@Majkatsu @matrix There's a lot wrong with this post but it's so entertaining it doesn't matter and I doubt matrix really cares, I would definitely point out that a lot of modern occultism is Hermetic derived though, and that anything of that nature actually utilises Christian and Jewish imagery and invocations - though how respectfully they're invoked depends on the magician.
To answer Matrix's original post, this is why I spent that whole day picking a fight with
witches.live - my theory was that none of them knew any meaningful magic and it was largely proved true. Some have some potential but squander it to focus on politics, some know a few very basic tricks that are basically psychology, and some have actually bothered to learn the names and motions but grasp none of the underlying stuff at all.
What surprised me was exactly as matrix supposed - most of them don't actually even *believe.* When I called them out on knowing no magic, almost all responded with sarcasm that clearly asserted: "of course I don't and neither do you, for magic doesn't really exist."
Politics is the death of magic within the questant, but posers are useful idiots, so it's not all bad.