Introduction to Magick

    Excerpted from "Magick in Theory and Practice" by Aleister Crowley (1929)
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"Magick is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of 
Natural Philosophy; advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a 
right understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that 
true Agents being applied to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects 
will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent 
searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate 
an effect,the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle."-- The Goetia 
of the Lemegeton of King Solomon."Whenever sympathetic magic occurs in its 
pure unadulterated form,it is assumed that in nature one event follows 
another necessarily and invariably without the intervention of any 
spiritual or personal agency. Thus its fundamental conception is identical 
with that of modern science; underlying the whole system is a faith, 
implicit but real and firm, in the order and uniformity of nature. The 
magician does not doubt that the same causes will always produce the same 
effects, that the performance of the proper ceremony accompanied by the 
appropriate spell, will inevitably be attended by the desired  results, 
unless, indeed, his incantations should chance to be  thwarted and foiled 
by the more potent charms of another sorcerer. He supplicates no higher 
power: he sues the favour of no fickle and wayward being: he abases himself 
before no awful deity. Yet his power, great as he believes it to be, is by 
no means arbitrary and unlimited. He can wield it only so long as he 
strictly conforms to rules of his art, or to what may be called the laws 
of nature as conceived by him. To neglect these rules, to break these laws 
in the smallest particular is to incur failure, and may even expose the 
unskillful practitioner himself to the utmost peril. If he claims a 
sovereignty over nature, it is a constitutional sovereignty rigorously 
limited in its scope and exercised in exact conformity with ancient usage. 
Thus the analogy between the magical the scientific conceptions of the 
world is close. In both of them the succession of events is perfectly 
regular and certain, being determined by immutable laws, the operation of 
which can be foreseen and calculated precisely; the elements of caprice, 
of  chance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature. Both 
of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities of him who 
knows the causes of things and can touch the secret   springs that set in 
motion the vast and intricate mechanism of the world. Hence the strong 
attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; 
hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the pursuit of 
knowledge. They lure the weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through 
the wilderness of disappointment in the present by their endless promises 
of the future: they take him up to the top of an exceeding high mountain 
and shew him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mist at his feet, a vision 
of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant with unearthly 
splendour, bathed in the light of dreams."

-- Dr. J. G. FRAZER, "The Golden Bough". "So far, therefore, as the public 
profession of magic has been one of the roads by which men have passed to 
supreme power, it has contributed to emancipate mankind from the thraldom 
of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer life, with a broader 
outlook on the world. This is no small service rendered to humanity. And 
when we remember further that in another direction magic has paved the way 
for science, we are forced to admit that if the black arts has done much 
evil, it has also been the source of much good; that if it is the child of 
error, it has been the mother of freedom and truth."-- Ibid."Prove all 
things; hold fast that which is good". -- St. Paul."Also the mantras and 
the spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of 
the sword: these he shall learn and teach."He must teach; but he may make 
severe the ordeals. The word of the Law is THELEMA." 

-- LIBER AL vel xxxi: The Book of the Law.              

This  is book is for ALL: for every man, woman, and child.
My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, by my use of
technical terms. It has attracted only too many dilettanti and eccentrics,
weaklings seeking in "Magic" an escape from reality. I myself was first
consciously drawn to the subject in this way. And it has repelled only too
many scientific and practical minds, such as I most designed to influence. 
But MAGICK is for ALL.