by Naris of Pethercor
From the text:
"Over all the lands of earth and man,
walk the strands of light and strands of dark.
Recoiling softly from touch of hand,
or folding close, wings gathered in.
Beneath the hum of life and din
of beat of heart and pull of breath,
lies the infinite quiet found within
holding pulse of truth and draw of death."
Clearly a must read for all up and coming young diabolists and would-be-theocrats.
Rating its very own entry into Morgenstern's Guide to the Forbidden and Terrible, it is the continuing dissemination texts of such as this which calls into question all the work that has been done by the order since the founding. Wasn't it enough to lose an entire House in the Eleanorean purge, to warn us against dabbling in the dark arts of the Dawn? If that wasn't sufficient, shouldn't the utter destruction of Prima Lux and the losses of Virginis in Litus make us take heed?
This book, plunder of war from Virginis in Litus itself, comports itself to be a defense against the forces of darkness, helping the reader define and draw clear their own light and dark natures in order to align with and control demonic entities. However, the sources of power and protection offered in it are the very spirits of creation that enslaved human-kind until Love and Reason released our shackles. I'll take neither the frying pan nor the fire this text offers--and I would caution others to do the same. Despite the insouciance exhibited by some of our esteemed colleagues' defense of Syzygia, the inroads of the diabolic is nothing to take lightly.
In a sense, this text makes clear the sharp difference there is between the Cholaeic arts and the degenerate practices of our neighboring states. For example, take the hymns of praise lofted to such entities as Palanianthel, the so called Discerner. The practictioner calls upon this being to "lay bare the shadow" and "untangle the web" using the "vehicle of my essential self," thereby inviting this excretion of the demiurge into himself. The infamy of this act is lauded as a high honor, with the beauty and vigor of the incorporeal being praised, while its entry is described in most unwholesome terms. It is not only blasphemous, it is obscene.
Compare with this the elegance of our texts, such as the comprehensive Ab esse ad posse or the sharply focused A Stone's Throw. Whether tackling the breadth of the intricacies and complexities of the five substances, or meditating on the implications of a single movement, the scholars of our tradition have a purity of thought obviously unknown in other lands. This is the heart of the Cholaeic magical arts. Simple understanding of the matter and motion of this world. Seeing with our eyes and understanding with our hearts directly. Our knowledge, untainted by the wills of other realms of being, has been hard fought. But if the blood of fellow mages is not enough to dissuade some from tarrying in such shores, what storm will it take to change our ways?
--the Scholar from Annalum
bolluxed
All my links won't work. Both on the page and in the library shelves. That's what I get for maligning a spirit of creation!
I'll try and tackle this again tomorrow, but in the meantime any help would be appreciated.
See what congress with the Spirits of Creation will get you?
I fixed 'em. When you typed the quotation marks around the link addresses, whatever text editor you were using inserted some code for "curly quotes" that the system couldn't parse properly, that's all it was. (My browser doesn't recognize them either--they show up for me as a series of weird little boxes and glyphs--which made it very easy for me to guess what the problem might be!)
I think I must be a diabolist at heart. Reading this, I just kept thinking: How bloodless and sterile Cholaeic magic must be! Clearly, my soul is deeply, deeply corrupt.
Well, if Annalum’s agin her...
Things are worse for Syzygia than I’d thought. —Between this and the “Cholæics are atheists” insight from the Dawn, I’m getting a neat spin on (orthodox) Cholæic magic: austere, abstract, a certain harsh purity: Japanese Zen as opposed to rollicking Taoism, or Greek philosophy and Roman superstition. Though that’s at once obvious and apple-orangey. It tastes a little different now, I guess is what I’m saying, or I’m finally noticing something that’s always been there, and I like it.
The Zen of Cholae
I really like it too. It fits -- one of those things that's always been there, but I've never quite seen before. It makes the fact that essentialism is the favored magical school of the neo-traditionalists make a hell of a lot of sense. Paring it down even further, even more minimalist, even more austere. Very much in contrast to both the elaborate convolutions of the Dawn and to the liminal-obsessed border-crossings of Plenilunial Elementalism.
Choleic magic as Natural Science
Choleic magic has definitely always had a natural science aspect to it. A focus on the nature of things, or on the nature of doing things. Very little focus on the nature of the mind of the spell caster. Also, a serious hatred of submission to magical spririts.
Lemmitism and Plenilunial elementalism do run counter to the natural science trend. Lemmite magical practice seems much more invested in the mental states of the mage and in magic as a method to spiritual insight, rather than to insight into hte natural world. The Plenilunials have some of that (although less so, it seems to me) but they deviate somewhat from the hatred of magical spirits, since they go so far as to use invocations of things other than Love and Reason in their spells.
The Arcadians traffic with faerie spirits fits in there somewhere as well, but I'm not sure where.
So Zen and Tao, but with the innards swapped from skin to skin.
I was thinking less in terms of actual philosophy or, y’know, content, than surface and affect. Style and not substance, but hey, it was me talkin’.
That said: Cholæic magic does do a lot of natural science, but there’s a definite aspect that seeks to fit what’s observed into a set and mostly immutable theory, rather than adjusting theories to fit the observations. There’s a cheerful syncretism missing from (most) Cholæic magic, which would rather whack you over the head until you get the only possible point.
What I especially like about this flavor is the insight it gives me into what the conservatives and neotraditionalists are fighting for. It’s easy for me to like the plenilunials and Dawnish simps and fellow-travelers, because, well, hey; this I think will make it easier to like the other side.
Also, and bear with me a moment, since he was brought up an essentialist: Perdix is politically plenilunial, but magically conservative. Which combination I think might actually be pretty prevalent in the here and now.
"Magically conservative"
Oh, sure. Not all such foci are political, after all.
Myself, I've always imagined that essentialism is likely a popular approach among even the most Plenilunial of Savacions--in part because it's very, well, Getting Things Done oriented. After all, if part of how you perceive your role is as a champion or a defender, then it makes sense to focus on pragmatics, even if what you're championing or defending is Plenilunial acceptance of non-traditional approaches to magic.
What I especially like about this flavor is the insight it gives me into what the conservatives and neotraditionalists are fighting for.
Me too. There's a certain stark beauty in it, a purity, and a gravity, that does synch up perfectly with how I've always imagined the conservatives to view their traditional mores -- but it, oh, aestheticizes it in a way that makes me feel it on a more emotional level.
second
Thanks very much, Sarah! I'm with you, these godless cholaeics are missing out. (Though I must admit to having a bit of a "thing" for Rollins now : ) We can curl up in a cozy corner of tarnation together....