Intuition Based Tradition Options

[Johnny Hammersti...]

Earlier I know there was a thread about intuition based traditions, but sadly I could not find it with the site search.

One of my players plays a mage with a sort of Jungian/tarot understanding of magic.

Here's the write up, all the credit goes to him.

This is best read if you read Jack in a Cajun accent:

Excerpt from Traditions in Modern Magic 3rd ed. Regulus 212-213


In many cases the traditions have little formal basis in pre-existing understandings of Magical Theory. The following interview with hedge magician, Jack Delacouer, illustrates the sometimes casual understanding that results in a tradition of magic.

Reg. Jack, please, tell us how you came to develop your understanding of magic.

Jack I did not really think about it, it just came to me you know. My grandma she used to do the fortune telling for people. The tea reading, the palm reading, and the tarot cards you know. When the magic showed up it just seemed to make sense to use those things. They kind of spoke to me, you hear.

Reg. Did you have any formal training in magic before this happened?

Jack No, but when I was in the college, I was studying the psychology. Did not really like the Freud and them, but the Jung was good. It talked about how things are connected, how people make the shapes of symbols match what they feel. That felt right. There was also some Crowley and some Campbell. They also talked about the symbols of things.

Reg. You mentioned Crowley, it seems a lot of young take inspiration from him.

Jack Yeah, I know, he said a lot of things, some of it makes sense.

Reg. So would you consider yourself a follower of the Thelemic Tradition?

Jack. (laughs)Hah. No, he also say a lot of things that don’t make any sense. I think he helped me to see how the Tarot fits in with the things.

Reg. You mentioned the Tarot, tell us a little more how it relates to your tradition.

Jack Well, the Tarot, it is all symbols. All those elements, they are petit suits you see. Like the Cups are the water if you understand me. Then the grande suits, well they are like the people, they are like the way the people are when they are just essential parts, you know the word. Archetypes, that’s it.

Reg. And how do you use the Tarot in your magic.

Jack Well I do the other thing too, the casting the spells. But yeah I think the spirits are important. They are the archetypes of things. I think of a card, say the 4 of Swords. And it is a spirit. Not really. But it is a symbol for a spirit, you know. So I can then use it to talk to the spirit you see and make him show up.

Reg. And to cast spells, is that different.

Jack No, it is the same. I just do the same thing with a spell you see. I picture a card ion my head that is like the spell I cast. Like to control people, I use a card, like a king or queen who tells people what to do, you know. Like the Emperor, he makes them do what they have to do. And I picture that card in my head and its symbols and it makes the thing happen in the world.


As you can see, there is little formal understanding of magical ritual in these traditions. To replace the logical structuralism of a formal hermetic tradition, used to bolster the mental forces needed to enact magical change, with an intuitive symbolism that has a more personal connection with the mafe. The examples of Kyra Ravensborn’s use of traditional folk remedies and Jiiro Ayekaro’s reworking of his ancestral Ainu bear fetish included in the this chapter further serve to illustrate the intuitive principles of the hedge magician


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Manipulation=Spirit of Man=Major Arcana
Divination=Air=Staves (a minor departure, traditionally it's swords, although it's something debated upon among Tarot readers. It makes sense to Jack though, and that's really what matters (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) )
Combat=Fire=Swords
Illusion=Water=Cups
Healing=Earth=Pentacles


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thoughts? comments? Thanks for reading.

[Marwynn]

Very interesting and flavourful tradition! I wish there were more official Intuition-based traditions, especially ones that weren't tied to religions.

Well written.

[Walpurgisborn]

Bahh.. he used the rough draft.

I did correct the spelling and grammar errors.

But thanks, Marwynn.

[Rasumichin]

Manipulation=Spirit of Man=Major Arcana
Divination=Air=Staves (a minor departure, traditionally it's swords, although it's something debated upon among Tarot readers. It makes sense to Jack though, and that's really what matters (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) )
Combat=Fire=Swords
Illusion=Water=Cups
Healing=Earth=Pentacles

Why did your player exchange the elemental connections of swords and staves?
I'm sure it makes sense to the character, but i don't know what to make of this.
For me, Swords=Air=Divination and Staves=Fire=Combat would be pretty obvious, especially for someone influenced by the Crowley tarot, where so many of the Sword and Stave cards are obviously and very visually linked to these elements.
I mean, the Ace of Swords has all these clouds on it, the Ace of Staves is this large, blazing wand and so on.
I'm sure i could come up with tons of other examples if i'd go through the deck.
All the sword cards deal either with insight and rational thought or with painful realizations and seperation, whereas raw power and potency is the overarching theme for staves.

Very interesting and flavourful tradition! I wish there were more official Intuition-based traditions, especially ones that weren't tied to religions.

Well written.

All the traditions in Digital Grimoire are Intuition-linked (Rastafarian, Egyptian, Psionics).

Of course, only one of them is not linked to a religion and it's followers are complete tinfoil head nutjobs...
Yeah, i'd love to see more secular, rationalist traditions like Chaos Magic and Wuxing.
Even Hermetic magic is not as secular as many people believe it to be.

[Walpurgisborn]

Holla Ras,

I'm aware that traditionally Air=Swords. But the character has a sword focii, has a sword he fights with (clumsily) and automatically thinks, swords equal combat. I almost swapped it so Air was combat based on that, but that screwed with the idea that air is "insight and rational thought". It felt right for the character to swap out the two. And probably get into debates on message boards over the issue.

[Marwynn]

Aren't all the traditions in Digital Grimoire also Possession-based?

[Rasumichin]

Holla Ras,

I'm aware that traditionally Air=Swords. But the character has a sword focii, has a sword he fights with (clumsily) and automatically thinks, swords equal combat. I almost swapped it so Air was combat based on that, but that screwed with the idea that air is "insight and rational thought". It felt right for the character to swap out the two. And probably get into debates on message boards over the issue.

Ah, i see.

Aren't all the traditions in Digital Grimoire also Possession-based?

Yes, all of them.