Surrender · “Let Go to Receive”
Brand's Open-Handed Release
Once a ritual or intention is set, deliberately drop the anxious craving for the result — keep taking real-world action while treating the matter as if the magick were never even needed.
Open-handed release: Do the working (or set the intention) once, fully — then let go of needing the result. Watch for “lust for result,” the anxious checking-and-craving, and deliberately open the hand: carry on as if you never performed the magick at all, while still taking real-world action toward the aim. Don’t feed the fear, don’t keep re-doing it: trust it landed, and walk away. The real value is reduced anxiety plus preserved action — not a magical mechanism.
What it is
Across The Gallery of Magick’s books, Damon Brand returns to one attitude as the make-or-break factor: after you do a working, let go of the craving for the result. He names the failure mode “lust for result” — not ordinary desire, but the anxious, checking, needing-it-now eagerness that, in his view, sabotages the work.
His prescription is strikingly practical and not mystical at all: carry on with real-world effort while acting as though the magick were never even required — an open hand rather than a clenched grip.
This entry isolates that release attitude as a standalone practice you can apply after any intention, ritual, or goal — Brand’s or otherwise. Read honestly, it is a disciplined letting-go of outcome-attachment that keeps you both calmer and still acting.
The Method
A faithful description of the attitude Brand teaches (short paraphrase; “lust for result” is the tradition’s own term):
- Do the working fully — then stop. Perform the ritual, set the intention, or take the decisive step completely, and treat that as the end of the magickal part. Don’t keep re-doing it from anxiety.
- Name the grip. Notice the difference between healthy desire and “lust for result” — the eagerness that has become more important than the thing itself, the urge to keep checking whether it’s working.
- Open the hand. Deliberately release that craving. Brand’s vivid instruction: continue as though you never performed the magick at all — keep living, keep working toward the aim, acting as if the result is in good hands and not urgently your problem to force.
- Keep taking real-world action. Crucially, releasing the result does not mean releasing the effort. You go on doing the ordinary, practical things that move you toward the goal.
- Don’t feed the fear. Where attachment turns into fear or lack, gently turn attention off it; the less the matter is charged with anxiety, the easier it sits.
- Trust and walk away. In Brand’s phrasing, the people who get the most are the ones who “do the ritual, trust that it landed, and walk away.” Let it work in the background. (Sourcing note: an attributed paraphrase of Brand’s repeatedly-stated attitude; “lust for result” and “trust that it landed, and walk away” reflect his own framing, quoted only in short fragments.)
Source & Lineage
Damon Brand, a founding member of The Gallery of Magick, threads this attitude through the Gallery’s catalogue rather than confining it to one book; it is the disposition the rituals assume.
The idea descends from the chaos-magick teaching that “lust of result” must be set aside (the Spare/chaos “law of forgetting”), which Brand reframes into plain, action-preserving language for ordinary readers.
The Traditions' versions
The deep move — ask/act, then release the grip on the outcome — is one of the most universal in this whole library. What is distinctly Brand’s is the “act as if it never happened, but keep working” framing: release is defined behaviourally (stop checking, keep acting) rather than devotionally. - Spare / chaos “law of forgetting” — charge the sigil then deliberately forget it to dodge “lust of result.” Brand keeps the release but, unlike Spare, has you remember and keep acting.,
- Collier’s give-thanks-then-release — gratitude as proof of belief, then “don’t dig up the seed.” Brand’s version is gratitude-light and action-heavy.
- “Let go and let God” / casting the burden — devotional surrender of the outcome to a higher power.
- Wu wei / non-grasping — the Taoist easing of effortful striving.
Common refinements
Confusing release with passivity. “Act as if it never happened” means stop anxiously grasping — not stop doing. Keep taking the real steps.
- Faking detachment while secretly checking. Monitoring for proof every day is lust for result with a calm mask. Genuinely set it down.
- Releasing too late. Letting go only after weeks of fretting means weeks of fretting; build the open hand in from the start.
- Using “let go” to deny a real problem. Releasing anxiety about an outcome is not the same as ignoring a situation that needs decisive action or help.
- Re-doing the working repeatedly. Compulsive repetition signals (and feeds) the grip; do it well once, then walk away.