Magic is the universally accepted name for those phenomena whose noumena are unknown to the ordinary herd. But magic is of two kinds, which, however, have this quality in common: they receive their impulse from the will of the magician, somewhat in the way that ripples on the sea receive their impulse from an oar; and if his will lack strength, or if his understanding fail him, he must receive the effect of his magic hurled back on himself with force redoubled by the impulse of his adversary.

He who is known as a white magician—he, that is, who takes the right-hand way and whose knowledge is exerted solely with a beneficial and unselfish purpose—need not dread that repercussion more than fish need dread the sea, because he is employing Life itself—the very Life in which he lives.

But the black magician—he who takes the left-hand way, whose purpose and whose power are malevolent—is not so fortunately situated. Death is his employer and employee, so that the greater his immediate success, the more certain is his ultimate annihilation.
—Fragment from The Diary Of Olympus.