Bibliographic Addendum

I generally don't include bibliographies, but for anyone who wants to follow up on my descriptions of mediaeval and Renaissance magic in my last post, here's where I'd recommend starting:

Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages and Forbidden Rites

D.P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic (more for the Renaissance approach)

These books might give you a few ideas as well:

Owen Davies, Grimoires (a bit light on thesis, but absolutely full of interesting trivia)

Ioan Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance (his conclusions are debatable, but his argument is intriguing)

Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (very influential, although her thesis rests on extremely shaky foundations)

(I can provide plenty more for anyone who's interested. If you're going to pick one to start with, get either of Kieckhefer's books.)

In terms of online resources, Twilit Grotto is probably best, though I see it hasn't been updated recently. The Alchemy Web Site is also quite handy, if you're fond of that sort of thing.

-Geoffrey

A Short Note on Magic in History

This article has been on my mind for the past few days. It's not that different from any other piece of advice out there on how to make magic systems for fantasy worlds: decide who can use magic, set limitations, think about the mechanisms of spells, and include some sort of cost to using it. It's all quite reasonable, and provides a good set of principles to follow whether you're designing for fiction or for games.

It did, however, get me thinking about historical magic—specifically, the ritual magic of Europe's late Middle Ages and Renaissance—and why it would be terrible for fiction. You'd think that it would be a nice fit for someone who wants a bit of authenticity in their fantasy: the genre is already filled with grimoires, spells in Latin, wands, talismans, Solomonic spirits, and all sorts of similar trappings of historical ritual magic. Why not go all the way?

Well, let me explain.

Building Religions 16: Interpreting Scripture, part 2

Let's say that you've decided that your fictional religion doesn't adhere to literal interpretations of its scripture, or at least that it doesn't only read its texts in a literal way. Your alternative is the allegorical approach, which takes the text as the starting point for moral, theological, or eschatological statements. If you do, you can open up a whole new range of options for yourself, as well as introducing new complications to the matter of interpretation.

Building Religions 15: Interpreting Scripture

If you've decided that a fictional scripture is going to be an important part of your world, the next set of questions to ask yourself has to do with the way that it's interpreted in that world. Is there a single reading of the text to which everyone agrees? Are there obscure passages that have given rise to conflicting interpretations, and if so, what are their effects on the way that the religion's followers act? Do the leaders of the religion teach multiple interpretations to different subgroups of followers, one for the masses and a different one for the initiates?

You're certainly not required to complicate scripture in your setting, but it shouldn't be any surprise by now that I'm a fan of making religions messy, so I'd like to spend the next few posts providing an overview of some historical approaches to scriptural interpretation.

Horror Plots

I've been distracted for the past few weeks by something I half-remember reading two decades ago. It was a breakdown of the types of common tropes in horror, including isolation, alienation, invasion, mutation, and possibly one or two more; I'd come across it back in my gaming days, when I was going through a phase of running a lot of horror-oriented games. The frustrating thing is that I can't remember where I first read it, whether it was an academic source or not, or even whether the whole idea is something that I'd put together myself from different books that I'd read.

I am miffed. I may even become vexed.