The Magus University Superdraft

[Enforcer84]

First member of the School Factulty, and the apple/bane of the dean's eye/existance.

 

"Any sufficiently advandced magic will behave like SCIENCE!" 

 

Agatha Heterodyne

 

[DShomshak]

5 hours ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

I was not familiar with Paolini, but that's a fascinating read. 

Confession: I'm conflating two different Fabio Paolinis. The Paolini who wrote the Hebdomades was not Paolini the painter. As described in Walker's Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella, Paolini the Hermetic flourished decades earlier, and his principal magical interests were music and oratory. But I forgot to check the dates on their lives. I should check these things before relying on my memory of a book read more than 20 years ago. Oopsie!

 

But looking at other people's submissions, I see I shall have to up my game. So that's what I'll do for my first professor: There shall be a game, which I "up."

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cancer]

I dunno.  I'm trying to stay in my properly urban gutter.

[DShomshak]

The students are not surprised when the teaching assistant wheels the marble bust into the classroom. Their professor this day is Julianus the Theurgist. Bodily, Julianus is long dead. His mystical ascension of the celestial planes, however, enabled his soul to continue after death as a eudaimon, a good spirit, to guide others on the path to Heaven. Moreover, the book written by his father Julianus the Chaldaean, the Chaldaean Oracles, tells how to attract planetary spirits and daimones into consecrated effigies, called telestika. The Paolini Institute holds numerous telestika, though Julianus is the only one that teaches. Though the stone does not move, it speaks, as if a sighing wind were shaped into a light baritone voice.

 

“Welcome, students. You have already learned the rudiments of evoking spirits. This class shall teach you how to create new spirits of your own, wrought from the raw energies of the planets, and bind them to your service as familiars. We call these familiars Iynges to distinguish them from other spirits — though they have recently gained another name you perhaps know better.

 

“The process requires two essential tools, in addition to the normal tools and procedures of Hermetic magic. First, you must create a picture of your Iynx. This shall preferably be small, for ease of use; when I lived, we painted miniature images upon ivory. In this modern age, you may paint or draw your spirit’s likeness at a larger scale and reproduce it at smaller scale on cardboard.

 

“The second tool is a round case, a bulla, of gilded metal engraved with glyphs of power and filled with substances of planetary affinities. At the conclusion of the long rites to shape your Iynx, you shall touch the bulla to the newly-shaped spirit, say the name you have chosen for it, and so bind it in that form, that name, and to serve you. You may wish then to wear the bulla on a cord, as a pendant, for convenience.

 

“When you desire to call upon your Iynx, take out your image of the spirit and gaze upon it. You whirl the bulla on its cord — it is now a strophados, an image in this world of the whirling motion of the heavens. Speak the spirit’s name with the command, Dialégo eséna! You, I select! And it shall appear, ready to work your will.

 

“My assistant shall now demonstrate, calling an Iynx I shaped and bound in life. Behold.”

 

The assistant removes a small card from her pocket and takes the golden ball hung on a fine chain around the neck of the bust. She whirls the ball over her head and cries, “Πίκαχυ, διαλέγω εσένα!” Students’ eyes widen as they realize what they just heard, as the form of a pudgy, mouse-like creature with a lightning-bolt tail appears floating in the air with a halo of sparks…

 

“Pikachu, I choose you!”

Though the stone lips cannot move, everyone hears the smile in Julianus’ voice. “We may all thank Magister Diggs for his… innovative approach to presenting the Hermetic Mysteries in a form the common folk can understand. And, incidentally, for a licensing agreement that makes this Institute largely self-financing. Now that’s magic.”

 

Professor: Julianus the Theurgist, specialist in Neoplatonic philosophy, spirit-creation, and Pokémon

And yes, the final exam involves the students pitting their Iynges in battle against each other. The contest, held in the university’s sports stadium, is always well attended.

 

Dean Shomshak

(And no, that isn't a portrait of Julianus the Theurgist. It's the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate. But he was into Neoplatonism, and is more than okay with having his image used as a telestika.)

[Psybolt]

7 hours ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

 

Question: Does this mean to imply that the university will have a zoo? Or perhaps a barn? Just curious. 

The answer is yes.

 

University Staff Member:  Zookeeper ... Hagrid

 

[Sociotard]

Thanks for the piglets, Hagrid.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

1 hour ago, Psybolt said:

The answer is yes.

 

University Staff Member:  Zookeeper ... Hagrid

 

 

I was afraid of that. I'm sniped! (Was going to make zookeeper.)

[csyphrett]

5 hours ago, Enforcer84 said:

First member of the School Factulty, and the apple/bane of the dean's eye/existance.

 

"Any sufficiently advandced magic will behave like SCIENCE!" 

 

Agatha Heterodyne

 

• Author

Posted 1 hour ago

  2 hours ago, Psybolt said:

The answer is yes.

 

University Staff Member:  Zookeeper ... Hagrid

 

Expand  

 

I was afraid of that. I'm sniped! (Was going to make zookeeper.)

 

Always one, sometimes two.

CES

[Bazza]

Jumping in to stop Dean, and before he picks a good one! 

 

School: Advanced Academy of Qualitative Mathematical Physics & Geometry

 

Head: Pythagoras.

   Specialty: ALL OF GREEK SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, COSMOLOGY, LOGIC

[csyphrett]

I need two archaeologists in my department.

 

I am picking Dr. Henry Jones Jr as one of those.

CES

[Bazza]

Professor #1: Plato. Specailties: Arithmology & Philosophy. 

[DShomshak]

4 hours ago, Bazza said:

Jumping in to stop Dean, and before he picks a good one! 

 

School: Advanced Academy of Qualitative Mathematical Physics & Geometry

 

Head: Pythagoras.

   Specialty: ALL OF GREEK SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, COSMOLOGY, LOGIC

Aww... <pout>

 

No, actually, I'm completely okay with this. I dare say that the two departments get along pretty well most of the time, with only good-natured snarking at each other. Like scientists and engineers (not saying which would map onto which department).

 

BTW: Have you read Garfinkle's Celestial Matters? A science fiction novel set in the Ptolemaic universe, with a spaceship on a mission to collect fire from the Sun. I recommend it to one and all.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Bazza]

I would like to say that our departments have a friendly rivalry. Especially intercollegiate sports.  

 

I’m not a big sci-fi reader, but thanks for the info about the book. It’s nice that this ancient science & philosophy is being used. Looking the book up, I noticed it also includes eastern influences. It reminded me of this book (fyi https://wipfandstock.com/9781610971812/the-holy-spirit-and-chi-qi/ )

 

And how could I have forgotten Ptolemy? *bangs head against wall* 

[death tribble]

Because you were thinking of Cleopatra ?

 

Thank you !

I'll be here all week

Try the fish

[Bazza]

Did anyone hear anything just now? Me neither. 

[DShomshak]

Hermetic theory describes music as an important and powerful way to (literally) attune the soul and spirit to celestial energies. Marsilion Ficino and Fabio Paolini both wrote extensively on music theory, both mundane and arcane. Paolini Institute employ music in their magic rites, using instruments ranging from classical lyres to electric guitars.

 

Ah, but who should teach this important subject? Pythagoras, first promulgator of cosmic musical harmony, is taken. There is historic record of Paolini holding an extensive debate on whether the mythic Orpheus really could have charmed stones and trees into motion, and if so, how.

 

But for music designed to evoke the power of the planets, the choice is obvious. If you haven’t heard of the man, you’ve certainly heard his orchestral suite, The Planets.

 

Professor: Gustav Holst

Specialty: Musical Magic/Magical Music

 

 

A few tangential points:

 

While hostility between Science and Magic is a common trope, Hermetics have never seen it so. Historically, Hermetic notions of force were entangled with the birth of modern science. Even though astronomy reveals worlds utterly unlike the mystic celestial realms that Hermetics visit, these too are entangled in ways the Institute still labors to understand. And on a practical level, Institute graduates have good reason to be embedded in NASA and other deep space exploration programs. There my be more about their reasons later.

 

The Planets includes movements for Uranus and Neptune, the planets unknown to Neoplatonists and Hermetics. Or so conventional history supposes. These are subjects for advanced classes.

 

And finally, whenever Institute faculty and students must gather for group rites, especially those involving music, every participant and audience member gets a cough drop beforehand!

 

Dean Shomshak

[Hermit]

"Are all Star Elves like that? So.. reserved?"

"I wouldn't know, I haven't met all Star Elves."

"Funny."

"Besides, our Professor of psychic information exchange and shielding class is only half star elf."

"Right the ability to merge minds is  creepy as hell, he could at least be a bit more..amiable. I mean, why is he in this department? "That Needs of the Many stuff..." Does a guy like that even really know what friendship is?" The two students continued to walk off away from their class.

 

Meanwhile, hearing them quite clearly through the building window they had not considered, the professor in question looked about his office mementos and straightened a portrait of a Captain he'd once served under long ago. A younger him would have lamented their lack of reasoning and how far sound might travel while at the same time considering their views of him relatively inconsequential. It might still be logical to do so, but then, the Professor had learned decades ago that Logic, while crucial, was the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it. His magical specialty involved the sharing of thought, ideas, and memory... sometimes literally, and he made sure his students learned to use that responsibly. But if his students had actually asked him what he knew of friendship?

 

He glanced at the Portrait again, and held up his hand in finger splayed greeting, his memory going back across the years. As he recalled the words, "You have been, and always shall be, my friend"  Logic told him that friendship should terminate, naturally, when a shorter lived comrade came to the end of their cycle by age, violence, accident, or ill health. It should wither and fade. Experience? Experience had proven that hypothesis wrong.

 

Professor Spock gave the smallest of smiles, most who did not know him would not think of it as a smile at all, stopped his salute to the painting, and straightened his wizard robes. He had another class to teach coming in soon, and the lessons  would perhaps include that quantity did not trump quality.

 

PIck: Professor Spock, teacher of Psychic Information transference and shielding, one on one rapports, and patron of the school's three dimensional chess club

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

The Puck Culinary Institute selects Professor Hilda Braeburn. 

Specialty: Baking & Architecture 

 

[The specific identity is something of a kludge. You would know her better as the witch from tale of Hansel & Gretel. She was never given a name in the original story, but the opera dubbed her Rosina Leckermaul which translates to "Raisin Sweet-tooth." In the tv series Once Upon a Time she was known as The Blind Witch, then later as Hilda Braeburn. My favorite name, though, is The Gingerbread Hag. (Students can be so cruel.)] 

 

A kindly old woman with a wicked sense of humor and a real fondness for children. Hilda is blind, but her sense of smell is supernaturally acute. She is an exemplary baker known around the world for creating the most amazing cookies and breads. Even her fruitcake is surprisingly appetizing. Her gingerbread is delightfully addictive with that je ne sais quoi that makes it strong enough to build with yet delicate enough for a child’s teeth. 

 

Years ago, Professor Braeburn built the original home for the Institute and called it Child Hall. It had to be abandoned, though, because the student body kept picking at it and it became structurally unsound. Then there was the confusion about the name… Dean Brown thought it better to just build a new structure out of good indigestible brick. 

 

 

All that remains of Child Hall
 
 

[Enforcer84]

Today's pick. The Professor of Magitech Aeronotics. 

 

Cid Garlond. 

 

"I don't know if it will make any sense, but we'll get this thing in the air if it kills you."

[csyphrett]

I would like to pick Atomic Robo Tesla as a teacher of historic exotic sciences

CES 

[Old Man]

The Greater Chickamauga College of Magical Healing

Professor: Mary Poppins (Pharmaceuticals)

 

"I'm Mary Poppins y'all!"

 

No, wait--

 

"A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!"

 

[DShomshak]

Lin Carter claimed (in an appendix of sources for one of his books) the witch from Hansel and Gretel was named Mother Gothel, but I don't remember if he said what the source was. Not that it matters; people like that tend not to be limited by single names.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cancer]

Faculty member #2 in the Department of Modern Urban Magics: Avatar [from Ralph Bakshi's 1977 film Wizards], whose specialties are flower conjuration and concealed handguns.

 

-------

 

OK, we're idle over the weekend, so I can buff my picks, write some more BS, and decide which one to grab Monday out of fear of snipeage. 

[Bazza]

Professor #2: Euclid. Specialty: The Elements.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

2 hours ago, DShomshak said:

Lin Carter claimed (in an appendix of sources for one of his books) the witch from Hansel and Gretel was named Mother Gothel, but I don't remember if he said what the source was. Not that it matters; people like that tend not to be limited by single names.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

Mother Gothel (or Dame Gothel) is traditionally linked to Rapunzel. Both stories are Grimm, so I can easily see the mix up.