Roman Catholic Worried... Options

As you can tell from the topic title, all this stuff interests me and I'd like to be able to perform some of it, but everything about the Golden Dawn, Hermeticism, and Ceremonial Magick in general tends to freak me out. I'm a Roman Catholic and I'm obscenely worried about my spiritual self getting into some trouble by doing this stuff. Are there any 'Judeo-Christian' roots to these rituals? I mean it doesn't take a lot to notice the archangels and God's names in the rituals, but seeing videos of people using sinister voices and generally acting like they want to be Lucifer's best friend during said rituals is a little worrisome.

If anyone has any advice for me I'd really appreciate it. I want to be closer with my HGA and thereby God by doing a little magick everyday, I desperately want Him to work through me, but what if unwittingly I allow myself to be worked by an entity with less than amiable goals? Etc., etc.

Thanks in advance..

I am catholic as well and I practice ceremonial magick. The Catholic Church actually practices alot of magick. The mass is a great example. The incense, the candles, the vestments, holy water, novenas, rosaries, baptism, the list goes on and on.

The source material for ceremonial draws heavily from Jewish and early Christian sources. Many of the grimories use Jesus in the conjurations and prayers and requires you to recite the creed and hail Marys.

Modern groups such as the golden dawn are not a religion but rather a system to attain spiritual goals. The use of greek, egyptian, and pagan gods come from a Hermetic stand point where all religions and gods are nothing but a reflection of the one god as opposed to more worship type rites that pagans use in witchcrafts etc. The same goes in alchemy.

The bottom line is magick is not one thing or another. Some people practice magick as a form of spirituality that is part of a larger faith, others practice it as a faith itself. The methods and aims are as diverse as the people who use it.

Besides Vatican II was pretty clear that it is not a sin unless you feel morally guilty about it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_popeanim.gif)