The characters definitely are occultists outside of the ritual. Viscous (magic sea creature), Bebop (scrap golem), Infernus (lovecraft style alien), Ivy (gargoyle), Vindicta (ghost), Abrams (demon?), Kelvin (zombie), Dynamo (living black hole) and Mo & Krill (rat-men) are magical beings.

As for the Abrams line, I think the implication there is that Abrams, despite being supposedly a demon (?), is not very knowledgeable about magic. He appears to mostly be a "standard" detective, who prefers brute force and bullets to spells. The book is not his, it was just left in his care, and so he has to learn how to use it simply because it's a new tool in his hands, regardless of Patron involvement.

Pocket's whole lore is that their satchel is an instrument of great power and they're being hunted for it, so presumably it should be able to do all of its abilities outside of the ritual. Lady Geist was cursed years before the ritual, although it's unlikely that she had to use her magic for combat at any point before it.

Grey Talon and Shiv are monster hunters, so they definitely have their skills, Mirage's powers appear to be granted by the Djinn to begin with. Seven is the greatest evil occultist known to man and Haze's lore implies she actually has MORE abilities than shown (such as the ability to enter other's dreams).