The Second Apocalypse

Earwa => General Earwa => Topic started by: JerakoKayne on September 04, 2017, 03:48:37 am

Title: The Mechanics of Sorcerous Thought
Post by: JerakoKayne on September 04, 2017, 03:48:37 am
In PoN, the difference to me was much more clear.

Psukhe was passion made manifest, raw emotion somehow charged into the Real. The emotion itself is the meaning. No "thought, as it were".

Per Iyokus (IIRC) Anagogis is "passion become semantics, and semantics become real". Which is why they need an anchor like a sun or dragons to achieve the semantics (and desired result) of fire. Bringing an analogy to life. Like it was a single thread of thought achieving its results indirectly.

Gnosis (the most elaborated upon in the series, despite being the most "secret", which amuses me. But I digress) instead anchors the thoughts onto themselves. Two thoughts! Bracing each other's meaning. It's the duality of thought itself which seemed to be the secret that allows gnosis to achieve more abstract thought onto the onta. Or so I thought until the new series.

It's suggested now in TUC that all sorcery is rooted in this same duality of thought previously only attributed to the gnosis. And that's the driving mechanic that makes all of it work. If so, what is really the difference between the Anagogis and Gnosis? If the analogies are rooted in the same principles that make the gnosis work, how can it be so impossible for a human to ever have made what would amount to a slightly different application of it?
Title: Re: The Mechanics of Sorcerous Thought
Post by: Duskweaver on September 04, 2017, 11:33:59 am
The difference as I understand it is that the Anagogic sorcerer who wants to set you on fire says "a great big dragon breathes on you" and the Gnostic sorcerer instead says "E=mc²". The latter is much more efficient, but also requires a deeper understanding of what heat is.

Anagogic sorcery is Shakespeare. The Gnosis is Bach.
Title: Re: The Mechanics of Sorcerous Thought
Post by: H on September 06, 2017, 12:44:23 pm
Anagogic sorcery is Shakespeare. The Gnosis is Bach.

Nice, and so, the Psûkhe. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZBHJCwbr4w)
Title: Re: The Mechanics of Sorcerous Thought
Post by: Duskweaver on September 07, 2017, 11:25:18 am
No, in my analogy the Psukhe is LSD. Or really any psychoactive drug, but LSD sounds right somehow. It doesn't work through senses and cognition like poetry or music or mathematics. It just gets in there and makes you feel stuff directly.

The "you" in the analogy is the World or the God, obviously.
Title: Re: The Mechanics of Sorcerous Thought
Post by: JerakoKayne on September 10, 2017, 03:04:33 am
The difference as I understand it is that the Anagogic sorcerer who wants to set you on fire says "a great big dragon breathes on you" and the Gnostic sorcerer instead says "E=mc²". The latter is much more efficient, but also requires a deeper understanding of what heat is.

Anagogic sorcery is Shakespeare. The Gnosis is Bach.

Nice. This really fits in with the reference of them being the semantic "difference between poetry and mathematics." I couldn't understand the analogy before, but maybe it's a literal thing?

Gnosis war cants do seem highly mathematical, with parabolas and lines and such. While anagogic could be described as "artful" in a sense.