Just a quick update.
Oct. 8th, 2002 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheAs I mentioned in my comments of the previous entry, my headache has reduced itself tremendously. I still have the skeleton of a headache, but for the most part it is a phantom.
I finally cracked open Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, originally written in the 1500s. The edition I have is annotated, which makes the reading oh so much more accessible. It's way more interesting than I would have thought. Book II, the section I'm starting with, is all about numbers and their relation to magic; he speaks a lot about the Pythagoreans and of Plato, and also places a lot of emphasis on the kabalah. Of course, I loved the section devoted to the number four.
I admit, I know very little about what "the occult" is supposed to be. When I was a teenager attending a Free Methodist church, I read a book that said that automatic writing, visualization techniques, and other such activities were of the occult. (It was on this definition that I gave a confession to the entire church during a Sunday service, where I described being involved in the occult and making a conscious decision to turn away from it now since I was in the church. Mind you, I was 16.) I know that my aunt Anna was most likely into the occult; I nabbed a couple of magazines that sold "occult" paraphrenalia (oils, incense, candles, athames, books, even robes). But other than that, all I'm running on right now is conjecture--and this book I have beside me. Hopefully, I'll come away with a better understanding.
My friend Dan is encouraging me to run a Mage campaign. I think I have more of a grip of what it may take, being a GM; however, there are some skills I still feel I do not have and that may be essential. I don't think things up on the fly very well. But Dan, himself a GM, managed to explain some things (trade secrets?) to me, and I think I understand the idea of likelihoods a little better now. His advice was helpful.
So... a Mage campaign. I've only been preparing for this for four years. Like I told him, I'm not working right now... what else do I have to do with my time? The thing I'll have to restrain from most is making my primary NPC a Cultist of Ecstasy. I might want to pick something not so rock-the-boatish.
I finally cracked open Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, originally written in the 1500s. The edition I have is annotated, which makes the reading oh so much more accessible. It's way more interesting than I would have thought. Book II, the section I'm starting with, is all about numbers and their relation to magic; he speaks a lot about the Pythagoreans and of Plato, and also places a lot of emphasis on the kabalah. Of course, I loved the section devoted to the number four.
I admit, I know very little about what "the occult" is supposed to be. When I was a teenager attending a Free Methodist church, I read a book that said that automatic writing, visualization techniques, and other such activities were of the occult. (It was on this definition that I gave a confession to the entire church during a Sunday service, where I described being involved in the occult and making a conscious decision to turn away from it now since I was in the church. Mind you, I was 16.) I know that my aunt Anna was most likely into the occult; I nabbed a couple of magazines that sold "occult" paraphrenalia (oils, incense, candles, athames, books, even robes). But other than that, all I'm running on right now is conjecture--and this book I have beside me. Hopefully, I'll come away with a better understanding.
My friend Dan is encouraging me to run a Mage campaign. I think I have more of a grip of what it may take, being a GM; however, there are some skills I still feel I do not have and that may be essential. I don't think things up on the fly very well. But Dan, himself a GM, managed to explain some things (trade secrets?) to me, and I think I understand the idea of likelihoods a little better now. His advice was helpful.
So... a Mage campaign. I've only been preparing for this for four years. Like I told him, I'm not working right now... what else do I have to do with my time? The thing I'll have to restrain from most is making my primary NPC a Cultist of Ecstasy. I might want to pick something not so rock-the-boatish.