What are your end goals that you hope to achieve with your practices?
I know everyone has ascension as a basic goal, but I want to know why you all practice.
Personally, I practice not because I have a goal, but because I want to experience it. In a way, Dio kinda had it right, at least to me:
We’re off to the witch/We may never, never, never, come home/But the magic that we’ll feel is worth the lifetime
Not too terribly long after I started getting into the occult, I determined that it is my true passion in life. Not because I want to be a god or anything, but just the experiencing of it more so than anything. I have leapt into occultism with a passion greater than anything I have ever been passionate about before. I cannot say if it is just novelty, wishful thinking, or just childlike wonder that drew me to occultism, but I absolutely cannot live without it now that it has become a part of my life.
I practice because I can, because I enjoy it, and because I find it something that I can live for. If I were to die because of something related to my foray into the esoteric arts, I would be okay with that, because I feel that this is worth more than a life without it.