Pillar of Ariadne
Pillar of Ariadne
The station of Ariadne in the myths of the Greeks was muddled and varied from one telling to the next. In some of the myths she is a princess and mortal daughter of King Minos of Crete, but in others she is half-divine through her mother Pasiphaë, Queen of Crete, who was the daughter of Helios which made her a demi-god. In the most ancient, Ariadne is herself a goddess of mazes and labyrinths. In all the stories she aids Theseus in the killing of the Minotaur, some say it was for love, but Ariadne was half-sister to the Minotaur after her mother coupled with Poseidon's great white bull. While her motivations remain in doubt, we do know that she was given charge of the Cretan Labyrinth and the Minotaur and that the string she gave to Theseus allowed him to navigate that great maze and kill the Minotaur which in turn allowed him to escape the maze and claim his birthright as king of Athens.
In reading between the lines of these myths, it is possible to see a hidden deeper meaning, likely Ariadne was one of the Awakened, perhaps even a mage. Regardless, her actions and those of the hero Theseus reveal to us the those most important of points, that Ariadne's threads are likely more than mere cloth and the labyrinth designed by the mythical Daedalus was far more than a maze of earth and stone. The deepest meaning behind the myth seems to imply that there are mystical connections between all people, places and even items. The details surrounding the labyrinth suggest that it serves as an otherworldly medium, a demi-plane, not so much a prison but rather a hidden crossroads to all places within creation. In the character of Theseus we can see the struggle of every will-worker to achieve a kind of divine station as did the son of King Aegeus of Athens. Of the Minotaur, I can only say this, in every age mages have struggled against both the chaos of magic and their own inherent hubris, the Minotaur could very well be a moral warning about reaching too far too fast and for too much or equally the capriciousness of those who have achieved nearly godlike power.
The Pillar of Ariadne begins as a simple awareness of sympathetic connections around her on the part of the magus, but ultimately leads the manipulation of portals and along the way to a heightening of mundane perceptions into something more divine. At its foundation lies the Greater Principle of Identity which quickly breaks down into the three lesser principles: Sympathy, Contagion and Inhenency. Returning to the myth of the Maze and the Minotaur, Sympathy replaces Ariadne's Thread leading the hero, the magus, and giving direction to her working. The Maze as a representation of the universe operates upon the dual principle of Contagion and Inherency, representing the people, places and items that are linked together by Sympathy and allowing a framework by which the magus makes alterations to the shape of the Tapestry. If in the beginning, at creation, all things were one then it presupposes that to some degree all things within creation are bound together by Sympathy and it become the magus' work to define how closely these things are and if necessary bring them closer together or separate them further.
Properties Affected: sympathetic connections, perceptions, portals
● A Cat and a String: The neophyte mage begins by sensing the sympathetic connections between individual people, places and items. The beginners skill only allows for the examination of one target at a time, but the barrage of background sympathetic connections can be overwhelming. With practice the novice learns to focus her perceptions and enhance her senses allowing her to sense individual targets through physical barriers and to magnify the distance of her perceptions. A further development of this apprehension permits the magus to detect the presence of modifications in the fabric of reality, be they warps, patches, wards or scryings. Novices of the pillar often seem distracted and unfocused, often staring at nothing for hours or behaving erratically in their over-stimulation.
●● Into the Maze: Now the apprentice, having learned to block the static of sympathetic connections discovers her first window into the Maze and can project her refined senses along a target thread to distant locations, to observe people and items elsewhere - the act of scrying. In order to watch far away people, distant locations or unreachable items, the magus needs an token of sympathy with which to connect to the target. Sympathetic tokens are often bodily remnants like blood, hair, spit, nail clippings, but they can also be objects associated with the target and sometimes a replica of the target can be exploited. Conversely, the apprentice can through the lesser principle of Inherency create wards against scrying or teleportation by reweaving the threads of connection around herself or another target. Most exciting of all, an apprentice can now use her other pillars at great range without the need for excessive sacrifice or the expenditure of significant quintessence.
●●● Gift of Ariadne: At this stage of development the magus has become a Practicus, in part through accumulated experience and a growing confidence that will no longer allow her to watch events unfold at a distance or to use her pillars remotely. Her skill with threads of connection has grown to the point that she may establish brand new connections, strengthen existing connections for exploitation later, weak an existing connection, severing a connection completely or even weaving previously separate connections together in a new pattern. With greater skill the adept can now split her perceptions allowing her to Scry multiple locations simultaneously and open momentary portals through the maze allowing her physical egress to distant locations. By extension the Practicus may also weave the threads of connection to seal portals from the maze or prevent new connections from being sympathetically created and warding a target individual or even an area against sympathetic effects.
●●●● Pulling Divine Threads: Those who have progressed through the mysteries of Ariadne to this level of understanding take on semi-divine abilities. The adept's skill expands significantly, as does her confidence in her own abilities; the difference between an adept and a master is that the latter understands just how dangerous a misstep can be and what the permutations of catastrophic hubris can mean. At this level of skill, the adept can weave together previously separate threads of connection to create permanent gateways that can transport anyone who passes through them to another destination through the maze. The specifics of the gateway, whether it is one way or open in both directions, as well as who or what may pass through are mediated through wards. The adept may alter existing gateways or link a number of gateways together, or even trap an interloper within the gateway itself; in theory an adept might even segregate herself within the maze by locking all gateways to earthly destinations to provide a safe locale for scrying. Likewise multiple threads of connection can be rewoven into entirely new patterns and linked to new individuals, objects or places. By extension, the adept can manifest herself in multiple locations at the same time and with the combined use of other pillars split herself into equally powerful simulacra.
●●●●● Architect of the Maze:
Sample Foci: Musical instruments, thread, and visualization
Specialties:
Backlash & The Minotaur: Grabbing the Bull by the Horns
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariadne
