All I can say on that particular note, is that is a sickening passage to read in this day and age; obviously back then it may have been considered less taboo.
As for animal sacrifice, this is a tradition that has been around millennium and I don't know what it is, but I can't necessarily differentiate between acquiring power through means of sacrifice and killing to survive. Clearly if a magician felt he needed that much power from an innocent child there must have been a better way.
But I can see your point now about devil worship. I do not however believe that all magic is in the work of the devil. There are temptations there, no doubt. People are fallible. They also have willpower.
Sort of like that book by Stephen King where the protagonist has sex with a succubus and kills her. A means of survival, clearly, but also a sort of heroic move on his part.
I'm sure you're aware, though, that Jesus met many mystics in his travels...? He traveled far and wide to learn the things he did. This is something I think many people like Christians don't consider when they talk about the differences between Jesus, or their religion, or the occult. Jesus, in my opinion, got his powers from Kundalini. He was at probably many points, also, tempted by the devil. Allegedly he had been fasting for forty days before he met the devil in a cave, as I recall. Not all mystics are bad.
Could you perhaps define your interpretation of Magic?
