On Urban Fantasy Worlds

I guess my latest writing project is urban fantasy. It doesn't contain any vampires, werewolves or other common supernatural creatures. It does feature magic, servitors, egregores and rituals. The magic is of the human kind. That is to say it's based around feelings and how these, when considered en masse, affect the world. So I have egregores, these vast, barely-sentient entities created through force of feeling, intent and memory. They sit behind humanity, nudging, assisting, guiding, blocking. In the case of my story, a human performs a ritual that corrupts of one them.

The ritual is the problem. Does the person know if it will work?

If they do then magic really needs to be a known factor in the world. I think it's unlikely that a group of mages/wizards/cabalists/whatever could operate all throughout the ages, without the public getting the slightest hint as to their existence. Mostly though, I just don't like that idea. Not just because a lot of writers take that route, but because I have no interest in my heroes being part of a group that denies mankind that kind of knowledge and power.

If not then why have none of the other rituals, that people perform every single day, worked? What makes this one special? It's highly unlikely that, assuming magic exists, no one has ever carried out a ritual that works, especially considering the ridiculously world-changing stuff people have a tendency to pray for.

Why do authors restrict how many people know about magic? Because it allows them to limit their world. A world with magic as a known quantity is not our world and as such would require far more detailed construction. The logic of their world is, mostly, that of the real world, so right off the bat they've removed a large chunk of complexity from their novel (and likely added a chunk of people to their potential readership).

So I find myself left with two choices:

I can attempt to create a world where magic works and exists in the public eye. This could be fun, but is most likely to result in an inconsistent mess.

Or I can back the hell off and have my ritual, somehow, be the first ritual to succeed and have significant consequences. This would feel like cheating.

Thoughts?