Magic is a lot of things tossed into one category called "magic", and is defined in many ways and comes out of many roots. To me it is strange that both the Abramelin Operation and spitting three times to avert the Evil Eye is lumped together simply as "magic", when they are as alike as engineering a power plant and building a snare to catch birds.
The same with "dabbling." Certainly dabbling in Goetic evocation (whether one believes the demonic is part of internal or external reality, or concurrent reality) should not be considered in the same category of risk as divining who one is going to marry by throwing apple peels on the floor at New Year's to see what letters are formed.
There is a difference in learning and training for running events in varsity track and field to break world records in the Olympics, versus running cross country in the mountains while escaping enemies or hunting like the Tarahumara. Both are running, both need excellent physical conditioning, and just because one is an excellent runner doesn't mean one is adept at both.
Draja Mickaharic says in "Practice of Magic" (p. vii-viii): "...Magic must have a real physical result to be worthy of the name. ...It is currently popular to define magic as the art of changing consciousness at will. This is not my definition of magic. [But] being able to change consciousness at will is a prerequisite to any real practice of magic. The student of magic must gain control of the mind the magician gains the ability to change the -perception- [emphasis mine] of earthly reality at will. ...Being a magician is [only] a stage in the process of developing spiritually. It is not the height of development. In fact, it is only a step in the first part of the range of real human development."
Different people have different natural gifts, different "knacks." Some people are natural runners, all can improve their running through rigorous training. But it is also true that some people never get off the couch in front of the TV ;-)
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