This is an essay from Anton LaVey's book The Devil's Notebook. If you appreciate this work then please show support by purchasing the full book.

Magic is like a combination lock. If each tumbler falls into place, the lock will open. Seldom are any two locks the same. Their physical appearance might be identical, but the combination of numbers necessary to open each is different. So it is with both individual magical working and those who attempt them. Goals may appear identical in nature, and magicians similar in training and outward characteristics, but there similarity stops.

About Author:

Anton Szandor LaVey (11 April 1930 - 29 October 1997) was the founder of the first Satanic church in America in 1966 on Walpurgisnacht day and was the former High Priest of the Church of Satan. LaVey was also a writer, occultist, musician, and actor. He is the author of The Satanic Bible and the founder of Satanism, a synthesized system of his understanding of human nature and the insights of philosophers who advocated materialism and individualism, for which he claimed no "supernatural inspiration". LaVey viewed "Satan" not as a literal deity or entity, but as an historic and literary figure symbolic of Earthly values.