Art & Academe Chapter Three: Philosophiae

Philosophy in the thirteenth century has resolved into three branches. Metaphysics is the study of the nature of existence itself. Natural philosophy is the study of the world, both its non-living components (geography and meteorology) and its living ones (botany and zoology). Finally, moral philosophy concerns itself with questions of good and evil, of what is right and wrong. These three branches of scientific study are discussed in more detail in this chapter.

Prior to the thirteenth century and the New Aristotle, philosophical works had revolved around the theological expositions of Plotinus, Porphyry, and the other Platonists by St. Augustine and Boethius, which still today constitute much of moral philosophy. These two authors and their contemporaries tackled such weighty subjects as the soul, free will, and the constituents of happiness. Cosmology and natural philosophy, on the other hand, were principally the product of a single school — the school of Chartres — which produced writers like Thierry the Breton, William of Conches, and Bernard Silvestris. Collectively the school of Chartres produced a body of teaching on the structure of the universe and man’s place within it, before access to the new Aristotelian science. The works of the school of Chartres are even today among the primary works on natural philosophy and cosmology taught in the universities of Mythic Europe.

As central as the works of Aristotle are now to education and intellectual life, his scientific and philosophic works are viewed by theologians with suspicion and hostility in the thirteenth century. Fear of Aristotle’s influences stemmed from his books on natural philosophy, which contain judgments and opinions that are subversive to Christian faith and dogma. The most vital concern for the medieval philosophers — Christian, Muslim, and Jew alike — was Aristotle’s claim, with accompanying proofs, that the world is eternal, having neither beginning nor end. Under Aristotle’s worldview the soul does not survive the body, and it denies transubstantiation in the Eucharist since the substance cannot change while retaining its former properties; although both these assertions are challenged by some interpreters of Aristotle (and these interpretations will make Aristotle doctrinally acceptable in the decades to come). The Philosopher also presented a view of the world that was regular and unalterable, denying the possibility of miracles.

In 1210 a special synod at Sens decreed that the philosophy of the New Aristotle and all commentaries on those works were not to be read at Paris in public or in secret, under threat of excommunication. This ban was repeated in 1215 specifically for the University of Paris, and there are rumors that the pope is planning to establish a commission to expurgate doctrinal errors from Aristotle. This edict applies only to Paris, but Paris’s influence is such that the teaching of Philosophiae is disparaged throughout northern Europe, although still taught and debated openly in Italy and Iberia. The material presented in this chapter is a consolidation of the major points of philosophy in Mythic Europe, drawn mainly from Aristotle, but tempered with Christian teaching and supplemented by material from older sources, such as St. Augustine, Boethius, and the school of Chartres.

Fact vs. Theory In common with the rest of Art & Academe, this chapter presents a view of the world that is factual rather than theoretical. Unlike other chapters in this book, however, not all the issues have been resolved. Specifically, the metaphysical subjects are still speculative and are the subject of debate by the scholars of the day. Even so, the broad brush-strokes of metaphysics have been worked out. For example, a Neoplatonist might dispute the existence of Aristotle’s categories, but he does not deny that substance is made of matter and form. The two fundamental Limits of Magic — the Limit of the Divine and the Limit of Essential Nature — prevent magi from delving too deeply “behind the scenes” as to how the world operates, so metaphysical debates are as hotly contested in the Order as they are among mundane philosophers. Fundamentally, however, Hermetic theory is a theory of magic, not philosophy. Magic works in the same way whether the magus is an Aristotelian, a Neoplatonist, or has no interest in philosophy at all. The practical and productive philosophical sciences of Mythic Europe — particularly natural philosophy — are largely free from such uncertainty, and the views of thirteenth-century scholars are correct. Prior to the modern (13th century) understanding, Hermetic magic could (and did) produce results that were anomalous according to the theory of the day. Such inconsistencies have become fewer and fewer as scientific thought has evolved. For example, the Hermetic Forms of Auram, Animal, and Mentem match fairly well to the current philosophies of meteorology, animals, and the human mind, respectively. This is not to say that a complete understanding of the world has been achieved; there are still many wonders to be explored and explained.

Metaphysics

The part of philosophy that attempts to posit explanations for existence, causality, and change is called metaphysics. The principle author on the subject of metaphysics is still Aristotle, who devoted much of his writing to the nature and purpose of existence, not least of which was the Metaphysica. Nevertheless, as in many parts of academia throughout the thirteenth century, new texts on the subject have been written — or are being written by scholars such as Robert Grosseteste — that reconcile theology with the New Aristotle, and it is this version that is presented here.

Forms, Matter, and Substance

At the moment of creation, God brought into being from nothing all possible forms and all possible matter. Everything was created in this single act, and there have been no subsequent creations since. Matter is the formless raw material of the universe. It was originally created as one large body called the Chaos (meaning “confusion”) which occupied the whole place now occupied by the world; there was nothing outside it. The Chaos was made up of particles that are the minimal components of any object, thus they are occasion ally called atoms, meaning “uncuttable.” Some particles of matter are moist, and some are dry. Some of the moist particles are hot, and some are cold, similarly the case with the dry particles. These four types of particle, the building blocks of matter, are literally formless, and therefore cannot be sensed in any way.

Without a form, matter is simply the potentiality of a thing to exist. The form (not to be confused with a Hermetic Form) is the outline and design — the template, if you will — of what matter will become. The form of a dog, for example, is the very essence of dogness, the thing that makes a dog recognizable as a dog regardless of its size, color, demeanor, and so forth. All things that have existed, do exist, or will exist have a form, even if that thing has no physicality, such as Justice or Truth. There are some who claim that the human soul is the form of that individual, although this is not universally accepted. The forms themselves are non-material, just as matter has no form.

A thing comes into being only when a form is impressed on (or more correctly “informs”) matter. Informed matter has ten categories, the first and most important of which is substance, which determines its properties. Thus the degree to which a thing is composed of hot, cold, moist, and dry particles of matter gives that thing its physical properties; things made of a lot of hot particles have little mass, whereas things that are cold tend to be heavy. Those things that are more moist than dry are flexible, whereas dry things are breakable, and so on.

All substances contain some particles of all four types of matter, but the most basic of substances — the four elements — are overwhelmingly composed of a single type. Fire is composed mainly of hot and dry particles that take the form of tetrahedral corpuscles (literally, “tiny bodies”). Air is primarily made of hot and moist octahedral corpuscles; Water is principally cold and moist icosahedra and Earth is predominantly cold and dry cubes. It is common to refer to the hot and dry particles as particles of fire because of this association (and similarly for the other particles and elements), although it is important to remember that the substance of fire, for example, is composed of all four types of particle even though it is predominantly made of particles of fire matter.

The other nine categories give the substance its non-material characteristics. Categories of quality describe its appearance, sound, taste, flavor, and texture; whereas those of quantity describe its size in terms of number, mass, length, and so forth. Categories of relation describe its association with another substance, such as next to it, or descended from it; whereas place indicates the substance’s actual physical location. The category of time indicates when a substance did, does, or will exist, such as yesterday or tomorrow. Posture describes the relationship of parts of the thing to itself (such as sitting or standing); whereas possession indicates what it is holding or adorned with. Finally, the categories of action and passion indicate what the thing is doing (such as cutting or running) and what is being done to it (such as being cut or being ridden), respectively. Thus a horse might possess the categories of whiteness and being 18 hands in height, and it might acquire categories of possessing a saddle and being ridden.

The Lyceum on Substance and Categories

The Lyceum (see Chapter One: Introduction) have posited that the primary effect of all magic is concerned with a thing’s categories. In particular, they believe that the Techniques and Forms of Bonisagus’s theory map directly onto Aristotle’s theories of form, matter, and substance. They believe that it should be possible to manipulate all categories of a substance using various Hermetic Techniques, but of the ten categories recognized by Aristotle, only six are currently included in Hermetic practice — and some of those are incomplete in their operation. The Lyceum does not hold that Bonisagus’s theory is deficient, just that the Order’s understanding of it is, and they seek to encourage those who succeed in creating new effects without the need of a Hermetic Breakthrough. To take each category in turn: Substance: The substance of a object gives it its density, hardness, malleability, warmth, and other physical characteristics. In magical terms, the substance is the Hermetic Form that the object falls under. Substance is not affected directly by Hermetic magic except through its creation and destruction. Rego and Muto instead work on the values of the substance; that is, those determined by the other categories. Quality: A man turned into a pig has all categories of quality changed, so that he looks, sounds, smells, feels, and tastes like a pig. To mundane senses, therefore, he appears as a pig. He is still a human, however, as Intellego Corpus would reveal. Note that it is not the species that are changed (unless Imaginem magic is used), it is the substance’s production of those species that is affected. Natural changes in quality (such as a change in color of a stoat’s fur with the season) can be produced by Rego spells. Quantity: The measurable values of a substance can be continuous (e.g. length, weight) or discrete (e.g. one, 10). The substance provides the thing that has quantity; so a stone is heavy (substance), but has a heaviness of 80 pounds (quantity). Changes in continuous quantity are under the control of Muto; such changes are rarely natural. Hermetic magic has not yet encompassed changes in discrete quantity, else a Muto Terram spell could change the quantity of a coin from one to two without using Target Group. Place: The location of a substance is changed through the most common applications of the Technique of Rego. Time: The time at which the substance exists cannot currently be affected by Hermetic magic, although there is no theoretical reason why it should not be. Changing the time of an object does not affect the passage of time per se, but could change the time at which a thing exists. So a stone could be altered to exist yesterday, or next week. It would probably need the invention of a new Technique to achieve this. Action: What a substance is doing can be affected through the Technique of Rego. All action must be logically possible; for example, an object could not be made to fall when it is resting on a solid surface. Passion: What a substance is having done to it is currently outside the realm of Hermetic magic, largely because its effects can be caused indirectly. A log being burned is an example of a substance with a passion; indirectly this effect can be brought about with Ignem spells. Were it possible to affect the passion directly, this would be a Herbam spell, with no requisites. Posture: Affecting the relation of a substance to itself is clearly an application of Rego magics, which can make a man sit, stand, and so forth. Relation: The connection between a substance and another substance can be a physical relation (e.g. the man is next to the horse) or a metaphysical one (e.g. the man is the owner of the horse). Rego spells can indirectly affect the first through the category of place; by moving a man close to a horse, he acquires the relational category of being next to it. The second type of relation cannot currently be affected either directly or indirectly. Hermetic theory suggests that magic could conceivably directly affect this category, but this would probably need a new Technique to relate Forms to each other and produce Sympathetic Connections. Possession: Integration of a Hermetic Technique to affect that with which a substance is adorned could eliminate the need for casting requisites when affecting a Form; a man’s clothes are merely categories of himself, and therefore should be affected by the Form of Corpus, without need for Herbam, Animal, and Terram for his linen shirt, leather belt, and metal buttons. Further, possession could indicate Arcane Connections in the same way that relation affects Sympathetic Connections, and the two categories could be combined into the same new Technique.

Cosmology

At the very center of the world is a perfect sphere of earth upon the surface of which all material life can be found. Surrounding the sphere of earth on all sides is the sphere of water that constitutes the seas, although in some places the expansive water enters into the pores of the earth and runs beneath it, leaving dry land. Surrounding the sphere of water is the sphere of air and surrounding that is the sphere of fire. The fire in this outer layer is of the purest kind found, not the smoky fire found on earth, and when illuminated by the sun it burns with a bright blue flame giving the sky its color. These four spheres constitute the sublunar world, for they are divided from the heavens by the Lunar Sphere described by the orbit of the moon. Each of the other six of the planets has a sphere of its own, each one wholly enclosing the preceding one, until the twelfth and final sphere, that of the fixed stars (see Chapter Two: Artes Liberales, Astrology).

The constitution of the supralunar spheres, and indeed the heavenly orbs themselves, is a matter of conjecture among philosophers. The majority opinion is in accordance with Aristotle, that earth, water, air, and fire exist only below the sphere of the Moon. Above this limit there is a fifth element called aether, which is neither hot nor cold, dry nor moist, and has corpuscles that are the shape of dodecahedra. According to Aristotle, aether exists only above the Lunar Sphere and is the only thing that exists there, being the constituent matter of both the planetary spheres and the planets themselves. There are some who deny the existence of aether, preferring that the sphere of fire extends out unto the sphere of fixed stars. In such a cosmology, the spheres of the planets do not exist as actual entities, but are simply the orbits of the wandering stars. Among the Order of Hermes the consensus is that Aristotle was right; and many consider the Limit of the Lunar Sphere and the sphere of the Moon to be one and the same: the boundary between the laws of the mundane world, which can be manipulated with magic; and the laws of the celestial realm, which are the exclusive domain of the Divine.

The Collegium and Platonic Metaphysics The Collegium (see Chapter One: Introduction) reject Aristotle’s close association between form and matter. In keeping with their Platonist viewpoint, they see all creation as an “emanation” of an ineffable principle called the One. They do not deny the Aristotelian analysis of the coming together of matter and form to make substance, but add a moral dimension, in that all things only exist in so far as they are images of the forms in the mind of God; they are more or less imperfect copies of God’s perfection. The Collegium sees the study of magic as the study of the chain of being from nature right up to the One, an ascent through states of reality. They seek to know nature just as the Intellect knows the One, and have an intense desire to explain the workings of the world, to seek the perfect by investigating the commonality of the imperfect. They conduct experiments to elucidate scraps of knowledge that add to their knowledge of the One. Story Seed: Fire from Heaven A magus attempting to make purer, hotter fire causes fire to descend from the heavens (perhaps using fancy weather effects — see later). This fire, due to its pure and subtle nature, naturally enters the pores of the earth and spreads outwards; then, by its separating nature, divides the earth part by part in its desire to escape from the earth. All natural things are incinerated by the scorching fury of the fire. The magus may have found a perfect weapon, or else he may have spelled the destruction of his covenant. The characters must try to stop the spread of the pure fire before it consumes everything.

Causality and Change

All causes of things are beginnings; when we know the cause of a thing we have scientific knowledge of it — to know a thing’s existence is to know the reason why it is. — Aristotle, Metaphysica

The very subject matter of natural science consists of how things change, and the cause of those changes. “Changes” in this case covers a number of processes. Substantial change is the generation or dissipation of substance, resulting in something either coming into existence or passing from the world. Quantitative change is the change in the amount of a thing resulting in either increase or decrease. Qualitative change is the change in the nature of a thing, transforming it from one substance into another. Finally, locative changes result in alteration of the physical location of a thing.

All changes have a number of things in common: they all have an initial point and an end point, and these states must be distinct from one another, else no change has occurred. The thing that is changed must also persist through the change: change can neither create something from nothing nor completely eliminate a thing. All changes have causes that give the things they affect reasons — why the thing exists and what it is. It is of vital importance to the philosopher to understand the causation of change. The material cause of a thing is the matter out of which the thing is made. The formal cause of a thing is the form that gives it definite being, and makes it this thing and not another. The efficient cause is that which makes the change, and is perhaps the most simple to understand; it is the agent, living or nonliving, which acts as the source of the change. The efficient cause of natural objects is normally another individual of the same species; dogs beget dogs and apple seeds give rise to apple trees. The efficient cause of a manufactured thing is its maker. The purpose of a thing is called the final cause, the sake for which it exists, or the reason that the change occurs. For all natural things, the final cause is to realize its form as perfectly as possible, to be as good a specimen of man, horse, tree, etc., as conditions will permit. This is not the case for manufactured objects. To take an example of a statue, its material cause is marble, its formal cause is a statue of Frederick Barbarossa, its efficient cause is the sculptor who crafted it, and its final cause is to commemorate the king, and perhaps win his favor.

Change in Substance: Generation and Destruction

A change in respect to substance is when a thing is generated and destroyed. When a person is born, he comes into being, when he dies, he goes out of existence. Likewise when a statue is made and when it is smashed. The form and the matter of the thing survive a change in substance, satisfying the condition that all changes must have something that persists through the change. It is the substance — that combination of form and matter — which is created or destroyed.

The act of generation is rarely the creation of a substance where there was none previously (that is, de novo creation), but instead takes a pre-existing substance and impresses upon it a new form, making it into a new substance. Thus when a statue is made, it begins with the form of marble. At the end of its generation, the object still possesses this form, but also possesses the form of a statue. Similarly, when the act of destruction removes a form from a substance: the smashed statue loses the form that made it identifiable as a statue, and is left with the form of marble rather than losing all form altogether.

Consequences of Generation and Destruction

Only supernatural powers (such as the Hermetic Art of Creo) can combine matter and form together to apparently create something de novo from thin air. The ambient matter from which things are magically generated is all around us, but without a form it has no categories, and thus possesses no mass or dimensions, nor generates sensory species. It is impossible for a magus to use Creo to create something that cannot exist, such as a foursided triangle — such things are not natural, pre-existing forms, and so are outside the capacity of Creo magics. However, a green dog is possible, because “green” is part of the category of quality of the dog, not part of its form. Further, Creo magic cannot cause a cat to grow wings, because wings are not part of the form of a cat, but it can restore a leg which has been removed. When Creo is used to heal or repair, it is reasserting the original form of the substance, thus banishing any changes in categories (such as wounds).

Perdo magic dissolves substances, not matter. When the form is separated from its matter, the substance no longer exists, but both the form and the matter from which it was made are still there. However, since form is non-material and matter is formless, the destroyed object vanishes. Because Perdo magic damages categories and substance, it cannot improve an object since its target moves further away from its ideal form.

Change in Quality: Alteration

The process of alteration is where the properties of a substance are changed. A wax candle alters when it is warmed, becoming softer, and alters again in the cold, becoming hard. These changes come about through alterations in the relative amounts of hot, cold, dry, and moist particles within an object. Natural philosophers recognize that all substances have a digestive capacity that is their propensity to change, and a retentive capacity that is their tendency to remain the same. Digestion is imparted by hot and moist particles, so an object that has a predominance of such particles is easily capable of change. Air, which is particularly moist and hot, readily condenses into rain, or rarefies into lightning. In particular, moistness gives an object its fluidity and flexibility, so an object that becomes moist becomes more flexible. Moist things also tend to be volatile and expansive, filling the spaces in their surroundings. Heat encourages particles to separate from unalike particles and cling to their own kind, encouraging alteration. Retention is caused by cold and dry particles; objects with these properties do not experience alteration naturally, and are subject to accidental alteration with reluctance. Coldness causes things to mix together and coagulate and dryness fixes them solid — it is the quality of rigidity, granting structure and defining shape, rather than being defined by the environment. For this reason, rock breaks rather than changes, and metal only melts because it is more moist than other types of earth, and it requires extreme circumstances to do so.

Causality and Spell Design Aristotelian concepts of causality are useful when considering spell design, particularly when mimicking natural phenomena. The target of Hermetic magic is always the material cause of the spell, and so the correct Hermetic Form can be determined by considering that which is changed. The efficient cause is replaced with magic. For example, later in this chapter we learn that air trapped underground is the efficient cause of earthquakes. The material cause is the earth itself, thus Earth Shock (ArM5, page 156) is a Terram spell, not an Auram spell. Likewise, A Plague of Frogs (see Worms, below) is an Animal spell: while the efficient cause is the pool in which the frogs spontaneously generate, the material cause (the frogs themselves) are animals.

Consequences of Alteration

Alteration does not necessarily fall under the Hermetic Technique of Muto; in fact, most alteration is in terms of natural changes, and is the purview of Rego spells. For example, water can become steam or ice under the influence of Rego, for these are both natural states of water, the first caused by an alteration of the amount of moist particles in water, the latter by digestion into more cold particles. Rego can also make a substance more resistant to alteration by enhancing its retentive capacity. Alchemy (see Chapter Five: Experimental Philosophy) operates through these natural alterations in substance through refinement and purification.

The Technique of Muto, on the other hand, does not work through digestion or retention; instead, it directly manipulates the category of quality to alter the properties of a substance — such as its color, shape, or density — without an actual change in substance. The original form and matter remain unchanged, so a man turned into a pig with a Muto spell is simply a man with the categories of a pig, and can still be affected with Corpus spells, as well as Animal spells that target his new shape. Members of House Bjornaer achieve a deeper level of change; the heartbeast seems to have a different form than the human shape, although the matter remains the same. If this was fully understood by Hermetic magi, then perhaps permanent unnatural change would be possible.

Change in Quantity: Growth and Diminution

Just as an object has a digestive and retentive capacity, so it has an attractive and an expulsive capacity; the former imparted by its hot and dry particles and the latter by its cold and moist ones. Because all substances have all four types of particles, all things are capable of attracting to themselves more matter (and thus growing), or expelling superfluous matter (thus shrinking). Those objects with an abundance of heat and dryness are naturally inclined to grow by attracting more of themselves to themselves; witness the capacity of fire to expand and grow rapidly. Conversely, a particularly moist and cold object naturally decreases its own substance, much as water tends to evaporate or seep away if not prevented from doing so.

It is the attractive properties of living things that enable them to grow throughout their lives, and the forces of attraction and expulsion also order the seasons, causing the hot spheres of air and fire to expand in the summer at the expense of the cold spheres of water and earth (and vice versa in winter).

Consequences of Growth and Diminution

Growth is most easily simulated with magic by creating more substance directly by informing new matter to account for the change in size, and thus is an exercise of the Technique of Creo. Muto can also make something grow, but it does this through the manipulation of the categories of quantity, making an object or creature larger and/or heavier without the concomitant increase in substance; such a change is unnatural, and cannot result in permanent growth.

Change in Place: Motion

Everything capable of motion, whether inanimate or animate, is moved by something that is distinguishable from the thing which it moved. Thus the living spirit within an animate thing is the mover and the creature’s body the thing that is moved. In inanimate objects, however, the mover and the thing moved are physically and spatially distinct from each other; and it is this which separates the animate from the inanimate.

In the sublunar world, the natural movement of inanimate objects is always in a straight line. All objects find their own level according to the balance of their elements, unless restrained in some fashion. Thus a stone, being made predominantly of the cold and dry particles, seeks to move to the center of the world, and rests on the surface of the world. Water is relatively heavy but not absolutely heavy (like earth), so it rises above earth, but sinks below air or fire. Fire is absolutely light; being a hot element it rises as far as it can from the center of the world, whereas air is relatively light, so finds its own level between the layers of fire and water. The initial mover in the case of all natural motion is the generans (or generator) that originally produced the body which is in motion. Thus fire produces fire (as when a log is set ablaze) and confers on the new fire all the properties that belong to fire, including the ability to rise naturally when unimpeded.

In addition to the natural motion of objects, they may also experience precipitate motion (also called violent or accidental motion), which is motion contrary to that naturally determined by an object’s dominant element. The initial mover in precipitate motion is usually easy to identify since it must be in physical contact with the thing it moves. Thus a man is the initial mover when he throws a stone, and to do so he must overcome the resistance of the stone that comes about through its desire to move naturally downwards. But what keeps the stone moving once it has lost contact with its initial mover? The initial mover not only moves the stone, but also moves the air through which it is launched. The first portion of air pushes the stone and simultaneously activates the adjacent portion of air, which pushes the stone a bit further, and so on. As the process continues, the motive power of successive units of air gradually diminishes until a unit of air is reached that is incapable of activating the next unit because its own resistance is too great. At this point the stone begins to fall with its natural downward motion.

Both fire and water can also propagate the precipitate motion of an object; only the element of earth, which is absolutely immobile, cannot do so. Water is more dense than air and thus has more resistance, consequentially precipitate motion does not take an object so far as in air before natural motion takes over. Fire, on the other, hand is less dense than air and an object set in precipitate motion in the sphere of fire continues to move for much longer than would be possible in air; witness the long years that comets or meteors stay within the sphere of fire.

Above the Lunar Sphere, movement may operate according to different rules. Those philosophers who, following Aristotle, posit the existence of aether in the celestial realm theorize that the natural motion of aether is circular rather than linear, and thus the rotation of the heavenly spheres is a product of their eternal natural motion. Dissenting voices who deny the existence of aether claim that the sphere of fire extends into the celestial realm, becoming increasingly rarefied until it offers objects no resistance at all. Consequentially the wandering stars, set in precipitate motion by the Prime Mover when He created them, still move unto this day in their eternal orbits.

Story Seed: A Sizable Matter Within a faculty of a university, a debate between the masters rages. Is size a feature of substance or quantity? Can an object become bigger with no increase in substance? Would such an item weigh the same, or would its weight increase? What begins as an academic dispute becomes more when it spills over into the student body, who take up the fight with enthusiasm. Soon, the two sides have resorted to physical violence and it has spilled out into the city where it threatens to get really ugly (see Chapter Seven: Universities, Town and Gown). The resources of a covenant (or even the covenant itself) are imperiled by the riot. (Note that such violent reactions to academic debates are not unheard of in Mythic Europe!) And the cause of this riot? The faculty has gained possession of an item enchanted with Object of Increased Size. From a Hermetic perspective, it is important to discover how this item fell into the hands of the university, and to retrieve it from mundane hands. The object’s creator faces potential charges of endangering his sodales in the Order and, if his actions were intentional, interfering with mundanes.

Consequences of Motion

It might seem counter-intuitive to the modern reader, but without a concept of momentum an object’s speed bears no relationship to the force that propels it. Thus a missile weapon such as the bullet from a sling cannot do any more damage if it is thrown with greater speed; only the force imparted by the initial mover is important. Further, stones thrown by a strong man do not travel faster than those thrown by a weak man, although they can travel further because the ability to overcome the resistance of the stone and the air is greater.

An object propelled and guided infallibly to its target with Rego magic (such as Wielding the Invisible Sling) has magic as its initial and subsequent mover and thus is affected by Magic Resistance. To overcome this problem, a few Rego spells do not require Penetration because they work in one of two ways. Firstly, the object can be positioned high in the air with magic and then released, allowing natural motion (that is, falling) to bring the object down on the intended target. This method requires an Aiming roll to ensure the object is released in the right position. The second method is to use magic as the initial mover of an object but allow subsequent motion to be provided by the motive force of the air. This method also requires an Aiming roll because the magical control of the object must be released early enough for non-magical movers to have taken over by the time the object reaches its target. Certain members of House Flambeau have become experts in either method, and example spells employing them can be found in Houses of Hermes: Societates, House Flambeau.

Story Seed: Up and Away True sustained flight of a vessel could be magically achieved by relying on the natural motion of the elements. The creation of fire (in an enclosed space) would encourage an object to rise, whereas the creation of earth would cause it to fall. If the balance was correct, then a vessel could sail through the skies at any desired altitude. A magus who creates just such a ship is likely to cause a stir among the communities he flies over. Encyclopedias An encyclopedia is usually composed of multiple books containing a vast number of facts but very little commentary, theory, or extemporization. In game terms, they are represented by a series of tractatus, each of which can be studied independently of the others. Some of the bigger collections can have in excess of a dozen books, but those authored several centuries ago are often transmitted to the current time incomplete, and several books may be exceedingly rare, or altogether lost. The “books” that make up a typical encyclopedia are shorter than a standard tome; treat every 5 books (or fraction) as a single tractatus on a given subject, and on average each tractatus constitutes a separate volume. Encyclopedias are written in the same way as tractatus; it is the organization of the subject material and the serial nature that causes a tractatus to be considered encyclopedic in scope. As well as being used as tractatus, encyclopedias have another, perhaps more important, use: they can aid in research of a particular subject. The encyclopedia can aid research as if it were a library in its own right (see Covenants, pages 98–99 for rules on research). A character seeking a fact in an encyclopedia who takes an hour to search through it can make an Intelligence + Ability roll, with an Ease Factor determined by the obscurity of the information sought. The character need not have the Ability in question to research with an encyclopedia but, naturally, he must be able to read the language in which it is written. If the character does not have the Ability, treat it as zero, as if it were an Ability that can be used without training. Large encyclopedias give a bonus to this roll: each tractatus in an encyclopedia on the appropriate subject gives a +1 bonus to the Ability roll for that subject. The extent of the encyclopedia determines which subjects can be researched; some are restricted to particular Abilities, or even particular specializations of Abilities. One can even use an encyclopedia that one has written oneself for research (but not for study), since it records what might have been forgotten by the author. Example: Isidore’s Etymologies contains two tractatus on Philosophiae (natural philosophy), so it gives a +2 bonus to an Intelligence + Philosophiae roll to discover a fact about the wonders of the natural world, but cannot be used for research into other specializations of Philosophiae. Example encyclopedias, and the tractatus that they comprise are listed below. Any specializations of the subject should be ignored for the purposes of study; these are only relevant to research. The Etymologies, by Isidore of Seville; four tractatus of Quality 8 (20 books): Artes Liberales, Philosophiae (natural philosophy) x 2, Medicine. Natural Histories, by Pliny the Elder; eight tractatus of Quality 6 (37 books): Philosophiae (metaphysics) x 2, Philosophiae (moral philosophy), Philosophiae (natural philosophy) x 5. Aphorisms, by Hippocrates; two tractatus of Quality 7 (7 books): Medicine x 2. Bibliotheca, by Photius; four tractatus of Quality 7 (17 books): Theology x 2, Church Lore (history), European Lore (history). Quadrivium, by Boethius; two tractatus of Quality 8 (6 books); Artes Liberales (quadrivium) x 2. On the Division of Time, by the Venerable Bede; two tractatus of Quality 9 (6 books); Artes Liberales (arithmetic) x 2. De Ordinis Hermetici, by Quaertus of Bonisagus, five tractatus of Quality 9 (22 books); Code of Hermes x 2, Order of Hermes Lore (history) x 2, Order of Hermes Lore (geography).

Natural Philosophy

Whereas metaphysics is the study of why the world like it is, natural philosophy considers what the world is. Those who study natural philosophy seek answers about geography, geology, and meteorology as well as about living things such as plants, fish, birds, and mammals. Much of this knowledge is contained within the great works of the encyclopedic authors. Pliny’s Natural Histories covers 37 books, in the first of which he claims to include the wisdom of over 2,000 other books by no less than a hundred primary authors (and countless secondary sources). Pliny’s work emphasizes the curious and the odd in natural phenomena: 24 books on zoology and botany; five on mineralogy; two on geography; and one each on cosmography and the human condition. Almost as extensive, and even more influential, is Isidore of Seville’s 20-volume encyclopedia The Etymologies. This vast work, as the name suggests, emphasizes the importance of knowing the derivation of a word, and the insight that conveys into the essence and structure of that thing to which it refers.

Geography

Geography is the study of the sphere of earth, and by association the sphere of water that covers it. It is plainly evident to all with reason that the earth is not flat but rather a ball. Earth is the element at the center of the world, and were it flat then there could be something below it, which reason tells us is false. Further, a city situated in the extreme east of a flat earth would have morning and midday at the same time; for no sooner had the sun risen there it would be at its zenith. Likewise a city at the extreme west would have an exceptionally long morning, then midday and sunset would occur simultaneously. Since for all people the time between morning till midday and from midday till sunset is equally long, it is clear that the earth is round.

The earth is by nature cold and dry. However, the middle zone directly beneath the path of the sun is scorched by its heat. Further, the two poles of the earth (the arctic on this side of the torrid zone, and the antarctic on the other side) are so far removed from the sun that they are bound in perpetual ice. Two parts, however — one between the arctic zone and the torrid zone, and one between the torrid zone and the antarctic zone — are suitable to support inhabitants, and are referred to as the temperate zones.

Within each temperate zone there are two habitable areas. The ocean divides the ball of the earth along its equator and along the meridian that connects the two poles with each other. Thus the known habitable area occupies only one quarter of the globe of the earth. Its partnering habitable area on the same side of the torrid zone but divided from it by the meridian is the antichthones. On the same side of the meridian but divided from it by the torrid zone are the antoeci. Finally, directly opposite the known area on the ball of the earth are the antipodes.

The known habitable area is bounded to the north by the arctic zone, to the south by the torrid zone, and to the east and west by the tidal currents of the ocean. Although termed temperate it is not evenly so, for those regions closest to the arctic zone are cold and moist and those closer to torrid zone are hot and dry. The eastern portion is hot and moist and the western portion is cold and dry; only the middle part is evenly temperate. It is divided into three parts: Asia, Africa, and Europe. Asia begins in the east and stretches north to the arctic and south to the torrid zone. It ends in the west at the River Don (which separates it from Europe), and the River Nile (which separates it from Africa). Of the known habitable area not occupied by Asia, Africa takes the southern portion and Europe the northern portion, and they are separated from each other by the Mediterranean Sea. The very center of the habitable area is found at Jerusalem, where Asia, Europe, and Africa all meet.

The Great Ocean that separates the north and south hemispheres of the world is the source of all moisture, lying in the middle of the torrid zone and surrounding the earth all along the equator. The excessive heat of the torrid zone makes it impossible to reach this place, and yet philosophy has proved it to exist. At each meridian the Great Ocean splits into two currents: one heads north, and the other south. In the known habitable area this means that one tidal current (called the Indian Sea) heads north to the east of Asia, and the other (called the Atlantic Sea) heads north to the west of Africa and Europe. When these two tidal currents meet each other in the north, the sea is sucked back from the collision creating the ebb and flow of the tides. As these tidal currents circle the land they flow into the North Sea, Mediterranean and Black Seas, Arabian Sea, and Caspian Sea.

Journeys into the Unknown The natures of the other three habitable areas are unknown, but it is presumed that they are occupied just as the known area is. Each is separated from the known habitable region by either the torrid zone, the meridian, or both. The torrid zone is a region of intense heat since there the sun is the closest to the earth. It is also the location of the Great Ocean and the source of the tides and should pose a significant obstacle, even to magi. The meridian that runs between the poles is no easier to cross; the mighty tidal currents streaming from the equator to the poles generate immense waves and wind, and the region is haunted by demons under the control of Meririm the Meridian Devil (see Realms of Power: The Infernal, pages 27 and 42 for more details on Meririm and his Order of Aerial Powers). The antipodal region (across both the torrid zone and the meridian) is commonly believed to house Mount Purgatory at its center, directly opposite Jerusalem. This place of contrition and repentance sits on top of Hell, which extends to the very center of the world. The inhabitants of the antipodes, under this view, would be the demons and damned souls who reject God and who thus suffer for their sins. However, Hell is just one of the three sublunar realms, and an intriguing possibility is that the remaining two non-Divine supernatural realms are found in the other two habitable regions. Under such a cosmology, the Faerie realm would be physically located to the west of Europe in the antichthonal region. Any intrepid adventurer who manages to negotiate the perils of the meridian could physically enter Arcadia rather than relying on Faerie magic to do so. Likewise, an explorer heading south from Africa who by some miracle manages to survive the torrid zone would find himself in the Magic realm in the antoecian temperate region. Needless to say, any saga that involves the exploration of the other temperate regions (whether or not, in fact, they house the sublunar realms) is decidedly unusual and is likely to have few of the features of Mythic Europe.

Meteorology

Meteorology is the study of the sphere of air, and by association of the sphere of fire that surrounds it. Weather is the product of the motion of moist and hot particles that make up air. Rain, while composed of water, is a product of the moisture of the air, which is why it is a phenomenon of the sphere of air. Likewise lightning and associated aerial fires are a product of the heat of the air, and thus once again are airy rather than fiery in nature.

Wind is the result of the precipitate motion of the air, which has a number of causes. The air might be moved through the refluxes of the tidal currents, which is why it tends to be more windy at the coast. Alternatively, air trapped in the caverns of the earth struggles to escape and the motion of it rising from the center through fissures in the earth creates mighty winds. If this air is unable to escape from the caverns of the earth, and it finds yielding soil, it breaks through causing an earthquake.

Air that is chilled by the cold of the earth or water is changed into a watery substance, which is what we call a cloud. When the rays of the sun touch the cloud they separate it, for such is the nature of heat. Divided from the air, the watery particles fall to earth as rain according to their natural propensity, and as it falls it collides with the air, causing stormy winds, the most violent of all. Occasionally, rain is caused by wind lifting moisture from rivers, marshes, and lakes; rain of this kind often contains frogs or fishes. In the summer the heat carries the moisture raised by winds to the upper parts of the sky, where it encounters a cold dry wind. The water is thus frozen and turned into a stony substance that then falls as hail. In winter, the moisture is not carried so far and it is chilled by the cold atmosphere instead, and falls as snow.

Air rising from the earth sometimes carries with it particles of earth that dry under the heat of the sun to form a stony substance carried within the clouds. When the clouds in the highest part of the sky collide with one another they create thunder. This motion results in heat, igniting the air into a fiery substance. This is coruscation — flashes of fire that leap among the clouds. Since it is the nature of fire to separate, the coruscation splits the clouds and ignites the stones carried within it, and they then descend to earth with violent force producing lightning. Meteors have the same origin but result from more moderate collisions between clouds; consequently the stones have less force and are consumed before they reach the earth. Comets have a different origin altogether; whereas meteors descend from the upper atmosphere to the lower, comets travel in the opposite direction. They are an earthly exhalation from a hot place, like a volcano, and their motion through the lower atmosphere creates heat and causes them to ignite. The light of a comet, unlike that of a meteor, is spread out behind it like long hair.

Aerial fire can also be created by wind in the high atmosphere rushing over still moisture in the lower atmosphere; such fires drift downwards to rest upon high places such as trees, masts, and spear points. These fires have no stones within them, so they do not strike or wound. They differ in size, shape, and color: they can occupy half the northern sky, in which case they are known as the aurora borealis; or they may appear as balls or barrels that drift close to the ground, which are called pithia.

After rain often appears a rainbow. Some philosophers claim that this is composed of substance — that it is a bright cloud that reflects the colors of the elements infusing it: red from fire; purple from air; blue from water; and green from earth. Others maintain that the rainbow has no substance, but instead that it is an image of the sun cast onto clouds. No one doubts that the final cause of the rainbow is the promise made by God to Noah as described in the book of Genesis.

The Collegium on Meteorology Collegium magi use the example of meteorology to refute Aristotelian causality. After all, if the material cause of lightning is a stone that has caught fire, why is The Incantation of Lightning an Auram spell? The rejoinder from the Lyceum is that the “stone” is simply an agglomeration of cold and dry particles, and the “fire” is hot and dry particles, but both types of atom are contained within air. Neither side is convinced by the arguments of the other; nevertheless, weather phenomena are indisputably Auram magics and attempts to recreate them with other Forms have not produced believable results. The Collegium on Living Things Some magi would argue that the commonly accepted definition of life is insufficient. They argue that anything with a mind is alive, extending the category to include spirits, demons, faeries, angels, and even inanimate objects (after all, spells like Stone Tell of the Mind that Sits allows one to converse with a rock). The Collegium rejects this view, and permits a mind to exist independently of life and vice versa. The Collegium claims that when a magus talks to a rock or a tree, he is talking to the spirit of that object; a disembodied mind that is nevertheless not alive. Other magi see no need for a distinction between life and nonlife, since this was not a distinction made by Bonisagus when he devised the Forms and has no meaningful use in Hermetic magic.

Living Things

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind: and it was so. — Genesis 1.24

The minimum definition of life is the ability to take nourishment and to increase and decrease under the thing’s own power rather than as a result of mechanical action from the outside. All things are composed of four types of particles and thus have the capacity to attract that which nourishes them, retain what has been drawn in, digest what has been held onto, and expel what is impure; but living things are able to direct these forces actively rather than experience them passively, allowing them to direct their own changes (see Metaphysics, above).

The least and lowest level of sharing life is that of the plant, which possesses the basic power of the natural faculty to change under its own power, and act as the efficient cause of others of its own kind. At the next stage in the hierarchy of living things are those things that in addition to the natural faculty have the sensitive faculty, and thus perceive the world about them. There are things that possess this power but lack the consequent powers of desire and moving in order to satisfy their desires; these are the immobile creatures like shellfish that are part-way between plant and animal. Most beings with the sensitive faculty are possessed of movement, however, and make up the class of animals. The third degree of life is occupied by the rational creatures such as humans and spirits. While natural animals have no rationality or knowledge, they have a natural wisdom born from their instinct (see the Human Mind, Estimation, below). They can build dwellings, raise their young, seek their food, flee from danger, and defend themselves from harm. They can seek herbs that will cure their ills, and know which will help or harm them through estimation; and yet they cannot truly be said to have either intellect or reason (see The Human Mind, below).

Plants

'God made the plants before He made the sun in order that it should not seem that the sun caused the production of plants, yet pagans are still in error in worshiping the sun as the originator of green herbs and trees. Plants are provided for the sake of humans: many are food for humans, others are food for animals which in turn are food for humans. Some are medicines for humans, still others provide fiber for clothes, and the more solid plants are used in buildings and fortifications, and as instruments of craft and war.

The plants are of two kinds: the green herbs and the fruit-bearing trees. The herbs themselves are food for animals and humans, with the whole plant being consumed; where as the trees yield food, such as fruit and leaves, which is replenished every year from the main body of the plant. There are also those thorns, thistles, and poisonous herbs, which cannot provide any benefit to mankind. Their origin is attributed to one of three causes. The first is that they did not exist before the sin of man but were made after it. The second is that they preceded man’s first crime but were not a cause of harm since they were unable to hurt humans while they remained free from sin. The third is that these noxious plants acquired their rough shapes and harmful qualities subsequent to man’s expulsion from Eden. Whatever their origins, the purpose of such plants is to convince man of his error, and punish him for his sin.

Story Seed: A Cure by Proxy The son of an important nobleman is sorely injured and no medical help can effect a cure. The characters cannot use magic to save him, because they are either unable (they lack the spells or vis) or unwilling (it is not always politically expedient to be uncovered as a magus). A scholar suggests that a wild animal is captured, injured in the same way, and let free. The instincts of the animal should lead it to seek a cure, which the medics can then apply to the lord’s heir. It is left to the characters to find a suitable animal to represent the boy without offering insult, capture and wound it appropriately, and then follow it on its meandering through the wilderness to find a cure. When the animal wanders into a regio, the characters must follow it into unknown dangers to discover the cure they need to save the lordling. Story Seed: The Unremarkable Tree A scholar comes across a tree that he does not recognize. He tells his colleagues of his studies of this unfamiliar plant — its fruit is unpalatable and indigestible, but not poisonous; no animal will eat it. The wood is too soft for any purpose, and does not even burn well. By all standards the tree has no use at all, which contravenes the doctrine that plants exist for the purpose of serving man. His findings cause no end of debate in academic circles until the bishop is forced to step in. He examines the tree and his conclusion is this — the tree’s purpose is to remind man of the ineffability of God. The tree’s purpose is more transparent to a magus: it is a source of vis, perhaps one that predates the visit by the scholar. However, the scholastic attention has made the tree somewhat of a local celebrity and many visit this natural wonder on their way to and from the city. The attention is vexing to the magi trying to gather their vis, not least because the visitors often take souvenirs of the unremarkable tree.

Living Creatures of the Waters

Those things that live in the water, even if they can also live on land, are accounted among the pisces or fishes. Swimming is a form of creeping — fish pull themselves through the water with their fins just as reptiles pull themselves across the surface of the land. Some fish are called amphibians if they can live on land as well as in the water, and such creatures include crocodiles, seals, beavers, and otters. Fish have a lesser share in the apprehensive powers of the living soul than do land animals. Hence they are less able to respond to their environment, and on that account they have less life.

Living Creatures of the Air

The aves or birds occupy the space above the earthly and watery spheres, but below the fiery vault of the firmament. The flight of every bird is known to be able to reach the earth, but not all are capable of reaching the firmament; only noble birds such as eagles can achieve such heights and even they cannot actually fly within the sphere of fire that surrounds the earth. There are numerous types of birds, differing by kind and custom: some shun man (like the rock dove) whereas others delight in him (like the swallow); some are bold (like the hawk) whereas others are timid (like the quail); some go in flocks (like the starling) whereas others are solitary (like the eagle); and some can sing (like the swan) whereas others only squawk (like the duck). And yet they are all called birds because they do not follow straight roads (a-viae) but stray through any byway.

Living Creatures of the Earth

The animals of the earth were made in three kinds. The first kind are the pecora or cattle: mild animals made apt for the use of man. This includes animals intended by God to be beasts of burden, and also those that provide food, both milk and meat. Second are the repta or creeping things, which move by dragging their bellies on the earth. Finally are the ferae or beasts, those land animals that possess untamed wildness. Some philosophers divide from the ferae the quadrupeds, those animals that lack the raging cruelty of the predatory beasts but are untamable nevertheless, such as antelopes, stags, and hares.

Some animals are harmful to man, but, like those plants that are poisonous, they only became injurious after Man sinned. Whether they were created following the Fall from Grace, or pre-existed but became dangerous afterward is a matter of debate among the philosophers; whichever is the case, their purpose is clear. Harmful animals exist for the sake of instilling fear and of punishing vices in mankind in order to test and perfect virtue.

Worms

The living creatures of the waters, the air, and the earth multiply through propagation, but there are also those animals that multiply through simple generation. These creatures arise from the elements, from plants, or from rottenness, and are called the vermes, or worms, from whence we get the name “vermin.” Mice are the largest of the vermin, born of damp earth; scorpions come from dry earth; other land-worms include centipedes, earthworms, and ants. Spiders are worms of the air, which produce from their bodies long threads and never cease in their weaving. Eels and frogs are born from slime and mud in rivers and ponds, and the blood-sucking leech is also a waterworm. Leaf-worms include the caterpillars, locusts, and beetles; they are born from rotting plants, and consume vegetation. Flesh worms are the most unpleasant for they live inside of man and living creatures; enigramus is a worm that lives in the head, and lumbicus dwells in the stomach. Lice and fleas live on the skin, whereas bees and flies emerge from rotting flesh.

Generating Worms

The generation of “worms” from rotting vegetation, meat, earth, air, and water is a natural process, and can therefore be produced using Rego Animal spells. Only vermin appropriate to the raw substrate can be created naturally. The potential for Hermetic magic to produce vermin is immense; a Target: Group spell is capable of producing a mass of animals equal to 10 standard targets (animals of Size +1), which is about 2 million insects (Size –15), 50,000 mice (Size –10), 20,000 frogs (Size –9), or 1000 eels (Size –5). However, since this is a natural process, the base material must be capable of supporting this number of creatures. A standard individual of a given Form (the corpse of an animal of Size +1, a plant 1 pace in each direction, ten cubic paces of soil, and so forth) can produce a maximum of 1000 creatures regardless of their size. New Rego Animal Guideline A requisite is required for the substrate that gives rise to the worms only if the caster cannot perceive the worms when they are generated. Thus, a Corpus requisite is needed to create intestinal worms, but not fleas or lice. To create worms from living flesh, a Perdo requisite is required to rot the flesh first. Level 5 Cause vermin to spontaneously generate in appropriate matter, such as flesh, plants, soil, or water. Plague of Frogs Rego Animal 20 R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Group A swarm of frogs spontaneously generates in a pool of water touched by the caster. A pool five paces across and two paces deep can produce one thousand frogs; for every ten-fold increase in volume, ten times as many frogs are produced up to a maximum of 20,000 (which is a mass of frogs equal to that of ten pigs). Likewise, a smaller pool produces fewer frogs: a pool one tenth the size produces a hundred frogs, and one that is a hundredth of the size (about one pace across and half a pace deep) spawns just 10 frogs. The water in the pool is not diminished by this spell. (Base 5, +1 Touch, +2 Group) The Verminous Infestation Rego Animal 20 R: Eye, D: Mom, T: Ind Req: Perdo, Corpus The target of this spell is infested with fleshworms, which set up residence in his intestines. The victim immediately acquires Worms, as described in Chapter Four: Medicine, Disease, except that the symptoms occur immediately. (Base 5, +1 Eye, +1 Perdo requisite, +1 Corpus requisite)

The Human Mind

The mind, as nourished by the sensitive faculty (see Chapter Four: Medicine), is the link between the body and the soul. The functions of the sensitive faculty — collectively called the inner wits — are the five components of the mind. Note that these wits have common names that do not exactly match their meanings in modern English. The common sense gathers the input of the sense organs, and the imagination stores them. The memory archives experiences and thoughts, which are used by the cognition to make decisions. Finally, the estimation deals with instinctual responses to external stimuli. Each of the wits is described in detail below. These five wits are possessed by any being with a sensitive faculty, not just humans; however, the animal mind has a greatly diminished cognition and an abundance of estimation.

The principle difference between the mind of an animal and that of a human is the possession of a soul, which is unique to rational beings such as humans, angels, and demons. The soul provides both reason (ratio) and intellect (intellectus). Reason is exercised when one proceeds step by step to prove a truth that is not self-evident, and is the highest function of the cognition working in conjunction with the soul. Reason uses the input from all the inner wits — the sensory species composited in the common sense, the unsensed impressions of the estimation, the memory of past events, and the imaginative powers of the cognition — to reach a conclusion that none of the individual parts of the mind is capable of reaching alone.

The intellect is the power of understanding, the process of revealing the self-evident, a simple grasp of an intelligible truth. Angels are blessed with perfect understanding — intelligentia — in that things which are sensed are fully comprehended; there is no need for reason to reveal them. Intellect is clouded intelligentia, which provides frequent but momentary glimpses of true understanding; the flash of inspiration and the dawning of comprehension. The intellect is also the organ of morality and the seat of conscience; the soul knows what is good and what is bad without the need for logic.

Common Sense

The common sense or vis compositiva receives all forms and images perceived by the external senses and combines them into one common mental picture. These composite images can then be compared with those stored in the memory or held in the imagination. It also judges the operation of a sense, so that when we see, we know what we are seeing. Anesthesia separates out the common sense, providing sentience without full consciousness.

Imagination

The imagination or vis imaginativa retains what has been seen and experienced even after the sense-impressions have subsided, and serves as the link between memory and cognition. What the common sense assembles, the imagination preserves. It is distinct from the memory for the imagination stores only images, with no concepts, ideas, or emotions connected to them. What is commonly referred to as “thinking” is the recall of images within the imagination, although planning for the future is covered by cognition.

Cognition

Cognition is the part of the mind where decisions are made. It is a receptacle of the judgment exercised by the soul, which then coordinates the other parts of the mind and body to enact the will of the soul. Also known as vis phantastica, cognition reaches decisions by manipulating mental images drawn from the other inner wits, separating and uniting the information they contain. The imagination can only hold in mind what has been directly sensed, whereas cognition can use the perceptions from the imagination and combine them into things never experienced — for example, mountains made of emeralds, or flying dogs. This faculty involves invention, planning for the future, design, and poetic imagery. Dreams can come from the cognition into the sleeping mind, but this is not their only source; some are drawn from the memory to replay events in the past, and others come direct from the soul.

Estimation

The estimation or vis aestimativa covers instinct. It detects the practical, the biological significance of things. It enables a cow to pick out her calf, or to seek shelter from the elements. Such decisions are not formed by the reasoning powers, and friendship or enmity are not perceived by the senses. Estimation is the instinct to act in a particular manner based on judgment rather than decision, so is distinct from cognition. Cognition is concerned with the images of the senses to open the way to a discursive synthesis and analysis of senseperceptions. Estimation, on the other hand, operates on the derivatives of the current sense-perceptions, recognizing danger, food, friendship, and so forth — none of which are directly sensed — and motivating the locomotive powers appropriately. It is this wit that causes the emotional states of gaudium, laetitia, ira, tristitia, and timor (see Chapter Four: Medicine, Emotional States) as a response to the instinctual reaction to an object.

Memory

The power of memory or vis memorativa is to act as a treasury or repository for information discovered by the estimation, and it relates to estimation in the same way that imagination relates to the common sense. The imagination is a storehouse for images, whereas the memory preserves ideas. The memory is two-fold; the sensuous memory retains, reproduces and recognizes representations of past experience and places those experiences in time. The rational memory is the power of recollection, reminiscence, and active recall and is the province of man rather than beast.

The Hermetic Art of Mentem

The Art of Mentem operates directly on the five wits. Most magi have only a small understanding of the philosophy of the mind and do not care which wits are affected by their spells. However, experts in the Art have supplemented their magical practice with a philosophical background, and devised spells that manipulate the intelligent mind in interesting and inventive ways. This section details how the Mentem spell guidelines in Ars Magica Fifth Edition (pages 148–152) can be applied to all five inner wits. Broadly speaking, an existing guideline that mentions emotions is operating on the estimation, and a guideline that mentions thoughts is operating on the imagination. These two wits, along with the common sense, are usually more easily affected with magic than are memory or cognition. These revised guidelines may also inspire Animal spells to affect beasts with Cunning, although in general the memoritive and cognitive wits are far inferior in animals, and the estimation is much stronger.

Hermetic magic cannot affect the functions of the soul — reason and intellect — even though they form part of the thinking mind. However, it can improve overall intelligence by enhancing the operation of all five wits, making reason come easier (as in The Gift of Reason), or cause a mind to be so consumed by one of those wits that reason does not get a look in (such as in Mind of the Beast). Cognition covers dreaming as described below, but other spells affecting dreams through cognition (such as by inserting the caster’s spirit into another’s dream) can be found in The Mysteries Revised Edition, pages 102–113.

Creo Mentem Spells

Look at Me

CrMe 15

R: Sight, D: Mom, T: Ind

This spell creates a thought in the imagination of the target, causing him to look directly at the caster even if the caster has not been previously noticed by the target. This glance is sufficient to make eye contact. If concentrating on another task, the target may make a Stamina + Concentration roll against an Ease Factor of 6 to resist. This spell is most often cast with no voice or gestures as a subtle way of attracting someone’s attention.

(Base 4, +3 Sight)

Human Figment of the Waking Mind

CrMe 25

R: Eye, D: Conc, T: Ind

This spell places a hallucinatory person in the mind of another through the common sense. No one else can see or hear the person seen and heard by the target. The caster determines what the hallucination looks like, and can cause it to act in the way he wishes by concentrating. He cannot, however, see it himself.

(Base 3, +1 Eye, +1 Conc, +1 for two sensory species, +2 move at command, +1 intricacy)

Creo Mentem Guidelines The Level 3 guideline “Form words in another’s mind” can create any sensory species in another’s common sense (not just audible ones), thus creating a hallucination that only the target can perceive. Additional species cost one magnitude each, and particularly complex hallucinations require the same modifications as creating complex images (ArM5, page 144). The Level 4 guideline “Put a thought or emotion into another’s mind” creates imagination or estimation respectively. Creating imagination literally puts thoughts in another’s mind. Creating estimation invokes the emotion of gaudium, laetitia, ira, tristitia, or timor (see Chapter Four: Medicine, Emotional States) without an appropriate stimulus. The Level 5 guideline “Create a memory in another’s mind” can also create items of cognition. This can bring a dream to a sleeping person, instill in him a long-term plan for the future, or make him apply his mind to trying to overcome a problem. It cannot force him to follow through with these plans. The Creo Mentem guidelines that increase mental Characteristics do so by enhancing all of the five wits, allowing the rational functions of the soul to be less-encumbered.

Intellego Mentem Spells

Intellego Mentem Guidelines The Level 5 guideline “Sense a single emotion in a being” reads the target’s estimation, as does the Level 10 “Sense all of the emotions in a being.” This guideline can also read a single sensory input from the target’s common sense. The Level 15 guideline “Read a person’s surface thoughts” interrogates the imagination, and can also be used to read the entire common sense, thus perceiving whatever the target is perceiving with all of his sense organs. The Level 20 guideline “Read the last day’s memories from one person” can also read the short-term plans from the person’s cognition. If cast while a target is dreaming, spells based on this guideline can eavesdrop on those dreams.

Borrow the Eyes of Another

InMe 30

R: Arc; D: Conc; T: Ind

The caster can see through the eyes of another person to whom he has an Arcane Connection. It must penetrate any Magic Resistance of the target.

(Base 5, +4 Arc, +1 Conc)

Muto Mentem Spells

Muto Mentem Guidelines All the guidelines that refer to memories can also affect imagination. Changing the imagination makes the target ignore the current focus of attention in favor of something of the caster’s choosing. This must be an unnatural refocusing of attention to fall under Muto Mentem; for example, a major change in imagination might make a soldier in battle become focused on the grass rather than the enemy. All the guidelines that refer to emotions (i.e. estimation) can also affect common sense and cognition. Changing the estimation can also make the target react inappropriately to an emotional stimulus; for example, seeking shelter in the water, or fleeing from something non-threatening. A major change to the common sense can cause the target to hear a man’s praise as condemnation, or see a sword as a haddock. Completely rewriting the common sense causes the target to comprehend sounds as visual images, or smells as feelings of pain (although these do no real damage). A major change to cognition can redirect a plan towards a different goal (revenge on Carolus rather than Darius), but the cognition must be completely rewritten to give someone a new aspiration — at least for the duration of the spell. The Level 10 guideline “Completely rewrite a person’s memories” can rewrite any of the five wits. The Level 15 guideline “Utterly change a person’s mind” can do so by dominating the mind with a particular wit; for example, Mind of the Beast leaves the estimation in charge of all mental actions.

Distraction of the Magpie

MuMe 10

R: Eye, D: Sun, T: Ind

The target’s estimation is altered so that shiny objects become highly desirous to him. For the duration of the spell he is easily distracted by anything that glints, and given the opportunity he will acquire such things and secret them somewhere about his person. He must make an Intelligence + Concentration roll against an Ease Factor of 9 to complete a complex task in the presence of a shiny object that he does not yet possess.

(Base 3, +1 Eye, +2 Sun)

Lost in the Memory

MuMe 35

R: Eye, D: Moon, T: Ind

The mind of the target is filled with memory, dominating all other mental faculties. He will relive scenes from his past and visit places of particular significance while neglecting all but the basic urges to eat, drink, and rest. During this time he cannot put any mental effort into any task, and can only be temporarily roused from his fugue if he succeeds in an Intelligence + Concentration roll of 9 or more.

(Base 15, +1 Eye, +3 Moon)

Rewriting the Mind

MuMe 45

R: Voice, D: Year, T: Ind, Ritual

This spell utterly changes the target’s capacity for cognitive thought; all previous goals, hopes and desires are set aside in favor of the agenda dictated by the magus at the time of casting this spell. For the Duration of the spell the target is unusually single-minded in pursuing his new goals, but still has command of his other mental faculties. This spell incurs Warping as a constant effect of high power.

(Base 15, +2 Voice, +4 Year)

Perdo Mentem Spells

Perdo Mentem Guidelines Unlike memories, destroyed aspects of the imagination, cognition, common sense, and estimation naturally restore themselves. All the guidelines that affect memories (rather than details from memories) can affect imagination or cognition as well. The Level 10 guideline “Remove a minor or short memory from a person’s mind” can stop a person thinking about a certain thing, or make him neglect one of his goals or banish a dream. The Level 15 guideline “Remove a major or long memory from a person’s mind” can prevent all active thought through the imagination; or stifle creative thought or prevent dreaming entirely through the cognition. All the guidelines that affect emotions work through the estimation, and can also affect the common sense. Quelling the estimation can also cause a person to neglect appetitive urges for shelter, rest, food, and drink, although the estimation must be removed entirely to cause the target to suffer deprivation through this neglect. Quelling the common sense leaves the target unable to correctly interpret a particular type of sensory input — he might see, but be unable to understand what he is seeing.

The Stultified Peasant

PeMe 30

R: Eye, D: Sun, T: Ind

The target has all ability to think removed; his imagination (which controls thinking) is destroyed, causing him to stand, mouth open, until the spell ends. Only his imagination is affected, so he acts according to his estimation if threatened.

(Base 15, +1 Eye, +2 Sun)

The Ever-Watchful Turb

PeMe 35

R: Touch, D: Moon, T: Group

This spell prevents the target group from falling asleep by quelling the inclination to rest when tiredness sets in. The target group accrues fatigue as usual: after being awake for a full day, every eight hours of wakefulness causes the loss of a Fatigue level. Thus, after two days awake, they will be reduced to Unconscious (or earlier if they exert themselves) at which time they sleep for eight hours and then wake again.

(Base 5, +1 Touch, +3 Moon, +2 Group)

The Clean Slate

PeMe 50

R: Touch, D: Year, T: Ind

This spell wipes the memory of the target clean, removing every stored idea and sense of identity he possesses. All general Abilities (including Languages) are retained, but knowledge of Academic, Arcane, Martial and Supernatural Abilities are lost, as are all Arts. His imagination, which stores images, is not affected, so he recognizes the faces of people he knows, places he has been, and songs he has heard, but lacks all knowledge about those things such as names, locations, emotional importance, and so forth. He cannot relearn those memories for the duration of the spell.

(Base 25, +1 Touch, +4 Year)

Rego Mentem Spells

Rego Mentem Guidelines The Level 5 guideline “Control a natural emotion” and the Level 10 guideline “Control an unnatural emotion” operate on the estimation, and can also affect the common sense. Such spells make the common sense pay particular attention to a given sensory stimulus; in this context an unnatural stimulus is one that has not been experienced by the target before. The Level 5 guideline “Incline a person to a particular sort of response” affects the imagination, as does the Level 15 guideline “Control a human being as long as you can see him.” These guidelines do not affect free will, but the caster can influence or control current thought (and thus action). For example, the Level 5 guideline can cause a watchman to concentrate on a man with a cart entering the city, rather than the group of armed people. Controlling the imagination can also hold a thought in a person’s mind, increasing focus. The same guidelines can also affect the cognition through dreams; the Level 5 guideline allows the subject (but not the content) of the dream to be determined by the caster, and the Level 15 guideline can determine subject and content. The Level 20 guideline “Give a person a complex command, which he tries to carry out to the best of his abilities” directly controls the cognition, setting the target’s goals towards that determined by the caster.

Call the Dream

ReMe 20

R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Ind

The caster touches a sleeping person and determines the theme for that night’s dreaming. The actual content of the dream cannot be determined. For example, if the theme is “death” the target might dream about the death of a loved one, or the lifethreatening circumstances he has been in. If the theme is “dogs” he might dream of a beloved childhood pet or being hunted by the lord’s hounds. Some magi try to interpret the meaning of the dreams called by this spell.

(Base 5, +1 Touch, +2 Sun)

Searching the Haystack for a Needle

ReMe 20 R: Eye, D: Sun, T: Ind

The target of this spell gets a +3 to all sight-based Perception rolls involving a specific object or quality defined at the time of casting. Examples might include the color red, a particular person, or a unusually shaped shell. Magi often employ this spell to help their servants locate a particular type of vis, as long as they have a sample to show the servant. It does not give the target any extra senses, just more sensitivity to a particular visual characteristic.

(Base 5, +1 Eye, +2 Sun)

Singlemindedness of the Concentrating Wizard

ReMe 25

R: Per, D: Sun, T: Ind

The caster receives a +3 to all Concentration rolls for the Duration of this spell, but automatically fails any Intelligence roll which does not involve Concentration.

(Base 15, +2 Sun)

Moral Philosophy

Moral philosophy focuses on man’s ethical, political, and economic condition. Discussions of moral philosophy are merely beginning in 1220, historically not reaching any discernible importance until the end of the thirteenth century. Little has yet been written on economics. John of Salisbury’s Policraticus is the text that stands out among the few books written about politics. John describes the difference between a prince and a tyrant; that the prince rules through love and follows the higher law of “justice” (meaning the Church). It makes the analogy that the prince is the head of the family. A clergyman, John places ecclesiastical law over secular rulers, and much of the Policraticus is a justification for this hierarchy.

Moral philosophy is discussed both in the courses of the liberal arts and the faculties of theology. The largest debate is between the faculties, and the University of Paris is at the center of this debate. The faculty of arts proposes that man can find happiness in and of himself, through good actions and sound judgment, while the faculty of theology declares that man’s earthly happiness is only a pale shadow of the happiness found in the afterlife. Man can find true happiness only in God, say they. While scholars might expresses opinions on the proper role of a king and his governance, no princely lord is obligated to listen. And when proper prices and monetary responsibility are discussed, which is rarely, it stays at the university and does not penetrate the minds of guilds and craftsmen. Most moral questions can be answered by adherence to the scriptures and patristic writings.

Ethics

The introduction of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics had less of an impact on philosophical discussion than other texts of the New Aristotle, primarily because the whole of it is still not translated. Aristotle states that man can be happy, and that his happiness does not depend upon any outside force, like the One God, but upon his own actions and decisions. This practical ethics is later modified by the Philosopher’s ideas of theoretical ethics, in which Aristotle does admit that there is a distinction between the theory and practice of human ethics. This later volume of theoretical ethics is unknown in 1220, making scholars believe that Aristotle’s practical ethics carries more weight then initially imagined.

Prior to the New Aristotle, Peter Abelard wrote extensively on the matter of sin, good, and evil, and these topics fell within the range of moral philosophy. Before him, these issues were extensively discussed, but not in a philosophical context. Rather, commentators had been moralizers (recommending certain behaviors rather than analyzing morality itself), theologians (deriving morality from scripture), or metaphysicians (interested in concepts rather than conduct). Abelard makes an attempt to explain what moral concepts actually are, and what their relation is to choice and deliberation. He makes a distinction between the willingness to sin and the act itself. While both are evil, the intent is worse than the action, since the intent is the necessary cause of the action and the action is inevitable once the intent is accepted. Abelard’s theories were declared heretical and burned, more so for the polemical and egotistical personality of the author than for the ideas expressed. They are, however, the canonical definition of sin in Ars Magica Fifth Edition (see Realms of Power: The Infernal).

In general, scholars propose a direct link between the quality of goodness and the act of being, the quality of evil being a privation of good, or a lack of being. Thus, evil itself does not exist, but is the absence of good from a thing. This repeats the Neoplatonic sentiment that the universal Good can only create good, not evil. All agree that mankind’s job is to cultivate goodness, and many writers have given exact actions that do so. For example, one Jewish philosopher described how a man should eat, sleep, work, exercise, pass bodily waste, and enjoy marital intimacy. He claims that everything should be done in moderation, a common theme of the ancient Greek philosophers.

Conscience

It is evident that good men sometimes do bad things, with the contrary also being true, but more rarely. Every soul is made by God, who has also given man aid in determining if his actions are good, leading to salvation, or bad, leading to damnation. Every man has also been given free will, to determine which course he will take when presented with good and bad choices for action. The active agent in choosing between good and evil is conscience. There are two aspects to conscience: synderesis, which is the spark of Godgiven conscience that cannot be mistaken between good and evil, and which is not subject to free will; and conscientia, which is subject to free choice and can be mistaken.

Conscience is not an active agent, rather being a reactive response to an experience or choice. A man feels the pangs of conscientia antecedens when the choice to do evil is made, and this serves as a warning. The stronger conscientia consequens follows an evil deed and serves to realign bad behavior. An intelligent man, one who has turned his bad will into bad (evil) actions, should remember the experience of conscientia consequens as uncomfortable, and judge future actions based on the unease of his past behavior. God’s gift of free will is strong, though, and many men have grown accustomed to suppressing their conscientia, and ignoring the small stings of synderesis.

Magic Affecting Conscience The Art of Mentem already affects a target’s emotions and thoughts, and can easily override his conscience. Most magi are uninterested in the conscience reactions of their targets. Magi who hunt demons, however, have discovered that sparking a man’s conscience can remove him from a demon’s obsession power (see Realms of Power: The Infernal, pages 31-32). If successful, a target will lose the Obsession Trait completely, regardless of whether it is a temporary or permanent Trait. Sparking a man’s conscience is not powerful enough to remove or alter Personality Traits that already exist. Creo Mentem Guidelines Level 10: Spark a twinge of conscience in an intelligent being’s mind, overriding the temporary obsession of a demon. A Moment’s Reflection CrMe 20 R: Voice, D: Mom, T: Ind This spell removes the Obsession Personality Trait imposed by a demon’s obsession power. (Base 10, +2 Voice)

Attribution

Attribution Based on the material for Ars Magica, ©1993-2024, licensed by Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games®, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license 4.0 ("CC-BY-SA 4.0"). Ars Magica Open License Logo ©2024 Trident, Inc. The Ars Magica Open License Logo, Ars Magica, and Mythic Europe are trademarks of Trident, Inc., and are used with permission. Order of Hermes, Tremere, Doissetep, and Grimgroth are trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB and are used with permission.