I like you, so I'm going to humor you.
Let's say that magic is real. I don't know what rituals you do or what school you ascribe to, but that's beside the point here.
Do you actually understand the mechanism by which magic works? If you're bargaining with a spirit, what are the 'rules' of this spirit? Not just the spirit's behavior, but what is the spirit made of? How does it relate to humanity? What realm does it exist in? Do they multiply? Do spirits have spirits and do gods have gods?
You may have an actual answer for me. But then think about where you got that answer from. You bought a book from a friend or a bookstore, or you found a website with PDFs of a grimoire. How do they know the mechanism by which magic works? Are you sure they
actually know? What if they don't?
And if your response is: 'you're missing the point, if it works it works, right?'. Not necessarily. If your goal is to use these guides as templates for your own ritual practices, ask yourself how many trials you would need to complete to have a well-defined idea of cause and effect? What N count are you looking for? Have these texts been assessed by multiple occult experts, with a clear, systematic approach to analysis? I know the answer is no, because occult people are like starving cats. They'll find every reason under the sun to never collaborate with others, because everyone has
their ideas. Everyone thinks they're special, and that they alone know the real secrets of reality. And they'll eat eachother to become the new 'expert' people are whispering about.
Do you actually think the authors of your books have done that? Have they been that systematic?
Here's why this is important: if magic is real, then what you're doing is opening a conversation between your soul and an infuential force whose nature you do
not know (cannot actually know), and whose intentions/behavior you assume will remain consistent across all of your rituals, and who, under specific circumstances, you assume
must be honest and honor the contracts given to it, because of [...]. Do you see how silly this is? You're opening yourself up to forces that you have
no fucking idea about. Not really.
Lucifer is made of smokeless fire but comes as an angel of light. You could have thousands of dead, twisted, horrific entities raping your soul right now because you started a conversation and you'd be none the wiser.
If 'magic' is real, practicing it is unbelievably foolish.