The Nature of Magic Blogfest

Being a fantasy writer, I couldn't help signing up for the Nature of Magic Blogfest hosted by Tessa Conte and Laura B. Diamond.Here's the premise:

Write or share something you've already written that, to you, shows the nature of magic. It can be an excerpt from your WIP, something you've written especially, poetry, whatever strikes your fancy. It just needs to show the nature of magic as it exists for you or for those you write about.

I've elected to share something written about how magic works in the fantasy world of my current WIP. I often find that the best way for me to figure things out is to write short scenes of dialogue between two characters where they discuss the subject in question. For this project, the two characters are a priest and his would-be student based on the anecdotes found in Plato about the Greek statesman Solon and his journey to Egypt to seek knowledge from the priests there. Thus the student is called Sollon and the priest I have named Menes after the legendary first pharaoh who united Upper and Lower Egypt. None of the scenes I write with them will end up in the WIP, they are mostly for my benefit. Though at some point I may post all the material I write about them for free through my blog. On the other hand, sometimes I feel that there may be a sequel to be gotten out of them. We'll see.

Anyway, here are Sollon and Menes discussing power and magic as it is understood in Akhet, the Light Land.

    Sollon sat at feet of Menes in the House of Life. The ancient priest was gnawing on a chunk of bread. Sollon folded his hands around his knees and took a deep breath to maintain patience. Something in the old man’s eyes told him this was just another test. At last Menes swallowed and grinned at his student.
    “45 days ago you asked me about the source of a priest’s power.”
    “Indeed, venerable one,” answered Sollon in surprise. “You said I was not ready for the answer.”
    Menes grunted. “You are not now so full of ignorant presumption as you were then.”
    Sollon did not know whether to feel insulted or praised. He settled for bowing his head in deference. “Thank you, venerable one.”
    “The source of our power is a great secret fit for only those who follow the way of the gods,” said Menes.
    Sollon held his breath, wondering if his frequent sacrifices had been enough to pass this particular hurdle. “The gods of Akhet are great,” he said.
    Menes nodded, his hawk like features fixed on his student. “The gods of Akhet are great,” he repeated. “So you must know that if you use the knowledge I am about to give you for unscrupulous ends you will be made to suffer for it.” The priest peered into Sollon’s face, looking for any insincerity. At last he seemed satisfied. “I have told you much of the gods. I have given you some knowledge of Re’s travels through the heavens and the Duat comprising the 24 hours that we count in the journey of the sun, 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. Know then that these realms of the gods’ abode, the heavens and the Duat, have properties which enable the gods to perform their duties and which extend even into the world of mortals.”
    Sollon frowned. “What kind of properties?”
    “It is a thing we do not fully understand even now,” Menes confessed. “Yet there is a... material sphere that we can neither see nor measure nor detect in anyway. Slowly it revolves around our mortal world and within it the stars are embedded. It is the realm of the gods.”
    “You mean... it is a place? Out there... in the sky?” Sollon questioned. He looked out the nearby window.
    “It is much more than a place,” Menes said. “It is a sphere of existence. Those of us who follow the way of the gods can reach into it. It is our ba that does this. When one’s ba is united to the will of the gods it gains strength, it is able to extend beyond you into the realm of the gods.”
    Sollon shook his head. “I still do not understand the ba.”
    “My ba is within me and it is without me. It is a part of me and it is more than me. I will become it when I die and I will also join it when I die,” said Menes.
    “Venerable one, you speak in riddles,” Sollon cried. “I cannot understand this thing.”
    Menes pointed to the table beside him on which was set a cup of beer. “Then watch.”
    Menes did not take his eyes off of Sollon, but Sollon watched the cup. There was... something... like an illusion in the air. He could only just see it and only because he was looking. It appeared like Menes and yet not like Menes. It grasped the cup and put it into Menes’ hand. Menes calmly drank of it.
    Sollon reeled. “I have never seen such a thing!”
    “It is not something that we show to outsiders,” said Menes with a tight lipped smile. “It is not something we do for the sake of doing. We obey always the will of the gods and use this power only in their service.”
    “Can you teach me to do as you have done?”
    “You must first know your ba and your ba must be united with the will of the gods,” Menes answered. “Then you may learn these things.”
    Sollon kept his gloating inward. After all these months! Being told he was an outsider and not worthy! Tested again and again but never being given anything but hedge knowledge!  Now he was finally going to learn of the true magic of Akhet.
    “I show you this thing because it has come to me from the wisdom of Dihauti, he of the Ibis, that you, Sollon, will be important to us soon,” Menes explained. “The Thrice-Great One sees darkness in the future of Akhet and you, Sollon, will be the light to guide us through it.”
    Sollon did not heed the old priest’s prophecy. It did not matter. He was going to be given the power he sought.
   
   

Elemental, my dear Watson!

When it comes to creating a magic system for a fantasy novel, it seems that many, many writers are drawn to the Classical Elements. Those would be Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. (Heart! Go Planet! Woah, I just totally dated myself.) I don't know how many stories and movies have used this type of system, but it seems to be everywhere. In early concepts for my fantasy world I used it as well. I came up with one of those "there are all these different lands and the people in the different lands have different elemental powers" ideas. Eventually I realized how unoriginal it was and I dropped it.

It has occurred to me to wonder why this theme is so prevalent. What is it about the Classical Elements that inspires people? Is it the feel of a connection to nature? Or is it the feel of power over nature? A little of both, perhaps? It's undeniable that the elemental model speaks to us on some level.

However, I made the decision to abandon it. Originality is important to me. And while I realize that originality today rests more in how you develop an idea than in the actual substance of the idea... I still think that the Classical Elements have been done so often in so many ways that it would be impossible to avoid comparisons. So I dropped all of the worldbuilding I had done so far and started from scratch.

But I still needed a "magic system" for my world. I intensely dislike stories where things are explained by simply saying, "It's magic!" but the magic its self is never explained. To me there needs to be rhyme and reason to magic in a fantasy setting. But I also dislike it when the magic feels like a game system. For me it needs to be organic and natural to the world. (Tolkien's magic is a perfect example, though most people don't understand how it works because it's only explained properly in material outside the main novels.) And since I have been developing a society based on Ancient Egypt, I had also to account for the way the Egyptians viewed magic as well as for the existence of real and very powerful gods who do get involved in the world. And honestly, I've been having trouble figuring out how to put all this together.

Enter my knight in shining armor, my husband and all the obscure stuff he reads on blogs and leaves up on his computer when he goes to work. He's a big fan of Sci Fi author Mike Flynn and reads the author's Livejournal regularly. So recently I glanced at one of the entries that was sitting there after he'd left for work and got completely sucked into it. For various reasons, Flynn started talking about Aristotle and his theories of a fifth element he called Aether. Here is some of what Flynn wrote about the Aether:

Look at it through Aristotle's eyes: it is a material sphere of some sort within which the stars are embedded, and it turns slowly on itself day in and day out.

It is:

* simple (not a compound of elements) effected by only one internal principle or cause
* ungenerable and incorruptible, incapable of growth or alteration.
* although subject to change in place, not subject to changes in substance, quantity, or quality.
* inalterable.

If aether is incorruptible, its prime matter and substantial form must be so perfectly united that the latter must actualize and thereby exhaust the potency of the former. That is, aether's prime matter is inseparable from its form, and in this sense is not really distinct from it.

If aether cannot be destroyed (or even altered qualitatively), it must somehow be intangible. It is not susceptible to the action of the tangible qualities of temperature and pressure.

If aether cannot be pressed upon by ordinary matter, then if some body were to try to press upon it, that body would cut right through the aether unhindered (which is why Michelson-Morely did not lay a glove on the Aristotelian aether.) That is, aether can "push" on ordinary matter without being "pushed back."

"While usually the thing touching is touched by what it touches--for nearly all the things we come upon move while also being moved -- still it also occurs (as we sometimes say) that only the mover may touch the moved, while the thing touched does not touch the one touching it. But because things of the same kind are moved [in return] when they move others, it seems to be necessary that [movers] be touched by what they touch. Whence if something unmoved moves another, although it will touch the thing moved, nothing [will touch] it."
De Gen. et Cor., 1.6.323a26-32

Having never read Aristotle and not being a scientifically minded person in general, I was amazed and fascinated by all this. And immediately ideas started springing to mind about how I could use this Aristotelian Aether as a basis for magic in my fantasy world. The basic idea that came to mind was this:

Aether touches, but is untouched. But what if certain people could touch it and affect it? The Aether is invisible and undetectable. If one person was able to create an effect through the Aether, a person who did not have that ability would see it as magic.

I immediately went to read more about Aristotle and his Aether. I discovered many other very interesting theories as well. Particularly, Aristotle's ideas of Potentiality and Actuality and Plato's theory of Forms. I am going to be trying to adapt all of these ideas to my fantasy world. I still have not worked out details, but I think this will lead to a very interesting and natural form of "magic system" to explore. In a way, I'm coming back to the idea of elements, since Aether was classically the fifth element after Air, Water, Fire and Earth in Greek thought. Though I don't plan to work with the other four in my system.

I am very excited about the possibilities.