Newbie here with a "?"

I have a feeling you'd do well with ceremonial magic. Possibly research the rituals of the golden dawn.

Yeah that seems to be what the elites are practicing, is largely ceremonial.... When you look at the rites they do in initiations with such groups like the Skull and Bones, Golden Dawn, etc.. my theory though is that they have promulgated only the magic which deals with manipulation and exploitation, they only present or make accessible such arcane magic... But it doesn't have to be used to those ends though. Yet much of the "white light" stuff is new age Harry Potter fluff. The entire new age culture is an ego boost, designed to wow followers with sensationalist nonsense which effictively becomes the illusion of knowledge... Westernized culture period is very ego-syntonic.. Not to say there isn't a hint of truth here and there in some of the white light stuff, I personally do not believe or disbelieve anything 100%.

But I do think there is more truth in the lefthand path, more real magic in the left hand. This has to do with the fact that our entire "civilization" is based on manipulation and exploitation, but once again, I don't think these forces necessarily have to be used to those ends.

What I am really more interested in is grey magic. I have heard people say that there are no grey magicians, that you have to choose between "white magic" and "black magic." Or the "right hand path" or "left hand path." But then I had also heard some people mention that a select few people have been able to take that middle road and have became successful grey magicians.

But I am gonna look into some ceremonial magic. Another thing I'm interested in is necromancy.