DShomshak

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

I hope someone creates an Athletics Department. I'd like a cool place for my Hermetic students to... No, mustn't get ahead of myself. All in good time, as Magister Paolini likes to say. Dean Shomshak

DEAN: Fabio Paolini Students at the Institute receive the great honor of meeting its founder, Fabio Paolini himself, who still directs the school as its Magister Ludi (schoolmaster) more than 300 years after his death. No, this is not some horrible, grotesque necromancy (wrong department!) Paolini achieved the greatest feat of Hermetic magic by ascending the Celestial Ladder, passing the sphere of the stars, and reached the Primum Mobile. In so doing, he learned time travel. He carries a brass disk inscribed with the signs of the Zodiac, with concentric rings for the seven planets of classical astrology. By setting the rings so the sigil-inscribed gemstone representing each planet are in the configuration the actual planets would have at a given time, he moves to that time. However, Magister Paolini is not immortal. He is not even 300 years old. Whenever he meetsw himself in his own past, he effectively splits to create another version of himself, which then can travel in time. By now there’s at least a dozen of him jumping backwards and forwards in time, fulfilling the duties of headmaster in shifts, never more than a few months at a time. This is terribly confusing for the other professors, since the Paolini who just stepped into the office might never have met them before, or only know them from their own future. The Paolinis keep extensive notes in their office so they can keep abreast of who’s currently in the Institute, and what problems other time-versions of himm know are about to occur because that version of him learned about them in the future. Magister Paolini can carry other people through time. In this manner, be sometimes brings Hermetic masters of the past to lecture at the Institute, or takes grad students back to colloquia in the past. In this manner, students from across the centuries can meet the founders of the Ars Hermetica, and each other. People who want to curry favor with Paolini sometimes address him as Ipsissimus — “Ultimate Master,” more or less, a title he earned by his transcendent magic. But he’s no fool, and recognizes the flattery. Around the Institute, people usually address him as Magister. He rolls his eyes when students call him “Doctor,” and then break into giggles — though that title, too, is precisely accurate. Mundane history doesn’t know, or at least care, much about Fabio Paolini. (See his Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pio_Fabio_Paolini) He is on record more as a painter than a mystic or magus. One of his particular skills is to cast spells by painting a scene incorporating symbolically appropriate gods, plants, animals, and other images. Such allegorical “emblems” were a common genre in the Renaissance, but are little known today. Dean Shomshak

And the radio tells me it's 10 a.m.! DEPARTMENT: The Paolini Institute of Hermetic Studies Some people assert that the feelings and conceptions of our souls can by the force of the imagination be rendered volatile and corporeal, so that, in accordance with their quality, they can be carried up to certain planets and, affected and strengthened by the power of the planet, they will come down again to us and will obey us in whatever we want. — Fabio Paolini, Hebdomades Welcome, student, to the Paolini Institute! Here you will learn the mystery and mastery of Hermetic Theurgy. The Institute dates back to the 17th century of the Common Era, but Hermetic magic goes back much further. The Ars Hermetica received its modern formulation from Late Medieval to Renaissance magi such as Marsilio Ficino, Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim and our Institute’s founder, Fabio Paolini. You may have encountered their works before — likely, given your choice of studies — but you may well come to know them much better in the course of your studies. As you should know, Hermetic magic begins with the premise that the planets and signs of astrology (including the Sun and Moon) radiate subtle, mystic influences. Unlike the vulgar and ignorant astrologers, however, a Hermetic Magus does not seek to forecast the future based on planetary positions. He (or she, ahem, this is the Twenty-First Century) concentrates those energies through their affinities to colors, odors, musical tones, metals, gemstones, plants and animals, the elements, and symbolic images such as Tarot cards or the gods of myth. To these we add the ineffable names of God and His angels, and other words and sigils of power. In this way you may evoke spirits of the planets and bind them to your will, consecrate and imbue items of powerful magic, and even enter the spiritual realms of those same planets. Ultimately you may hope to ascend the celestial realms as if they were a ladder, to go beyond them — passing beyond the stars to the Primum Mobile — the veritable Throne of God — and obtain mastery of Time itself. For the heavens are the primordial clack and calendar embedded in the Universe itself and are thus the means to comprehend and obtain that supreme power. Just to clear up a common misunderstanding: The spirits we call upon are not demons (except in the classical sense of daimones). We do not summon the fiends of Hell. By which I mean, yes we can, and sometimes do, but only if is absolutely necessary. Any attempt to summon demons without the supervision of a master shall result in immediate dismissal from this Institute. MOTTO (translated from the Latin): The Lord by wisdom founded the Earth, by understanding he established the heavens. (Proverbs 3:19) The entrance hall of the Institute’s building features a large circle of dark blue slate inlaid with a Greek cross of golden sandstone and stars of white marble, with the motto written in a band of mosaic around the rim. The cross and Bible verse help to contain something the Institute very much wants not to be released. Dean Shomshak

Counting down... Dean Shomshak

True of the Highland pipes. Years back, I went to a concert of bagpipes from around Europe, and most of the others sounded quite nice. The Galician (Spanish) pipes had an especially sweet tone, IIRC. Dean Shomshak

In "The Cask of Amontillado," there was no cask of Amontillado. Fortunato never got his drink. I could suggest suitable lures with which to entice book-banners into one's basement, but that would be more suitable for the Politics thread. So I won't. Also, I suspecft Simon might object to my giving tips on how to immure people one dislikes. (Beyond what Poe provided.) Dean Shomshak

Well, if I get sniped on my planned department, I can fall back on Runic Yoga Yodeling. Maybe with penguins in there somehow. If you can't be good, be weird. Dean Shomshak

Got a notion, a location, a few characters, a twist that I hope people find amusing. I just hope I don't get sniped. Not much luck finding suitable images on the internet, since people seem to like the purty pitchurs, and my first attempts to use AI art generation sites have not been encouraging. Dean Shomshak

Today on All Things Considered, host Ari Shapiro interviewed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the war in Ukraine. I won't bother providing a link, because the questions and answers were boilerplate I suspect we've all heard before. I just want to grouse about two things I found irritating. First, Shapiro prefaced a question about Ukraine negotiating with Russia by noting that US General Mark Milley had opined that Ukraine couldn't expel Russia from all its territory. This was misinformation by omission. I checked. Gen'l Milley's actual words, quoted in a VOA article, were that Ukraine couldn't completely expel Russia "anytime soon." Important qualifier, that, if one has resolve and an attention span longer than one season of a TV show. AFAIK Milley never said that Ukraine's goal of reclaiming all its territory was forever hopeless. Second, Shapiro asked, "How does this end?" Sec'y Austin rightly pointed out (again) that Vladimir Putin is the one who coulod end the war with a word, and the US isn't forcing any resolutions on Ukraine. As the soin of a journalist, I also find it unprofessional to ask questions about future events that the person asked does not control. I hate to say Donald Trump was ever right about anything, but I give him at least mild props for occasionally meeting such questions about the future with a response of, more or less, "I hope it works, let's see what happens." Because that's the best any of us can do. Dean Shomshak

I believe him, and endorse his holy mission. Dean Shomshak

Perun's latest goes Big Picture, considering Russia's strategic objectives in Ukraine -- and, like many of us have seen and said here, concluding that Putin has failed in all of them. ll that's left is how catastrophic the failure is, and whether Ukraine and its allies can emerge with some form of victory (because Russia losing doesn't mean Ukraine wins). But of special interest to me is Perun's commentary on the Russian way of seeing the world, Russia's place in it, and consequently what Putin thinks his strategic goals *are.* This specific war is Putin's choice, but it arises from ways of thinking with deep roots -- and is failing because of fallacies and mistakes that also have deep roots. A sobering reminder that any country, however many advantages it possesses, can squander those assets and destroy its own power. And those who do not learn from history may be doomed, period. Dean Shomshak

I just finished the Atlantic article on Biden's visit. I wouldn't go as far as the article in saying Biden just crushed Putin's last hope -- that the US would get tired and go home 'cuz war is hard -- by this show of resolve. But I'll agree the different optics for the two leaders is striking. Biden strolling down a street in Kyiv with Zelensky, stopping to shake hands, slap backs and chat with people he meets; compared to Putin keeping even his cronies and subordinates at least 20 feet away, meeting "ordinary Russians" (whom close observers say are the same group of actors in different roles) in obviously scripted events. Biden shows serene confidence in his safety; Putin tries to projevct grandeur, but betrays the paranoia of fear. Dean Shomshak

Looks like people are creating quite a few things like this. Here's one of an AI-generated supervillain for each planet. OK, nice designs, but in some cases I have trouble reverse-engineering what about the planet inspired the design. Dean Shomshak

Want lost civilizations? The Amazon has 'em! Until recently, most archeologists thought the Amazon jungle had been inhabited only by small bands of hunter-gatherers. But then some archeologists bothered to look... Amazonian civilizations didn't follow the paradigm of, say, Egypt and Mesopotamia -- centralized states with sizeable cities -- but there's evidence of networked towns, extensive earthworks, and agriculture to support relatively large populations. Though the agriculture looks different, too. It's the latest from NOVA: "Ancient Builders of the Amazon." Dean Shomshak

Indeed. While the repetition of motifs gets obvious after a whuile, you could say the same about the source material... And while a lot of them were quite generic -- at least, I didn't see anything distinctly relating the character to the country -- several were rather spot-on. (Won't name names, to avoid getting into politics.) Dean Shomshak

But the music department (chants, songs of lore and power, etc.) is not run by the Dean of Martin. Unless something has gone very wrong. "Vo-o-o-lar-ray! Whoa-o-o-oh!" Dean of Shomshak Dept. of Multiversal Exploration and Classification

My friend got back to me: Dean Shomshak

I would not discuss his reasons, but he did say he enjoyed it overall. His senior project was about Roman profanity, with the full approval of his professor. Dean Shomshak

All Things Considered reports the latest on the shoot-downs of the latest three "objects". All three reporters express disappointment at the government statement that there was nothing extraterrestrial about the objects. Mostly it's just that people loft a lot of stuff into the stratosphere, and now NORAD is looking for it. http://m1.npr.org/2023/02/13/1156610134/the-latest-on-u-s-fighter-jets-shooting-objects-out-of-the-sky Related: http://m1.npr.org/2023/02/13/1156614099/former-norad-leader-on-the-challenges-of-detecting-small-uncrewed-flying-objects Personally, I would be *so* tempted to troll the conspiranoids: "There is no evidence the objects were in any way extraterrestrial. They were unpowered and drifting. No energy discharges were detected, either directed or broadcast, on any frequencies, including those of human brain-waves. Remember that it is not possible, through electro-radionic technology, to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, or otherwise subvert the human will. There is no cause for alarm, no matter what you may see in the skies. Your government remains vigilant, trustworthy, and in Earthling -- I mean, human -- American-- hands." It's probably a good thing I'm not in government. Dean Shomshak

As it happens, I already did some work on a school of magic, the Paolini Academy, teaching Hermetic Theurgy. With maps. But it But it's only one building (plus outbuildings), so there's probably not much I can port into the Superdraft. (Assuming I participate.) As part of "location," do we nominate a location for the university as a whole? Or are the departments in different geographical locations? (EG, one is part of Miskatonic U in Arkham, another in the hidden cellars left from the Library of Alexandria, a third on an island like Roke from Earthsea, etc.) Or is the overall location deliberately left blank? Dean Shomshak

As it happens, one of my friends attended Boston Latin Academy. I'll ask him. Dean Shomshak

Speaking of occultations... The latest episode of NOVA, "Star Chasers of Senegal," centers on a project to measure the Trojan asteroid Orus by means of its occultation of a star. This occultation was only visible from Senegal. NASA and a local astronomer recruited a bunch of Senegalese amateurs to record the occultation from many locations, enabling a highly accurate inference (they hope) of Orus' size and shape. This matters because NASA is sending a probe out to fly by several Trojan asteroids, including Orus, and it would be embarrassing to have the probe crash into Orus because they didn't know how big it is. I found it a nifty linkage between the most cutting-edge astronomical exploration -- NASA probes! -- and amateur astronomers whose telescopes had, it looked like, eight inch or so lenses or mirrors? Well within the reach of ordinary hobbyists. There's other interesting stuff about the history of practical astronomy in Senegal and the Islamic world generally. Before that, the Senegal/Gambia region has scads of megalithic circles, like smaller and simpler versions of Stonehenge. Yup, at least some of these ancient stones are calendar sites, aligned to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The culture that built them, however, is apparently unrecorded. Vide my discussion of calendar sites in The Mystic World, the Gambia might be a place to send the PCs in a mage-centric adventure... Dean Shomshak

I got a lot of mileage from a group of technocrat villains in my old "Seattle Sentinels" campaign, and plan to introduce another such group -- the Top Men -- in my current "Avant Guard" campaign. In the current CU the nascent group, the Futurists, sort of touches on this story niche, but not quite. Dean Shomshak

One of Perun's latest deals with foreign aid to Uklraine's war effort. As usual, he unpacks a lot of the complexity behind the headlines -- incluidng all the forms such "aid" can take. I particularly liked his discussion of what "escalation" means and when it happens, which sweeps away a lot of nail-bibbling punditry about, "Oh dear, what will Russia do in response?" Dean Shpomshak