ABSTRACT
From the very beginning of his awareness of magic and religion man has employed ritual as a means of expressing his involvement with the powers of the universe, and as a means of gaining contact with those powers, and causing them to manifest to him. As he became increasingly less dependent on the hunt and the nomadic life of his early ancestors so man developed a different approach to magic and ritual. Gradually, with the separation of magic and religion, and the establishment of the church as the most powerful influence on the culture, ritual magic largely disappeared; certainly, it existed in small enclaves and amongst individuals, but the church was most diligent in her persecution of those who participated in practices outside her scheme of belief. Ritual magic is that approach to magic which employs ritual, symbols and ceremonial as a means of representing and communicating with forces underlying the universe and man.
