Magus Of Possibilities

This is a list of concerning various formats used as a base for Magecraft. These formats include religions, mythology, folklore, fairy tales, etc.

Magecraft Formats:

Alchemy:

Sub-branch of magecraft that is traditionally ȧssociated with turning base metals such as lead into gold and creating an elixir of immortality. However the true goal of alchemic branch of magic is to model everything in the world.

Arthurian Legends:

The Arthurian Legends are an entire extensive mythology and folklore named after their pivotal character, the legendary King of Britain Arthur, and centered around his reign and his Knights of the Round Table.

Basic Principles:

Other elements of the Arthurian legend originally had their roots in Cornish and Welsh legends, where he and his men, often with magic items and powers of their own, appear as adventurers facing not only normal human foes but also fantastic creatures like giants (men and beasts) and witches. Due to this more fantastic strand of the myth with ties to Celtic Mythology, some scholars believe Arthur began as a mythical folk hero who was then historicized into the Briton/Anglo-Saxon conflicts.

Astrology:

Astrology is a system involving the use of astrological phenomena, such as the positions of the stars and planets in the night sky, for the purpose of divination.

Aztec Mythology:

Aztec Mythology is the mythology of the Aztec civilization, which dominated Central Mexico before the Spanish colonization in the early 16th century.

Basic Principles:

Aztec mythology is a polytheistic system, with a pantheon of various deities. It also describes the earlier Toltecs as the origin of their culture and their intellectual predecessors.

Among a number of creation myths is that of the Five Suns, which concerns a cycle of creation and destruction with four worlds having preceded the current world, each having ended due to a catastrophe and being named after an element of their end.

Buddhism is a nontheistic religion originating from India and based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha.

Basic Principles:

At its most basic level, Buddhism teaches that every sentient being has the potential to achieve Nirvana, a state of permanent peace, liberation, and "consciousness without feature, without end" beyond suffering and dėsɨrė. If not in this life, then another. This is the core of Buddhism, and built around it are key concepts forming much of the basis of Buddhism.

Carolingian Legends:

The Carolingian Legends, also referred to as the Carolingian cycle, are a collection of legends and literature based around the king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, ȧssociated with the history of France.

Basic Principles:

The Carolingian cycle forms a large part of the Matter of France, a name given to about 80 medieval epic poems in Old French. They are epics and romances mainly based on the life of the historical Charlemagne (Charles the Great) (742–814), king of the Franks and emperor of the West, and his court.

The romances about Arthur and his knights of the Round Table deal with a world of chivalry, love, and adventure, in which magic occurs frequently. The chansons de geste about Charlemagne and his paladins, on the other hand, exalt French nationalism in the struggle against the infidel and stress the conflicts arising between feudal obligations to the suzerain and personal concepts of honor.

Although the historic Charlemagne waged long and successful wars against the Saxons, the Slavs, the Huns, and the Danes, legend made his chief enemy the Saracens, the wars in Spain becoming the center of the early Carolingian legend since they presented Charlemagne as the divinely ordained defender of Christianity against the infidel and as a king of justice and piety.

Celtic Mythology is the mythology of the Celts, an ancient Indo-European group of tribal societies present across the length of Europe from Britain to Asia Minor during the Iron Age.

Basic Principles:

The Celts worshipped a variety of gods, who appeared in their tales. Most were all-powerful local deities linked to places rather than to specialized roles, with each tribe having its own god who protected and provided for the welfare of that tribe. Some of them had similar characteristics: for example, the Dagda, the god of life and death in Ireland—known as "the good god"—resembled Esus, the "master" god of Gaul. Some deities also had more clearly defined roles, like Lug, a sun god ȧssociated with the arts, war, and healing, and the horned god Cernunnos, who was a god of animals and fertility.

According to the Celts, before people came to the archipelago now called the British Isles, a race of intelligent magical non-humans calling themselves the Tuatha Dé Danann ("the children of the goddess Danu" in Gaelic) lived there. With the arrival of people and their permanent settlements, the Tuatha Dé Danann continued to muck about in the lives of people, but retreated to the Otherworld, their home world, a world still reachable through places such as fairy forts or fairy burrows called sidhe. This Otherworld is probably the "Fairy Island" Othinus mentions when explaining the Phases.

Chinese Mythology:

Chinese Mythology is the mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in China. China being one of the oldest civilizations in the world, it has produced a huge mythology that has changed over thousands of years and includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions.

Basic Principles:

China has a four-religion system that's collectively called Chinese folk religion: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and ancestor worship or local communal deities (depending on the region). They each cover different spheres of a person's life: nature, ancestors, government, family, society, personal conscience, etc. and are practiced as necessary according to an individual's situation.

Chinese mythology is thus influenced by these four sources, all systems interwined in a complex celestial bureaucracy reflecting the ancient Chinese government

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of the Son of God.

Basic Principles:

Being a monotheistic religion, the various sects and denominations of Christianity worship a single God, considered to be the one true God, the creator and the Supreme Being of the universe.

Attributes ascribed to God include immortality, transcendence, omniscience (i.e., knows everything that has ever transpired or will transpire, past, present, and future), omnipotence (i.e., capable of doing anything He dėsɨrės to), and omnibenevolence (i.e., He loves everyone and everything). The doctrine of the Trinity defines God as being one deity in three persons; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, all the same God.

Cracks:

The "Cracks" is a name given to a category which certain pieces of folklore, and Magecraft derived from them, with no clear religious basis or origin fall into.

Basic Principles:

For most examples of folklore, the stories that comprise them usually have an origin or a basis which can be traced to a certain religion, mythology or culture.

However there are certain stories and pieces of folklore which don't have a clear religious basis and have an origin which cannot be traced, despite having spread throughout many different cultures - these stories fall somewhere between the cultures and religions they have spread across, in the "cracks" between them.

Cthulhu Mythos:

The Cthulhu Mythos is the name given to the fictional universe in which the stories of H. P. Lovecraft (referred to as the "genius author" in the narrative) and other authors after his death are based. It has been used as a base for spells created by certain magi who dėsɨrėd to see the world described in those stories.

Basic Principles:

Since the Cthulhu Mythos is a fictional universe, spells involving it are defined as creating something from nothing.

This Mythos in a sense a catalog, they are a catalog of those evil gods. These evil gods are beings no human can handle, however they all have a point in common - they all gain their role and terror from the story they represent. Ceremonies and spells using these evil gods cannot ignore this story aspect and no matter how frightening, they cannot do anything once the story has come to an end, until the next story begins.

While some of the spells based on the Cthulhu Mythos are quite potent, due to the fact that the evil gods are beings which no human can handle, humans using a spell involving them will not be able to control the effects once it is unleashed and will be at risk if they are caught in the spell or it is directed back at them.

One prominent symbol of the Cthulhu Mythos, used in certain spells derived from it, is human flesh and blood.

Egyptian Mythology:

Egyptian Mythology is the mythology of the ancient Egyptians, dating from 3000 BCE

Basic Principles:

Much of the Egyptian mythology is set in the earliest times, setting the pattern for a cycle which the Egyptians believed would be repeated in the events of the present times, much like the cycles of nature they were witness to, like the course of the sun and the annual flooding of the Nile. They believed that, as the cycles were repeated, the fundamental order of the universe, called maat, would be renewed. The universe was not a battle between good and evil, but a balance between maat and isfet (chaos, injustice, etc.), which couldn't exist without the other

Enoch:

Enoch is a term that is used to refer to the Enochian system of magic and beliefs, based around a supposed angelic language.

Basic Principles:

The system of Enochian Magecraft is based around Enochian, said to be an ancient angelic language, and often involves the invocation of such beings.

The Enochian language has its own alphabet, with several different forms of script. Enochian glyphs often have English letter equivalents, however while some of their names are pronounced the same, many are pronounced differently.

Two keys parts of the Enochian magecraft system are the Elemental Tablets and the Aethyrs.

Feng Shui:

Feng Shui is a Chinese system of beliefs and principles that is aiming to create harmony with one's surroundings through the proper arrangement of objects and the siting and construction of establishments.

Basic Principles:

Feng shui is a magecraft system that focuses on the arrangement of things in a certain location to create a magic circle for a spell that activates the moment the circle is created, and its composition is dependent of its contents. The spell makes use of the energy (mana) of the world instead of the spellcaster's magical energy prana ( combination of od and mana), as such, any person can create a spell using the principles of Feng shui.

Folklore:

Folklore refers to the set of stories, beliefs and practices within a culture or similar group. folklore is used as the basis for certain forms of magecraft.

Basic Principles:

The folklore (or lore) of a culture consists of a combination of many things, including legends, music, beliefs, sayings, rituals, customs, fairy tales and more. These can be passed down through several ways, including artifacts and oral tradition.

There are often similarities between certain pieces of folklore between different cultures. These similarities can often be traced to a common origin, however there are some pieces which have an unknown origin, somewhere between the cultures it has spread through. These pieces of folklore are referred to as having 'fallen into the cracks'.

Greek Mythology:

Greek Mythology is the mythology of the ancient Greeks. A large part of Roman mythology is derived from Greek mythology and it forms the foundation of what is known as Classical Mythology.

Basic Principles:

In the past, as is often the case when people encounter other cultures and are faced with something they don't understand, the ancient Greeks, who had pride in their own intelligence and culture, and believed themselves to be the world standard, fȯrċɨbŀƴ applied their own knowledge and preconceptions to interpreting other cultures, such as with the Egyptians and their mythology, resulting in interpretations of cultures which mixed in their own biases, misconceptions and preconceptions.

These interpretations and other European misconceptions have resulted in a distorted imagining of Egyptian Mythology spreading and persisting to the present day.

it has been mentioned as a potential magical format, and as one of the many religions and mythologies which have caused Phases to be created over the world.

Greek mythology was one of several fields which influenced the development of Hermeticism, which would become part of the foundation of the Golden Dawn.

Hermeticism:

Hermeticism, also called Hermetism, comprises beliefs and practices whose purpose is the influencing of the world by means of contact with the heavenly forces. The Hermetic tradition is based primarily upon pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus ("Thrice Great"). It is included in the likes of Enoch, Kabbalah, Vision of Mercury, and Modern Astrology.

Basic Principles:

Hermeticism is a format derived from a mix of fields, including Egyptian Mythology and Greek Mythology. It also forms part of the foundation of the Golden Dawn. Due to its nature as a unified theory, the usage of magecraft derived from Hermeticism has the effect of bringing the phases involved closer together and increasing the collisions between them, as well as the resultant 'sparks'.

Hinduism:

Hinduism is the main religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism and Hindu mythology are used as a base for Magecraft,

Basic Principles:

Hinduism encompasses a wide range of beliefs and is not bound by a single doctrine. So it is difficult for the entirety of Hindu beliefs be summarized, as it is easily the most complex religion in the history of the world. For example, there is no one leader of the religion, equivalent to the Pope or the Dalai Lama, so there are different sects and schools of thought of the religion with different dogmas. But generally, followers of the Sanātana Dharma (the Sanskrit name for Hinduism, literally "the eternal tradition" or the "eternal way") believe in saṃsāra (the cycle of birth, death and rebirth) and moksha (liberation from that cycle), and all regard the four Vedas (collections of rituals, and rules of life and society), the Upanishads (commentaries on the Vedas), the Puranas (stories akin to the legends of Greek Mythology and Norse Mythology), and the Itihasa (historical accounts) as sacred texts of their religion.

Kabbalah:

Kabbalah , also referred to as Qabalah, are a set of esoteric principles and teachings meant to explain the relationship between an eternal and mysterious Creator and the mortal and finite universe (His creation).It is used as background to explain the situations and concepts that are related to the Abrahamic religions and their God.

Basic Principles:

the teachings of the Kabbalah, specifically it referred to Ein Sof Ohr, Ein Sof, Ein.

Ein is translated as null, void, or nothingness, and corresponds to 0.

Ein Sof is translated as infinity, and corresponds to 00, and is the emanator of 10 Sephirot.

Ein Sof Ohr is translated as infinite light, and corresponds to 000.

Ein caused Ein Sof, and Ein Sof begot Ein Sof Ohr.

Maya mythology is one of the myths mentioning examples of cultures having legends of weapons powered by special stones and other objects

Maya Mythology:

Maya Mythology is the mythology of the Maya civilization, which developed in Southeastern Mexico and central America before the Spanish colonization in the early 16th century. Maya mythology is used as base for certain spells.

Necromancy:

Necromancy is a type of magecraft that manipulates the dead, and is grouped alongside Hopping Zombie Spell, Hand of Glory, and Vetala Sorcery.

Basic Principles:

Rosenthal-style Necromancy

With the use of Rosenthal-style Necromancy, rituals can be carried out on the bodies of the dead to allow them to "pass through the gates of Heaven". These rituals involves putting back the wandering "residual memory" of the corpse and closing their "spiritual circuit", in order to put them to rest.

To do this, the necromancer makes use of a magic circle to reactivate the corpse and sends a false soul into the body in order to carry out the process.

If the "residual thoughts" are not controlled, they can take dangerous forms sometimes called ghosts. Residual memory can gather outside of the corpse, appearing in the form of a floating brain. If someone touches it, the memories of the deceased will flow into their mind.

The false soul used to possess the corpse, for the purpose of closing the spiritual circuit, is capable of operating the body it is possessing

Norse Mythology:

Norse Mythology is the mythology of the North Germanic people around the time of the Viking Age (at its height covering most of northern Europe, much of modern Germany and Austria, and parts of the British Isles), continuing through into modern-day Scandinavian folklore, and following the lives of the Norse gods — the Æsir and the Vanir — and the men whose lives they directly affected. Norse mythology is often used as a base for mage craft Its prevalence in its usage as a basis for spells is second only to Christianity.

Basic Principles:

Like most traditional polytheistic systems, it has no set canon and in some ways resembles a body of customary beliefs more than a set religion. It has been speculated that only chieftains and other wealthy people held faith in the Æsir, while the common farmers believed in land-spirits such as dwarves, trolls and giants.

It is a branch of the Proto-Indo-European mythological tradition, which also spawned the Celtic, Greek, and Vedic pantheons; its gods are not only fallible, but also all mortal. They could, and did, die, as exemplified during Ragnarok, the Norse version of the apocalypse, which ends with most of the gods dead.

Many texts describing Norse beliefs have come down to us, but, aside from a few runic inscriptions and similar fragments, all were written hundreds of years after the turn to Christianity. Consequently it's nearly impossible to tell which stories are "Christianized", or how much they are, although academic theories abound. Even ignoring this, another problem arises: since Norse myth has no definitive canon, the myths differ considerably from place to place, according to the time they were written and the purpose they were written for.

Onmyoudou:

Onmyoudou is a traditional Japanese esoteric cosmology, a mixture of natural science and occultism. It uses Chinese philosophies, Taoism, Buddhism, and Shintoism, and evolved into the system of onmyoudou around the late 7th century until the middle of the 19th century, at which point it became prohibited as superstition.

Basic Principles:

With its complex history and myriad influences, Onmyoudou is a spiritual path that triest of find a personal balance with the world. It deals with divination, astrology, alchemy, and exorcism. In the history of Onmyoudou it has come to use various disciplines and belief system, originally using practices prevalent in Taoism. Over the years it became refined, and incorporated various other principles, such as Feng shui, which was used to find the balance between the natural world's power and with establishments.

At the end of its golden age, Buddhism and Shintoism began ȧssimilatring its practices.

Rosicrucianism:

Rosicrucianism is a movement and system of magic which forms the core of the Rosicrucian Order.both its prominent symbol of the Rose Cross and its supposed founder Christian Rosenkreuz , the style forms part of the foundation of modern Western magecraft.

Basic Principles:

The Rosicrucian movement apparently began with a false book written by a single person. Though it was originally false, a certain group of magi took it and developed it beyond the falsity, leading Rosicrucianism to grow into something much more, coming to form the foundation for modern Western magecraft. This development was such that when the original author revealed the truth of the lie he was completely ignored.

Given their depth, the Rosicrucian texts have multiple interpretations and some people claim that some of the interpretations known to the public are clouds meant to hide the truth, with the true group and purposes lying elsewhere.

Runes:

Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets, which were used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet. the alphabet is used in various spells and rituals, known as Runecraft

Shinto:

Shinto or Shintoism is the indigenous religion of Japan. Shinto is used as a base for certain forms of magecraft.

Basic Principles:

Essentially, it's a set of practices to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto today is a term that applies to public shrines suited to various purposes such as war memorials, harvest festivals, romance, and historical monuments, as well as various sectarian organizations. It's notable for being rather light on philosophizing and heavy on community spirit.

There are also splits over whether non-Japanese can practice Shinto/convert to it. This is heavily generalized and controversial since Shinto is not an evangelizing religion and is a practice faith.

Taoism:

Taoism is a Far Eastern religion and philosophy originating from China, based on being in harmony with the eponymous Tao ("the Way").

Taoism is mostly used as a base for certain forms of Magecraft.

Basic Principles:

Part religion and part philosophy, Taoism can be summarized thus: "go with the flow." All problems in life come from going against the natural order of things. Passive virtue is superior to imposing your will, and poverty is better than great wealth.

Everything in the universe is made up from the flow of two equal, opposite, and interpenetrating forces. Yang is solid and masculine, represented by white in the Taijitu. Yin is the feminine and passive quality, represented by black. From boundless nothingness (wuji) comes the duality of Yin/Yang, and from the duality comes "ten thousand things": both light and darkness, good and evil, active and passive qualities are thus contained within the eternal, flowing Tao.

Tarot:

Tarot refers to a group of playing cards which were used in Europe from the mid-15th century onwards, for both games and divinatory purposes. Different variations have been created by certain people,Tarot cards are used as the basis for certain forms of Magecraft, in particular that of Golden-style Magecraft.

Basic Principles:

A deck of Tarot cards consists of 78 cards divided into two categories, the Major Arcana of 22 trump cards and the Minor Arcana of 56 suit cards. Each of the 78 cards carries a certain set of potential meanings, symbolism and interpretations (and in some cases, misinterpretations), some of which differ between versions.

The meanings represented by the cards change depending on several factors, such as the type of spread being used, the positions of the cards in the spread, their positions in relation to another, and the orientation of the cards, either upright or reversed.

Using these factors, Tarot cards can be used for Magecraft in many different ways.

Thelema:

Thelema is a system of philosophical law and magecraft

Basic Principles:

It can summarize in 3 sentences:

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."

"Love is the law, love under will."

"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."

Voodoo:

Voodoo is an African diaspora religion, a mishmash of Afro-Caribbean witchcraft and necromancy.

Basic Principles:

Voodoo is described as not actually having fixed teachings or spells, being a culture that draws in other cultures, borrowing gods and ceremonies from other mythologies and religions, and adding to them while making them its own to continually expand.