Criticism
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Fashion and other alterations of the appearance are mind-altering substances, for both the wearer and the witness. This is magnified in the context of magic, and magic itself is amplified through these.
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This may date me a bit, but do you remember those “What If?” comic books? “What if Superman was evil?” “What if the Fantastic Four were cavemen?” “What if Dr.Doom was a particularly vicious poodle?” There’s too much of that thinking in magical theory, and has been for quite a while.
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This is a relic of the Black Sun Project era. A Dying Book was a riff off the Jewish notion that God writes the names of all who are to survive the coming year during the high holidays. The idea that an inversion of this might be turned into a magical object comes from a…
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The divine and demonic absurdity of names. This was a topic raised elsewhere, but I want to highlight it here while also avoiding getting into anything which could be construed as personal with people I respect. Astaroth and Astarte are completely different beings. It is historically correct that the name Astaroth (a male, aggressive demon)…