High Ritual: We are More than the Sum of Our Parts

Join Councilor Phaedra bani Bonisagus of the Order of Hermes, Master of Ars Potentiae, Deacon of Alexandria University, magi of the eight degree, as she delves into the struggles and possibilities of high ritual magic. Phaedra, driven by her quest for unity, has led a variety of reality bending rituals that have included highly diverse participants.

When manipulating the Tapestry, the warp and weave of reality, there comes a time for every mage when the necessary task seems not only improbable but impossible. However, there is little to nothing that the power of the many cannot achieve in a High Ritual. Furthermore, I theorize that not only may willworkers empower the essence of the spell, but any being with the appropriate understanding of reality may do so. Attend and discover if Unity is possible.

Jhor: The Deadly Quiet

Many mages and willworkers are familiar with the image of the stark raving lunatic whose magic has broken his ability to connect to the world. Just as dangerous, but less known, is the danger of Jhor. A function of dabbling with death, Jhor can twist and bend the mage's mind, body, and spirit.

Come join Dakota, Verbena/Euthanatos, Blessed by Jupiter, child of Uktena, Slayer of Voormas, Destroyer of the Red Star, Lord of Wraiths, as he reflects on the importance of being thoughtful when dealing with death and its energies. 

What are the Daeva Doing to the Shadowlands?

Mr. Rudolph D.M. Giovanni, one of our event sponsors, proposes an Occult Issue Panel to discuss the question, "What are the Daeva doing to the Shadowlands?" Come puzzle out the challenges of dealing with these creatures of smoke and deal.

VR Training Deck

We are happy to announce that there will be a VR Training Deck at the Summit this year. Powered by the Virtual Alexandria Project's Dreamtime Collective initiative, the training hookup will focus on four core areas of development:

• Combat
• Espionage
• Puzzles
• Magic

The Training Deck will be hosted on a VIVE device. Attendees interested in improving their skills in these areas should consider trying it out!

OOC: We will actually have a VIVE at the event, with a demo of games like: 

Combat
Gorn
Fruit Ninja
QuiVr


Puzzles
Fantastic Contraption
Quanero
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

EspionageUnseen Diplomacy
Climbey
Budget Cuts


Magic
Holodance
Tilt Brush
Waltz of the Wizard

The Vulnerability Paradox

Alex, Virtual Adept and founder of the Virtual Alexandria Project, presents on a new initiative known as the Vulnerability Paradox. Alex blends three threads of scholarship: work on "change seeds" (ideas that change the being of the idea holder), non-reproducing ideas (ideas that do not create copies of themselves when shared), and encrypting blockchains to include secondary messaging.

Using these three notions, Alex proposes a way of creating a shared mental space that is 1.) accessible anywhere, 2.) collaborative in nature, and 3.) highly resistant to telepathic eavesdropping that allows for both synchronous/asynchronous and targeted/public messaging.

Come attend this presentation and many others at the St Louis Summit on Lore and the Occult. Register here.

All Aboard: The Collective Deception, Sanity, and You (Mind the First Step, it's a Doozy)

Jack is Jack.

Jack is whack.

Jack will take a whack at explaining how being whack might get you flack but if you have the knack what folks think you lack actually be on the right track. Something, something, madness network.

Disclaimer: Attending Jack's presentation may induce temporary insanity or altered perceptions of reality or the true perception that reality is a lie. Attending is to voluntarily submit yourself to such things. Some truth are simply too true to not enjoy with cheesecake. This is important. Though I'm not sure why.



Come attend this presentation and many others at the St Louis Summit on Lore and the Occult. Register here.

The Mysterious World of Unseen Dreams: What Dangers the Unenchanted Should be Aware Of

Saladin, master of Dreamcraft and member of the Keepers of the Dreaming, offers the unenchanted a window into the mysteries of the Dreaming. A returning presenter, Saladin is well versed in the dynamics of the Dreaming and fae magic. Saladin is also the editor of News of the Wyrd, a local publication on the strange and chimerical.

Attendance of or participation in this talk may result in enchantment. Per the Ethical Participation agreement, do not attend if you are uninterested in the effects of enchantment.


Come attend this presentation and many others at the St Louis Summit on Lore and the Occult. Register here.

The Ancient Enemy II

Alexander, Bastion of the Litany of the Garou Nation, discusses the dangers of the Wyrm and its tendency to corrupt corporate structures. A continuation of a presentation at last year's summit, Alexander focuses on local for profit organizations that have been corrupted by the Wyrm and its agents.


Come attend this presentation and many others at the St Louis Summit on Lore and the Occult. Register here.

A Brief Treatment of Harpies

First identified in ancient Greek and Roman study, harpies (Greek: ἅρπυια, harpyia, pronounced [hárpyi̯a]; Latin: harpȳia) are female monsters in the form of a bird with a human face. In myth, they are said to steal food from their victims while they are eating and carry evildoers (especially those who have killed their family) to the Erinyes. They seem originally to have been wind spirits. Their name means “snatchers.”

“Debate rages on whether these creatures are full on Chimera, escapees of a Horizon or Spirit Realm, or naturally occurring albeit rare Earth inhabitants... Harpy claws are often used in the casting of destructive magic for their razor sharp qualities... Should be flightless due to poor aerodynamics, but nonetheless can remain airborne even in storm weather... Do not bear full human cognitive abilities, but nonetheless communicate, hold social structure, use primitive tools, and can build simple structures. They show memory capabilities, and logical and deductive capabilities... Harpy eggs are nearly beyond value, as a harpy raised from birth tends to be loyal and protective. The Fae desire such creatures as companions, and capable wizards might utilize them as Familiars. To the ruthless, the eggs have an ability to ‘appease’ Paradox when destroyed...” Godric's Tome of Beasts and Intellects, Adept Life, Order of Hermes

Supposedly all harpies hail their Queen Stizzexa, though whether she actually exists or is a myth, or in what capacity she exists is unknown outside of harpies. Her Domains are Wind, Mothers, and Nature. They tend to be territorial and fend off intruders almost on sight. They can be bribed by a sufficiently humble intruder. They prefer diets of fish and fruits. They lay eggs, which must be cared for from 6-7 months. Harpy young can fly within a week of birth. Harpies roost in high, defensible points, preferring difficulty to access to stealthy locations. Some harpies, but not all, have demonstrated the ability to learn mortal languages, though they rarely speak them eloquently. Most harpies have impressive strength and inflict wounds that penetrate most armors and are very hard to heal, and are mostly immune to weather conditions be they natural or magical.

Harpies have figured into the imagination of various cultures. For instance, Dante refers to harpies in his descriptions of hell:

Here the repellent harpies make their nests,

Who drove the Trojans from the Strophades
With dire announcements of the coming woe.
They have broad wings, with razor sharp talons and a human neck and face,

Clawed feet and swollen, feathered bellies; they caw
Their lamentations in the eerie trees

The harpy may or may not be related to other creatures of myth and legend, including the Russian Alkonost and Sirin, the Japanese Karura and Tengu, and the south east Asian Kinnara.

Full treatment of their role in Greek Poetry
(From http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Harpyiai.html)

Harpies, “the swift robbers,” are, in the Homeric poems, nothing but personified storm winds. (Od. xx. 66, 77.) Homer mentions only one by name, viz. Podarge, who was married to Zephyrus, and gave birth to the two horses of Achilles, Xanthus and Balius. (Il. xvi. 149, &c.) When a person suddenly disappeared from the earth, it was said that he had been carried off by the Harpies (Od. i. 241, xiv. 371); thus, they carried off the daughters of king Pandareus, and gave them as servants to the Erinnyes. (Od. xx. 78.) According to Hesiod (Theog. 267, &c.), the Harpies were the daughters of Thaumas by the Oceanid Electra, fair-locked and winged maidens, who surpassed winds and birds in the rapidity of their flight. Their names in Hesiod are Aëllo and Ocypete. (Comp. Apollod. i. 2. § 6.) But even as early as the time of Aeschylus (Eum. 50), they are described as ugly creatures with wings, and later writers carry their notions of the Harpies so far as to represent them as most disgusting monsters.

They were sent by the gods as a punishment to harass the blind Phineus, and whenever a meal was placed before him, they darted down from the air and carried it off; later writers add, that they either devoured the food themselves, or that they dirtied it by dropping upon it some stinking substance, so as to render it unfit to be eaten. They are further described in these later accounts as birds with the heads of maidens, with long claws on their hands, and with faces pale with hunger. (Virg. Aen. iii. 216, &c.; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 653; Ov. Met. vii.4, Fast. vi. 132; Hygin. Fab. 14.) The traditions about their parentage likewise differ in the different traditions, for some called them the daughters of Pontus (or Poseidon) and Terra (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 241), of Typhon (Val. Flacc iv. 428, 516), or even of Phineus. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 166, Chil. i. 220; Palaephat. 23. 3). Their number is either two, as in Hesiod and Apollodorus, or three; but their names are not the same in all writers, and, besides those already mentioned, we find Aëllopos, Nicothoë, Ocythoë, Ocypode, Celaeno, Acholoë. (Apollod. i. 9, 21; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 209; Hygin. Fab. Praef. p. 15, Fab. 14.) Their place of abode is either the islands called Strophades (Virg. Aen. iii. 210), a place at the entrance of Orcus (vi. 289), or a cave in Crete. (Apollon. Rhod. ii. 298.)

The most celebrated story in which the Harpies play a part is that of Phineus, at whose residence the Argonauts arrived while he was plagued by the monsters. He promised to instruct them respecting the course they had to take, if they would deliver him from the Harpies. When the food for Phineus was laid out on a table, the Harpies immediately came, and were attacked by the Boreades, Zetes and Calais, who were among the Argonauts, and provided with wings. According to an ancient oracle, the Harpies were to perish by the hands of the Boreades, but the latter were to die if they could not overtake the Harpies. The latter fled, but one fell into the river Tigris, which was hence called Harpys, and the other reached the Echinades, and as she never returned, the islands were called Strophades. But being worn out with fatigue, she fell down simultaneously with her pursuer; and, as they promised no further to molest Phineus, the two Harpies were not deprived of their lives. (Apollod. i. 9. § 21.) According to others, the Boreades were on the point of killing the Harpies, when Iris or Hermes appeared, and commanded the conquerors to set them free, or both the Harpies as well as the Boreades died. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 286, 297; Tzetz. Chil. i. 217.) In the famous Harpy monument recently brought from Lycia to this country, the Harpies are represented in the act of carrying off the daughters of Pandareus.

Note: Harpies share their name with the role of rumor monger in certain covert societies.

Second Annual St Louis Summit on Lore and the Occult

We are happy to announce the second annual Saint Louis Summit on Lore and the Occult. The Summit is a gathering of scholars, scientists, and lore masters on a variety of strange, rare, and wondrous topics ranging from mythic history to cryptozoology. The Summit is hosted by Alexandria University, a small liberal arts college dedicated to transcending distinctions by blending art and mathematics, religion and science, and philosophy and social change.

The Summit will be held on the evening of April 14, 2016, in St Louis, MO. More specific time and location details to be announced.

Please direct questions to Alex at virtual.alexandria.project@gmail.com. Register here: http://bit.ly/stlouisloresummit

Summit Format
The Summit will have various events, including: Topic Panels, Occult Issues, Tradition Presentations, and Educational Duels.

Topic Panels
These panels will feature presentations and discussions on various topics from top experts in various lores and hidden knowledge. Panels will begin with a presentation from each expert, followed by Q&A by the audience.

Occult Issues
These sessions will take up issues central to the politics of the occult community. Session provide an opportunity for members from different sects and allegiances to openly discuss issues relevant to their communities.

Tradition Presentations
We will be hosting a special series on the Traditions. Each of the nine traditions (plus one for other crafts) will host a presentation articulating the magical perspectives they embody. Newly awakened willworkers will be invited to the conference and the traditions with the best represntation of their practices will stand to recruit some new members!

Educational Duels
Keeping with one of the oldest traditions in wizarding community, there will be a certemen circle for demonstration duels. Mages who have never used a certemen circle will be instructed in its use. More experienced willworkers are welcome to use the circle for duels as a way of demonstrating arcane possibilities.

Registration
Alexandria University is hosting the event, but ask attendees to contribute in some way. This can either be through presenting on a topic panel, running an occult issues panel, offering some other form of assistance, covering financial costs (by donating $500 or more), or covering magical costs (by donating 1 or more quintessence). If you are interested in giving a presentation, please contact Alex at virtual.alexandria.project@gmail.com.

Awards
We will be awarding a set of Top Presentation Awards with a purse of 10 quintessence. Also, we will award a Best Match award to be won in the certemen circle.

Last Year
The first summit, held in March of 2016, drew a wide variety of scholars from various supernatural communities, including kindred, cainites, fair folk, lupines, and of course, willworkers. The topics included: the similaries and differnces of supernatural magics, the nature of the Endless Winter, the curious case of vampiric englightnment, the dangers of the Wyrm, and many more.

Entropy: Chance and Chaos, Destiny and Decay, A Dissertation on the Nature of Ars Fati

Written by Deacon Cameron Nonesuch Aro
Adept Magus, Ordo Hermes, Bani Ex Miscellanea, ap Merinita
Keeper of a Thousand Tales, Speaker of Legends, Weaver of Dreams

"I can buy myself a reason,
I can sell myself a job.
I can hang myself for treason,
Yeah, I am my own damn god."

-- Modest Mouse

1. Preface
2. Entropy and the Machinations of Fate
3. Entropy and the Decline of systems
4. Entropy and the Domination of the Spheres
5. Entropy and the Illusion of Will

1. ) PREFACE
Within this writing, you will find the musings of a Man. Fallible, opinionated Man. No better or different from any other. A Man that will one day die. Will be forgotten. Will turn to dust in the ground to nourish plants and then animals, and eventually fuel the fire of the inevitable explosion of a star. A Man that will one day exist, in a sense, as nothing more than heat, absorbed and radiated, bouncing amongst the debris of countless universes, collapsing upon each other, burning as they return to the origin of their collective creation.

Nothing more.

This manuscript will not contain answers.

This manuscript will not comfort you.

This manuscript will not answer even its own questions. This Man is not able to see through the veil of reality to the required degree. Its unlikely that the Man ever will. Should that impossibility occur, it will undoubtedly be too busy to revise this document at that time.

This Man will not apologize for this.

2. ) ENTROPY AND THE MACHINATIONS OF FATE
Ars Fati. Entropy. The Art of Change. Of Systems. Of Fate.

What is Fate? Random chance masquerading as a series of otherwise unconnected events? Perceived through the Human and Awakened mind as connected because of their cumulative effects on our lives? Like waves crashing against the shore slowly shaping it to some new configuration. Is it just the tide? We can explain the tide. The gravitational pull from the moon kneads the surface of the water like dough. It comes in, and out. It moves the land and the creatures around. The beach is reshaped, but why? For what purpose? Is there a purpose? Perhaps more importantly, does there need to be a purpose?

Is there a...consciousness, guiding the universe towards unforeseen goals? If so, why? What does it care if a man sleeps through his alarm and is late for work? Does Fate know, that despite the consequences of being late, again, this reality is preferable to the death that would have occurred had the man gotten less sleep, and was pulverized by a semi-truck in his fugue? And if this is the case, does Fate feel offense when the man curses it, because he knows not the alternative? Is it compassion, that guides this being I have posited to do what it does? What morals does this infinitely powerful and seemingly capricious force hold true? And if this reality is preferable, preferable for whom? Does it want to grant this hypothetical man another day on this Earth, a thankless task at best? Or does it wish more time to toy with the man? Unwilling to lose a plaything?

Snow falls upon a mountaintop as a storm rages down upon it. It collects, stacking, upon a single molecule of Water, frozen to a crystalline shape. It, along with countless others summon the strength to hold up trillions of others, all standing together like a pyramid, growing ever upward and out. And then...a change. A failure of the strength of water. Was it the weight? Was it heat, sapping the strength of a snowflake, causing it to give way? A loud report shaking the ground, allowing the structure to become unbalanced, and topple? Or was it Fate, pushing the drift over? It's simple as a being of Will to assume that Fate played a hand in the avalanche that follows. Especially if there is tragedy in its wake. But it is also inevitable. The mountain will not remained unchanged, stagnant, until the stars die in the night sky. A person, an animal, even plant life, is insignificant in the event. It simply will be. Does this being have plans for the shape of the mountain? Is it an immediate effect that is achieved, or something much later, something made possible only because Fate has spent a millennia building and destroying castles of water, feeding rivers to shape the land, carving valleys that will someday shelter animals, and people from the storms that ravage the land nearby? Will there one day be an avalanche that moves so much water to be free from its crystalline prison that the valley floods, and decimates the creatures that call it home?

What chance do these creatures have against such a being? What right does this being have to change the world as it sees fit?

3. ) ENTROPY AND THE DECLINE OF SYSTEMS
Presume, for a moment, that such a creature does not exist. What then, are we left with? The natural laws of the world, as we understand them can be easily slotted into this spot. Metal rusts, because oxygen bonds with the molecules and steals electrons, breaking the metal down, with the expression of heat as it dissolves.

A body rots on the ground. Microbes set about tearing it to pieces. Insects lay eggs in the carcass, bringing about a renewal of the life that had just ended to fuel the creation of another. Animals consume the meat to survive. As the microbes dissolve the body to base fluids, it soaks into the dirt, allowing seeds to take root and flourish. In the end, while its impossible to completely destroy every part of the body, and the universal energies that compose it, it is nonetheless destroyed. Unrecognizable from its previous form. Its...elegant in its horrific totality. Has it always been? Was there a time when bodies were left, untouched upon the ground? Has life evolved to accomplish this task? Chosen to live as a scavenger of the dead, using the resource available to it, and not to simply choose to take nourishment from the sun? All of this is logical. Accepting this is simple. It requires no stretch of the mind to imagine. Is it therefore the best answer? Is that the end of knowledge? Once you have grasped this truth, and accepted it, are you finished?

All of this, forgiving for a moment the conceit that all of these creatures, simple to complex, have not only developed a way to process the remains of the creatures that exist alongside them, but that they have been fortunate enough to have survived the required changes to pass adaptations to their progeny, to say nothing of the inherit dangers of their existence. What is it that drives this behavior? What creature dares to look directly into the face of death, of decay, and chooses to try to consume it? To survive upon it? Whether by conscious thought, or by instinct, all living beings strive for survival. What is it about death that makes them accept it into themselves to survive? And why are they seemingly rewarded for this? How many wondrous and impossible creatures have been lost to this process? Those that adapted to survive one threat, but not another? How would the world have looked had one lineage survived over another?

All these chance occurrences, and this is the result? Beings that inhabit this world, and worlds beyond, have simply been the elite winners of a lottery that all must play? As time progresses, the chances of each individualized instance, each unique creature, becomes infinitesimally smaller. Ever approaching but never quite touching impossibility. Can the being that is known as Fate be therefore ruled out? If a victor is required for every contest, then we sit among the best and greatest beings that have ever existed. The singularly amazing and unlikely creatures that have survived, against all odds, to this point.

I'll let that sink in. Ride a subway, if they still exist. Take a stroll at night through a city center, overburdened with population, drowning in its own filth. Watch as the greatest beings to have ever existed turn a blind eye to the decay of the support systems that their ancestors have built for them. Watch as they ignore the suffering of what should otherwise be their brother. Watch as the beings that you spend all your time with, every moment of every day of your life, go about doing menial tasks. Carving an existence out of the decaying wreckage of the glory that they have inherited. Watch as the cycle repeats on an ever expanding scale. As the creatures you call friends consume the flesh of the dead, break it down and express it as fluids that feed the soil to grow the crops that will accompany their next meal with a light balsamic vinaigrette.

What does this make you? Are you a microbe to interstellar beings, unworthy of notice, or a being that Fate has deemed worthy of its attentions? A man that Fate has deemed will awaken late for work today? Can you convince yourself of that level of importance? Trillions have. It's comforting. Safe.

4. ) ENTROPY AND THE DOMINATION OF THE SPHERES

If any set of creatures can convince themselves of their own importance, who shelter amid the Hubris that they themselves are not only worthy of the universe's attention, but its obedience, it is the Awakened. A microbe, that sets about toiling and consuming, that has the nerve to stand up and demand that the universe reshape itself to it's Will. More on this later.

But when the Magus, the Willworker, tugs at the fabric of reality and marvels as the ripples cause peaks and valleys in the Tellurian that bend and twist in new and exciting ways, what role then, does Entropy play? How does the Magus, or Fate, or the combination, reshape reality around it?

Consider the effect. A Magus, studied in Ars Fati, wishes to affect the outcome of a roll of a single die. The effect is simple. Basic. Elementary. But is it? What is the Willworker controlling? Is it Matter, that displaces the die's mass? Is it Forces, that the air pressure beneath a side of the die is thicker, and slows its momentum? The force of the throw, the original starting position of the die, the distance thrown, the occurrence or lack thereof of objects in the path of the die, all are affecting the outcome. Is the Will of the Magus affecting these other Spheres in subtle ways, as they relate to the die's path? Or is the chance of the die falling upon a certain number inherently encoded into the reality of the die?

At greater levels of understanding, the Magus can speed the effects of the natural systems, causing metal to rust in front of one's very eyes, a body to rot at an accelerated rate. Is this Matter, wrenching the molecules from the metal? Speeding the microbe's Life cycles so that they may feast and breed faster? Or is it simply Time being infused into the object, causing it to pass more quickly.

A Magus can infuse him or herself with a streak of luck, rewarding their efforts when searching for an object of importance? Is this Mind, telling the Magus where to look? Correspondence, moving the object to the place being searched? Or is something grander at work? Does the Will of the worker move through time, affecting the last person who touched the item to drop the object, to place it in a specific place to be found later, or simply to forget to take it with them when they left?

What then does this say of the being that is Fate? If there is a conscious Will at work, what then does the workings of Ars Fati represent? Does the worker command Fate to do their bidding? Is Fate pre-disposed to cooperate with the Magus? Or has Fate been working all this time? Has the machinations of Fate been prodding the Magus towards this moment? Shaping their Mind to assume they have the power over Fate and Chance itself and it will do as the Magus pleases...Happily and ignorantly marching ever forward, along the path Fate has destined them to follow, until they are subsumed into the void, to be returned to the Quintessence that which Prime has constructed them.

5. ) ENTROPY AND THE ILLUSION OF WILL
So, is there such a thing as Fate? Is it an illusion created to explain why tragedy befalls a soul? Is it an unrepentant force that marches ever onward, in spite of the best laid plans? Billions of lives have been spent throughout history, toiling against an outcome that seemed insurmountable. Were the victories always to be, and all struggles were simply for show? A play for the actors to meet out upon the stage of the world? Or were they truly victories? Can there be a victory against the wishes of Fate?

What Machinations, eons in their construction, will a willful and purposed being allow to be dashed against the rocks of failure, because of a single, willful individual, daring to play god? Is freewill simply an illusion, meant to sedate and placate these creatures as they toil and set about doing Fate's work? Or is it a nuisance to be accommodated for, and dealt with? Will there be contingency plans for the designs that Fate has worked to achieve?

Is this even possible to know? If you can know it...to truly know definitively one way or the other...Can one work against that truth, to change it? Is the Will of a Magus, of a Human, of an animal...of a microbe...of any real consequence?

In the end, is all of your work and suffering actually paying off? Or are you a pawn in a larger scheme and simply...

Nothing more.

Liberalism, Legal Pluralism, and the Quest for Council Legitimacy in a Post Ascension War Era

In recent months, I have been reflecting on the nature of governance in the mage community. These reflections have been sharpened by some current events, namely, the demolition of a Technocratic base. The Council of Nine met to discuss what should be done. Various proposals have included 1.) do nothing, 2.) pay for the damages, 3.) force the people who did the exploding to pay for it, and 4.) implement some code of conduct on all willworkers.

Missing from all of these conversations is any discussion about whether or not the Council of Nine has the right to make binding decisions on mages at all. Of course the Council of Nine has power to act. It should mobilize resources, offer and withhold support, act as a figure head, and coordinate efforts. But should it have the power to force people to do anything?

Or, put another way, should a Council govern?

At first brush, of course it should. Let’s say some mage or other starts murdering people. It would be great if the Council could step in and help adjudicate what the person’s fate should be. We need to defend ourselves against attacks from Technocratic threats, so the Council should be able to raise an army in defense of the Traditions. To keep that army, the Council should be able to impose a tax. People evading that tax will be subject to penalties, which the Council should decide. Rules on the proper use of magical power should be established…

Wait. I’m already predicting problems. First off, what about the crafts? Does the Council get to execute members of the crafts even if that willworker isn’t a member of the Traditions and therefore not represented by the Council?

I find this representation problem unsettling. Let's say some 16-year-old kid enlightens during a medical procedure following an injury in his high school football game. By what fucking right do we have to impose our laws, bans, or edicts on him? Zero, that’s what. Of course, we should approach that young man and offer him guidance, support, and protection. But he isn't automatically “ours,” and it is paternalistic as fuck to assume he is. He may want to quash his power. Or join the Union. Or claw backwards through the umbilical cord of his soul to invert the world. Certainly we have opinions about which path he should take, but the moment we strip people of their free will, we become no better than the other teams. And mark me, to govern without representation is to deny a person their will.

In many ways, assuming that the Council is the legitimate governing body of all magic is flawed because of the human systems we come to occupy. Here’s where this conversation gets nerdy. The idea that a group of people can come together and put behind their individual interests in order to make decisions for the betterment of all society is, actually, not that old. The idea is called “liberalism.” (And I don’t mean conservative vs. liberal, I mean the social philosophy liberalism. Look it up). It just so happens to be a cornerstone of governmental organizing in many northern democratic countries. Liberalism holds that all people can, and in fact should, be able to put aside their petty differences and come to a set of common agreements about how things should go. This idea is so ingrained in anyone growing up in the United States that it doesn’t seem like a worldview. It just seems like how society works.

Things that come from liberalism include the separation of church and state and the idea that laws should apply to all people the same. And those are good things.

Aren’t they?

Well. Proponents of liberalism say that it sure beats the alternative. We have to separate church from state, because if we don’t society won’t be tolerant. One religion will get power, and then be intolerant of everyone else. It might be alright if you happened to be the same religion as the one in power, but it’ll royally suck if you aren’t. We need liberalism, they say, in order to have a tolerant society.

But it turns out, we don’t need liberalism in order to be tolerant. There are multicultural forms of pluralistic legalism that achieve the goals of tolerance while still inviting things like religion or local traditions into the broader discourses of society. Indonesia, for instance, has a strong democracy despite having many of the same strong Islamic foundations that trouble other democracies around the world. How do they do it? Pluralistic legalism.

Here’s the way it works. In a plural legal system, individuals choose a legal system that they operate within. There isn’t one law about how marriage works in Indonesia. There are many, and those laws are decided on and acted upon at the level of religion, community, or both. Plural legal systems allow for people who want institute religion-based values in states to do so, but only for the people who ascribe to those religions. Consider: what if Evangelical Christians were, in fact, allowed to make abortion illegal… for Evangelical Christians? It’s a whole different way of thinking about society. Instead of throwing away the private aspects of ourselves as we enter the public square, we are encouraged to bring those deeply held values to bear on politics and society, but we just weren’t allowed to foist them on people who didn’t hold them.

At this point, you may be thinking, Alex, you’ve gotten off track. This has nothing to do with the Council of Nine. But, in fact, it does.

The Council of Nine represents a group of people who are more diverse than any on the planet. We have people who try to create elixirs to live forever and other people who consider death the most beautiful of transformations. We have people who have devoted every fabric of their being to God and others who have actively seek to disprove God’s existence. There are willworkers who will never do harm and others whose magic requires harm.

We are diverse. And there is a temptation to put aside those differences and come together to create a common set of rules, as well as a common governing body, to create some order from all the diversity.

But therein lays our demise.

For it is in our diversity that we are strong.

Consider. The Rule of Shade has been proposed as a common set of laws that all Tradition mages should follow. Let’s take the first rule: Respect those of greater knowledge. No offense, but that is not how we VAs do things. We literally disrespect those of greater knowledge as a road to enlightenment. Trash talk is the coin of the realm, and just because someone has been around longer doesn’t mean you owe them shit. The Rule of Shade also says we must always obey an Oracle. Fuck that. I don’t know any Oracles, and I sure as fuck not going to obey one without question. There are other rules that other willworkers will take issue with. Are all mages going to agree to always keep their word? I’ve met Cultists who literally used transgression to power their magic. Be subtle in your arts? What about mages who risk paradox to nudge the consensus away from the Technocratic paradigm.

Basically the point is this: there is no set of rules that can govern all of us. So instead of trying to craft them, aim for something that is possible.

Legal pluralism.

Have each willworker articulate what community will hold them responsible for their actions. In many cases, this would be the traditions. Hermetics are better able to punish Hermetics for Hermetical-type crimes. As a Council, we can withdraw our support from communities whose legal structures are too permissive or lax. And of course, people can always step into situations that they feel are unjust. But I don’t think those people should get to feel high and mighty or legitimized in their meddling.

Ultimately, this brings up the most important question: What the heck is the role of the Council of Nine? Many people believe it should hold court, create laws, and have an armed force. Which is basically a national government?

But I invite us to think more creatively about what our community is and what it needs. Do we need governance, per se? We aren't trying to hold contiguous land, so maybe creating an entity that has powers modeled off of contiguous landholding entities is a bad way to go. We already exist within a government, namely, the United States. Do we need a second, shadowy government to comport our affairs?

So I ask, if we are to engage in strategic isomorphism, and model ourselves off of an existing entity, what should we seek to be like? What are we? Consider a few statements about our community. We are a group of scattered individuals who have shared interests and manage needed and scarce resources (nodes). It turns out that there’s an organizational form that is used to manage that; it’s called a co-op. Co-ops organize to create the conditions of their members flourishing.

Another thing that’s true about us: we are a group of (will)workers who are often worried about how our rights and ability to practice our craft are being impinged upon by higher powers. It turns out that there’s an organizational form that is used to band together the interests of a group of (will)workers. It’s called a union.

Last statement: we are a group of thinkers and practitioners who need a way to get together and advocate for our interests. There’s a form for that, too, namely, a membership-based professional organization.

I’m not saying that we need to make a membership-based, co-op, union, professional organization, but those structures will serve us well for imagining what the powers of a Council of Nine should be. Foremost, they are voluntary associations. You don’t have to be a member if you don’t want to. And I believe that the Council of Nine should work the same way. And don’t be fooled, just because they are voluntary, doesn’t mean they aren’t profoundly powerful. Membership-based organizations are some of the strongest in the world.

Now. I’ll admit, we VA have an anti-authoritarian streak, so I'm a little dodgy about vesting nation-like powers to a set of individuals. I believe the Council of Nine will have more traction (and ethical high ground) establishing a membership-based model, where we coordinate a set of nested affiliations to achieve various mutually beneficial ends (like node protection, response to world threatening events, dissemination of knowledge, coordination of mentorship of new mages, etc).

The Council could use membership fees, donations, and earned incomes to support its initiatives, which could include education, resource management, paramilitary defense, and disaster response.

Some Traditions may decide that every member of their group will join. I suspect many will. But this leaves Traditions and various crafts able to make decisions about the totality of their support, as well as granting individuals the ability to be part or not.

In practice, I think people will join. We will deliver important forms of protection, guidance, and information. But if your worry is that people won't join, consider how happy they will be when you force them to live under your rule.

Once you shift your thinking of a Council that rules over all enlightened mages to a Council who runs an organization that supports enlightened mages, things start to make more sense.

The council above can set standards for its membership (and can strip membership if those standards are broken). Also, the Council could chose to censure certain activities, basically withdrawing its support form (or boycotting, etc) those who practice unsavory activities.

But it forces any idea of binding laws to the level of the Traditions and crafts. As they represent modes of humanness from a profoundly diverse set of times and cultures, we should not create a single, monolithic legal structure to try to govern our activities.

I believe that we have a chance to create a more beautiful, humane, and just form of organizing the enlightened community. T'he old Council died for a reason. Let's respect the work of Entropy, honor that which is dead, and let something new and beautiful grow up from it.

We can organize the people who freely choose to join. Because the freedom to choose, or the Will, as some say, is essential to our craft. So let's make it essential to the way we organize our craft.

The Dreamtime Collective

At a recent gathering of scientists, mystics, and willworkers, I was describing the Library of Babel sub-project and how it contains every written truth (and falsehood). My conversational partner was quick to ask, "Does your Library have unwritten truths?"

Which is a good question, of course. Knowledge isn't always written down. Some knowledge is spoken, sung, danced, and drawn. Even further, not all knowledge is expressible. Embodied knowledge. Visceral knowledge. Experiential knowledge. Ancestral knowledge. If one relies solely on words, one misses vast regions of the knowable.

The multivalent nature of knowledge/knowing is precisely why the Virtual Alexandria Project is hosted in the Umbra. Umbral frameworks are very permissive compared to the frameworks in more calcified places in the Tellurian. Further, ephemera can encode unexpressable truths.

Today, the most detailed "stack" within the Library committed to unwritable truths is a project called The Dreamtime Collective. This vibrant intersection of knowing draws together collective experience across time and space. Contributors to the Dreamtime Collective teach and inscribe their sundry wisdom on the unconscious palate of the universe, while students of the Collective meditate and learn and delve into what it means to become what you know.

Sounds pretty mystical and juju, right? Well, in part, it is. That's why we call it the Dreamtime Collective. The Dreamtime is term created by European anthropologists to describe the aboriginal Australian concept alcheringa. Ignore for a second that it looks like it has something to do with dreams, as that is mostly a result of a mistranslation. The core of the idea is this: The way that the world is is a result of the way the world knows itself, and that the self knowledge of the world exists in a timeless time. The way the world happens to be particularly in any given now-moment is due to the ventures of mythic heroes forging their way across a formless land during the Dreamtime. Their paths left/are leaving/will leave songlines that resonate resonant in the Dreamtime, and by following these paths we in this world can know alongside our ancestors and descendants in time beyond. Maybe that makes sense...

#howthefuckdoyouprogramthat?

It turns out it isn't that hard. All sorts of programmable things exist outside of time. Equations, for instance, can be thought of as simultaneous accomplishments. More to the point, 3D-modeled maps can be rendered out of time. That's how the shamans did it. The songlines form a map that is inscribed along  the intersection of the timed and the timeless. So you just gotta hack a few dozen satellites, filter all space, crossref a few dusty turtle shells and the strange tattoos of chosen one children, and you have a map. Boom. A secret map that you can use to trace paths in the world in order to fray a linear continuity of time and touch eternal. So one last step: upload that clever widget into the broader Library database and know alongside forever. Easy.

How 'bout massive system crash instead.

Any guesses as to why? Why would a map that 3D models timeless time be a problem for a VA database?

Took me a while to debug it. So I'll let you ponder.

The Library is Virtual Adept design, and if you've been on the internet since like '93, you've probably heard of the Correspondence Point. We teach that spatial relations are data relations, and that the only thing that even approaches a thing like space in the actual universe is a single point where all things simultaneously exist. What most folks think of as space is really a virtual array, one possible experience of a arrayed bits.

So when you take a 3D modeling program that maps timeless time and try to boot that shit on a server that is based on a spaceless metaframe... you don't get the tenth sphere, lemme just say that. (Unless the tenth sphere is Titanic Collapse due to Being a Fucking Idiot. Which is not actually completely impossible, given a conversation I recently had with a Hollow One postmodernist. But I digress). You can't rely on a 3D render to collapse time and then collapse the 3D render within time. We call that, folks, a paradox.

So... stuck. No Dreamtime map for TOPHAT. No way to touch the infinite unconscious mind that exists beyond linear expressions of time.

And that would be the end of the story. But we keep this guy around the Library who digs in dank places and stinks. He reads the books other people find revolting. We think he's a bit mad. But, he wanders up muttering after the system crashed. "What if," the Delver of Dark Secrets asks, "the thing collapsing isn't the problem? What if, instead, the problem is the thing collapsing?"

I do confess I have a secret love of koans.

It's a poser, but this is what the nut really meant: The fact that the model collapses isn't that's the problem. The fact that it's a model collapsing is the problem. I have to build something else then let it collapse.

What can be built that can express space but also be mathemetized but also not have the entirety of its essence undone via collapse? Sometimes in life, the teacher accidentally gives you the answer by the way the question is worded.

What can be built? Buildings. Or more precisely, architecture. Architecture has collapse as a core component of it's timeline. Better still, architecture has long resonated with human knowing and is a place of abiding, which is sort of a bonus, since abiding is a corner stone of spiritual realities (which is where we are trying to get to eventually anyway, remember?). Best of all, architecture is basically geometry with emotions, and we have long known that tessellated geometry can recursively fold into the Correspondence Point.

Translation: If one can design recursive architectural representations of the Dreamtime songlines, that same hypothetical person can load that program on a server that doesn't exist in space and know in ways that are neither enspaced or entimed.

So that's what we did.

In practice, it means that we help people share knowledge beyond time and space. That's what the shamanistic vision of knowledge always was. To draw on past lives. To speak to the heart of the earth. To look at the world from its beginning or its end, or beyond beginning and end.

What does that actually do? Yes, Neo, we can teach you kung fu very quickly. Wherever you are, irrespective of your physical training. You can draw on the collective knowledge of future and past selves and allies. The Dreamtime Collaborative is the most potent and expeditious mechanism for disseminating knowledge. We can use it to blend past lives together, help unschooled dreamers learn from their dreams, create databases of lived experiences, tap into the Akashic Record, and yes, download skills, knowledge, and abilities straight into your being.

And that's how you make library with unwritable truths.