Modified Hermetic Magic

Principles

There are several principles which affect magic. These include Astrological (time and planets); the Laws of Sympathy, Contagion, Similarity and Names; and Materials.

Astrological Modifiers

The stars and planets have an enormous influence on the magical energy flows. Just as the moon and sun shift the earth's tides and magnetic fields, the seven mystical planets and (to a lesser extent) the constellations of the zodiac shape, amplify, mask, or alter the magical energies. Thus, the presence of certain materials or symbols in an area, or their use by the spell caster, can artificially enhance a given planet or astrological sign's influence over the spell.

For a given spell, derive its correct zodiacal sign and planet. For every two zodiacal correspondences in the spell's area of effect, or involved in the spell by the caster (in the GM's judgment), add +1 to the caster's effective skill level. Similarly, add another +1 for every three planetary correspondences. Each sign and every planet (except Mercury) has a sign or planet in opposition. The influences of opposing planets and signs work against the spell; every two zodiacal or three planetary correspondences in opposition to those powering the spell gives -1 from the caster's effective skill level. Enormous quantities or particularly high qualities of a given corresponding (or opposing) material might grant a further +1 bonus (or -1 penalty), at GM discretion. The total bonuses available from astrological modifiers (not counting those for the day and month, if used; see sidebar, p. 00) can never exceed +3; the excess symbolic energy simply overflows the spell and bleeds back into the ether.

It's important to note that these energies are symbolically important to the universe. This implies that they must be symbolically important to the spell for it to work. A GM is more than justified in ruling that a mage casting a Missile Shield spell (Protection and Warning, associated with Leo) derives no special bonus simply because the caster has a heart and there is a bowl of apples in the room. On the other hand, if the caster picks up a yellow apple from the bowl and smashes it into his own chest (over the heart) while casting the spell, that might be worth the bonus. If the caster just happens to also wear a gold-and-carnelian lion amulet over his heart, or be burning a frankincense joss stick in the furnace and inhaling the fumes, that's more symbolic oomph for Leo. Many magicians carry such amulets around on their person; many others prefer to cast any important magic in their workshop where such arcane ingredients might be closer to hand.

Zodiacal Sign Correspondences

Zodiac	Month	Color	Metal	Stone	Plant	Creature	Scent	Body Part	Tool	Opposing Sign
Aries	April	Red	Iron	Amber	Willow, Bamboo, Lily	Ram, Owl	Dragonsblood	Brain	Horn	Libra
Taurus	May	Brown	Bronze	Bloodstone	Chestnut	Bull	Storax	Neck, Head	Lever	Scorpio
Gemini	June	Orange	Copper	Agate	Holly, Lotus	Magpie, Mule	Wormwood	Chest, Ribs	Tripod	Sagittarius
Cancer	July	Gray	Silver	Moonstone	Hazel	Crab, Crawfish, Sphinx	Balm	Stomach	Wheel	Capricorn
Leo	August	Yellow	Gold	Carnelian	Apple, Citrus, Palm, Sunflower	Lion	Frankincense	Heart, Back	Furnace	Aquarius
Virgo	September	Indigo	Aluminum	Sapphire	Grapevine, Snowdrop	Dove	Narcissus	Bowels	Lamp	Pisces
Libra	October	Pink	Brass	Chrysolite	Ivy	Elephant	Galbanum	Kidneys, Hips	Scales	Aries
Scorpio	November	Maroon	Tungsten	Topaz	Elder, Cactus	Scorpion	Ammonia	Genitals	Whip	Taurus
Sagittarius	December	Blue	Platinum	Zircon	Yew, Rushes	Centaur, Horse	Aloe	Arms, Hands, Liver	Arrow	Gemini
Capricorn	January	Dark Green	Cobalt	Garnet	Rowan, Thistle	Goat	Cannabis	Lungs	Magnet	Cancer
Aquarius	February	Purple	Uranium	Amethyst	Ash, Olive	Peacock	Ozone	Legs	Wire	Leo
Pisces	March	Crimson	Steel	Aquamarine	Alder, Dogwood	Fish	Ambergris	Feet, Lymph nodes	Cross	Virgo

Planetary Correspondences

Planet	Day	Color	Metal	Stone	Plant	Creature	Scent	Tool	Opposing Planet
Sun	Sunday	Gold, Yellow	Gold	Diamond	Acacia, Saffron, Birch	Lion	Laurel	Orb	Moon
Moon	Monday	White	Silver	Pearl	Mushroom, Poppy	Cat	Jasmine, Opium	Mirror	Sun
Mars	Tuesday	Red	Mercury	Opal	Garlic, Gentian, Ironwood	Jackal, Snake	Sandalwood	Sword, Athame	Venus
Mercury	Wednesday	Orange	Copper	Emerald	Lavender, Mandrake	Swan, Lynx	Rose	Pentacle	None
Jupiter	Thursday	Blue	Iron	Ruby	Oak, Mint	Wolf	Blood, Tobacco, Gunpowder	Wand, Scepter	Saturn
Venus	Friday	Green	Tin	Jade	Rose, Lotus, Cherry	Eagle	Cedar, Nutmeg	Chalice	Mars
Saturn	Saturday	Black	Lead	Onyx	Cypress, Ebony	Crow, Raven	Myrrh	Sickle	Jupiter
April	Red	Iron	Amber	Willow, Bamboo, Lily	Ram, Owl	Dragonsblood	Brain	Horn	Libra

When The Stars Are Right

While the need for casting a spell on the last Friday in April at night while the moon is not in the sky may seem like a scavenger hunt gone mad, the Zodiac explains a lot of this. It might not be absolutely necessary to cast it then, but it might help quite a bit, as shown below:

Day	Month	Change
Right Day	Right Month	+3
Wrong Day	Right Month	+2
Opposing Day	Right Month	+1
Right Day	Wrong Month	+1
Wrong Day	Wrong Month	+0
Opposing Day	Wrong Month	-1
Right Day	Opposing Month	-1
Wrong Day	Opposing Month	-2
Opposing Day	Opposing Month	-3

A magician may claim a +1 bonus for magic corresponding to the zodiacal month of the mage's birth, with the corresponding -1 penalty for magic opposing the mage's birth-month. A mage born under the sign of Virgo, for example, would get a +1 bonus on Earth and Food College spells, and a -1 penalty on Piscean spells, those from the Body Control and Healing Colleges.

Eight Corners of the Year

Certain days serve as "hinges" on the magical calendar. Any magic at all may be cast at +2 on one of these days, and correctly-aspected magic may be cast at a whole mana level higher.

Yule: The winter solstice (usually around December 21), the shortest day of the year. Traditionally, the birthday of kings. (Meta, Healing)

Imbolc, or Candlemas: The harbinger of spring, the beginnings of light and fertility; February 1. (Enchantment, Light and Darkness, Elemental Water)

Ostara: The vernal equinox (usually around March 21), the official beginning of spring when the day and night are in balance. (Meta, Animal, Plant)

Beltane, or Roodmas: The feast of fire and love, May Day. (Movement, Elemental Fire, Enchantment) May Eve (April 30) is Walpurgisnacht, a day when the dead walk and winter takes its last blows. (Gate, Enchantment, Necromancy)

Litha: The summer solstice (usually around June 21), the longest day of the year. (Meta, Illusion and Creation, Light and Darkness)

Lughnasadh, or Lammas: A solar feast of first harvest and marriage; August 1. (Elemental Air, Enchantment, Communication and Empathy)

Mabon: The autumnal equinox (usually around September 21), the second harvest and the official end of summer balancing again the day and night. (Meta, Food, Body Control)

Samhain, or Hallowe'en: The feast of the dead, and the beginning of winter; October 31. (Elemental Earth, Gate, Enchantment, Necromancy)

The Laws of Sympathy

The theories of correspondences, which allow Hermetic magi to manipulate the astrological fields, elaborate on a basic magical principle: â€œLike affects like.â€ The intellectual breakthrough of Hermetism was the discovery that certain seemingly unconnected materials resonated, or vibrated, in sympathy with the fundamental energies of the universe, to a degree that could be known, measured, and controlled. However, without truly understanding the nature or interrelationships of those energies, magicians can still utilize them, just as the Romans built massive aqueducts without knowing the first principles of accurate physics. The magical equivalents of the Romans' levers and pulleys are the Laws of Sympathy.

Spellcasters who know them (which includes many characters with Occultism or Anthropology) and use them can gain bonuses to their skill with a given spell or ritual. However, because they are basically â€œbrute forceâ€ methods, the total of bonuses gained from the Laws of Sympathy can never exceed +6. Also, use only the strongest present modifier under each Law; if you have the blood of your subject, also using the hair and nails and favorite T-shirt won't add any additional juice to the spell. Note, also, that these bonuses apply in addition to existing bonuses and penalties in the GURPS magic system. (This is why magicians casting spells on themselves get no Contagion or Similarity bonuses, for example.) Spells cast at a distance may become possible using the Laws of Sympathy, but the -5 modifiers for â€œcannot see or touch subjectâ€ and any distance penalties should be added. (Magi using the Laws of Sympathy use the Long-Distance Modifiers for spells not traditionally usable at long distance.) The descriptions of some spells such as Seeker (p. B163) or Malefice (p. G39) incorporate ad hoc versions of the Laws of Sympathy; for consistency, the GM should apply the rules here rather than in those descriptions.

The Law of Contagion

Things once connected are always connected. This principle is the first, and simplest, principle of correspondences to grasp. To harm an enemy, burn a piece of his hair or fingernails. To gain a maiden's love, steal her scarf and sleep on it. Such folk magic uses the Law of Contagion in its most basic form; Hermetic and other advanced magical theories still use it today. Its power causes many paranoid magi to save and burn their own hair, fingernail clippings, excreta, and so forth. Magi almost never give blood.

In game terms, possessing a contagious link to a spell's subject grants a bonus to spellcasting. Using an article of clothing or a personal item with a strong link to the subject in the spell grants a +1 to skill. This should be something the subject would actually miss; one dress shoe out of ten pair in the closet, or a pencil from the subject's desk, will have no effect, while a well-worn pair of underwear or a â€œlucky pocketknifeâ€ would grant the bonus. (At the GM's discretion, clothing or items of vast personal importance such as grave earth or wedding clothes, or a magician's robe or staff, could grant a higher bonus still.) A skin scraping, saliva, fingernail clippings, hair or fur of the subject grants a +2 bonus, as does a physical piece of an inanimate subject, such as wood from a subject house's lintel. The blood or semen or corpse of the subject (or the equivalent, such as the motor oil from a subject vehicle) gives a +3 to skill. Casting the spell using the subject's physically present, willing or fully subdued child or spouse will also grant a +3 to skill.

The Law of Similarity

Things that look (or act) alike are alike. This principle can be seen at work in some of the planetary correspondences: gold aids solar magic because gold is the color of the sun. (To Hermetic magicians, the precise formulation of this would be that both gold and the sun comprise very similar proportions of the same magical energies.) Its most common use is in practical magic: the shaman clutches eagle feathers to let his spirit fly, for example.

In game terms, focusing a spell through a similar object to the subject, or engaging in symbolically similar actions to the effect, makes successfully casting a spell easier. A simple sketch of the subject is essentially worthless; either an accurate drawing (with a successful Artist roll) or a model of the subject (with a Sculpting+3 skill roll; the third dimension adds enough similarity that a sculpture can be less successful and still work) is required to gain a +1 bonus. A symbolic representation of the spell's effect (a bird feather for a flight spell, a flashlight for a light spell) can also grant a +1 bonus to casting. A photograph, a voice recording, or a formal portrait or sculpture (in other words, an image made in the presence of the subject) will add a +2 bonus to skill. The GM may allow more elaborate symbolic actions to grant a +2 bonus as well; stabbing a model of the subject with a dirty hypodermic to cast a disease spell, for example. A moving picture or video of the subject will add a +3 bonus, as would a hologram. (Magical illusions of the subject interfere with the actual spell to be cast, and grant no bonus, although they may be helpful in creating images.) The subject's twin or clone, if physically present and willing (or fully subdued) would also grant a +3 bonus.

The Law of Names

To know a thing's name is to control it. When God gave Adam dominion over the birds and beasts of the Earth, he told him to name them. To reduce a person, place, or creature to syllables and letters is to assert control over it. Goetic magi summon demons using their True Names, and command them using the ineffable Names of God. The entire discipline of kabbalah is a continuing refinement and exploration of the Law of Names. Every person, every sentient entity (and not a few others), has a True Name, the name by which the universe knows him. In modern industrial society that may, in fact, be the name by which he is commonly known -- it's usually the "full legal name" on a birth certificate. A Roman Catholic, however, may be baptized or confirmed with a different name than his "birth name" -- this ritual renames him, and that name becomes his True Name. Other groups have similar practices. In many tribal societies, everyone has a True Name (usually given by their mother) and a public name; some also have a "secret name" granted upon their coming-of-age. Families with long histories within the magical world also follow this practice; Magical scions always have a True Name known only to their mothers.

Upon initiation, many magicians take a new name. This name can become a feared source of magical power in its own right (ask Merlin or Cagliostro), but like any public identity, one of its true purposes is to mask its user. Using such a name (or a pseudonym) will allow magic to find its subject ("Show me Cagliostro" is a legitimate -- if dangerous -- thing to ask of a crystal ball) but grants no bonus to spellcasting. Using a subject's full legal name (where that differs from a True Name), military serial number, or Social Security Number grants a +1 bonus to skill; private "pet" names, autographs, baptismal or other secret names (where they differ from True Names) will grant a +2 bonus. Somehow using the DNA sequence or other fully individual, almost completely unknown identifier of a subject (for example, the secret identity of a superhero) might even grant a +3 to skill. Using the subject's True Name grants a +4 bonus to skill. (At the GM's discretion, it may grant an even higher bonus, or an automatic success, with spells such as Planar Summons or Summon Demon, as well as Mind Control or other highly personal magics.)

A Sympathetic Synthesis: The "Voodoo Doll"

Haitian bokors actually derived the infamous â€œvoodoo dollâ€ relatively late, from 19th century reprints of French magical grimoires going back to the late Middle Ages. (Even today, it's only rarely used in Haiti, and is more common in outlying voudun communities such as those in New Orleans and New York.) French medieval poppet magic (as it perhaps should be properly known) was a refinement of techniques going back to the ancient Egyptian papyri, which describe sorcerers creating wax images of victims to harm them at a distance. At any rate, it makes a familiar example of the applied Laws of Sympathy.

Dapper Parisian boulevardier and vile sorcerous back-stabber Louis de Grandin wishes to curse his rival for the fair Mireille, the bluff American soldier Jack Cadell. Made impatient and impetuous by love, he buys a GI Joe doll (the better to represent contemptible plastic American society) and sneaks a lock of Jack's hair from the barbershop. He scribbles "Jack Cadell" across the doll's chest with a marker, and gets ready to cast his spell. With a +1 for the doll (as a symbolic representation of Jack, not as an image) and +2 for the hair, Louis has a total of +3 to his skill at casting his Pain spell. Because he labeled the doll, he can cast the spell on Jack using it, but "Jack Cadell" is too unspecific to grant any bonus under the Law of Names.

If Louis takes a snapshot of Jack and pastes the photo over the doll's face, that will raise the Similarity to +2 (the image superseding the symbolism); if he bribes a record clerk to give him Jack's full name, that will add another +1 under the Law of Names. Sadly for Louis, Jack is a lapsed Catholic, and his baptismal name is his True Name. If he can somehow get ahold of Jack's blood, Louis can write that name in it for a +3 from Contagion, and try again at the maximum +6, less modifiers for distance.

Materia et Exempli

Magic Items

Casters may use Hermetic modifiers while enchanting an item. The applicable modifiers should be those dealing with the spell to be enchanted into the item, rather than the Enchant or Scroll spell. Penalties for inappropriate materials (using Libra-resonant brass or chrysolite in an Aries-driven Mind Control item, for example) count triple for enchanting items; their permanent presence will always hamper the energies' transmission. Casting a spell enchanted into a magic item can gain no further Hermetic bonuses, however; those previously-gathered energies are already reflected in the item's Power. No Hermetic bonuses aid the use of Powerstones.

Sacred Architecture

The shape, construction, decoration, and nature of buildings acts to focus, dissipate, or channel the energies of magic. "Sick building syndrome" exemplifies the kind of effect such energies can have -- but so does Chartres Cathedral. Some occultists design buildings to use this effect, building on the Hermetic-Pythagorean harmonies of number and shape with the decanic frequencies. This discipline is called sacred architecture, or sacred geometry. The 1st-century B.C. magician-architect Vitruvius developed the principles of sacred architecture in his Ten Books on Architecture. Their rediscovery, along with the works of Hermes Trismegistos, helped rebuild the Cabal and trigger the Renaissance.

In game terms, to use sacred architecture, a builder must possess sufficient competence in Architecture to create the necessary designs and at least one spell in the college corresponding to the college he wishes the building to affect. (The GM may wish to require at least a skill of 12 in Occultism, Thaumatology, or similar skills.) Buildings designed using sacred architecture add the amount by which the sacred architect made his Architecture skill roll to the bonus to skill for casting spells of any given college from within or into them. Sacred architects may design buildings that gather the looser zodiacal energies; such designs add a +1 bonus to skill for spells corresponding to those energies for each 2 points by which the Architecture roll succeeded. A similar rule obtains for buildings to channel planetary energies, only the +1 bonus comes for every 3 points by which the architect makes his skill roll. Sacred architects may also design buildings to repel magical energies; simply replace the bonuses with penalties to skill based on the architect's degree of success.

Insulators, Resistors, and Conductors

Many more common substances traditionally affect magical flows, either positively or negatively. By parallel to electrical theory, these substances can be divided into magical â€œconductors,â€ which increase or enhance magical energies, and counter-magical "resistors," which disrupt or dampen them. Resistors can also serve as insulators, keeping magic within bounds, allowing it to focus or pool in "batteries" or "capacitors." Games in which common substances have that effect will likely feature a greater role for ad hoc and flexible magic. Magic may also be less of a monopoly in such games, since characters with a decent Occultism skill will be familiar with the effects of such substances.

Ashes: The embodiment of inert matter, a line of ashes can disrupt magic crossing it (-1 to -3 to caster's skill) or help draw an insulating magic circle (+1 to caster's skill for magic wholly within an ash circle).

Blood: One of the ultimate magical conductors; "the blood is the life," and the life-principle can clearly be seen as the magical essence of things. Having a blood connection to one's target, or establishing a blood connection to a magical item, can add +3 to skill; casting a spell while merely spattering one's blood adds +1 (further blood loss should use the Sacrifice rules below).

Cornmeal: Bread and grain traditionally serve as a kind of "power sink" for magical force, transmuting it from supernatural to natural. Some magical spell effects can actually be transferred to bread and eaten by "sin-eaters." Fresh bread may harmlessly absorb up to 3 points of magical energy per loaf. Cornmeal or flour helps focus magical energy as ashes, above.

Hawthorn: Associated with Christ's crown of thorns, hawthorn has been used to protect homes from fairies and witches for thousands of years. Hawthorn plants grow over sacred wells, such as that at Glastonbury. Casting magic across a hawthorn hedge, at a person wearing a hawthorn badge, or into a house guarded by a hawthorn wreath must be done at -3 to -5 to the caster's skill. A carved hawthorn staff, ironically, makes a superior magic staff (+2 to spells cast using a hawthorn staff), possibly because the hawthorn contains and focuses the magical energies of the mage.

Iron: One of the ultimate magical conductors; "the blood is the life," and the life-principle can clearly be seen as the magical essence of things. Having a blood connection to one's target, or establishing a blood connection to a magical item, can add +3 to skill; casting a spell while merely spattering one's blood adds +1 (further blood loss should use the Sacrifice rules below).

Knots: Knots have had a mixed reputation in folklore; witches tied up storms and winds in knots, but good wives knitted good luck into knotted sweaters for their fishermen husbands. In general, knots seem to serve either as â€œcontainersâ€ for magical spells, or as channelers for baleful energy -- malign magic must run the entire length of the knotted string, growing steadily weaker as it does, before reaching its intended victim. To represent this, spellcasters can create one-use magic items by knotting strings or cords. Use the rules for scrolls, with two exceptions. The time to tie a magical knot is one minute per energy point, not one day, and the caster must roll against the Knots spell and Ritual Magic (Knot-Tying) skill instead of the Scroll spell. On the other end, anyone can tie or knit a defensive knot (the GM should require a successful roll against Climbing, Sailing, Hobby (Knitting), Escape, or whatever skill seems best) that will subtract one from the effective skill level of any spell cast against its wearer for each point by which the knot-worker succeeds. It takes 10 seconds to tie a defensive knot; for each additional full minute taken to tie it, the penalty to the caster's skill level increases by one.

Running Water: A very strong barrier against evil, and hence magic, of all sorts (likely due to running water's much lower incidence of amoebic contamination). Casting any spell (except Elemental Water spells) across running water is at -2 (for tiny creeks or apartment pipes) to -5 (for mighty rivers) to skill.

Salt: A powerful, ancient charm against evil (probably because of its preservative effects) and a raditionally magical material (probably because of its "magical" power to restore food's taste), salt takes on different roles in different magics. The GM may wish to tune salt's magic effect for the flavor he wishes; one possible version follows.

Rock or granulated salt acts as a magical resistor of magic cast across or into it (-2 to -4 to caster's skill). A pool or dish of saltwater can serve to "ground" magical energies; spells cast within scent of that water must roll a critical failure twice to have a "backfire" effect. Saltwater bodies large enough to show tides (seas, estuaries, and oceans) keep their salt in flux; thus spells cast on or across them may acquire anywhere from a -5 to a +5 modifier to skill (roll 2d6 and subtract 7). This modifier does not apply to spells of Elemental Water; the GM may exempt other "oceanic-flavored" spells, or grant them a positive modifier of some size, if he wishes.

Silk: In fairly late magical tradition, silk serves as a conductor and an insulator. It can transmit magic (a +1 or +2 to skill for spells cast along a silken cord) or, tied in a circle, insulate it (a +1 or +2 to skill for spells cast entirely within a silken circle).

Magical Languages

The Law of Names means that what you call a thing can potentially alter your power over it. The notion of magical languages expands this idea further; the closer your spell to the primordial language of Atziluth, the language of creation, the greater its power can be. Casting a spell in a foreign language usually requires a Language skill roll, or use of the Great Art of Memory .

Mundane Languages: Speaking a spell in a common language such as English, Spanish, Chinese, modern Greek, etc., cheapens and pollutes its value; mundanely cast spells are at -5 to effective skill.

Sacred Languages: More closely attuned to spiritual matters, languages such as Rhomaic Greek, Latin, Old Slavonic, Glagolitic, Arabic, Aramaic, Coptic, Gaelic, Old Norse, Tibetan, and Hebrew are the traditional, "default" tongues of magic. They grant no bonus.

Ancient Languages: Languages spoken closer to the Creation would, logically, be closer to the original, magical language. Languages such as Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian, Goidelic, Sanskrit, and Homeric Greek grant +3 to skill with spells cast in them.

Esoteric Languages: These secret languages come very close to embodying magical truths. Most of them are unthinkably ancient, such as Adamic, the tongue spoken before the Tower of Babel, and Senzar, the language of the Atlanteans. Other esoteric languages include those spoken by exalted spiritual beings (such as the Enochian language of the Aethyrs discovered by John Dee) or tiny magical communities (such as the Sabaean-Duriac used solely by the Sarmoung Brotherhood). All such languages are Mental/Very Hard skills, and grant at least +5 to skill with spells cast in them.

Sacrifices

Taking the anthropic principle to its logical conclusion, many magicians have attempted to bribe the entities to gain extra magical energy. Since the entities are immaterial, the thinking goes, destruction of a material item will gain their attention and favor. Modern Hermetic theory looks down on this practice as primitive and messy; whether it works is up to the GM. Sacrifices should match the proper correspondences; to invoke Aries, the sacrifice of a red ram will give noticeably better results than of some random chicken or rabbit. In general, sacrificed items should be highly flavored, noticeably valuable, or somehow different from the normal run of things. The following bonuses should be a guide for a sacrifice system:

Food, alcoholic beverages, tobacco or stimulants, incense +1 to +2

Live animals +2 to +4

Human beings +1 (homeless stranger) to +5 (beautiful virgin; royalty)

Caster's own blood +1 per 2 HT drained

Sacrificing a supernatural example of a given category will usually add +1 to the sacrifice's power. One of the Golden Apples of the Hesperides would be worth +3 as a food sacrifice; a magical sonnet in Byron's own hand would be worth +4; a live wyvern sacrifice would grant +5; and sacrificing a vampire king would be worth +6. Sacrifices must belong to the caster, or at least be fully within his power: shooting an enemy gunman in the head during battle is not a decanically-effective human sacrifice.

Not all entities desire human, or even animal, sacrifices! The GM should assign a penalty at least double the listed bonus amount to sacrifices that violate its principles. For example, a human sacrifice to Healing would modify the caster's skill by -2 to -10! Sacrifices grant only one bonus; burning myrhh, for example, can either be a +1 planetary correspondence or a +1 sacrifice with Saturn. The total bonus available from sacrifices are capped at +6.

Virginity

The purer the material, the better it can focus the magical energies. This holds for magical components, for sacrifices (see above), and for the magus himself. For every three days of fasting, exercise, and celibacy before spellcasting, a magus can add +1 to his skill at any spell. Virgins make superb scryers, and have a natural +5 to spells of Communication and Empathy or Knowledge; they are nearly â€œtransparentâ€ to those energies. For any material used in a magical spell casting or ritual (including the correspondences), the caster may add +1 for each +3 in bonuses derived from virgin (brand new, never used) material. If the caster hand-crafted (or personally grew or raised) the item, then he may add +1 for each such item.

The inverse of this rule is that objects used repeatedly in magical spells become better and better conductors of magical energies (or, more negatively, take on the taint of magic). Any item used to focus magical energies conveys a further +1 bonus to spells cast through its corresponding College after a year of steady use. Further use grants further bonuses to its corresponding spells as follows:

10 years	+2
50 years	+3
100 years	+4
500 years	+5
1000 years	+6

For each additional 500 years of constant use, the item adds an additional +1 bonus to its decanic spells. Some GMs may wish to similarly increase the Power of magical items, to further enhance the value of ancient and storied magical stones, staffs, and so forth.

An Example of Hermetic Magic

The Cabalist assassin Lisanne Self wishes to cast a Permanent Forgetfulness (p. M66) spell on the Interpol agent hounding her. She begins with a recording of the agent's voice, saved from an answering machine tape in the early stages of their duel. She obtained three of his hairs from his comb by breaking into his hotel room, but that may have been what tipped him off to her. Thanks to a bribed contact in Geneva, she knows his name is St.-John Scott Palmer; she hopes that's his True Name as well. This will allow her to use the Laws of Sympathy and, if she creates a strong enough connection, overcome the distance (around 20 miles) between her laboratory outside Philadelphia and Palmer, who's in the city investigating her.

Using the Mind Control spell; Lisanne sets up an iron brazier, to focus the energies of both Aries, and Mars. To further enhance Mars, she wears an iron talisman engraved with its planetary sigils. In the brazier she burns owls' brains, dragonsblood, Palmer's brand of cigarettes (Silk Cut), his hair, and poppies grown on the slopes of the Tien Shan mountains by the dubious and enigmatic Brothers of Sleep. Inhaling the smoke, she plays the recording of St.-John's voice backward while writing his name on bamboo splits with the tip of her iron athame. Burning these in the brazier, she casts her spell.

The modifiers break down thus:

Astrological Modifiers: The bamboo, dragonsblood, and owl brains all draw down the energies of Aries. Each two such correspondences grant one point of bonus; the owl brains count as a "double ingredient" since both owls and brains resonate with that zodiac sign, so Lisanne draws +2 for the total. The athame, tobacco, and amulet make three Mars-resonant components for an additional +1. (Although the iron brazier counts for both, it isn't enough to add another point to either, and the maximum bonus from astrological modifiers is +3, anyway.)

Laws of Sympathy: Palmer's hairs add +2 for Contagion, and the recording grants her a +2 for Similarity. (The symbolic action of playing it backward to represent memory loss is neat, but would only grant the same +2 for Similarity.) For his legal name (Lisanne is incorrect in her assumption) on the bamboo, she adds another +1 for the Law of Names. This grants her the maximum +5 for the Laws of Sympathy.

Her total modifier from the ritual is +8; she subtracts -5 for inability to see the subject, and a further -5 for distance (10-30 miles) for a net -2 to her skill at casting Permanent Forgetfulness.

Last Updated 6 July 2011