SHIFTING SYMBOLS AND THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU
What does it all mean? That’s down to the individual to decide – magic is personal
Emily ‘eni’ Torres is a freelance programmer and designer with a strikingly varied output. On the one hand she is currently making an “ADHD simulator, reflecting my own experiences with executive dysfunction”, in addition to narrative and puzzle games for other teams. On the other, she works with Tarot cards.
For Torres, magic is about flexible symbolism. “The way something is perceived and the meanings that we apply […] to a thing or an act are going to affect what kind of magic can be performed with that object,” she says. While these applied meanings don’t in themselves affect the world, she goes on, they can serve as a kind of amplifier. “Magic is meant to help, and won’t actually do anything without us doing something to make things happen. Can’t get a job without applying for a job, no matter how many ‘Get a job’ spells one might cast!”
CLASH OF SYMBOLS
What makes a magician a magician? Perhaps the ability to meddle with those applied meanings deliberately, even breaking with established custom. Take burning sage to cleanse something, for example. This is an idea that can be found all over, from native American purification rituals to ancient Greek medicine. It carries a weight of social expectation, but as Torres goes on, the individual practitioner might find a way to override that association, turning sage into a toxic item.
“If someone’s experience with sage powerfully reflects getting something dirty, then rather than cleansing, that person might be able to override the social belief and use sage to sully something.”
Torres does this with Tarot cards: rather than following a guide, she bases her readings on her own interpretations. She detects a similar approach in Square Enix’s The World Ends With You, where characters gain different abilities by wearing ornately patterned pins.
“The game explains this by stating that every person is inspired by [the pin] artwork differently, and this in turn produces different powers even if two people were to use the same pin as a source of inspiration and power,” Torres comments. “So every pin gives different people different abilities, with some people not gaining any powers at all because the artwork doesn’t inspire them! This makes powers personal to each character, much like how in my approach to magic, everyone [has] different experiences to draw from even if the materials are the same.”
“INDIVIDUAL PRACTITIONERS MIGHT FIND WAY TO OVERRIDE ASSOCIATIONS.”
Damien Crawford (who uses the pronouns fae/faer) is a creator of eldritch fantasy RPGs such as the acclaimed Purgatory Dungeoneer, a game about sending hero parties into a hellmouth both for loot and to unlock their own buried memories. Crawford also practises witchcraft.
Unlike many of the people we speak to for this piece, fae invokes particular gods for magical purposes, such as Diana, the Greek goddess of the Hunt. Faer magic draws on arcane texts such as Aleister Crowley’s The Lesser Key Of
Solomon and traditions such as paganism, but it has also been shaped by difficult personal experiences. “I was homeless for a few years. And it was very helpful to have someone to call on when I was [in] tough situations at nights, when I needed to be alert.”
Crawford’s magic rituals are simple on the surface, involving candlelight, lying down, breathing and focussing faer attention. “If I have a problem, I think about who I need to turn to, and what it is that I need to say. And whether that ends up actually being a matter of divine intervention, or whether it’s just me declaring my intent to the universe […] is
less important to me than just that it helps me, so I continue to do it. Which is a weird sort of space to occupy in, you know, a technology field where almost everybody is atheist.”
Whatever its origin or nature, Crawford feels that magic has to be about more than imploring those forces to do your bidding. “I believe that faith without works isn’t faith at all. So it is important, if you’re going to ask the gods for help, to let them know that you don’t expect them to do everything for you, but to give you a hand, to get you out of the pit that you’ve put yourself in.”
SUMMONING VICTORY
Fittingly for a witch who invokes a divine huntress, Crawford has found echoes of this approach to magic in Capcom’s Monster Hunter series. Preparing for and executing a hunt to fell the series’ mighty beasts is another kind of ritual, fae suggests. “You select your goal, which is the quest, and then you know what monsters you’re hunting, what elemental defences they have, and whatnot. And then it’s like okay, now I need to plan my equipment around this, I need to have the correct weapons, because otherwise they’re immune. Then you have your meals for temporary buffs, and making sure that you’ve signed up for optional side-quests. And all that is very much like [performing magic and] waiting for the right time of day or night, making sure you have the materials on hand, making sure that you’re in the proper state.”
“PREPARING FOR AND EXECUTING A MONSTER HUNT IS ANOTHER KIND OF RITUAL.”