QUOTE(Imperial Arts @ Aug 11 2010, 10:41 PM)
If you go to court, a theater, or any sort of official function, you will have to abide the codes of conduct for the place or the event. There is a dress code, many prohibited behaviors and items, and compulsory respect for the people involved in the function. Whether or not you respect those involved, you must go along with the social event in a manner that accommodates the designs of the organizers, the judge, or whoever established the guidelines.
The people who made the grimoires were religious, and to work with those books is to step into a system that they created, whether they are Solomon or Moses or Alibek the Egyptian. The sort of religion that those people had, either in the ancient world or in the 17th century, is very different from the sort of religious belief that exists these days. The way we approach it, practice it, everything... even the more conservative religions have evolved to meet their modern congregations.
Consider also what the grimoires you are reading actually say about God. There is, in many instances, a profound sense of devotion and awe given for the God invoked, and some of thagt may resonate with your while the rest of "religion" remains dismissed.
Remember also that a great deal of the ritual for most occult systems is purification. They expect you to go into the act more or less unsuitable to perform it, unworthy for one reason or another, and to make yourself fit to perform by the ablutions. It won't make you a better person any more than wearing a suit to cout makes you less guilty, but it will make you acceptable to the powers invoked by the ceremony insofar as is required for that act.
I think, I want to read your books, now. I've read a lot of your posts on here and I think I should like to learn more from you.