I had a player, playing a Hermetic mage, recently performing a string of summonings and bindings. I found myself at a loss to describe the nature of the binding ritual. Normally, that'd be his job, but he's pretty new to the game and the systems, so that sort of thing kinda falls into my lap. Anyone have any ideas what a Hermetic binding ritual should be like? A figure a shamanic binding is really a process of making offerings and basically negotiating with the spirit, but I don't really know what to do with a Hermetic.

I picture hermetic binding to be a ceremonial ritual, lots of chanting and some liberal use of the necessary conjuring supplies (incense, books, candles, etc). If you want to get really interesting you could go into sympathetic techniques like using tarot cards that represent the spirit being bound with a silk ribbon or something like that. For hermetics it's more like forcing the spirit to do your will, IMO, whereas shamans spend more time working with the spirit to convince it that his/her will is the spirit's as well.

The short version is, it's very vague; Magic in SR is veeery perception-based, like the UMT indicates. I mean, magic is a manifestation of the mental structure of the user, and the effects of their magic strongly reflect that. So... I guess the answer is, the ritual is whatever is most appropriate to him.

Hermetics are typically "logical" spellcasters - using formulas and spellbooks, instead of intuition. Symbolism becomes very important, as does structure.

For example, you could have a single circle, used to contain the spirit until the spell is complete. You could have TWO circles, one to hold the spirit, and an outer one surrounding it that also holds you, but keeps the world out. The spirit could be in the center of a pentagram or a star of david. You could have four candles (reflecting the four elements), five or six (the points of a star), or none. Maybe to summon a spirit of fire (fire elemental), the whole thing is centered around a bonfire, or maybe a single burning coal that's brought to life. For an air elemental, maybe it has to be under the air. Maybe it involves lots of burning insense; maybe it involves musical instruments, or maybe he's a spell of binding from a book...

It's just very vague. It's highly personal to the summoner, their "school" of magic, and their personality.

I would imagine lots of painstakingly created circles. They are such a staple of occultism that any hermetic would be likely to use them. And I don't mean bland circles either, I mean circles made of of elaborate sigils/runes/occult whatnot that invoke dread curses on whosoever is trapped inside them. Stress the detail put into the etching of these symbols, how the circle's radii is the square root of the diameter of the pyramid of Giza divided by the luminescence of Venus (which is ascendant that day) and such.

I imagine hermetics as being very heavy into incredibly elaborate symbols and formula, all painstakingly tested to achieve certain results. Imagine the scientific method gone mad, MAD I tell you!

Also, a Hermetic could have a religious flavour as well. In that case the Binding ritual could involve recitations from the holy scripture(s). Prayer/meditation, chanting (possibly in an ancient language like Arabic, Hebrew, or Latin).

Although Shamans tend to me the more spiritual ones, that doesn't mean that Hermetics are aethistic. The only thing that really defines a Hermetic is structure. Magic is learned through study, and practiced using specific techniques and procedures. So although Shamans may seem more "religious", many religions (like old Catholisism) are more conducive to Hermetic magic due to their rigid structure.

True dat, Mdynna.