The Book of Ceremonial Magic

with benefit to both sides in the public world of readers. As far as possible, this has already been addressed. Regarding the second point, it is the primary focus and goal of this investigation, and the extent of its importance can therefore be summarized briefly.

There can be no vast body of literature without significant motivations to account for it. If we examine the magical literature of Western Europe from the Middle Ages onward, we find that it is quite extensive. Now, the active principles that created that literature will also be found to govern its history. What is unclear in the literature can be understood with the help of the history, and vice versa; each influenced the other. As the literature grew, it helped shape history, and new historical events provided additional material for further literature.

There were, of course, many motivating principles at work, for both the literature and history of Magic are extremely complex. There are many interpretations of these principles that are often confused with the principles themselves—for example, the influence of what is loosely called superstition on the ignorant. These and similar interpretations must be excluded from an inquiry like this one. The main principles are summarized in the idea that there are a number of supposedly mysterious forces in the universe that could be controlled by humans, or at least followed in their secret processes. Ultimately, however, all these forces could be made secondary, or even subservient, to the human will. Even in astrology, which was the study of forces regarded as uniquely inescapable original: "fatal", there was an art of management, and "The wise man will rule the stars" original: sapiens dominabitur astris became a fundamental principle of the science. This concept reached its peak or center in the doctrine of unseen, intelligent powers with whom prepared individuals could communicate. The methods by which this communication was attempted are the most important processes of Magic, and the books that contain these methods—called Ceremonial Magic—are the most important part of the literature.

That is to say, this is the only branch of the subject that one must understand in order to understand its history. If Magic had been focused only on reading the stars, it would have had no significant history to speak of, because astrology required intellectual skills that were possible for only a few people. If Magic had centered on the transformation original: "transmutation" of metals, it would never have moved masses of people; instead, it would have remained what it still is today: an idealistic original: "quixotic" hope that exists far removed from the actual science of chemistry. We may look at the remaining occult sciences together, but there is nothing in them alone that would create history. By virtue of the integrated theory that has already been stated, they

were all magically possible, but they were all secondary to what was the pinnacle of it all: the art of dealing with spirits. The supposed possession of the secret of this art made Magic seem formidable, and therefore created its history. There was a time, indeed, when Ceremonial Magic threatened to absorb the entire circle of the occult sciences; it was the superior method, the "royal road." It achieved immediately what the others accomplished only through long and difficult labor. It had, moreover, the chief original: "palmary"...