In the Star Heart Codex (SHC), Magic is mentioned. Nowadays, the idea of magic is absurd, ridiculed, or drifts off into fantasy tropes. Most people fear magic and would all too gladly start a witch hunt against what they do not know.
But even as a scientist — in fact, especially as a scientist — I do believe in Magic. Science provides a very unique framework for reality, respectable for its aims, but failing in the everyday world. Science will not help you when you fall in love. Science will not answer why some songs just hit different for you. Science has clear limits and no answer for what lies beyond. Science will not tell you the purpose of your Life. Additionally, science is heavily subject to the philosophy that fuels it. In the current academic world, philosophy is largely ignored (or treated as a last year BSc course for 3 study points).
Philosophy allows you to go beyond science to understand reality. Within the SHC, Magic is merely a placeholder for all the phenomena science cannot sufficiently explain (yet). To improve a system (scientific, philosophical, or otherwise) it absolutely crucial to acknowledge its limits and name that which cannot be named.
The Magic described in the SHC is not what most people think of when talking about “magic”. My Magic does not clash with science. In fact, my Magic is supported by science to its greatest extent (i.e., as far as science can explain stuff beyond what it can explain).
Here is as much as I can describe of the Magic in the SHC with a high degree of certainty without veering into deep fantasy:
Magic is related to Time. Time has inherent qualities (so not how much time, but what type of time).
Magic is also related to consciousness, more specifically how consciousness interacts with the qualities of Time. (Important sidenote: the SHC supports a view where consciousness is universal. All Life is conscious to some degree. Life does not “build” consciousness, Life “traps” consciousness)
Witches, mages, wizards, or Timeseers as used in this blog do exist; they are wielders of Magic. It is possible to wield the unknown intentionally.
As explicitly stated in the SHC, becoming a Timeseer is no easy affair. It demands a degree psychological self-sacrifice. It is an unending path, but there are clear starting points. The SHC is a good beginning.
Supernatural beings do not exist. Nature is seen as universal in the SHC, so you inherently cannot be “more than natural”. If you deviate positively from the norm, you are just an adaptive mutation.
As for the unicorns, vampires, mermaids, aliens and other mysterious beings, these do not fit the current general frame of reality we share. It does not mean they do not exist. It means that their existence has not been shared as a Truth by enough people for it to become a piece of Order Universal. (It would be a shared Truth, if unicorns came running out of the woods and a great enough number of people see them.)
Curses and spells exist too. However, a Timeseer does not need those. He•she understands that a curse binds the other, as much as it binds oneself. If you wish ill upon someone, you experience hate, which has a detrimental effect on you. The only curse that is useful is the Mirror Curse. A Timeseer is not afraid of the Mirror, and should already be bound to it.
Instead Timeseers can rely on their Ice Traps: much more efficient, equally powerful and much less energy-consuming. Let River-Dweller do the Magic work for you! No need to think, just feel. Magic will come effortlessly.
There are certain rituals which can enhance specific aspects of Magic. Some are well known (music) and some are obscure (Ice Traps dynamics). Who knows how many still need to be discovered? I might share some I know in another post.
Perhaps the greatest mystery of Magic is Love. What happens to the texture of Time as two consciousnesses seek to synchronise?
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more future-past thoughts from the depths of the Codex ;)
