[47] division tend to overlook the fact we have a 1,600 year old contemplative heritage in the Christian mystics, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio Divina (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. Our Christian contemplative heritage, although continued since the Reformation behind the closed doors of the Trappist monasteries, has been enjoying a revival since the 1970s in the form of Father Thomas Keating’s Centering Prayer. Although ritual and meditation may at first glance seem exclusive, both are examples of the magical act (as outlined in The Camel Rides Again), and it is more often the case that a technique for furnishing direct, personal experience of the truth has elements that could fit into both of these arbitrary categories. More significantly, the results from certain ritual practices mirror those of contemplation, and vice-versa. The core practice (CP) of magick is what Aleister Crowley, the last great master of the Western Tradition, called the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Crowley performed the CP at first using the rather elaborate method prescribed by
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Alan Chapman