Magic and Familiars (Part 3)
Among the conglomerate of beliefs and rituals known in the west collectively as Hinduism, there is a notion that all of reality exists both simultaneously and constantly. Following this notion, science reveals the truth of reality, and anything accepted by the process of science is accepted as a fundamental reality in the universe. But an analogy for the act of perceiving reality through science is peering through a keyhole at a room on the other side... everything viewed is accepted as the truth, but there is so much that simply cannot be seen from such a limited point of view. Beyond the scope of science's keyhole beliefs may vary, but that which has been verified by science should not be doubted unless new verified information comes to light. In this view, religion is a systematised pattern of belief about what exists in the unknowable realms of reality unrevealed by the narrow perspective of the keyhole. Fundamentalist religion believes that only the original pinprick shows the true nature of reality and anything that science discovered by opening the hole further (contrary to what they originally believed) is false.
Certain grandiose claims misunderstand magic as simply opening the door to the whole of reality, but this much knowledge would shatter a lesser mind into fragments no larger than dust, then blow them away in a storm of oblivion. More low-key claims about magic suggest that it is more like piercing a new hole through the door to observe aspects of reality remaining obscured from the original keyhole's view. To push the analogy further, these lesser claims may indicate a stronger observation of reality but there is also the ability to magic practitioners to manipulate the reality they see. This might be akin to poking a wire through the keyhole, attempting to prod at the things seen on the other side of the door...and apt to this analogy, while something is poking through the hole, the view of reality becomes obscured in some ways. It takes a true master of metaphysical manipulation to see the world clearly while they manipulate it to their will.
Some magical paradigms believe that lesser magic works within the underlying loopholes of reality while greater magic induces new loopholes, but even this is a simplification of the nuanced nature of true magic which incorporates all these ideas and more.
(For some reason, I've also been thinking about how to turn the practitioners of Magic under this set-up, into super hero type characters... but that's another thing completely).
Certain grandiose claims misunderstand magic as simply opening the door to the whole of reality, but this much knowledge would shatter a lesser mind into fragments no larger than dust, then blow them away in a storm of oblivion. More low-key claims about magic suggest that it is more like piercing a new hole through the door to observe aspects of reality remaining obscured from the original keyhole's view. To push the analogy further, these lesser claims may indicate a stronger observation of reality but there is also the ability to magic practitioners to manipulate the reality they see. This might be akin to poking a wire through the keyhole, attempting to prod at the things seen on the other side of the door...and apt to this analogy, while something is poking through the hole, the view of reality becomes obscured in some ways. It takes a true master of metaphysical manipulation to see the world clearly while they manipulate it to their will.
Some magical paradigms believe that lesser magic works within the underlying loopholes of reality while greater magic induces new loopholes, but even this is a simplification of the nuanced nature of true magic which incorporates all these ideas and more.
(For some reason, I've also been thinking about how to turn the practitioners of Magic under this set-up, into super hero type characters... but that's another thing completely).
.png)
Comments