Well, if you're planning on taking up the very real ancient Armenian art of magic I must elaborate somewhat on several points of interest.
A few remarks about the ruins of magic should be elaborated upon. (1) In the Western Esoteric System you will notice that the literature is laced with Hebrew, Qabalah, and other Jewish influence. This was a consequence of the Jews, being intelligent to comprehend the deadly horrors of the loss of knowledge of the real magic did their utmost to disguise and preserve the ancient wisdom. Of course, so much of the raw data of what they preserved was not knowing what they preserved and the knowledge became tainted with their symbolism. In many cases, it is not so distorted as to apply the proper keys to restore the manifestation, and in some cases it takes much more work or the knowledge is lost completely from their interpretations. Admittedly, they did preserve enough for Western Masters to arise in time from the ruins of magic who using the restored keys were able to bring modern masterworks of occult literature to the eyes of the public — and by then the inquisition long dead could not come back and repeat their cruel and sadistic efforts.
For us, this has been very helpful and although the Jews haven't been real magicians since the times of King Solomon they retained enough to preserve enough for the minor mysteries to be developed by the Western Masters that arose. Yet, the entire scenario might have been even worse if the inquisition had laid as heavily of them as they did us.
What is known as stage magic or parlor tricks comes from a time when real magic was at its peak; and all the tricks were not necessary to entertain crowds.
Magic has been defined as the science and the art of causing change in conformity with the will, and this although a preliminary definition serves the novice until he or she become adept with its forces. A clearer definition comes from its pragmatic use and this generic definition isn't completely satisfactory.
Another definition is the manipulation of the forces of natures without damaging changes in consciousness, and manifestation of power without loss of energy. Yet these perceptions occur are added from what we have come to call the Northern Esoteric System; and I cannot tell whether they would make sense to the Western Esoteric System whose definitions seems incomplete to Us. The truth is, all four esoteric systems of magic are still recovering from the inquisition, and may take several centuries or more to reach where we actually peaked.
As for peaks of civilization, there cannot be any doubt that Armenia, and other ancient civilizations reached an incredible peak before being destroyed by monotheism and other factors - and one cannot tell how many times this has occurred.
For all we know space travel and the colonization thereof has already occurred (2) and the science fiction fad that sweeps the intellectual community might be some type of collective consciousness of awareness. Tir commands us to explore the universe; and this could have been taken long ago to of developed a technology, not necessarily with machines that led to a successful migration elsewhere. We can only keep an open mind, and at the same time try to keep in touch with reality. Nonetheless, I shrug my shoulders and bring up the subject.
My personal lifelong observation makes me bring up such an apparent outlandish perception, and I'm sure it would bring smiles to the conspiracy theorist who is always giving the world fiction more often than anything based on fact.
Again, my personal observations give me all these conclusions, and especially that magic would grow from ancient roots quicker if more magicians existed on this planet.
Yet, remember, we have a new inquisition that must be warned against, and this strange twist of danger must be mentioned. That of the Government scientist. Remember, that if you eventually restore those natural magical powers within yourself, you have to be discreet about using them publicly lest you end up on strapped to their experiment couch where they would do what Government scientists would have to do to comply with their Government.
So, by all means, develop those magical powers, yet be extremely careful about showing them off to avoid problems with others.
Again, this is more than personal observation but personal experience! I will hint in closing that trying the impossible can do no more than make you a moment's fool, and yet if you do not try you remain a fool your lifespan, as short as it will be not doing anything at all.