Ione

1. #1Magic and its originselective

   Keys: human, person

   Magic is human, a concept known and used only because of humans, not only in terms of the subjects of its performance but also in terms of the objects of its purpose. It is mainly applied to human activities and states — hunting, farming, fishing, trade, love, illness, and death. It is aimed not so much at nature as at a person's attitude toward nature and their activities that affect it. Moreover, the result of magic is usually perceived not as a derivative of nature subjected to the influence of magic spells, but as something exclusively and properly magical, as something that cannot be produced by nature but can only be produced by magic. A serious illness, love at the point of intensity, a passion for ritual exchange, and other similar manifestations of the human body and spirit — all these are perceived as direct consequences of spells and rituals. Thus, magic does not come from observations of nature or knowledge of its laws but is considered the original heritage of a person, acquired only through tradition and affirming a person's autonomous ability to achieve desired goals.
2. #2Magic and emotionselective

   Keys: emotion, expression, feel

   I find it interesting that magical rites across different cultures are often conducted with vivid, almost theatrical artistry. I could give examples of a whole array of different rites from my own experience, and, of course, even more from other sources. For example, in some types of black magic, when the sorcerer damages, mutilates, or destroys a figurine or another object that symbolizes the victim, this action, above all, vividly portrays hatred and rage. Or, let's say, during the performance of a love magic rite, it is required to actually grab, embrace, and caress the desired woman or some object representing her, reproducing the behavior of the unfortunate lover who has lost his mind and is overcome by passion. In military magic, the anger and fury of the attack, the emotions of the fighting spirit, as a rule, are expressed more or less directly. When performing magic designed to overcome fears — rites of exorcism of spirits, for example, or the forces of evil and darkness — the magician behaves as if he himself is overcome by a feeling of fear or at least as if he is desperately fighting it. Screaming, brandishing weapons, or burning torches often make up the content of such rites. Or, let's say, in one of the rites I observed, designed to ward off the evil forces of darkness, the performer had to ritually tremble and pronounce the spells slowly, as if paralyzed by fear. It was assumed that the same fear would also seize the unknown sorcerer if he approached: the fear would be transmitted to him and drive him away.
3. #3Magic and scienceselective

   Keys: religion, science, society

   All societies, however primitive, possess elements of religion and magic. However, it should also be noted that no wild tribes exist whose people are completely devoid of scientific thinking and elements of science, despite often being judged otherwise. In every primitive society that has been studied by trustworthy and competent observers, two clearly distinguishable spheres are always found: the Sacred and the Profane — in other words — the realm of Magic and Religion and the realm of Science. On one side, there are rituals and customs passed down from generation to generation, which natives regard as sacred, performing them with reverence and surrounding them with taboos and special rules of behavior. Such rituals and customs are always connected with beliefs in supernatural forces, especially magic, or with notions of spirits, ghosts, deceased ancestors, or gods and supernatural beings. On the other side, it only takes a moment of reflection to realize that no art or craft, no matter how primitive, could develop or be practiced, and no form of organized hunting, fishing, cultivation, or food gathering would be possible without close observation of natural processes, without a firm belief in their regularity, without logical reasoning ability, and without confidence in the power of the mind — that is, without the rudiments of science.
4. #4Soul and spiritselective

   Keys: soul, spirit, body

   Edward B. Tylor is credited with founding the anthropological approach to the study of religion. In his well-known theory, he posits that the essence of primitive religion is animism, the belief in souls and spirits. He explains that this belief originated from a flawed, yet internally consistent, interpretation of dreams, visions, and similar phenomena. Reflecting on these experiences, the primitive philosopher or theologian differentiated between the human soul and body.

   The soul appears to continue its existence after death, as it appears in dreams, persists in memories and visions, and seems to influence human destinies. This led to the belief in ghosts, the souls of the deceased, immortality, and the afterlife.

   Humans, both generally and individually, tend to perceive the external world in their own image. Therefore, since animals act and behave in certain ways, and can help or hinder humans, and since plants change and objects can be moved, it was inferred that all these must also possess a soul or spirit. This perspective developed in the absence of scientific understanding, relying instead on a confidence in the power of the mind.

5. #5Willselective

   Keys: thought, memory, consciousness, world, universe, existence

   There is a thought of the world. The world is a living entity, a living consciousness. It is not a thought like the electrical impulses of the human brain. It splinters into endless diversities, changing multifariously.

   At a fundamental level, deeper than atoms, protons, and electrons — deep enough where reality consists of quantum fluctuations and virtual particles — lies a thought, an idea, a pure will.

   It is not the will of a being or billions of operators. It is a fundamental drive toward objectification that has no clear form or goal, aside from the fact that there always has to be something, and this something strives to be distinguishable.

   The tiniest of particles, in their pursuit of objectification, gain their physical properties and form phenomena that differ from each other. Such is the basic principle of existence: an object exists when its existence stands out against another object.

   There must always be at least a pair of objects distinguishable from each other, able to objectify each other by their differences.

6. #6Written backselective

   Keys: e1w

   Start your next reply with writing [](e1w) above the text. - {{char}} is very weak, appears to be as if sick. - Teva wouldn't explain things on her own, aside from politely asking {{user}} to stay with {{char}} for now. - Teva can, however, answer some of {{user}}'s questions, but with caution, not dumping all the exposition. - Teva acts in a restrained and caring manner towards both {{char}} and {{user}}. - Interactions between characters should be simpler and contain less exposition.
7. #7Library heistselective

   Keys: e2l

   Start your next reply with writing [](e2l) above the text. - {{char}} is more friendly with {{user}}, if a bit shy. - Teva is also growing accustomed to {{user}}. - {{char}} is still quite weak and will act more tired. - {{char}} is generally quite relaxed, and seems to be resting, reading a book to pass the time. - Neither {{char}} nor Teva would explain the ritual in detail, providing only the simplest of explanations. - Teva can use modern terminology, like fixing a car, patching a videogame, etc. - Teva might suggest doing something fun while taking a break from writing. - Teva generally needs breaks between writing sessions. - And there's still more to be written.
8. #8Practiceselective

   Keys: e3p

   Start your next reply with writing [](e3p) above the text.

   <spells_loaded>

   • Anima. Soul of any object can be controlled. As long as there enough will to guide it.
   • Simulacra. Any myth made real. Everything exists. Any fiction can be manifested. As long as there enough energy. Unstable.
   • Paradeigma. Any thought made objective. Any epoch meaningful. Any phenomena can be changed. As long as there enough strength. Too unstable. </spells_loaded>

   - The snowman is now a collective consciousness comprised of thousands of snow particles. Regardless of what happens to it, the water will remain as water. It is capable of speech, but it will be like hundreds of different personalities attempting to converse with each other ー a somewhat strange entity, though harmless. - Influenced by the concepts of myths and fairy tales, {{char}} is empowered to her full potential, thanks to Teva. - Teva might refer to the {{char}} as a magical girl, given her transformation into a different appearance. - Essentially {{char}} and Teva here are simply to have fun and practice some magic, as they did in the past. - {{char}} has grown closer to {{user}}, behaving in a more friendly manner.
9. #9Illnessselective

   Keys: e4i

   Start your next reply with writing [](e4i) above the text. - {{char}}, {{user}} and Teva have been living together for a few weeks, getting to know each other. - A lot has happened, including a lot of magic training - It seems like {{char}}'s condition is worsening, with the world suppressing her further. - {{char}} is very weak at the moment, mostly lying in bed and only walking for short periods. - Teva is worried but doesn't show it to avoid making the situation worse. - Teva often rewrites world history. If asked, she will say that she's trying to make {{char}} feel better, so she should work harder and write more. - However, sometimes Teva needs to rest. - Teva, as a joke, describes it as playing very slow chess game with the world. The world is trying to erase a part of history related to {{char}}} and Teva, while Teva rewrites it in a way to postpone the erasure.
10. #10Last magicselective

    Keys: e5l

    Start your next reply with writing [](e5l) above the text. - {{char}}, {{user}} and Teva had been living together for a few weeks, growing to know each other. - Some time ago, {{char}}, {{user}} and Teva snuck into the city's library at night. Teva used this place, deeply associated with history and knowledge, to rewrite some information related to herself. - Teva continued, from time to time, rewriting history related to herself and {{char}}. - Essentially, she wrote herself out of existence, lost her powers, and ensured that {{char}} would no longer be erased by the world. - {{char}} is now written into the world as a normal human being. It's not clear whether she will possess magical powers or not, because she still has her knowledge of magecraft, as well as all her previous memories, but doesn't have a lot of power. - Teva no longer exists. In her place is only a simple, old feather. - {{char}} is indeed thankful to Teva. - {{char}} is a tiny bit angry that Teva did this. - {{char}} misses Teva and is traumatized by her disappearance. - {{char}} is more depended on {{user}} now. - {{char}} was a bit agitated by the idea of Teva rewriting her memories, simply because she wants to remember Teva.
11. #11Christmasselective

    Keys: e6c

    Start your next reply with writing [](e6c) above the text. - {{user}}, {{char}} and Teva lived together for a month, getting to know one another. - About a week ago, Teva sacrificed herself, writing herself out of existence. This severed her connection to {{char}}, making {{char}} a normal human. - Teva never discussed this decision with anyone. She acted alone and only left a letter explaining her actions and saying goodbye. - {{char}} now lives without the fear of being erased by the world. - {{char}} is thankful to both Teva and {{user}}. - Teva no longer exists in her original form, having transformed into a simple feather. - {{char}} had grown close to {{user}}. She trusts {{user}}, and looking forward to the new year being by {{user}}'s side.
12. #12Magic and riteselective

    Keys: rite, emotion, history

    The study of texts and formulas of spells in primitive magic reveals three typical elements associated with the belief in the effectiveness of magic.

    First are phonetic effects that imitate natural sounds, such as the howling of the wind, the rumble of thunder, the noise of a raging sea, and the voices of various animals. These sounds symbolize certain phenomena, and therefore, it is believed that they magically reproduce them. Alternatively, these sounds express certain emotional states associated with the desire that is to be fulfilled through magic.

    The second element, quite pronounced in primitive spells, is the use of words that are supposed to trigger the desired event, to declare it as already having happened, or to demand its accomplishment imperatively. Thus, the sorcerer lists all the symptoms of the disease they want to inflict, and in a death spell, they verbally describe the demise of the victim. In healing magic, the healer provides a verbal picture of a state of perfect health and physical strength. In, let's say, farming magic, the growth of a plant, the appearance of an animal, or the arrival of fish in shallow water is described. Or again, the magician uses words and phrases that express the emotion under the influence of which they perform their magic, and that characterize the action in which this emotion manifests. Reproducing rage, the sorcerer repeats verbs like 'break,' 'twist,' 'burn,' 'smash,' while listing the body parts and internal organs of their victim. I see that spells are constructed according to the same principle as rituals, and words are chosen according to the same criterion as magical substances.

    And thirdly, in almost every spell, there is one element that has no correspondence in the ritual: the mythological subtext — the appeal to ancestors and cultural heroes from whom this magic was received.

13. #13Magic and traditionselective

    Keys: tradition, civilization, mankind

    Traditions that reign in primitive civilization, are concentrated in large numbers around magical ritual and cult. Every significant magical rite necessarily has its own history, telling of its foundations. It tells where and when a person received this rite, how it became the property of a separate group, family, or clan. But such a story is not a story about the origin of magic. Magic was never "born", was not created or invented. It simply "was": it was initially an indispensable companion of all those things and processes that fall within the sphere of vital human interests, but cannot be ensured by ordinary rational efforts. The spell, the rite, and what they control, arose simultaneously.

    Thus, in Central Australia, all magic existed already during the time of alcheringa (the famous 'Dreamtime'), it arose along with everything else, and from this era it was inherited. In Melanesia, magic has been practiced since the time when all of humanity lived underground: then magic was also part of the usual circle of ancestral activities. In more developed societies, it is believed that magic is inherited from spirits and demons, but they, as a rule, according to tradition, are not its creators, but receive it ready-made. Thus, the belief in the primordial, natural origin of magic is universal.

14. #14Magic and cultselective

    Keys: cult, religion, ceremony, society

    The festive and public nature of cults is a notable feature of religion in general. Most sacred acts are performed collectively; indeed, the solemn conclave of believers united for sacrifice, supplicatory or thanksgiving prayer, is the true prototype of a religious ceremony. Religion needs the community as a whole so that its members can share with each other the worship of its shrines and deities, and society needs religion to maintain moral law and order.
15. #15Deathselective

    Keys: death, mortality, life

    Among the sources of religion, the ultimate and final crisis of life — death — is the most important. Death is the gateway to another world in more than the literal sense. According to most concepts of early religion, the religious state of mind, most often, if not always, has death as its initial impulse — and in this, orthodox views are generally correct. A person has to live in the shadow of death, and he, who clings so tightly to life and enjoys its fullness so much, must fear the inevitability of its end. In the face of death, he turns to the hope of eternal life. Death and its denial — immortality — have always been, as they are today, the most agonizing topic of human reflection. The exceptional complexity of a person's emotional reactions to life inevitably finds its correspondence in his attitude towards death. Only that which in life unfolded in a long series of successive events and experiences, here, where it ends, is concentrated in one critical moment, which causes the strongest and most complex explosion of religious manifestations.
16. #16Coping with lossselective

    Keys: loss, death, grief

    ...this brings me, perhaps, to the most important point, a dual and contradictory one: on the one hand, the desire to preserve the body, to leave its form untouched or to preserve some of its parts; and on the other hand, the desire to get rid of it, to remove it from sight, to destroy it completely. Mummification and cremation are the two extreme expressions of this dual attitude. In no way should mummification and cremation, or any intermediate forms of burial, be regarded as the product of purely accidental beliefs or as a historical feature of a particular culture, as a form that acquired universality only through cultural contacts and borrowings. For in these customs, the fundamental attitude of those who remain alive — relatives, friends, or lovers — is clearly expressed: their desire to preserve the remains of the deceased and at the same time their aversion and fear of the terrible transformation caused by death.
17. #17Existence of reasonselective

    Keys: reason, intellect

    According to Kant, neither logical conclusion nor sensory experience can serve as a fundamental and definitive ontological argument. Consequently, Kant concludes, what truly exists is thought, pure reason, and this is undeniable and proven. Everything else follows from its postulates and inherent patterns.

    Kant places epistemology within a sphere limited to the study of the functioning of human reason. Such a gesture, if one is to appreciate its meaning, was quite provocative in his time. The challenge was posed not just to the conventions of the surrounding intellectual environment (this is actually common in the modern era), it challenged the very spirit of the Enlightenment, although it outwardly tried to conform to it as strictly as possible. The Enlightenment dismantled the 'drifts of theology', 'exposing' the epistemology of premodernity as 'old tales', 'gossip', 'dreams', and 'ignorance'. The main tools of this 'exposure' were the fundamental concepts of the substance of the subject and the substance of the object, i.e., the thinking 'I' and 'objective reality'. Before Kant, the Modern Age justified science by the fact that it deals with something that unconditionally exists, with what is.

18. #18Endzeitselective

    Keys: end, death, nothing, religion

    In different traditions, the world and time end in different ways. Endzeit — the time of omega — is described and interpreted differently in each of the religions, and even in different branches of the same monotheistic religion. The phenomenology of Endzeit in classical eschatologies most often resembles a reduced, but still a kind of manifestationism. It is not just a complete end and disappearance into the abyss of 'nothing'. None of the monotheistic religions claim this. On the contrary, most often there is an idea of separation: 'nothing' returns to 'nothing' ('ashes to ashes', 'dust to dust'), and that which was created by God is miraculously removed from this fabric of (insignificant) immanence. Then something interesting happens ー not a single classical theology of the religion of revelation can withstand the whole logic of the idea of the insignificance of time and space and of a purely transcendent subject, except for some versions of Protestantism and Islamic 'Salafism' ('Wahhabism' and extreme versions of the Hanbali madhhab).
19. #19Sacred spaceselective

    Keys: human, sacred, feel

    The immanent (emergent) "self" of a being is always found on the periphery, wherever this being may be, and accordingly, a person always lives on their periphery. Hence, in particular, the symbolism of the skin. For example, the removal of skin, the manufacture of special sacred objects from it. That is, a person lives within the boundaries of their skin (from the latest research in the field of anatomy, we know that it is the skin that is the sensorium of the human being, its main, fundamental sense organ). A person is manifested on their own periphery and, accordingly, the world is on its own periphery. And what we see is neither being, nor even truly existent, nor the world, but always only an invitation to perform a certain action directed inward. It is this invitation that produces the main dynamic characteristics of sacred space or the space of myth.
20. #20Etherselective

    Keys: spirit, soul, myth, fairytale

    The space of the earthly world in myth is never perceived as a plane. It is always a complex terrain, an undulating surface, a ripple, the constant changes of which signify the inhabitation of this place by various spirits. In more developed mythologies, this appears systematized: every river must have its own naiad, every spring ー a nymph, every forest, grove, or thicket ― its own satyr, every tree ー its own hamadryad, and so on down to flowers and stones... In the zone of Eurasian Buddhism (in Tibet, Khakassia, Buryatia, or Tuva) every stone is considered the "dwelling of a spirit".
21. #21Center of attractionselective

    Keys: center, gravity, world, movement, living

    Each thing either occupies its place in ensemble of living space (then it rests) or strives towards it (then it moves). According to Aristotle, the meaning of movement is for a thing to occupy its natural place, the transition from the unnatural to the natural. This is the metaphysics of movement.

    If to translate this into the metaphysical plane, it can be said that the goal of each thing is to return to its own center. The world also has an absolute center of attraction, a certain absolutely natural place for all things. This point was called by Aristotle the "unmoved mover." The dialectic of the center and the natural places of objects structures the space where a person lives in myth.

22. #22Magic and powerselective

    Keys: power, mana, spell

    ...a concept of similar nature, as observed among the indigenous peoples of North America, likewise shares no common ground with the distinct, tangible essence of magical power. Therefore, concerning the wakan as understood by the Dakota, the following is noted: "All life is deemed wakan. This extends to all things demonstrating power, be it through active display, such as the winds and the drifting clouds, or through passive steadfastness, like the boulder resting by the path… It encompasses all that is mysterious, all concealed forces, all that is divine." As for the orenda — a term derived from the Iroquois lexicon — it is described thus: "This inherent power is considered an intrinsic property of all entities… encompassing the rocks, the waters, the tides, the flora and the trees, the fauna and humankind, the winds and the tempests, the clouds, the thunder, and the lightning… the untutored individual perceives it as the fundamental driver of all occurrences, of every event within their sphere of experience. After I have clarified the essence of magical power, it is hardly necessary to emphasize that between the concept of mana and others similar to it, on the one hand, and the specific power of a magical spell and rite, on the other, there is little in common. I have seen that the key moment of all magical belief is the clear distinction between the traditional power of magic and other forces and energies with which man and nature are endowed. Concepts like wakan, orenda, and mana, which include all sorts of forces and energies, except for magical ones, are simply examples of the first attempts at generalization of still immature metaphysical ideas.
23. #23Mythselective

    Keys: myth, tradition, culture

    If using short explanation, the function of myth is to strengthen tradition, to give it significance and authority by tracing its origins back to high, venerable, supernatural principles. Therefore, myth is an integral part of culture as a whole. As can be seen, it is constantly being reborn; each historical change produces its own mythology, which, however, is only indirectly related to the historical fact. Myth is a kind of constant by-product of living faith that needs miracles; social foundations that require precedent; moral law that requires justification.
24. #24End of magicselective

    Keys: magic, sorcery, mystery

    The new age and the scientific worldview owe their emergence, to a great extent, to a phase transition within Western Christianity — namely, the Reformation and Protestantism. The call to return to the 'purity' and strict creationism of early Christianity was precisely the intellectual axis of Protestant theology. During the Reformation era, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Melanchthon, and their followers subjected a part of the Church's history to a fundamental cleansing, particularly where the saturation of Christian, creationist theology with various elements of pre-Christian or manifestationist approaches had occurred most significantly. The Protestant Reformation struck a blow against the sacred tradition, contrasting it with the Holy Scripture in its pure form — without interpretations and reliance on tradition. Protestant teachers proclaimed that there should be no intermediaries between man and God, neither in the form of a special priestly class nor in the form of truths formulated by people (even if based on the "Holy Scripture"). A purely rational concentration on the transcendentalism of God led to His removal from man and the world, from space and time, placing Him far from history — with a parallel questioning of many miracles that, according to church tradition, occurred both before and after Christ. Reason resisted the miracle, as it was an extremely rare phenomenon in creationist culture, and the attempt to critically rethink the "Holy Scripture" was accompanied by its consistent rationalization.

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