Pillar of Ariadne

Ancient Pillars

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: connections, perceptions, portals

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Lesser Principles of Identity

Mystically inclined mages see Correspondence through the theories of contagion and sympathy. Any two things that have touched share a little trace of that connection, which can be called on through Correspondence. Objects or places that are similar in Pattern can be manipulated through that similitude. Any sort of connection opens the door to the manipulation of Patterns. It’s always easier to work with the familiar than the strange, after all.

Axiom of Sympathy: "Once Together, Always Together"

Axiom of Contagion: "Objects Infected Remain Inert, Until Activated by Possession or Proximity" (If, Then)

Axiom of Inherency: "The attributes without mirror the powers within."

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● A Cat and a String: The novice mage begins by sensing the sympathetic connections between people, places and things. In the beginning, the barrage of sympathetic connections can be overwhelming, but with practice the novice learns to focus her perceptions and enhance her senses allowing her to sense through physical barriers and to magnify the distance of her perceptions. In time, a further development of this apprehension permits the magus to detect the presence of modifications in the fabric of reality, be they rents, patches, wards or scryings.

This enhances the mage's awareness regarding those sympathetic links between people, places and items.

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●● Into the Maze:

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●●● Theseus / Minotaur:

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●●●● Pulling Divine Threads:

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●●●●● Lord of the Maze:

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Sample Foci: Musical instruments, thread, and visualization

Specialties:

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Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariadne

Correspondence

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