Journey to Ixtlan

In a recent humor slanted blog I had the scientific pagans Mutt and Jeff trying out a ritual they didn't fully understand. At one point Jeff says:

You know Mutt, I was just thinking about something. What if the Moon had moved closer to the Earth? Wouldn't that have caused problems with tides and such? That might be a bad thing. Hmmm... maybe it's a good thing that the ritual didn't work. How about we move onto the next one on our list?

There is an inside joke here. I wanted to point out that merely seeing magick as a means to do things or as a 'method', and not fully understanding the consequences, can be quite dangerous. Fortunately intent is important in outcome, so a working without the right intent may fail. However... this is not always the case!

I saw this Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoon years ago. It reminds me of the point I am trying to make.