Bloodstained Lore and Esoteric Texts

Ah. Forgive me if I skirt a bit past the more verbose concepts in the following.

If it helps, the Corpus Hermeticum that informs more or less the whole of magical, alchemical, and even some theological thought (Hermes Trismegistus of the Corpus is mentioned in the Quran) in the West, the notion is that man is the maker of gods. That every purposed creation is ensouled into the body crafted. A hammer for smithing has its attending intelligence (or Nous), etc. Animism has its parallels, to be sure.

This again meshes with the notion of the crystal being the body of these demons.

The alchemical bit is actually based on this as well. The notion is to degrade the inferior body of lead to be uplifted by the 'implanting' of the noble 'seed'/'spirit' of gold, as is stated in Aristotelian philosophy (that which is consumed becomes part of the consumer; ergo the lead is 'consumed' and then given the spirit or 'form' of gold to uplift the 'matter').

To state that a crystal has been 'imbued' with a soul via alchemy is a stretch considering the methods of the practice, but not by the underlying philosophy.

EDIT/ADDENDUM: Even as I say that, I realize that the literally living ink used on parchments (it actually *eats* its way into the parchment) used to craft grimoires (see 'iron gall ink') indeed involves the formation of crystals. Too much in my brain, but fun to put it to use this way.

Jul 12, 2018 13:01:21 GMT -6 XombieMike said:

Well, the Ars Paulina reveals a demon cam be in a pleasant and comfy form perfectly in a crystal. However Johannes says the demon's power is transmuted. This may be a simplified answer for Miriam and the player. Some even suspect Johannes is evil, but I don't believe so. I just think the lore of the game here is inspired but not direct. This is evident in how the demons are named from the Ars Goetia, but creative liberty is obvious. Just like the whole gender discussion.

From what we can observe in game so far, it appears the power of the demon is transmuted into a shard form. (Reminds me of Innuyasha) Miriam has been previously embedded with the magnetic like crystals that draw demons to her and also their shards. Once bound to the embedded crystal that power is accessable to Miriam. This apparently can cause the crystals to grow over more of her body. Gebel's body is almost completely covered. The shards can be unbound and sold though, and Dominique warns about not carrying too many. That's what Gebel wants Miriam to do though, as he must think once she strays farther from natural humanity she will see his perspective and join him.

Oh, of course there are creative liberties taken. I just take immense joy in seeing how much of it can stick. I imagine most would be surprised at the results! In practice, as in Dee's case, the angels (or demons, as Kelley waxed apoplectic in fear of)  he communicated with said he was fine in waiving the well-noted and laboriously catalogued astrological timing required to contact such entities (as in the Ars Goetia, though even a bit shorthand there). He did however, include a table not terribly far off from that detailed in the Ars Almadel (also in the Lemegeton).

All this stuff is far more flexible and indeed a very uniquely connected corpus than most current, well-followed practitioners would have it.

I became best friends with the former Archivist, Khem Caigan (also, coincidentally, the artist of the Simon Necronomicon and owner of the Harry Everett Smith Memorial Library, an astounding collection of esoteric and related texts) at Joe Peterson's Esoteric Archives (www.esotericarchives.com) while I was working on my Master's. It proved indispensable. He would expound on the historical and linguistic continuity of various editions of the grimoires to show the diverse background 'Solomonic' magical writings drew their information from.

Jul 12, 2018 13:31:20 GMT -6 XombieMike said:

Ooo, I like the sound of that. Selling shards must be part of the opposite process somehow. Of course, it's a game mechanic more than anything, bit can you wrap the mechanic of selling shards in real world lore? Once the ink has crystallized, there is no removing it and leaving behind the paper that was consumed.

That was just a wee example. A better example is found in chlorophanes, or Ye Ming Zhu. Some crystals act as piezo-electric transducers that fluoresce and fetch terribly high prices (real glowing rocks!).

This same effect can be achieved by simply setting a quartz crystal ball on gold foil set into a wax seal (such as Dee's Sigillum Dei, for example...).

Really, the physics of a ritual space according to Western esoteric practice is terribly radioactive. There are fine articles on how low-energy solid state masers can be created from beeswax, which is a noted electret, or a material that perpetually maintains an electric charge; think of a perfumed candle used in rituals. Interestingly, extremely low frequency electromagnetic radiation has been shown to stimulate the pineal gland which may go a ways to explaining the hallucinatory state under which one could converse with daemons.

I digress.

As far as the ink is concerned, you can indeed purchase ink crystals for the making of various inks in this day and age (ferrous sulfate for iron gall). The electroconductive nature of such inks is actually noted such as in the bit of 'quackery' called the Hieronymus Machine, which is certainly worth a Google and a read.

I went far afield on this one, but there you are.