To truly understand magick, its roots and its workings, takes a lifetime. Unlike many subjects and modern-day religions, the old religion, magickal thought and the life that goes with it is a long journey made from one's earliest enlightenment and continuing for possibly forever. A complete account of witchcraft and magick would fill volumes and would require us to go back to the dawn of intelligent life on Earth, before organized religion began. "Witches," or at least a correspondence, can be found at every level of human evolution and can be dated back a minimum of 25,000 years to the Paleolithic period. A brief accounting cannot begin to scratch the surface of subjects as broad and multi-faceted as witchcraft and magick, but we will attempt to introduce you to the basics. Although much has been written about the history of magickal thought and witchcraft, most of it is either pure fiction or conjecture. What follows is accepted truths, based on the facts, as we know them today and is an extremely abbreviated accounting of the long journey from point A to point B. It is intended only to cover a few high and low spots in history and gives the reader a small sense of the breadth of magickal thought. Modern-day magick, witchcraft and sorcery easily trace some of its roots to Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamians had many deities specifically for various types of disasters, such as Telal: Bull Demon, Utug: Dweller of the Desert, Alal for destruction, Namtar for pestilence, Idpa for fever and Maskim who was the snare setter.

It was believed that the pharaohs, kings and other persons in positions of power all were imbued with some power of the gods, so much so that even the slightest movement they made would cause an action to occur. It was also believed that an image or statue could carry the spirit of the person. For this reason, many images and statues were carried from place to place and the most of the images or statues of these persons were created with their hands straight to their sides, thereby preventing them from causing any unwanted occurrences.

The Bible tells a story of the "The Tower of Babel" and claims that the tower was never finished. In other references however, it is claimed that the "Tower" was in fact finished, and represented the "stages" between earth and heaven. Each stage was dedicated to a planet, with its angles symbolizing the four corners of the world. They pointed to Akkad, Saburtu, Elam and the western lands. The seven steps of the tower were painted in different colors, which corresponded to the planets. The "Great Misfortune: Saturn, was black. The second was white, the color of Jupiter. The third, brick red, the color of Mercury, followed by blue, Venus; yellow, Mars, gray or silver for the moon. These colors boded good or evil, like their planets.

Also notable, is the beginning of numbers expressing a world order. There is a legend that depicts Pythagoras having traveled to Babylon. In Babylon, he is taught the mysteries of numbers, their magical significance and their power. The seven steps, mentioned in the story of the Tower of Babel, often appear in other instances in magical philosophy, theory and thought. The commonly accepted seven steps are: stone, fire, plants, animals, man, the starry heavens and the angels. Starting with the study of stones, the man of wisdom will attain higher and higher degrees of knowledge, until he will be able to apprehend the sublime, and the eternal. Through ascending these steps, a man would attain the knowledge of God, whose name is at the eighth degree, the threshold of God's heavenly dwelling.

The square was also a "mystical" symbol in these times, and though it was divided into seven, was still respected as a correlation of the old tradition of a fourfold world being reconciled with the seven heavens of later times. Many accept this as the start of numerology, but for this to develop to the point where the square represented the fourfold world, it would have had to develop before this.

In direct opposition to the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, who believed that everything occurred with either the favor or lack of favor of the Gods, the Chaldean star religion believed that luck and disaster were not chance events at all. The Chaldeans believed that events were controlled by the planets and stars, which seemed to send good and bad according to mathematical laws and therefore represented a more orderly fashion. The Chaldeans held that man was incapable of fighting the will of the planet and star deities and yet continued to incorporate "one's will" into one's fate.

Around the 7th Century B.C., Zoroastre was preaching the doctrines that evil could be avoided and defeated and introduced to his followers the principles of good and evil spirits. First and foremost in this belief structure were Ormazd (Ahura-Mazda), king of light and his twin brother Ahriman (Anro-Mainyu), prince of darkness. Zoroastre also introduced the "divine battle" between good and evil. He believed and taught that archangels controlled by Ormazd (the spirits of Divine Wisdom, Righteousness, Dominion, Devotion, Totality, and Salvation) and the demons controlled by Ahriman (the spirits of Anarchy, Apostasy, Presumption, Destruction, Decay, and Fury) were constantly at battle with one another. Zoroastre believed that in the end, Ormazd and his angels would prevail.

The last of the demons (the Demon of Fury) was incorporated into the Hebrew and Christian belief structure. The name of the Demon of Fury is Aeshma Daeva, known to the Hebrews as Ashmadai and to Christians as Asmodeus.

Asmodeus was the "chief of the fourth hierarchy of evil demons," called "the avengers of wickedness, crimes and misdeeds" and was not to be feared. It is common belief that Asmodeus is a teacher of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and mechanics and that when questioned will always answer truthfully.

Other demons, specifically Paromaiti - Arrogance, Mitox - The Falsely Spoken Word, Zaurvan - Decrepitude, Akatasa - Meddlesomeness, Vereno - Lust were believed to tempt people away from the true worship of Ormazd.

Much of the current day Christian beliefs were taken from the teachings of Zoroastre.
In Egyptian and Greek art and legend, the Sphinx was an important image. The Sphinx was a mythological creature with a lion's body and a human head. The word sphinx was derived from the Greek verb sphingein (to bind or squeeze), but the etymology is not related to the legend and is dubious.

The earliest and most famous example in art is the colossal Sphinx at Giza, Egypt. It dates from the reign of King Khafre (4th king of 4th dynasty; c. 2550 BC)

The Sphinx did not appear in Mesopotamia until around 1500 BC when it was imported from the Levant. In appearance, the Asian sphinx differed from the Egyptian primarily in the addition of wings to the lion's body, which continued through its history in both the Asian and Greek worlds.

While the Sphinx began as a male, another interesting version was that of the female. The female Sphinx appeared around the 15th century BC on seals, ivories and various engravings. It was usually portrayed in the sitting position with one paw raised and were frequently accompanied by a lion, griffin or another Sphinx. Its appearance on temples and other important buildings eventually lead to an interpretation of the sphinx as a protective and philosophical symbol.
The Sphinx rests at the foot of the three pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkure and watches over the City Of The Dead and guards its secrets.

Plutarch (A.D. 45-126) in his book on Isis and Osiris, proposes the Sphinx symbolizes the secrets of occult wisdom and that the magic of the Sphinx lies within the thousands of hands that chiseled it from rock and that the magickal thought, conjurations and rites of those countless generations have imbued in it a mighty, protective spirit that still exists.

Ancient Egyptians also believed that in the West lies the World of the Dead, where the Sun god disappeared every evening. They referred to their departed as "Westerners" and believed that the dead, disguised as birds, flew into the sky where the heavenly barge of Ra, the Sun god, awaited them and transformed them into stars to travel with him through the expanse of the heavens.

The Egyptian occult of the dead reached its pinnacle when it incorporated the story of Osiris. It was believed that Osiris was born to save humankind. At the birth of Osiris, a voice was heard proclaiming that the Lord had come into the world. However, his brother/father Seth shut him up in a chest, which he carried to the sea by the Tanaitic mouth of the Nile. Isis brought him back to life. Seth then scattered his body all over the place. It is said that Isis fastened the limbs together with the help of the gods Nephtis, Thoth, and Horus, her son. Fanning the body with her wings, and through her magic, Osiris rose again to reign as king over the dead.
The Egyptians believed that a person had two souls; the soul known as Ba progressed into the afterlife while the soul known as Ka remained with the mummy. Ka was believed to live a magical life within the tomb. Therefore, the Egyptians placed favorite belongings of the deceased in the tomb.

Egyptian priests believed they could deceive the gods, menace and force them into obedience. They had such faith in the power of their magic, their spoken words and magic gestures and other rituals, that they believed they could bend even their good gods to their will. They threatened to bring retribution to deities who failed to deal leniently with their dead, to shoot lightning into the area of Shu, god of the air, who would then no longer be able to support the sky-goddess and her star-sown body would collapse, thereby disrupting the order of the world.
From these varied beliefs of the Ancients, magickal thought continued to grow. The most powerful and common beliefs and rituals survived and were incorporated into the daily lives of many who eventually came to be known as Pagans or Heathens.

The Babylonians, Assyrians and Persians believed that myriads of evil spirits, demons or devils hovered about the face of the earth and caused all the evils of humanity. This belief in legions of devils was passed through the Jews, into Christianity, and soon became associated with the old religion and the Pagans or Heathens. The term Pagan comes from the Latin word paganus, meaning country dweller. Paganus, in turn, was derived from pagus, Latin for rural area or village. As Christianity took hold, the last people to be converted lived in outlying areas. These people remained as practitioners of the old religion and were referred to as being Pagan or Heathen (heath dweller); names that, due to political pressure from Christian sources, became derogatory but failed to eradicate them.

The old religion, which was based upon the reverence of nature and the magick that surrounded them, was now twisted by governments and the Christian church to represent Devil worship (a Christian image of the Pagan Horned God), and persecution of so-called "Witches", the Pagans and Heathens, began in earnest. The Fathers of the Church, particularly St. Augustine, the most influential of them all, had formally denounced the old religion and its magick as "pagan".
 

The association of the old religion and the Heathens and Pagans with Devil worship and St. Augustine's denouncement of it all, marked the beginning of a dark period in the history of the world, even to the Christian Church's new, supposedly beloved converts. The synods of Elvira (306), Ancyra (314), and Laodicea (375), and the sermons of St. Chrysostom and other great preachers, reveal that the new Christians had brought with them many popular, magickal practices of their pagan world. Abashed and annoyed and upon deeper reflection, St. Augustine now felt it was not enough to denounce these as pagan, so he concocted a more deadly theory: the diviner or magician, in whose powers he firmly believed, was in league with the devil. Moreover, as far as the Christian Church was concerned, its Bible was quite clear about such people. It defined a witch as one who "hath a familiar spirit" and condemned them to death. Moreover, in the Latin and Catholic Bible verse 5 of Psalm xcvi (Psalm xcv in the Catholic Bible) reads: "The gods of the heathen are devils." Paganism and devilism became one.

This correlation by the early Christians and their Bible was devastating and resulted in horrible atrocities. In the eyes of the early Christian fathers, magick meant collusion with the devil, a dangerous combination in a religion that taught that the world swarmed with devils. Moreover, it was precisely this elaborate devil-doctrine held by the great theologians of the Middle Ages that caused the appalling witch-massacres. The thirteenth century, being the most tyrannical, superstitious and sanguinary century of the Middle Ages and of which modern Catholics are so proud, inaugurated the massacres on a large scale. This persecution reached its pinnacle in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, continued in varying degrees, and still exists today, albeit in limited areas. Thousands of innocent people have been tortured, maimed and murdered as Witches and Devil-worshippers.

The true religious history of Europe has never been written and quite possibly will never be known, as there has been so much suppression and distortion of facts. What we do know however is that the accepted version is false. The idea of a "conversion" of the Roman Empire to Christianity and that it was meekly accepted and cherished is preposterous. Christianity was imposed by force upon a reluctant world. Although our ancestors, the Ancients, were denied schooling and kept in the thralls of bleakest ignorance, we must hail them for their persistent and tireless rebellion against the corrupt Christian Church. For it has only been by use of deadly force on a colossal scale that the Church has managed to maintain its dominion for so many centuries.

Enter witchcraft, as an expression of a constant effort by a people to rid themselves of a religion forcefully imposed upon them. Manichaeism, a rival religion to Christianity in the fourth century and the writings of St. Augustine (who was at first a Manichaean, but later one of the worst slanderers of the religion) reveal to us how heroically its adherents fought for their creed even long after imperial decrees had declared, under pain of confiscation and death, that Christianity was to be the sole religion of the empire.

Manichaeism was an ascetic religion, based essentially on the ancient Persian belief in two supreme principles, one of light and goodness, the other of darkness and evil. Manichaeism was crushed by the aid of the imperial troops but Manichaean ideas were destined still to play a great part in Europe. Christians vilified the Manichees. St. Jerome candidly stated they were men and women of far stricter virtue than the Christians themselves. Augustine, however, was chiefly instrumental in defaming them.

Manichaean ideas like its adherents, were imprisoned, but broke out from time to time. One of the most famous heretics of the Greek Church, Paul of Samosata, was the son of a Manichaean mother. His heresy combined the Manichaean principle of two supreme powers with an early form of Protestantism or evangelical Christianity. The Greek Church and Empire-which, let us remember, had never been tainted by barbarian invasions-were now, in the eighth century, appallingly corrupt, and this purer religion, as it was, spread widely, especially among the Armenians. Emperor after emperor tried to suppress it. The Empress Theodora put to death no less than one hundred thousand members of the sect; or, in a few years, made fifty times as many martyrs as the pagans had in three centuries. Finally, in the tenth century, no less than two hundred thousand members of the sect were transplanted from Armenia to Thrace, to form a living bulwark against the encroachments of the Bulgars.

Rapidly, the Paulicians spread their gospel peacefully among the Bulgars and Europe was confronted with a new heresy, the Bogomiles. While the Bogomiles are not widely known, a group of heretics from the south of France, the Albigensians, who were drowned by the greatest of the Popes, Innocent III, in their own blood will never be forgotten. They (and the Waldensians, the Cathari, the Patarenes, and other obscure bodies of the time) were inspired by the Bogomiles and had the same tincture of Manichaean ideas. The orthodox Catholics of France called them bougres (Bulgars) and it was thus that the innocent name of a people became the worst swearword of French and English tongues. They were reproached with having a pope in Bulgaria. In short, from the tenth century onward this revolt against orthodox Christianity and its corrupt priests and monks spread over Europe like a prairie fire.

The Paulicians, Bogomiles, Albigensians, and others of their ilk suffered slander and misrepresentation. Psellus, one of the leading Greek orthodox writers of the tenth century, wrote a book titled, "On the Operations of the Devils," in which he included almost as many fables as he had in his telling of the lives of the martyrs. According to Psellus, the heretics would meet at night by candlelight and invoke devils. When these devils or demons appeared in the shape of animals, the lights would then be extinguished and the heretics would then indulge in an orgy of sexuality with the devils and each other. This tale spread through Europe and was eventually applied to heretics everywhere.

To better put into perspective the gross misconceptions and misrepresentations heaped unmercifully upon the Pagans and Heathens, it is interesting to make note of a letter written by Pope Gregory IX to his bishops in Germany. In 1233, Pope Gregory IX wrote to the bishops of Germany and urged them to seek out and persecute all heretics. The letter (from the Latin in the "Annales" of Ravnaldus, year 1233, p. 89) a bizarre composition which bring a smile to the lips when one hears Catholics claim some special divine interest in their church and its popes, but it is too long to be quoted here in full.

In his letter, the Pope stated that amongst these heretics "when a neophyte is received there appears to him a kind of frog," though some say it is a toad. Some kiss it shamelessly on the buttocks, others on the mouth, drawing the tongue and spittle of the animal into their mouths. Sometimes this toad is "as big as a goose or a duck." The neophyte next encounters a "man of extraordinary paleness, with deep black eyes, and so thin that his skin seems to be stretched over his bones." The neophyte kisses him and finds that he is "as cold as ice." The worshipers then sit at a table, a large black cat comes out of a statue and all of them in the order of their dignity kiss its buttocks. After a time the lights are extinguished and there is the usual orgy of sexual intercourse. If, the Pope gravely explains, there are more men than women, or women than men, they resort to sodomy. The candles are once again lighted and they sit again at the table. From a dark corner of the room emerges a sort of man "shining like the sun from the loins upward, but rough as a cat below." The neophyte is presented to this devil, and the faithful give consecrated hosts, which they have stolen, from the churches where they have communicated.
 

According to the Pope, this was almost an exact account of a witch meeting. The Pope then adds another significant detail. He states with great authority and obviously privileged knowledge, that the heretics declare God to be a tyrant who unjustly condemned Lucifer to hell. According to the Pope, the heretics claim Lucifer to be the real creator of the world and prince of men, and that in the end, Lucifer will regain his rightful place.

Through the efforts of misguided persons such as Augustine and Pope Gregory IX, the old religion, which is based on thousands and thousands of years of learning and experience starting at the dawn of the world, was terribly twisted in its presentation to the unknowing masses and fearfully condemned by the innocent ignorant. But great strides have been made in the past century. Increased education and enlightenment have been bestowed by caring individuals upon persons who formerly would have gone without. Magick, its roots and its present-day applications are surfacing and being accepted into the mainstream. Many are realizing where the truth lies and how to attain the wealth of personal satisfaction, harmony, peace and understanding that come with it.

Magick is a way of life.
The roots of what is commonly referred to as modern-day Witchcraft and erroneously Wicca is believed to have strong associations with the Celts, a people living between 700 BC and 100 AD. The Celts were descended from the Indo-Europeans, and were a brilliant and dynamic people--gifted artists, musicians, storytellers, metalworkers, expert farmers and fierce warriors. They were much feared by their adversaries, the Romans, who eventually adopted a number of their customs and traditions.

The Celts were deeply spiritual and worshiped both a god and goddess. Their religion was pantheistic, meaning they worshiped many aspects of the "One Creative Life Source" and honored the presence of the "Divine Creator" in all of nature. Like many tribes the world over, they believed in reincarnation. After death, they went to the Summerland for rest and renewal while awaiting rebirth.

The months of the Celtic year were named after trees.

• The Celtic New Year began at Samhain, which means "summers end," and was the final harvest of the year. Samhain was also their "Festival of the Dead," where they honored their ancestors and deceased loved ones. Many contemporary Halloween customs come from Samhain.

• Winter Solstice was the annual celebration of the rebirth of the Sun. Today, many popular customs have their origins in this ancient celebration.

• Near the beginning of February came Imbolg, a time when domesticated animals began to give birth.

• The Spring Equinox and Beltaine, sometimes called "May Day", were fertility festivals.

• The Summer Solstice, known as Lughnassa, celebrated the glory of the Sun and the powers of nature.

• Lughnassa, the Fall Equinox and once again Samhain, were all considered as Celtic harvest festivals.

The "Druids" were the priests of the Celtic religion. They remained in power through the fourth century AD, three centuries after the Celts' defeat at the hands of the Romans. The Druids were priests, teachers, judges, astrologers, healers and bards. They were indispensable to the political leaders, providing them with considerable power and influence. They Druids were revered, and were able to pass between warring tribes unharmed. It took twenty years of intense study to become a Druid. Translated, the word Druid means, "knowing the oak tree". Trees, the oaks in particular, were held sacred by the Celts. Mistletoe, which grows as a parasite on oak trees, was a powerful herb used in their ceremonies and for healing. Mistletoe was ritually harvested at the Summer Solstice by cutting it with a golden sickle and catching it with a white cloth while never letting it touch the ground.

The religious beliefs and practices of the Celts grew into what later became known as "Paganism", which is not to be confused with the term "Neo-Paganism". The word Pagan is derived from the Latin word Paganus, meaning "country dweller". This reference was consistent with the Celts' love of the land and nature. Paganistic beliefs and rituals eventually blended with the practices of other Indo-European descended groups, and over several centuries spawned such practices as concocting potions and ointments, casting spells, and performing works of magick. These practices, along with many of the nature-based beliefs held by the Celts and other groups, became collectively known as "Witchcraft".

Before the fourteenth century, witchcraft meant a collection of beliefs and practices, including healing through spells, mixing potions, ointments or concoctions, divining or forecasting the future, and acts of clairvoyance. Those who held sacred other beliefs and rituals, often branded witchcraft as "demon-worship". After North America was discovered and Europeans began migrating to the "New World", witchcraft came into practice by some of the early, colonial settlers. Since it had previously been branded as "demon-worship", witchcraft was forbidden throughout the North American colonies. Despite this decree by the leaders, some colonists secretly practiced witchcraft, even under the fear of knowing they might be hanged or burned if caught and found guilty.

True magick holds great power, some good and some evil, depending on the type of magick and the intentions of the practitioner. The better-known types of magick are denoted by colors:

• Black Magick is performed with the intention of harming another being, either as a means of building the practitioner's power or as the goal itself. The underlying ideology upon which black magick is based states that, "the practitioner and his or her pursuit of knowledge and/or physical well-being are more important than other concerns, theological or ethical."

• Green Magick involves the practitioner's self-attuning to nature.

• White Magick is where the practitioner self-attunes to the needs of human society and attempts to meet those needs. This is a form of "personal betterment" magick, and does not entail harming other beings.

• Grey Magick is magick that is neither green, nor black, nor white, and usually replaces the absolute stand of these realms with an ethical code that is particular to the practitioner. It is a type of magick all its own, and may be used for many different purposes.

• Folk Magick is an eclectic collection of herbalism, faith healing, curses and hexes, candle magick, and other workings that have thrived in rural areas for centuries.

There are two spellings used for "magic" on the Internet. The reason for the two spellings is that computers require different spellings to be able to distinguish between two different files. In the early '90s, the use of the word-forms "magic", for stage magic and "magick", for mystical-ritual-supernatural practices, were adopted.

"Magick" is a spelling that has been in use for hundreds of years. (webmaster note: it was Aleister Crowley popularized the K addition for differentiation purpose) The history of magick is the history of human beings. Many accepted and revered practices such as: drama, music, art, dance, philosophy and poetry, began as experiments in ritual and magick but are now labeled by modern-day society as "culture". Magick has played a role in many key moments of our history and can be a valuable and reputable activity to undertake. For example, during the fourteenth century, it was the philosophy of the Renaissance. In our own time, many modern art movements have been driven by magical ideas.

Seemingly, there has always been confusion over the use of the words "spells" and "hexes". Generally speaking, a magical spell is a formula that may involve spoken, written, or chanted words, symbolic enactments, candle burning, ritual baths, burning of incense, sprinkling of powders, salts, or dusts, and/or the manufacture and deployment of charms, amulets, or talismans. The purposes and uses of spells are varied. Spells can be cast for wish-fulfillment in regard to such things as love, money, and good fortune; banishing spells for ridding oneself of unwanted influences; cursing spells to bring bad luck or harm to another; binding spells to keep someone's magic from affecting you or others, and summoning spells to call up spirits, ghosts, or even demons.

"Hex" comes from the German word for witchery or sorcery, "hexencraft." A popular word in America's Pennsylvania Dutch country, the term "hex" refers to a symbolic drawing. The drawing is customarily a six-sided figure in a circle, derived from the Greek word "hex", or "six", as in "hexagon". Hexes are fashioned and used to protect farm animals, attract love, strengthen a marriage, or break a curse. In German, the term "hexencraft" refers to magical spells in general, and may include medical herbology. One who makes hexes is a "hexmeister"(hex-master).

It is a common misconception that the "hexes" of Pennsylvania Dutch folk-magic are evil in their intent. So too, is this also true with African-American hoodoo and European witchcraft. The words "hex" and "hoodoo" and "bewitch" are often considered synonymous with "curse" or to "magically harm", leaving love spells, prosperity spells, animal fertility spells, or home protection spells that are worked in these traditions totally unmentioned. Usually, this is done because of ignorance rather than malice. Education is the key, and fortunately, vocabulary-ignorance only affects the people who are misusing a word, it does not affect the actual culture in which the term originated. Therefore, if you were to go to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and ask for a hex, you would not be given a curse, but rather the Pennsylvania Dutch version of a sigil, talisman, or seal--a six-sided geometrical image to be used for magical purposes. "Hoodoo", "conjure", "rootwork" and "laying down tricks" are also regionally popular terms for spell casting, both benevolent and malevolent. They originate in the African-American culture and are common terms across the United States.

Magical rituals, especially involving mundane, natural objects such as herbs and minerals, exist in virtually every human culture. This seems to hold true whether there is a deity worship involved or not.

Magic has been defined in many different ways. A popular view of magic has always been as a kind of energy that fills the universe. Another popular conception of magic is as a psychic tool, by which we can influence the material world we live in using symbols and rituals. Magic has also been characterized as a means of uniting with the divine, an exercise of one's "will" or the manipulation of reality.

There have been differing suggestions of magical currents or energies based on style or intent. Some consider the possibilities of principles, scientific structure or laws of magic as eminently plausible. While yet others approach the definition of magic more subjectively, considering the knowledge of the elements of magic to be personal and therefore peculiar to the individual form.

Multitudinous discussions on these subjects have occurred. One immensely admired hypothesis is the magic/individual--religion/group model. This perception postulates that magical practices not involving a congregation and worship service are not religious. For example, a woman casting a love spell with oils and a candle to attract a man would not, under this principle, be a religious act, as it neither involves a congregation nor a worship service. In turn, in accordance with this view, magical practices that include a congregation and worship should be considered as religious. There is a somewhat popular estimation that religious practices cannot be magical, while still others purport that religious rites that summon the service of spirits or unknown forces to initiate some modification in the world are magical. In example, a Christian prayer meeting for the purpose of healing a member of the congregation would be considered magical.
While we are confronted with differing views on what magic is and how it works, it is in the individual human that the true answer is to be found. For belief comes not from without, but from within, and therefore, in conclusion, it can be said today and tomorrow that, ultimately, what one believes is one's own choice and a projection of who they are.