...that anything responds to its methods from the unseen side of things which can bring good to humanity through such interaction. However, it must be remembered that every supernatural original: "supramundane" or abnormal fact recorded by this kind of research is simply more evidence added to the file of occult science. If the phenomena of psychism are as "psychical research" A 19th-century movement, led by groups like the Society for Psychical Research, which sought to investigate paranormal phenomena like telepathy and mediumship using scientific methods. has recorded them, then the old processes of Magic may be unquestionably authentic original: "veridic" processes within their own limits. Yet, they did not put the practitioner in communication with the archangels Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel—at the highest level—nor with the demons Astaroth, Belial, and Lucifer—at the lowest—any more than

psychical research and spiritism have ever truly established contact with the souls of the faithful who have died. But both methods have produced extraordinary psychological states and the phenomena of the soul manifesting itself.

The distinction between the two methods is that one—Magic—was usually the result of personally induced hallucinations, complicated by the frequent intervention of abnormal psychic facts, all following a more or less manic ceremonial. The other—Psychical Research—is the scientific investigation of similar and related states in subjects who are naturally sensitive to them, whom the researcher seeks to control. I have no reason to believe that the sober, ordered, and well-judged methods of such experimental research will succeed in bringing anyone to a level of certainty that will be of permanent value to humanity; as far as I am concerned, the matter is settled. The evidence, such as it is, points in the opposite direction. The path to certainty is found within the person, as reason dictates it must be, if God and His Kingdom are truly within us. Therefore, from the best and most balanced perspective, there is no reason to look in any other direction than toward that place which contains everything original: "the All".

Two things only now remain to be said: First, it will be seen that from that part of the "Secret Tradition in Christian Times"—the details of which I used to open this discussion—there could never have been any connection to occult tradition and so-called occult science. Secondly, the work that follows will now allow the Rituals of White and Black Magic to speak for themselves regarding their own traditions and their value.

PART I

THE LITERATURE OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC