User:The Lord Reader/Sandbox 1

Magic (back to basics)
With how bare many articles on magic stuff are, I will try to catalog info that might have been missed or hasn't been referenced.

Modern Western magic and modern magicians
Modern magician (近代魔術師) (atwiki) and Modern Western magic (近代西洋魔術) (atwiki) to Magician article and Magic article respectively.
 * Influence of the Golden Dawn on modern magic: Magic Names (es), terminology using Telesma, formation of members of God's Right Seat based on the order of the invocation of archangels in the, use of the terminology Cancellarius that also originates from the Golden Dawn (Keeper of records. One of the Three Chief Officers in the Neophyte Hall.), use of a Lotus Wand, Index Librorum Prohibitorum's John's Pen mode possibly being a reference to 's , etc
 * Christians called the existence God’s Blessings. Though the model society of modern Western magic, Golden Dawn, calls it Telesma, the nuance is closest to the concept of chimyaku or ryuumaku in eastern feng shui thought. As those names imply, it is myaku, or veins, that formed blood vessels extending everywhere and run throughout the world.
 * This is my liberal translation because both the Baka-Tsuki one and the Yen Press one are kinda incomplete and/or inaccurate:
 * Baka-Tsuki's version: Christians called the existence God’s Blessings. The creation of the Golden Dawn organization mapped the blueprint of Western magic called Telesma. In terms of contemporary language, the most similar were the geography and astronomy of Feng Shui. As the name would suggest, a pulse formed from the forces and flows of the entire world that formed blood vessels extending everywhere.
 * Yen Press version: Crossism calls this “God's Blessing.” Though the model society of modern western sorcery, Stella Matitina, calls it Telesma, the nuance is closest to the concept of chimyaku or ryuumyaku in eastern feng shui thoughts. As those names imply, it is myaku, or veins, that spread out like blood vessels and run throughout the world.
 * Tsuchimikado Motoharu: The term ‘magician’—especially the modern magicians that were established in the 19th century, will carve their wishes onto their souls. This is the magic name. Carving the reason why they want to learn magic or give up their entire lives for the one goal by writing it out it in Latin.
 * Stiyl Magnus: [Aleister Crowley] was active about seventy years ago, but the evolution of magicians during the past seventy years has surpassed the progress gained throughout the history of the past several thousand years. Of all the magicians in the world today, about 20% of them are his followers, and almost 50% of all magicians are affected by him to some extent.
 * Agnes Sanctis: Maybe I’m a bit disrespectful...but I don’t have a good impression of any magicians--it's not just the Amakusa, but especially those modern Western magic societies that appeared at the beginning of the 20th century that twist Christianity or use backdoor tricks.
 * Agnese Sanctis: I wonder if you know that in modern Western magic, there are five elements— fire, wind, water, earth, and ether— that have their own symbolic weapons. A ‘stick’ represents fire, a ‘dagger’ represents wind, a ‘cup’ represents water, and a ‘round table’ [a disk probably] represents earth: these are the so-called elemental weapons.
 * Didn’t I say this before? The basic theories behind modern Western magic that was established in the 20th century were just some backdoor teachings of Christianity- or in the words of the alchemists, ‘these are secrets of Christianity that humans don’t know of.’
 * Tsuchimikado about Oriana Thomson: Aiya, is this really the case? I always felt that there was something wrong about Oriana. If she’s really a complete warlock, there should be some magicians whom she taught that will act as her underlings. Shouldn’t that be something that Lidvia should be doing?
 * Oriana Thomson: The five elements form the basis of modern Western Magic. From an alchemist’s viewpoint, anyone can have them, but this is just a prelude.
 * The majority of modern day “advanced wizards” did not build extravagant castles or towers. If you focused all your power in one place, you would lose everything if that place was searched. As such, they would instead prepare numerous places that could be easily abandoned such as an apartment, a rented room, or an RV. Splitting up one’s assets into smaller areas lowered the risk of losing everything.
 * Aiwass: Rather, calling me an ‘angel’ is alright too… At least, it’s closer to the truth compared to the rumored ‘extraterrestrial life form’, ‘holy guardian angel’, ‘the true person who holds the secrets to modern Western magic organizations’ and wild ideas like those.
 * Fiamma of the Right: The modern magician that was established at the end of the 19th century fundamentally hates working in groups. Even a genius group starting with “Golden” had an internal split caused by personality issues. The Roman Catholic Church worked at the goal of creating group fighting techniques with its doctrine at the core, but…well, you know how things are, right? Magicians value the individual.
 * Fiamma of the Right: Fire, water, wind, earth. Each of those four elements carries the leading edge of its type of power, but at the same time, using one element has a broader effect on the three other elements. That is why all large-scale ceremonies except practical battle ones use one of each symbolic weapon as opposed to just the symbolic weapon of the primary element. That is true even in fire ceremonies.
 * Leivinia Birdway: For example, modern Western magic cabals use something like secret tricks of the Christian Church.
 * Achieving [washing away original sin] by artificial means is the easy-to-understand goal of modern Western magic.
 * Kanzaki Kaori: Except for special cases like the #10 Saint, modern magicians are prohibited from a certain action [flight].
 * Leivinia Birdway: Having a body substitute just in case is one of the most basic of precautions. In fact, modern Western magic goes so far as to embarrassingly say we need to kill our old self and be reborn as our new self.
 * She was from a modern Western magic cabal. Those groups attempted to create new ways of valuing seemingly needless additions by taking the knowledge of the past and sublimating it to techniques leading to the future. They viewed the pure white as being nothing but a canvas. In their minds, the impurities that mixed into that were possibilities to take in new colors and create art. They refused to turn back as they attempted to create colors more wonderful than simple white.
 * Tarot could be used in many different ways, but in modern Western magic, a reversed card could be used to take advantage of the affinities between the four elements. What card was placed next to the current card could strengthen the useful symbols of the card or the troublesome symbols of the card.
 * Vasilisa: Yes, modern Western magic is based on secret tricks of Christianity.
 * The ceremonial grounds used in modern Western magic and the cathedrals and churches of Christianity were formed by dyeing a certain space in the colors of a single religion.
 * Othinus: ‘Modern Western Magic’ sounds like it’s European magic put together by Europeans using European cultures, but that isn’t quite accurate.
 * Mina Mathers (Reading Thoth 78): Most of the modern magic that ended up continuing on to the modern era is judged to be a product of Aleister Crowley. Mathers’ name is not found there. His innocent but wicked desire was snuffed out before it could be achieved.
 * Modern Western magic was a system of techniques set up to give everyone equal access to the mystical, no special talent required.
 * Othinus: Make no mistake, human. New magic is not necessarily superior to old magic. If we are simply looking at ease of use, the modern Western magic spread by Crowley may be superior, but right now the focus will be on whether or not is effective against Aleister Crowley. That is the only difference that matters.
 * A staff or wand. That was the symbolic weapon of modern Western Golden-style magic. It would use the element of fire. Its coloration would be red. Its alignment would be right. The quality of the Telesma called forth and used would be that of Michael.
 * Most modern magicians did not use only the same materials as had been used in ages past for their magic. Even Stiyl used copy paper and lamination to make his rune cards easier to use. Magic could be activated using only the products found within a convenience store. There was no need to only rely on rare and expensive antiques. One used the most accessible materials to create the most simplified spells in order to wield the most powerful magic. That was the most convenient thing to do for someone who was relying on magic to survive while they fought.
 * There was no concept of equivalent exchange in modern magic. How great a result could one gain from a limited resource? It could be called a means of cheating each other using the exchange rate. As a result, the failure of a large-scale ceremony was all the more disastrous.
 * The headquarters of the magic cabal Ellasone had been in contact with shortly before his disappearance was located in the remains of a soccer stadium a bit away from London. That was the fate of facilities that could not find a buyer. Most likely, modern magicians were in the locker rooms secretly calculating the locations of the stars, putting magnets on the end of red colored staffs to create fire symbolic weapons, and any number of other things..
 * Miss Tour Guide: You mean as opposed to the modern magic cabals that split their assets up among apartments and RVs in order to minimize the losses if any one place is searched?
 * Lessar: (The symbol of a patron saint often designates where that patron saint received persecution such as a gouged out eyeball or a severed breast. But using the emblem of the decapitated St. Paul to behead another… That just reeks of modern Western magic that loves secret tricks.)
 * Index Librorum Prohibitorum: Y-you mean the science side has started to seize a portion of the stars that lie at the base of modern Western magic!? If the composition of the planets is changed, it would destroy the basic foundation of magic… But we will surely change to meet the demands of this age!! We will deal with this like the Japanese dealt with the arrival of ideas from the West!!
 * The most basic act for a magician was the mental task of converting their body’s life force into magical power. Another basic act was dividing off a miniature world as a temple and temporarily twisting the laws within in order to call in the power of leylines, Telesma, or something else. Performing those different ceremonies could be called the miniature version of the modern Western magic style of summoning.
 * Even the Rosicrucian movement which forms the foundation of modern Western magic had its beginnings in a false book a single person wrote. …But the field of magic did not let it stop there. When that author later revealed the truth to the world, he was completely ignored. As many real magicians joined in and worked out the details, the era no longer needed the original author. The term Rosicrucianism continued to grow even though the man supposedly at the center of the movement had been ostracized.
 * In modern magic, breathing techniques and mental focus techniques were used to convert the magic user’s life force into magic power which could be used to perform various spells.
 * Itsuwa: My weapon is a rapier. In modern western magic, that can correspond to the dagger of wind or the magic sword that controls magic power as a whole.

Lifeforce, mana, telesma, and Power of the World

 * “This thing called magic has multiple forms of existence. But the previous stage is no longer the same. The methods we can use to refine this talent will be dependent on religion, spells, and one’s own lifeforce. After that, it’s like a math problem. As long as one calculates it backwards, the answer will be out.” Imagine if there was 20 pounds of magic A, and a way to process magic called B. By comparing the two, if a person used the magic procession B needed to process 20 pounds of magic, how many pounds of this lifeforce would be required—this way, one could calculate the original ‘lifeforce’.
 * “This thing called magic……because of the approach of the caster, the quality and quantity will be different……but, I don’t think that this is enough to create a perfect counterattack nya.”
 * According to his explanation, this thing called magic was like gasoline. It was originally like the gasoline that we rely on so heavily, and was refined heavily through sects or religions like an oil processor.
 * “For Stiyl, if he were using the Aztec method to train his magic, the type of magic formed will be vastly different. Like using crude oil, one cannot refine it into gasoline, but into heavy oil and light oil nya.”
 * For an Amakusa Saint like Kanzaki Kaori, besides Christianity, there was still some essence of Buddhism and Shintoism. So they could freely adjust the type of magic and quality of the spell according to the situation.
 * Magic is created by lifeforce, if it continues to modify, it’ll cause changes in the human body like an engine being burnt, that’s all there is to it.

Spiritual Items

 * “A-Anyway, the holy swords and magic wands used in ceremonies can be made with modern materials as substitutes, but there is a limit. …This especially goes for sacred items related to God such as the Lance of Longinus, Joseph’s Holy Grail, or The_ROOD. Even after 1000 years, it seems no substitutes can be made… ow…”
 * St Peter’s cross had a huge historical link with the St Peter’s Basilica, and even all of Rome and Vatican. It was the highest level of a spiritual weapon of all Christianity. / The Croce di Pietro. It truly existed in history, but up till now, the Roman Catholic Church had never revealed it. It could be said to be the highest level of spiritual item in historical ‘legends’ that could be compared to the holy items that the Son of God left behind.
 * “Normally, the tool used to cast magic is by a special item that the caster finds suitable to use…”
 * It may be something like a large scale version of the types of ceremonies used to complete symbolic weapons that are specialized for a specific magic user.
 * A spiritual item was either a tool prepared in order to use magic or a tool that used magic and autonomously functioned.
 * Spiritual items were nothing more than tools used to assist in the use of magic. Rarer ones would sometimes ignore the magician using them and they were wielded as the core of the magic, but the person was still essentially at the center. A human magician wielded the spiritual item and passed magic power through it to activate the spell using the necessary ceremony.
 * I am a crystallization of the Rosicrucian age that predates even the Golden cabal. I am one of the autonomous parasitic spiritual items that were the envy of all. Even a lower-end estimate gives me 300 years of experience in this field, yet some little girl is going to outdo me!!!???

Magic Circles

 * “……You’re using such a stupid analogy again; that’s the . This isn’t a single product, but a Middle age magic array that’s used within a circular array.”
 * “The pentagram or the hexagram that you novices think about is used to add an additional effect. In order to add on to the basic effect of the circle, we add the seal of King David or the .”
 * “The last step of setting up a magic array is to add other things, like words. Most of the time, we write something outside the circle to declare which angel we want to borrow power from.”
 * While speaking, he continued to write some things along the circumference of the circle. Because it was a scary magic array, Kamijou thought that he would use an unknown ancient language. But he was just writing English.
 * “Just like this case, I’ll have to write down the name of the angel whom I want to borrow the power from. I’ll then have to specify the type of power I want, like ‘fire’ or ‘wind’. I will also have to write down what kind of Telesma I need, and how much power. The quality of the power is important, but what’s more important, and maybe surprisingly, is the quantity. If it’s too little, I definitely won’t be able to activate the spell. But if it is too much, the excess will go out of control, so it’s difficult to find an optimal amount.”
 * “Once I get the correct amount and quality of Telesma, I’ll have to write down how I’m going to use it. Maybe the caster will input this power into his staff and get some special ability, or maybe he will set it up around the magic array for defence, etc. With that—”
 * “But there’s still a weakness about using this type of magic array. The more complicated the picture is, the more difficult it’ll be to control it. Like the word ‘front,’ besides the meaning of facing forward, there’s also the meaning of ‘promenade.’ If there’s a difference in what the caster intended and what is interpreted incorrectly on the magic array, the spell will go out of control and cause the caster much trouble……but if it’s one’s own misinterpretation, the caster must be pretty talented.”
 * “In the end, the amount of information given for this magic array has a direct relation with its power. The complicated look and the lines added are just details that are added onto it. The reason why I used four pieces of colored paper for this ‘all-around reality array’ is to add decorations that signify that I want to collect information from every single direction. With this, how much power does a grimoire that’s entirely stuffed with magical knowledge? —Basically, an original grimoire is a high-intensity magic array. Even specialized magicians find it tough to handle nya.”

Spells

 * Steps of Counter Spell: research, analysis, reverse calculation, application, and engagement
 * there’s some spell called a……‘spiritual talk’. It’s a spell which uses the significance of speech to determine its power. There’s an order for the spiritual talk, and there’s a limit to the number of words to be used, like a ballad and a haiku. So just making a sound shouldn’t garner a response.
 * do you know what’s the easiest magic ritual in the world? It’s ‘touch’. The significance of ‘touching with a hand’ is especially large. In many religions, the values of the left hand and the right hand are different, because the left hand and the right hand have their own uses. In the New Testament, the Son of God, who’s especially prominent, is able to heal the sick or revive the dead just by touching them with his right hand. ‘Touching’ is a magical action that several religious sects will use, and not just Christianity.
 * Spells using Notarikon are called Quick Spells (kanji).
 * "[Incantation chanting] consists of reciting a contract's contents or a mythological scene, for example. It might be easier if you think of it as a performance. By performing a mythological scene, you obtain a similar power. Originally, the performers prepared a stage at a temple or an altar. But unnecessary elements were gradually removed and abbreviated, resulting into a word-only spell."
 * "Chants are indeed a popular way to activate magic. But it's not like you can't cast spells without them. My robe's barrier is one of the examples. Then there's magic you can use even without chanting. Egyptian sistrum, Calabrian tambourine...You can compensate for your voice with instruments."

Grimoires

 * Origin of grimoires: By stuffing any knowledge related to magic into someone, the knowledge will form a magic array without the caster’s will. Even if the caster doesn’t use magic, it’ll cause the ‘power’ released by nature and lifeforce to multiply, making it active semi-permanently.
 * Basically, an original grimoire is a high-intensity magic array.
 * A book that had the secrets of magic. At first glance, it didn’t look impressive, but any ordinary human would get a nervous breakdown if they just read the contents only. Also, the chapters, paragraphs and words of the book would become a semi-permanent magic array that would automatically counterattack if anyone was to try and destroy it.
 * “A grimoire has a similar nature as a magic array, since the secondary effect of a grimoire originates from the effect of a magic array.”
 * In reality, it was as Stiyl said. Although the way it was written wasn’t conventional like ordinary books, where there was a specific rule that one had to write horizontally or vertically. But what if one was to read the text along the circle in a horizontal manner? If it just ‘required any type of quality and quantity to mix and match before getting some effect’—wasn’t it like a formula or some sorts? The formula of a spell. This was basically what a grimoire was about.

Idol Theory

 * “I’m not lying to you. Here’s an example. Wouldn’t there be a cross at the top of the roof of a church? These crosses have a special power, but are these crosses the ones used to kill the saints? The answer is obviously no. The crosses on the top of the churches are all fake, but even a fake can have power. As long as the shape and purpose is similar, it can obtain a small portion of the real one. This is the Idol Theory.”
 * “For Touma’s sake, I’ll give a brief explanation. The Idol Theory is a form of basic knowledge that allows us to put the power of God and angels to good use. According to this theory, if one were to build a duplicate of the cross on which Christ was crucified and put it on the roof of a church, some of the holy power from those actual cross-wielders will be replicated. The power of the duplicate is not even 0.000000000001% of the original's--even the greatest legendary duplicate, Holy Manger, contains only a small fraction of that power--but if someone obtained even 1% of the original's power, they could match even the Twelve Apostles.” All over the world, from the ones on churches to the ones hanging on nuns’ necks, there were a lot of crosses. But even with the power split away into so many duplicates, the power of the original was almost limitless. Maybe it’s like how the sun provides solar power for electricity, Kamijou guessed wildly.
 * In the Idol Theory of Christianity, when duplicating the Cross that the Son of God was executed on, the duplicate will have some power as well