RITE AND REASON

There is probably more rubbish believed and written aboutMagical Rituals than any other subject. From the wildest guessworkand the most fertile imaginations, magical rituals and theirpractitioners are invested with every conceivable impossibility orabsurdity. Nonsense runs riot. As usual, the sensationalist writercatering for the willingly credulous reader is largely to blame. Mostpeople want to believe in whatever stirs their sense beyond theaverage rate, thus providing them with lifts, kicks, thrills, orvariations from their living-line. It is of course quite necessary tohuman progress and evolution that we should rise above our ownlevels all the time, but there are right and wrong ways of doing this.Magical workings can supply both.

We come from the Eternal and return to this same Sourcethrough an unimaginable circle of Cosmic Creative Evolution. Inour attempts to relate ourselves consciously with our hidden originsand background of pure BEING, we have made a great number ofmento-emotional structures which serve our purpose to their limiteddegree, according to our ability to use them. Religions, philosophies,and sciences have grown up with us, together with the arts andwhatever else extends our awareness toward the Unknown-whichis our Great Necessity. Yet the basis of all our beliefs is neither morenor less that what may fairly be termed "Magic"!

Definition of Magic is largely a matter of individual opinion,since it means so many things to so many people, and there are somany claims made in its name. Fundamentally it remains what italways was: Man's most determined effort to establish an actualworking relationship through himself between his Inner and Outerstates of being. By magic, Man shows that he is not content to besimply a pawn in the Great Game, but wants to play on his ownaccount. Man the meddler insists on becoming Man the Magician,

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