What are the Effects of Talismans?

I recently had a question about the effects of some of the pentacles from the Greater Key of Solomon, which led into a discussion of the effects of talismans in general.

In terms of the effects of the pentacles frankly I have to question whether some of them literally work. For example, the Fifth Pentacle of the Sun, "serveth to invoke those spirits who can transport thee from one place unto another, over a long distance and in short time." I've sold these, but I haven't had anyone come back and say they were instantly zipping across country. On the other hand, it would make sense if you found that you were moving through airport security easily with a 5th Sun pentacle, and your trips seem to go faster.

Similarly with the the Third Pentacle of Venus, "...this if it only shown unto any person serveth to attract love. The Fifth Pentacle of Venus, "When it it only showed unto any person whatsoever inciteth and exciteth wonderfully unto love." Not sure that this would instantly cause someone to fall under your sway, more typical effects from Venus and love talisman in general are all of a sudden getting calls and contacts by ex-boy/girl friends or out of the blue calls from people you are interested in romantically, finding it easier to socialize, having attractive people more attracted to you.

I often have to say to people, "this isn't like the movies, lightning bolts aren't going to come out of your fingertips if you get a talisman" On the other hand, magic works! I've said magic is the art of creating coincidences and very often the spiritual works through these rearrangements of the material world. All of a sudden after working with the Pleiades mage talisman
and Alkaid talisman, which being a circumpolar star has to do with guidance as well as protection, I began stumbling on to this hidden esoteric lore, eg in one week I discovered a Pleiades invocation in the Greek Magical Papyri and 36 ancient decan sigils.

My experience with wealth talismans is that big bags of gold don't start materializing out of thin air and you don't get a talisman and next day win the Powerball, instead they give you more opportunities to make money and start drawing in money faster. With any talisman, you need to be willing to do some practical footwork and give the magic a chance to work in your life. For myself, when I work with wealth talismans, I can see more customers calling and more orders coming in.

But we don't want to be entirely focused on immediate, tangible material effects of talismans. This focus is understandable, given the Modern World view which says that nothing really exists except matter and energy. In the traditional world view the material is underlain by the spiritual, the spiritual provides the ultimate patterning for the arrangement of the material world and is more perfect and in fact a higher level of reality. By working with these underlying spiritual connections and sympathies we can cause change in the material world, but it may, in fact, be more significant that we can work with the spiritual, in the world and within ourselves. Seeing that the spiritual actually exists is ultimately of greater value. In addition, we shouldn't downplay the power of magic on a purely spiritual level, what moderns would consider an internal psychological level, but also in terms of theurgy, using magic as a spiritual path.