The rude folk in question do not go the right way about putting themselves into touch with the unseen.

They try to put pressure on the unseen, to control it.

They ought to conciliate it, by bowing to its will.

Their methods may be earnest, but they are not propitiatory.
There is too much "My will be done" about it all.
Unfortunately, two can play at this game of _ex-parte_ definition.
The more unsympathetic type of historian, relentlessly pursuing the clue afforded by this distinction between control and conciliation, professes himself able to discover plenty of magic even in the higher forms of religion.

The rite as such--say, churchgoing as such--appears to be reckoned by some of the devout as not without a certain intrinsic efficacy.