Undated Entry Mash

I haven't been keeping records.

I'm still doing what I think is walking into other people's mindscapes from my imaginarium, but isn't really structured for anything that will confirm that front. At the very least, I have seen things during such meditations that have inspired me to draw again.

I've been pondering symbols again. My path only really started when I made the effort to transcend symbolism, actually, which is why when I talk about metaphysical elements, it's always (I should hope) with the disclaimer that I am representing a mode of thought and practice, a metaphor that's simply the best I can do at this time but is always disappointing compared to the reality, and not-- emphatically, not--a reality itself.

And I forget all of that as I ponder of the structure of a system of magic particular to myself. Not psionics, not legerdemain, but magic. That's no longer working on reality-for-the-given-value-of-"real" at the level that meets that given value, but something I'm creating.

The "elements" of this system are masques, mirrors, and mist. Masques can be used for both disguise and transformation. Mirrors are created to accurately reflect a world thus assisting in the understanding of it... but not being a world itself, this is a deception. About mirrors, I have a personal bias against considering them portals-- Alice Through the Looking-Glass was all well and good because she was really dreaming, and the portal was in her mind. It bugged me in the television series Heroes that one woman's "superpower" was having an alter ego in the mirror, when it was established that the superpowers came from genetic mutations and there's quite a gap between that and physics.

Finally, there's mist. Metaphysical mist, in my system, is similar to things I've heard referred to as auras and astral illusions or astral constructs. The "soulcrafting" process that I adapted from the video game Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, has mist as its rawest form.

In wondering what to call it, I wondered if the themes of disguise and deception had most to do with traditional fairy glamours. Just as a side note, apparently glamour is etymologically related to grammar. That should make spells quite natural.

For so long, I've rejected the idea that a lie is the basic unit of magic. Metaphysics, to me, should always be in the pursuit and representation of truth. When I think about glamour, though, now I think of the sutcher of a tattered world-- it's not bad, but it doesn't quite fit.

More on this later, maybe.


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