Magic isn't real.

I think the Terry Pratchett approach to magik has been very fruitful for me since discovering it. Less work and more fun honestly. Nobody said it needed to be hard.

I think these are fine questions. People should ask such questions.

Anyway: I can say a lot for these questions, but suffice to say yes and no lol. Yes, I have found some published works whose rituals were very useful. But I also have freely adjusted and amended some of these to better suit my purposes as well. Practice and study made it clear where I could do this, since while it's true that your practice should really be your own, reinventing the wheel is a waste of time and energy. It's only really important that your rituals help you focus and direct your energy and intent properly, and to allow you to exit that headspace and return to 'consensus reality' afterward. Reading very broadly (i.e. every approach you can find) can help since then you can compare and contrast various ideas.

Well, as far as theatrics and illusions... The problem is that the answer is yes/yes. You need the theatrics and self-delusion in the moment in order to get out of your head, to get into a light trance state. But like I said above, you also need to come down from that state and return to 'normal' afterward. A lot of people do not like that last part. Magick can feel good, and the mental state in the midst of ritual can feel like something you want to use all the time, but it's not healthy. I can't say for sure, but it does seem that the more a person uses emotions to fuel their magick, the more danger they're in of slipping into delusional states. Meditation tends to be an old mainstay practice within magick because it protects against that situation. If you get into a meditative state for trances, instead of winding up emotions, you should get better results on the whole, as well as find it easier to exit magick-mental space. After that, don't allow someone else to do your thinking for you. Don't make membership in a tradition more important than understanding yourself. :V

Magic isn’t real, if it means something to you, then that’s something.

There's a reason you start as neophyte, then graduate to next levels.

Magick is real, but not in the way most people think. Most people come craving worldly power, but aren't worthy of holding it. The rituals are to prepare the vessel. Not putting new wine into a five gallon Tupperware container and sealing the lid while you go off about your business.

Or to put it another way, it's not about painting roses red, it's about tilling the soil, picking out the weeds and larger stones, watering and composting the soil, planting the roses, finding non-toxic pest control, weeding the bed, pruning, learning that as blooms die, to cut them just before the first fifth leaf so they bloom again, what to graft to what to produce a new breed, etc. And by then, red may not be your objective, perhaps you like lime green roses.