Anagram Gematria
AKA Mixer-Uppers, Wordbenders Note: Anagram Gematria first appeared in Unknown Armies 2nd Edition, in the source book Break Today. All I have done is update it slightly for 3rd Edition. Gematria is a Jewish mystic tradition based on the sacredness of the Hebrew language, and on the Hebrew alphabet numerological properties. The central tenet of gematria is that the word for a thing very much is the thing described. Gematriasts therefore reason that if two words have the same numerical identity, that is, the letters that compose them add up to the same sum, then there is a real mystic connection between those two words and the two things those words describe. Anagram Gematria (or “A Grammarian Gate”) takes the idea of equivalents and mutates it in a way that would make an orthodox rabbi pull out his earlocks: this school works with English, discards the numerological element, and is based solely on anagrams. To a mixer-upper, the truth of A Grammarian Gate is obvious. After all, “parliament” is an anagram of “partial men” and “Clint Eastwood” can be rearranged into “old west action.” How much more proof does one need? The central paradox of Anagram Gematria is that words are things, but that words aren’t actually themselves. A word is only a collection of letters, and if that collection of letters can become something else, how can it really have a meaning? But it does have a meaning. Therefore, the meaning is contained in the letters, and when those letters are shared among other words, it must make those words equivalent, even though an anagram in one language is garbage in another. Want to know more about Iconomancy? Read the entire adept school here.
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Iconomancy
AKA Stalkers, Paparazzo Note: Iconomancy first appeared in Unknown Armies 1st Edition, in the source book Post Modern Magick. All I have done is update it slightly for 3rd Edition. Every people have their Gods, and ours are the famous. We may have abandoned the worship of Apollo, Isis, and Odin, but we sacrifice instead at the altars of Elvis, Marilyn, and JFK, or the revolutionary trinity of Che, Mao, and Lennon, or the twinned do-gooders Diana and Theresa. We all recognize their images; they have their attributes, their shrines, and their cults. Their faces stare down our walls like household gods. They were once mortal, but now they have passed into a greater realm altogether. In many cultures, a mortal becoming a god is no big shakes. The Chinese have always been particularly fond of deifying the famous. Quan Ti, the popular god of literature, warfare, and money (covering the three favorite Chinese pastimes) was a historical general, for instance. Often the purpose of deification was a pragmatic one; Mother Mu, a notorious elderly busybody, was deified immediately after her death by the Emperor and given the task of erasing the memories of those about to be reborn, in order to counter a wave of Lotharios across China who were claiming to have been married to girls in previous lives in order to seduce them. Unsurprisingly, a school of magick grew up around the worship of these individuals, seeking, much like the Cult of the Naked Goddess, the remnants of their mortal lives, mimicking their actions, drawing out the contrast between their immortal and mortal status. But come the twentieth century, these adepts found that their mojo just wasn’t working anymore. The old gods were too remote, details of lives too hard to come buy. New gods had to be found, and the celebrities of the West provided exactly that. Rather than being called gods, they were now referred to as Idols. Modern Iconomancy is most often practiced in Asia, though it is known in the U.S. Many Western Iconomancers have drawn inspiration from voudon and santeria, and often use terms drawn from these religions- such as Rada and Petro, referring to the good and bad sides of an Idol. Iconomancers are a curious lot. Often they have little life of their own, instead sublimating their desires through the slavish imitation of their Idols. It should be emphasized that, unlike Pornomancy, Iconomancy is not dependent upon the idol in question being a member of the Invisible Clergy. It draws its power from public perception, not mystical reality; the Idols have no metaphysical existence outside of the Iconomancers. Many Iconomancers are or eventually become avatars of a type appropriate of their chosen idols, however. Want to know more about Iconomancy? Read the entire adept school here. The Libertine
Note: The Libertine first appeared in The Ascension of the Magdalene, as the Rake. All I have done is update it slightly for 3rd Edition. The Libertine is the current name for an age old phenomenon: the sons and daughters of wealthy families, who want for nothing and have all the time in the world to pursue their own amusements and livelihoods. With few skills to support themselves, and a life of pampered luxury behind them, they tend to take what enjoyment they can from life, trusting to that their family name and clout to grant them the right. Often, they become bullies or thieves. The Libertine is concerned only with his own pleasure, and values others only as they bring him the joy he seeks. His wit is biting and he is quick to anger, but he lacks direction and purpose beyond his own amusements. He is mad, bad, and dangerous to know, counting on his family’s money and reputation to keep him from the consequences of his own actions. This is an Avatar for the young. Aging Libertines tend to find some other way of life, as their capacity for the indulgences of youth ebbs. Some few manage to maintain the lifestyle into middle age, but the body is just not built for that type of dissipation. Nor is the mind; most people eventually pass through the phase and start caring about things other than their own gratification. That’s the key to the Libertine: the whole purpose of life is to enjoy every moment, to squeeze the last bit of entertainment from the present. Positive aspects of the Libertine are the life of the party, those who share the joy they produce freely with those around them. Negative aspects are users and abusers, seeking only their own pleasure with no regard for anyone else. Want to know more about the Libertine? Read the entire archetype here. Narco-Alchemy
AKA Drugrats, Narqis, Psychonauts Note: Narco-Alchemy first appeared in the Unknown Armies 2nd Edition. All I have done is update it slightly for 3rd Edition. People have been chasing alchemy for most of the last millennium. Some think it’s a magickal art that turns lead into gold. Others think it’s just a precursor to chemistry. Still others think all the potions and bottles were a side effect to the transformation of self, rising above the base matter of one’s body into a more perfect and sublime form. You know all this. For much of the last century, a bunch of other people have been chasing psychobiology and psychopharmacology. They think just about every mental illness, disorder, or discomfort known to humanity comes from imbalances in brain chemicals. By tinkering with serotonin uptake, they can purify the emotions of a patient or, potentially, improve memory and cognition. This, too, you know. Finally, for all of human history there have been those that pursued the practice more than the theory. They harvested coca leaves or poppies or hemp and used it to get high, talk to spirits, or improve their mind in some fashion. Their modern counterparts can explain how much better the world works for you with a noseful of cocaine. And if you join them for a line, their explanation even makes sense. You’ve joined. It makes sense. It’s all old hat to you. Because you’re something different. You stand at the intersection of these three groups. You’ve given hoary alchemy a nitrous boost from the latest science and hooked it up with the rawboned know-how of street culture and drug ritual. Now you’re a street drug in human form: powerful, innovative, confusing, and dangerous. You learned to change yourself, to make your body a chemical crucible, altering its ebb and flow with dope and blow. But transforming yourself is only the first step to transforming others, refining them into a higher state or corroding them down into dross. The central paradox of Narco-Alchemy is that in becoming a superior spirit you’re becoming an inferior human. You’re a transcendence addict, and your jones for transformation is just as desperate and crippling as any other unstoppable need. You master the drugs that master you, mastering yourself by becoming a slave to powders, drams, and vials. It’s a vicious circle, a self-speeding psycho cycle, and you can only hope to become something higher before you’re six feet under. Maybe when you’re perfect, you’ll become free again. Want to know more about the Narco-Alcehmist? Read the entire adept school here.
Dipsomancy
AKA Boozehounds, Barflies, Bacchanalians Note: Dipsomancy first appeared in Unknown Armies 1st Edition All I have done is update it slightly for 3rd Edition. Drinking makes you feel good. It gets you high. You laugh more, talk more, cry more. Everything is more itself. Drinking is wonderful. There is nothing better than being drunk. Parties are better with booze. Meals are better with booze. Making out is better with booze. (Having sex usually isn’t, but you never remember that anyway.) Driving drunk is fun. It’s a game. You’re breaking the law, thumbing your nose in everyone’s face. But it's’ okay. You’re in control. You can handle your liquor. It’s evolution in action. You’re a faster, smarter mammal and you can careen down the highway tanked because nothing can stop you when you’re on your liquor high. Wine is beautiful. The chemistry of grapes contains more profundity than all of physics. Vineyards are oceans, flavors rolling in and out like the tide, shifting year to year as the product of a thousand thousand interactions. Beer is happy. Pop a can, open a bottle, sit at the bar and watch the draft pour. Light beer, dark beer, have a beer, take a beer, drink a beer. Go down in the basement and make a beer. Liquor is wily. It circles you like a hunter, then strips you like a lover. A pint of cheap gin tastes good in the gutter, and single-malt scotch rules the roost when you’re in your tux. Cocktails are like spells, every one is a formula for interaction. Drinking turns up the contrast knob on the television of life. Nothing beats drinking. Nothing. Boozehounds know all of the above plus more. They know that drinking brings clarity and focus, while filtering out everything that doesn’t matter. Dipsomancers ride the easy road of cheap charges and a constant buzz, sliding from bar to bar with a staggering joy and a slippery way that gets them through danger without a scratch. But when they screw up, they screw up hard. The central paradox of Dipsomancy is that it’s a power trip and a death wish all in one. It takes you to incredible heights of insight and potency, then leaves you impotent and blind. It gains you friends and destroys your family. It’s like cheating on an IQ test: your slippery success only proves how stupid you really are. But while you’re riding that cresting wave of drink, you can do anything. Want to know more about Dipsomancy? Read the entire adept school here. The Magus
Note: The Magus first appeared in Unknown Armies 2nd Edition in the source book The Ascension of the Magdalene. All I have done is update it slightly for 3rd Edition. While the systematic pursuit of the occult arts was a driving force during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, it has fallen by the wayside these days. These days, magick is different; magick has shot past modern and is now firm postmodern, for better or worse. The careful, codified study of the Art has given away to idiosyncratic methods of grasping any power available. Occultism has become the province of the deviant, obsessive mind, not the serious study it once was. Now there are few, if any, following the path of the Magus in the modern world. Nonetheless, there is still a perception of what a wizard really is in the public consciousness and its nothing like the scruffy weirdos that adepts truly are. If an adept could ever square her obsessive world view with the Magus Archetype, then they could do some real damage. Want to know more about the Magus? Read the entire archetype here. |
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November 2018
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