Lupinossai Magical Theory and the Soul
Crystal: (noun)
: a small piece of a substance that has many sides and is formed when the substance turns into a solid
: a clear hard mineral that is either colorless or very light in color and that is used in making jewelry
: a special type of glass that is very clear
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Energy: (noun)
1 a : dynamic quality (narrative energy)
b : the capacity of acting or being active (intellectual energy)
c : a usually positive spiritual force (the energy flowing through all people)
2 : vigorous exertion of power : effort (investing time and energy)
3 : a fundamental entity of nature that is transferred between parts of a system in the production of physical change within the system and usually regarded as the capacity for doing work
4 : usable power (as heat or electricity); also : the resources for producing such power
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Magic: (noun)
: a power that allows people (such as witches and wizards) to do impossible things by saying special words or performing special actions
: tricks that seem to be impossible and that are done by a performer to entertain people
: special power, influence or skill
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Soul: (noun)
: the spiritual part of a person that is believed to give life to the body and in many religions is believed to live forever
: a person?s deeply felt moral and emotional nature
: the ability of a person to feel kindness and sympathy for others, to appreciate beauty and art, etc.
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Theory: (noun)
: an idea or set of ideas that is intended to explain facts or events
: an idea that is suggested or presented as possibly true but that is not known or proven to be true
: the general principles or ideas that relate to a particular subject
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Magic and the soul are topics of debate throughout the ages. Many cultures, races, species and realms argue over what magic is, what defines a soul, how a soul is connected to anything and if anything happens to a soul when a being dies. These arguments range from primitive sciences that believed in the theory that unless a being was exactly like them that being was without a soul; that every day interactions of energy and physics were the cause of black magic, curses and forbidden practices against whatever favored deity or higher power they cling to and worship.
They theorize a soul is anything from a spirit that can go on to a place called heaven when a being dies or simply reduced to a cluster of emotional responses a living creature can have when inflicted with pain or rewarded with something giving comfort or nourishment. I will attempt to address a few beliefs that my people, the Lupinossai, share and believe. These theories are the results of our wisest sages having debated and researched countless texts and signs for a thousand years regarding magic and the soul. Both topics of debate are separate physical entities but unified and inseparable in a living being.
I will address the Lupinossai concept of the soul first as without it, what we know as magic would not exist. The soul could be seen as one whole entity within a living body of flesh, if you wish to believe in a divine spirit that lives on in a mythical resting place (Heaven, Hell, Valhalla, The Beyond, etc.). After centuries of long debate and speculation, the soul is believed to be a symbiotic assembly of two parts; a crystal like shell that houses a spark of life energy. It is said that a living beings memories are gathered close about the being like a protective cloak of familiarity; a safety blanket to sooth the being as it lives day to day in a world of the unknown.
These memories are considered to be valuable to the living being; crucial in some way to be remembered, allowing them to crystallize, ever accessible to the mind and hard to change or forget. This crystal forms within every living creature, both perceived sentient and unknown sentient. Every memory and experience that we hang onto grows a new facet upon that crystal. Within this crystal is an ever renewing well of energy, or spark of life that powers the living body through its various physical functions and holds the crystal together in a cohesive bond of energy.
What is the origin of the living spark and how is it maintained? All living life and non-living life houses energy at every level of structure; when something is destroyed or dies, that energy disperses into the realms environment to be recycled time and time again. This energy holds no memory, no emotion, and no feeling as it dwells within the crystal. It is simply energy in every form of the word, fueling the body. When a life is born, not conceived, but born from the womb, the first memory it will have upon separating from the energy of its supporting parental unit is breathing in air, feeling the cold air about its body and a sense of fragility, thus starting a seed crystal of memory, with the core facets of primal life; within that crystal a small life spark is harnessed from the energy of the parental unit via the umbilical cord, a spark of life to maintain the young.
A simple way to look at this is the mother/father/it bearing the offspring share nutrients and energy to allow it to grow within the parental unit. When the two separate by birthing or other methods of ending the procreation cycle, the offspring draws a portion of the parental unit?s energy with them. That energy taken is easily replaced within a few days of rest.
Let us break now to the subject of magic with this description of the soul and its required components of crystallized memory and life spark. Magic is perceived as something mysterious affecting the world around us; a cause and effect that is often hard to explain or appears beyond current methods of explanation and reasoning. Often it is simply technology that is never understood until a later time period with scientific data, rules and principles.
Magic is also perceived as energy creating an effect, tangible with a means of experiencing the effect first hand in the environments about us and within us. How is this energy harnessed and manipulated to create a physical, tangible effect? Strange words, clandestine hand gestures, mystic rituals or prayers to the divine beings of many faiths? These are bi-products and guides to what really causes magic to happen.
The energy used for magic surrounds all living beings and doesn?t rely on articulated words, flapping of the hands, gestures from the fingers or a multi-step ritual. It is simply harnessed by passing that energy through a selected facet that of the living being?s soul crystal that isn?t a primal facet. The crystal in most living beings is believed to automatically shift its focus to the primal facets that harmonize or align with energy radiating about their environment. This allows the environmental energy to flow into their life spark like a battery being recharged from a wall socket.
Other means exist for keeping the life spark charged; eating, drinking and sleeping when the body is exhausted but these methods of energy conversion are slower and hold only a small portion of energy for the spark. When a living being manifests a magical effect, that being is overriding the automatic focus of the crystal from the facets of primal life to a facet of memory that harmonizes or shapes the energy into a desired effect.
This physical shift of the crystals focus is brought about by reliving the memory that shaped that facet of the crystal. Emotions play a heavy role in forming the memory facet; the shape of the energy depends on the strongest emotion felt during the crystallized memory. This emotion will affect the magical effect manifested by the living being.
This is often the main reasons many schools of the arcane teaching or many sects of spiritual leadership that focus upon positive, light side, good or pure practices insist upon a peaceful meditation for many forms or rituals they desire. This is to help focus upon the emotions within those peaceful memories. Calm and peaceful lead to energy waves and manifestations that are harmonic frequencies matching other living beings and their life sparks; these manifestations are healing, beneficial and protective.
Increase the intensity of the emotion with memories that incorporate feeling bold, brave, powerful or aware of truth and they may lead to manifesting elemental effects in the real world (elemental as in Air, Earth, Fire, Water and their sub-classes and mid classes.) Increase the intensity even more to the emotional extremities of high order (Fear, Sadness, Anger, Intense Joy, Intense Pleasure, Severe Pain, etc.) the effects manifested could be very harmful and the least harmonic with other living beings and their life sparks. Suffice it to say that most harming magic comes from these facets (but you can harm with the elements and not use intense memories) with an intent to harm or a pure reaction to defend your living being by self preservation written into every beings primal facets.
Just because you have had an intense memory doesn?t mean you?ll shift your crystal and manifest a magical effect. It actually requires one to relive that memory, to feel the emotions once again, separate it from the details of the memory to bring the crystal around to that facet manually. Now many are familiar with the illusion of fast casting magic, or magicians that cast spells with ease or the wise man or sage attuning to the world around them in mere seconds. The key to this quickness is ?repeated association?. This is where the usual concepts of arcane words, hand gestures and rituals are born.
If a living being has to dredge up memories constantly and fully by meditation, then any magic would be long, exhausting and impractical in anything but a completely controlled environment (ritual magic); unless you add to your meditation repeatable actions. Mages draw upon the memory at the same time they say a word, make a gesture or handle objects in a precise, detailed manner with a ritual or the exact sequence or rhythm of words when evoking a divine being with a prayer.
This is the same method in training an animal to act on cue to a sound, a word or a gesture; route behavior, no thoughts, no thinking just an instant physical reaction. This method creates a physical and mental short cut to shift the crystal to the needed facet without sorting out the memory every time. Just like a martial artist, artist, worker and musician will train their body to automatically respond in various ways to various situations to fulfill various needs on demand without thinking.
However it is believed that using the environmental energy around us to manifest a magical effect by this manual refocusing method has some harmful drawbacks. If you try to manifest energy into a form alien or unnatural to its natural course, by way of intentionally harming a being with magic, desiring harm or ill will upon them or trying to mold nature against its nature, you run the risk of damaging the facets of your crystal. What is meant by this? Like focusing any type of powerful energy through a lens, the lens can warp and crack, even break or become permanently obscured. It is believed many things can cause crystal damage besides bending energy into unnatural patterns. Intense emotional or physical trauma, intense painful events and even near deaths can harm the crystal in various ways.
The crystal can, theoretically be repaired by renewing memories or creating new memories that match the intensity of any that are damaged. Damaged memories or facets of the crystal are often felt within the living being as memories that do not seem right, faded memories and even forgetting the memories all together as well as a feeling of emptiness deep within the living being. Depression, it has been theorized is often the hallmark of people who have damaged their crystals whether by an intentional or unintentional cause.
As a living beings crystal is marred or damaged more and more, affecting a magical result becomes less effective, requiring more effort to find a similar facet to gain the desired effect. Often times a mage who has done much magic with abandon and has damaged their crystal severely will notice that their body is slowly consumed to make the spell happen. This is a simple result to be expected as the crystal?s auto-focus is primarily meant to let energy flow into the life spark and keep it charged. With much of the crystal marred and constantly being refocused away from the primal facets, recharging is available less and less running down the life spark. The energy thus needed is then drawn out of living beings body until either the living being loses consciousness or expires.
Expiration moves us to the last area many either ignore or run ragged with religious arguments; death, what happens to our soul and reincarnation. In regards to death, when the body expires, the life spark has been drained into the surrounding environment by method of death. Once the life spark is gone, the crystal shatters, as the energy in the life spark is no longer available to keep the crystal intact. These shards of memory never vanish. They spread about the environment like a fine, unseen mist unless you know how to focus upon them. When a new life is born, sometimes the seed crystal that forms will resonate with energy similar to the shattered crystal memories known as collective memory. These shards will be attracted to the crystal and bond with it, creating additional memory facets that are not from that living beings life. This is the closest to reincarnation that can happen; just a hint of another beings life. Not a full record of a past life or accomplishments but merely hints of d?j? vu when happening upon the same events in life.
As to what happens to our soul, does it go onto a higher plane, a heaven or paradise, perhaps a tormented world for punishment? It does not, for the Lupinossai, for souls are the combined pieces of the memory crystal and life spark. Death separates them and thus ends the soul as we know it. Resurrections or bringing one back to life as some may fantasize about, it theoretically possible, but it would require a filter to sift through all of the crystallized shards out in the environment to find each memory facet unique to that living being that died. Then a method to hold the facets together while a life spark is put into that matrix. In a sense, a body with no soul would need a soul put into it to bring a living being back from the dead.
~Spiritor, First Mage of Lupinoss, M.B. (Magic is Born Era) 75th Year.~
Crystal: (noun)
: a small piece of a substance that has many sides and is formed when the substance turns into a solid
: a clear hard mineral that is either colorless or very light in color and that is used in making jewelry
: a special type of glass that is very clear
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Energy: (noun)
1 a : dynamic quality (narrative energy)
b : the capacity of acting or being active (intellectual energy)
c : a usually positive spiritual force (the energy flowing through all people)
2 : vigorous exertion of power : effort (investing time and energy)
3 : a fundamental entity of nature that is transferred between parts of a system in the production of physical change within the system and usually regarded as the capacity for doing work
4 : usable power (as heat or electricity); also : the resources for producing such power
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Magic: (noun)
: a power that allows people (such as witches and wizards) to do impossible things by saying special words or performing special actions
: tricks that seem to be impossible and that are done by a performer to entertain people
: special power, influence or skill
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Soul: (noun)
: the spiritual part of a person that is believed to give life to the body and in many religions is believed to live forever
: a person?s deeply felt moral and emotional nature
: the ability of a person to feel kindness and sympathy for others, to appreciate beauty and art, etc.
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Theory: (noun)
: an idea or set of ideas that is intended to explain facts or events
: an idea that is suggested or presented as possibly true but that is not known or proven to be true
: the general principles or ideas that relate to a particular subject
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Magic and the soul are topics of debate throughout the ages. Many cultures, races, species and realms argue over what magic is, what defines a soul, how a soul is connected to anything and if anything happens to a soul when a being dies. These arguments range from primitive sciences that believed in the theory that unless a being was exactly like them that being was without a soul; that every day interactions of energy and physics were the cause of black magic, curses and forbidden practices against whatever favored deity or higher power they cling to and worship.
They theorize a soul is anything from a spirit that can go on to a place called heaven when a being dies or simply reduced to a cluster of emotional responses a living creature can have when inflicted with pain or rewarded with something giving comfort or nourishment. I will attempt to address a few beliefs that my people, the Lupinossai, share and believe. These theories are the results of our wisest sages having debated and researched countless texts and signs for a thousand years regarding magic and the soul. Both topics of debate are separate physical entities but unified and inseparable in a living being.
I will address the Lupinossai concept of the soul first as without it, what we know as magic would not exist. The soul could be seen as one whole entity within a living body of flesh, if you wish to believe in a divine spirit that lives on in a mythical resting place (Heaven, Hell, Valhalla, The Beyond, etc.). After centuries of long debate and speculation, the soul is believed to be a symbiotic assembly of two parts; a crystal like shell that houses a spark of life energy. It is said that a living beings memories are gathered close about the being like a protective cloak of familiarity; a safety blanket to sooth the being as it lives day to day in a world of the unknown.
These memories are considered to be valuable to the living being; crucial in some way to be remembered, allowing them to crystallize, ever accessible to the mind and hard to change or forget. This crystal forms within every living creature, both perceived sentient and unknown sentient. Every memory and experience that we hang onto grows a new facet upon that crystal. Within this crystal is an ever renewing well of energy, or spark of life that powers the living body through its various physical functions and holds the crystal together in a cohesive bond of energy.
What is the origin of the living spark and how is it maintained? All living life and non-living life houses energy at every level of structure; when something is destroyed or dies, that energy disperses into the realms environment to be recycled time and time again. This energy holds no memory, no emotion, and no feeling as it dwells within the crystal. It is simply energy in every form of the word, fueling the body. When a life is born, not conceived, but born from the womb, the first memory it will have upon separating from the energy of its supporting parental unit is breathing in air, feeling the cold air about its body and a sense of fragility, thus starting a seed crystal of memory, with the core facets of primal life; within that crystal a small life spark is harnessed from the energy of the parental unit via the umbilical cord, a spark of life to maintain the young.
A simple way to look at this is the mother/father/it bearing the offspring share nutrients and energy to allow it to grow within the parental unit. When the two separate by birthing or other methods of ending the procreation cycle, the offspring draws a portion of the parental unit?s energy with them. That energy taken is easily replaced within a few days of rest.
Let us break now to the subject of magic with this description of the soul and its required components of crystallized memory and life spark. Magic is perceived as something mysterious affecting the world around us; a cause and effect that is often hard to explain or appears beyond current methods of explanation and reasoning. Often it is simply technology that is never understood until a later time period with scientific data, rules and principles.
Magic is also perceived as energy creating an effect, tangible with a means of experiencing the effect first hand in the environments about us and within us. How is this energy harnessed and manipulated to create a physical, tangible effect? Strange words, clandestine hand gestures, mystic rituals or prayers to the divine beings of many faiths? These are bi-products and guides to what really causes magic to happen.
The energy used for magic surrounds all living beings and doesn?t rely on articulated words, flapping of the hands, gestures from the fingers or a multi-step ritual. It is simply harnessed by passing that energy through a selected facet that of the living being?s soul crystal that isn?t a primal facet. The crystal in most living beings is believed to automatically shift its focus to the primal facets that harmonize or align with energy radiating about their environment. This allows the environmental energy to flow into their life spark like a battery being recharged from a wall socket.
Other means exist for keeping the life spark charged; eating, drinking and sleeping when the body is exhausted but these methods of energy conversion are slower and hold only a small portion of energy for the spark. When a living being manifests a magical effect, that being is overriding the automatic focus of the crystal from the facets of primal life to a facet of memory that harmonizes or shapes the energy into a desired effect.
This physical shift of the crystals focus is brought about by reliving the memory that shaped that facet of the crystal. Emotions play a heavy role in forming the memory facet; the shape of the energy depends on the strongest emotion felt during the crystallized memory. This emotion will affect the magical effect manifested by the living being.
This is often the main reasons many schools of the arcane teaching or many sects of spiritual leadership that focus upon positive, light side, good or pure practices insist upon a peaceful meditation for many forms or rituals they desire. This is to help focus upon the emotions within those peaceful memories. Calm and peaceful lead to energy waves and manifestations that are harmonic frequencies matching other living beings and their life sparks; these manifestations are healing, beneficial and protective.
Increase the intensity of the emotion with memories that incorporate feeling bold, brave, powerful or aware of truth and they may lead to manifesting elemental effects in the real world (elemental as in Air, Earth, Fire, Water and their sub-classes and mid classes.) Increase the intensity even more to the emotional extremities of high order (Fear, Sadness, Anger, Intense Joy, Intense Pleasure, Severe Pain, etc.) the effects manifested could be very harmful and the least harmonic with other living beings and their life sparks. Suffice it to say that most harming magic comes from these facets (but you can harm with the elements and not use intense memories) with an intent to harm or a pure reaction to defend your living being by self preservation written into every beings primal facets.
Just because you have had an intense memory doesn?t mean you?ll shift your crystal and manifest a magical effect. It actually requires one to relive that memory, to feel the emotions once again, separate it from the details of the memory to bring the crystal around to that facet manually. Now many are familiar with the illusion of fast casting magic, or magicians that cast spells with ease or the wise man or sage attuning to the world around them in mere seconds. The key to this quickness is ?repeated association?. This is where the usual concepts of arcane words, hand gestures and rituals are born.
If a living being has to dredge up memories constantly and fully by meditation, then any magic would be long, exhausting and impractical in anything but a completely controlled environment (ritual magic); unless you add to your meditation repeatable actions. Mages draw upon the memory at the same time they say a word, make a gesture or handle objects in a precise, detailed manner with a ritual or the exact sequence or rhythm of words when evoking a divine being with a prayer.
This is the same method in training an animal to act on cue to a sound, a word or a gesture; route behavior, no thoughts, no thinking just an instant physical reaction. This method creates a physical and mental short cut to shift the crystal to the needed facet without sorting out the memory every time. Just like a martial artist, artist, worker and musician will train their body to automatically respond in various ways to various situations to fulfill various needs on demand without thinking.
However it is believed that using the environmental energy around us to manifest a magical effect by this manual refocusing method has some harmful drawbacks. If you try to manifest energy into a form alien or unnatural to its natural course, by way of intentionally harming a being with magic, desiring harm or ill will upon them or trying to mold nature against its nature, you run the risk of damaging the facets of your crystal. What is meant by this? Like focusing any type of powerful energy through a lens, the lens can warp and crack, even break or become permanently obscured. It is believed many things can cause crystal damage besides bending energy into unnatural patterns. Intense emotional or physical trauma, intense painful events and even near deaths can harm the crystal in various ways.
The crystal can, theoretically be repaired by renewing memories or creating new memories that match the intensity of any that are damaged. Damaged memories or facets of the crystal are often felt within the living being as memories that do not seem right, faded memories and even forgetting the memories all together as well as a feeling of emptiness deep within the living being. Depression, it has been theorized is often the hallmark of people who have damaged their crystals whether by an intentional or unintentional cause.
As a living beings crystal is marred or damaged more and more, affecting a magical result becomes less effective, requiring more effort to find a similar facet to gain the desired effect. Often times a mage who has done much magic with abandon and has damaged their crystal severely will notice that their body is slowly consumed to make the spell happen. This is a simple result to be expected as the crystal?s auto-focus is primarily meant to let energy flow into the life spark and keep it charged. With much of the crystal marred and constantly being refocused away from the primal facets, recharging is available less and less running down the life spark. The energy thus needed is then drawn out of living beings body until either the living being loses consciousness or expires.
Expiration moves us to the last area many either ignore or run ragged with religious arguments; death, what happens to our soul and reincarnation. In regards to death, when the body expires, the life spark has been drained into the surrounding environment by method of death. Once the life spark is gone, the crystal shatters, as the energy in the life spark is no longer available to keep the crystal intact. These shards of memory never vanish. They spread about the environment like a fine, unseen mist unless you know how to focus upon them. When a new life is born, sometimes the seed crystal that forms will resonate with energy similar to the shattered crystal memories known as collective memory. These shards will be attracted to the crystal and bond with it, creating additional memory facets that are not from that living beings life. This is the closest to reincarnation that can happen; just a hint of another beings life. Not a full record of a past life or accomplishments but merely hints of d?j? vu when happening upon the same events in life.
As to what happens to our soul, does it go onto a higher plane, a heaven or paradise, perhaps a tormented world for punishment? It does not, for the Lupinossai, for souls are the combined pieces of the memory crystal and life spark. Death separates them and thus ends the soul as we know it. Resurrections or bringing one back to life as some may fantasize about, it theoretically possible, but it would require a filter to sift through all of the crystallized shards out in the environment to find each memory facet unique to that living being that died. Then a method to hold the facets together while a life spark is put into that matrix. In a sense, a body with no soul would need a soul put into it to bring a living being back from the dead.
~Spiritor, First Mage of Lupinoss, M.B. (Magic is Born Era) 75th Year.~