

Just do magic. Don’t ask why, because it doesn’t matter why.

Or...

We can’t explain how magic works. All that matters is that it does work.

I could go on and on with what I’ve heard over the years or read in books on this line of reasoning about why it doesn’t matter how magic works, but what’s fascinating to me is that while people don’t care why magic works, they nonetheless want it to work.

The absurdity of this is further compounded by the fact that we actually have books written where people make this same nonsensical claim, that it doesn’t matter why magic works, yet nonetheless write a book trying to describe how magic works.

Read that sentence again.

If it doesn’t matter why magic works, then why are we so obsessed with having it work? The answer to that question is simple: I want to get specific results that benefit me and how I live my life.

And that’s fine, but if we want specific results shouldn’t we be curious about how and why magic works? And, by extension, when our magical workings don’t produce the results we want, shouldn’t we also want to understand why?

You know my answer, but if you’re reading this book, I am hoping to convince you that understanding how and why magic works is significant. I also hope being curious about why you haven’t gotten the result you wanted is worthwhile because it may help you become a better magician and, more importantly, helps you get the results you want.

I was once asked by a mentor of mine what I thought my success rate with magic was (i.e. how often did I get what I wanted). I told him 98% and he blinked, surprised that I gave it such a high percentile, but the reason is simple: I know how and why magic works and I’m always seeking to develop my understanding of it further.

In fact, it’s the 2% where I didn’t get the result I wanted that really interests me, because I want to figure out why. I want to get 100%.

Of course, in my case, I’ll admit that my curiosity about how and why magic does or doesn’t work isn’t just driven by the achievement of results. I find magic to be endlessly fascinating and I want to discover all of its intricacies and share them with other people. That’s why I write about magic and why I experiment with magic.

But for the rest of you, I simply want to help you get better results consistently, and that’s why this book has been written, in order to provide you with a toolset you can use to diagnose why your magic isn’t working and determine what course of action to take that will help you achieve the success you want.

To your magical success!

Taylor Ellwood

Portland, OR

August, 2019

Chapter 1: Why am I Writing this Book, Anyway?

I’ve always troubleshooted my magic, from the beginning of when I started practicing it. It’s been easy for me to take for granted my troubleshooting skills and make a faulty assumption that everyone who practices magic has such skills. I’ve learned since then that in fact a good number of people don’t know how to troubleshoot their magic, figure out why it isn’t working or why they aren’t getting the results they want. They’ve never asked why or dug into exploring the intricacies of magic, and it’s because troubleshooting your magic seems to be discouraged. People claim it isn’t possible to explain how magic works, that it just does or doesn’t work. I find that claim deeply dissatisfying, but then I also believe it is possible to explain how magic works and how to improve your magical workings. You just need to be curious, ask questions, and have a desire to experiment with magic. Fortunately, I am curious, ask questions and want to experiment with magic.

I have had people approach me and describe a magical working they did and how they didn’t get the result they wanted, and within moments I’ve been able to diagnose why they didn’t get the result and what was specifically not working with the magical working they were attempting to do. Once they made the suggested changes...presto-   the magic worked!

Do I possess a skill these other people don’t have? Am I the magic whisperer?

No.

In this book I’m going to teach you how to troubleshoot your magic so that you can figure out why your magical working didn’t work and then make corrections to your magical working so you get the results you’re looking for. At the same time, I’m going to teach you how to examine your results and use them to work backwards so that you can you figure out exactly where your magical process went wrong.

Before we get to that though, I also want to spend some time with the word results. The word results defines a lot of how magic is thought of and worked with. In fact, you might think, on the basis of that word, that this book is primarily concerned with practical magic, and, if so, I can’t fault you for that. However, what you’ll discover is that this book is really intended to help you examine any type of magical working, whether its theurgical or thaumaturgical, practical or devotional, doing magic independently or having a spirit intercede on your behalf. The simple fact is that all types of magic have results. They may not be practical results, but nonetheless there’s not a magical working out there, which doesn’t have some type of result. So, with that realization in mind, let’s examine results and understand why results are so pivotal for determining how and why magic is working.

Results: You can’t live with them, you can’t live without them

It may seem like a bold claim to say that every magical activity has a result. But the reality is that any activity, magical or otherwise, has a result. The result doesn’t necessarily need to be practical. Many results aren’t practical, but nonetheless a result occurs. And if we don’t acknowledge that, then we aren’t using of the very best tools that we can use to diagnose why our magic is or isn’t working: your result!

My approach to magic looks at results as an integral part of the process of magic (we’ll be coming back to the word process soon). A result indicates whether or not your magical working is actually working, or if there’s something missing. I also think of results as road signs, showing you if you are on the right track or if you’re headed in the wrong direction. Even when you don’t achieve the result you want, you’ve gotten a result, and whatever you’ve gotten can tell you a lot about what worked or didn’t work with your magic.

At the same time, I differ from most magicians in that I don’t consider the achievement of the result to be the final aspect of the magical working. I also look at the consequences or ripples that occur because