Occult, Qabalah, Golden Dawn disillusionment

[Aion]

Also, all that being said, I am actually infinitely more familiar with meditation and its techniques than I am with ritual magic which is something I have explored very slowly over a period of time while actually just meditating daily. However, my beliefs and view of reality has opened up ritual work fairly easily for me. The hard part is getting to know the tools.

You say you believe in the power of symbols. You can view a ritual as a 'symbol complex', it is the careful arrangement of concepts and energies. Of course, the thing that draws me to ritual magic is the point that is most refuted by modern magicians and that is the reality of entities, thought-forms and deities. Most modern magicians hold a view similar to Matt1, seeing these things as psychology. I, however, believe that is only one level of these things and it is much weirder and mysterious than people know.

Of course, I actually know and have spoken with Golden Dawn adepts and the interesting thing is that they all also went through a period of skepticism regarding the realities of the practice.

Now, that being said, I think I am weird even by magicians standards. I have mostly seen people approach it from the 'aspect of the self' perception but I admit that I genuinely believe in the actual existence of other entities, deities and higher planes of vibration and reality.

So, while some may invoke an elemental or something and feel they are just interacting with a self-reflection I believe it's possible to interact with actual entities. However, I think this depends on a willingness to see them as such, to see them as an other-self.