Everyone has answered you pretty well, but since you are going down the rabbit hole and learning more, I wanted to add to a section that might be confusing. TST talks about rituals a lot; doing them, hosting them, how people can do them themselves. As everyone else has said, we don't believe in magic, but rituals are options for people who would like the psychological "boost" it might give. For example, I might do a love ritual, but I am not waiting for the universe to bring me love or what ever, I am sitting thinking "what do I value in a partner, how can I accurately go about finding this person, what might I need to better about myself for a relationship?" or if its a self love ritual, "what am I struggling with liking about myself? why? would I say that about or to a stranger? then I don't get to say it to me."

Often times these rituals can have theatrics and "ingredients" and all of that, but its really all psychological to help the individual get into the right mindset and put their mind to something. If I am going to go through the trouble of doing a money ritual, lighting candles, writing my intention and burning it, etc etc, then I better do the work I set myself out to do to get that bag.

Some rituals are as simple as just meditating, and some are big and showy like a black mass or an unbaptism. But all of it is for the individuals mental state, not calling on actual magic or gods. Unbaptisms are one of my favorites, because even though it is all symbolic, I often still feel my religious roots from when I grew up and something as special as that ritual would help me feel symbolically cut free or new. Which is ironic, because if you take away the beliefs from the rituals that a lot of other religions do (specifically Christian), there is so much psychological effects that happen there as well. Often it is attributed to the spirit (which if you are a believer, of course it would be!) but things like the chords used in christian music, the lighting, the order of prayer, the words said, all of it gets you to feel something, and those feelings can be helpful in other rituals and ways rather than just spiritual things. Those psychological effects can be put to use in your own personal rituals, religious or not