The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts

Preface

[This book addresses] Ceremonial Magic as it appears in books, as well as the unrealistic nature of the distinction between "White" and "Black" Magic—at least as far as the literature on both subjects is concerned. It would be inappropriate for a self-proclaimed transcendentalist: a person who believes in a spiritual reality that goes beyond the physical world to deny that there is a deeper "Magic behind Magic," or that the hidden spiritual centers possess their own secrets and mysteries. Compared to those true mysteries, the written rituals found in books are either a shameful and distorted mockery or a trivial and misunderstood application. Let a transcendentalist assure the "student of the occult" that, in these books, they are dealing only with historical curiosities.

This statement explains why it is acceptable to bring these rituals out from centuries of obscurity—many of these processes would be considered hateful and disgusting if we believed they were meant to be taken literally. It also explains why this work is titled The Book of Black Magic, even though it covers almost all surviving rituals in a fairly thorough way. These rituals are all tainted with "Black Magic" in the same way that every idle word: a religious concept referring to careless or useless speech that is considered a minor sin is tainted by the nature of sin. The difference between White and Black Magic is simply the difference between a useless word and an evil one.

However, it would be unwise to claim that everyone who uses the ceremonies in these rituals would fail to get results. In the past, the majority of such experiments likely produced results of some kind. If one enters a path meant to cause hallucinations, they are likely to experience hallucinations. Given what we know today about hypnosis and clairvoyance: the supposed power to see things beyond normal sensory perception, it would be ridiculous to assume that the many vision-inducing processes of ancient magic did not produce seership: the ability to see visions or the future.

It is also likely that the auto-hypnotic: self-induced hypnosis state, which many magical rituals would naturally cause in sensitive people, frequently induced these visions—and not only in those who were already naturally inclined to them. In this sense, some of these processes are "practical," and for that reason, they are dangerous.