Experts Renouncing Magick

I find it interesting when reading
About some of my favorite Occult Masters
That the folks writting about several of them say that they renounced Magick in their later years some going as far as claiming it didn't work,Some of the folks I have heard this on were
Agrippa,Levi and Anton Lavey Anton not being much of a believer in the first place unless you ask His daughter who claimed he truly believed in Thestic Satanist ways but tricked people by claiming he was only a way of life.If these people all had success with Magick why would they turn on it?We're all of their claims made up and theu never had any magical succes to begin with or were people lying about them and changing History since they are no longer here to defend themselves?

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Perhaps, because those you mentioned achieved quite a bit of notoriety they were led to developers unrealistic expectations of themselves, and as time passed with unfulfilled hopes for enlightenment gathering along the way maybe they became a bit jaded. Just one wholly speculative theory.

I would go so far as to speculate that as with most when they began practicing results were easily found for there proof they were successful because they expected results and there will and intent were there . but as they aged it was harder to prove to themselves because the mind finds it easier to discount success as mere coincidence thereby a loss of willing themselves to succeed in there actions..but this is just a theory as I don't even know who these people are or were

I would hardly call La Vey an expert, all his 'knowledge' is recycled and degraded by his lack of intelligence and need to be a shocking religious leader/con man.

Agrippa's renouncement is a strange case indeed, it has been blown out of proportion, he states his first publication of his occult philosophy had erroneous ideas in, and ideas which went against his later more 'Christian' attitudes. But there is evidence to suggest he edited it heavily and actually published it once more after making his statement that he renounced his works, perhaps meaning that he rectified it. There are some people who draw the conclusion that Agrippa rejected magic in it's totality, others state he rejected some things and not others, others state he rejected nothing personally, only publicly. Either way, the circumstances surrounding this event in his life are sketchy and lost to history, we only have interpretations at this point. But why he would push for a work he no longer believed in to be published when he was close to his death is beyond me if he did not feel it would be useful.

I had no idea Levi renounced magic, I would love to hear the source for that. It is news to me, but I don't know a lot about the man's life in all honesty. I love his works though.

One thing everybody needs to learn about all occultists is that what we say in public is not necessarily what we feel and think. I will often tell someone a blatant lie because they would believe that over the truth and would arrive at the truth of the matter all the same. If I do that, if people I know do that, why would these 'experts' not do that? Especially if there was some motivational factor driving them to be left alone which simply hasn't been reported.

Either way, we will never have any idea, I do know Levi and Agrippa had great minds and have contributed a lot to the Western Mystery Traditions and all magical traditions of the West, including witchcraft.