E. A. Koetting - staticfly.net

CHAPTER fiVE
BURNT OFfERINGS
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to what you feel you are honestly capable of achieving with Magick at
present. The adage, "If you believe you can, you're right. If you believe
you can't, you're also right," is never stronger than when working
within a paradigm as sensitive as the metaphysical.
Some may have a difficult time deciding which goals they should
set their Magickal eyes upon, but have the hunger to begin putting into
practice that which they have only dreamed of until now. Others
know exactly what changes they want to make in their lives, and cannot
contain their desire any longer. Either way, it is the act of reaching out
with an invisible hand and taking complete control of his life that brings
the Black Magician to the personal realization of what he is and what he
is destined to become.
Even without this word of caution, the first goals which you may
set your mind on will most likely be minor. Gaining the admiration of
peers, the attention of the opposite sex, sex in itself, or more money
than is had at the time are usually at the top of the list for most occult
beginners. Often it is the desire for these trivial things which draws
the Dabbler into the Dark Arts, rather than a genuine hunger for
knowledge, power, and Ascent.
Using the simple rituals given in this chapter, these more
mundane desires can be satisfied. They should also give the Neophyte
a good idea of what the Works of Darkness may entail and what he may
be capable of at the beginning of his journey. In performing the
meditations and contemplations given in the third chapter of this book,
~'ou met with the Dark Path. In gathering and consecrating the ritual
tools, you were firmly set upon the Path. Now, in reaching out and
changing your world with Black Magick, you are walking the Path.
The statement could be made that all animals are Magickal
beings, ritualizing in their own ways in order to attain a natural balance
in the world and to find a place within that balance. Humans, on the
other hand, seek to control that balance, to rule over it, and eventually
to overturn it. Mankind has been given the godlike charge of domination
expressed most subtly yet most dangerously in the rituals of Black
Magick.
Even before Babylonia and Egypt carved their names in the tablets
of history as spiritual and scientific forefathers of our race, the midnight
desert was speckled with tiny fires around which the earliest Sorcerers
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