These magic procedures have usually been accompanied by
incantations, ceremonies, strange rites, evocations, etc., which were
supposed to have great virtue in bringing about desired results. But the
true occultists now know that these ceremonies and rites were merely hopes
to the imagination and aids to faith, and thus tended to bring about the
psychic phenomena. There was no virtue in these ceremonies themselves, and
the same results may be secured by simply following the procedure outlined
in this book. The wonders of ancient magic have been reproduced by the
modern occultists, without all the mumbo-jumbo of the past rites and
ceremonies.
A gifted English writer upon the subject of the relation of mysticism and
magic, sums up the gist of the principles of Magic as follows:
"The central doctrine of Magic may now be summed up thus:
"(1) That a supersensible and real cosmic medium exists, which
interpenetrates, influences, and supports the tangible and apparent world,
and is amenable to the categories both of meta-physics and of physics."
[This of course is the astral plane, which is the container of the subtle
form or framework of all that exists on the physical plane.]
"(2) That there is an established analogy and equilibrium between the real
(and unseen) world, and the illusory manifestation that we call the world
of sense.
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