Foundations of Metatheology

Confession of the Author

As the laws of the Unified Magic Society wisely insist, each work on the nature of magic must begin with a preface describing the author and their ethnoreligious background. Without further ado, yours truly is Udvaz Mzurab-Nazbar, a scholar of the magic arts and one of the authors of the Unified Magic Manifesto.

As for my background, I am an Urandayedi Yanadr from Arazuyn. My faith is that of Uran Lightbringer and his heir Mzurabil the Omniscient. For me, existence is a divine blessing, for it allows true knowledge of the world, and through it, true freedom.

Reader, take this into account, and adjust my words according to your views, so the inherent bias of my thoughts can be remedied.

Chapter 1. The Spirit World

Where is one to begin to lay out their reflections on a topic as broad and as labyrinthine as the nature of magic? The question is as a ball of many threads: pulling any may yield results, or instead entangle it further. Hence, firstly a scholar is to look at the problem from above, examine the ends and loops, and only then begin gently pulling. Hence, I will begin with the definition of magic, as it is laid out in our manifesto:

Magic is manipulation of the spirit world by a conscious being.

True understanding of a concept is brought not by mere memorization of a formula, but is crafted through exploration of composite elements that constitute the Idea.

Thus, let us initiate the analysis of the definition. Its first structural feature is its threefold nature. Two main concepts interplay there, connected by a third: the spirit world, and a conscious being, bound by the word manipulation. Hence, to understand what magic is, one is to understand the spirit world, the nature of a conscious mind, and the metaphysics of manipulation.

I shall begin with the spirit world, the substance that differs magic from all other crafts. The first thing that one is to accept is the binary nature of the reality we inhabit. In our daily lives we interact with the material, the Seen. Most activities of men revolve around it, while in truth it is a substance secondary to the spiritual world of the Unseen. No event we perceive occurs without an interconnection of the two.

Imagine for thyself two round stones, rolling and colliding on smooth ground. Rocks, earth, air – these components are undoubtedly material. But what drives their movement, what controls the outcome of their collision? Speeds and weights, causes and effects – one cannot see or touch them, for they reside in the Unseen. Each of the worlds is defined by a mystery. For the Seen it is What? For the Unseen the question is Why? The world of matter speaks the tongue of objects. The world of spirits murmurs of events.

All things that ever happened and will happen are connected by an intricate tapestry, a net of causal relationships. One rock hits another, the second breaks into parts and thus the chain goes into eternity. Events can be simple as a collision of stones, or as complex as a god’s soul, and the more compound an event, the more variable are the causes and effects. The many types of relationships in the spiritual world are the roots of different schools and traditions of magic, of which all religions speak. For yanadric faiths it is described as a wall: bricks interlinked into towers, arches and spandrels. The Aradh-worshippers (although in my opinion very misguidedly) view it as a lattice of a cage, or a spider’s web. Those who look into the sky for answers see it as constellations. The faith matters not – the nature of the Unseen remains uniform.