Black Magic is Not a Myth in Articles by Aleister Crowley.

“To practice black magic you have to violate every principle of science, decency, and intelligence. You must be obsessed with an insane idea of the importance of the petty object of your wretched and selfish desires.” [via]

Consider also:

  1. “If an Englishman of a generation or two ago could have been shown a little black box and told that if he turned a knob the President of the United States would talk to him, he would have laughed at the idea. If one could have convinced him that the voice was actually that of the President that Englishman would have been forced to the conclusion that the black box was magical. And yet we know now that the feat is quite possible, and that the box is only that kind of magic now revealed to the profane as ‘radio.'”
  2. “Black magic is not a myth. It is a totally unscientific and emotional form of magic, but it does get results–of an extremely temporary nature. The recoil upon those who practice it is terrific.”
  3. “In my textbook, Theory and Practice of Magick will be found the definition of the word magic, or magick, as I prefer to spell it, to distinguish the real from the fake. It is ‘the science and art of causing change to occur in accordance with the will.'”
  4. “What is magic today is science tomorrow. The Hindue ‘worship idols.’ Yes? But what exactly do they mean by that? As I myself have observed: they get very interesting results from their ‘worship.’ We, the enlightened West, say that their worship is ignorant superstition and the results coincidence. But are we not in the position of our mythical Englishman listening to the noise from the black box?”
  5. “But these are only superficial things. Magic transcends space and time. All things are possible to an adept, but the virtue of his knowledge and power would desert if he used them for selfish ends or personal gain.”