From:	TalonMail <TalonMail@***.COM>
Subject:	Re: RM Tarot Mage in SR
Date:	Thu, 14 May 1998 10:35:18 EDT

>How do you know so much about "real" magic? I've always wondered this,
>because I doubt FASA pays you enough to simply "become" a magic scholar.
>Do you practice Wicca or something? (I doubt seriously I phrased that
>properly) You seem to have a knowledge about "real" magic traditions above
>and beyond that of most mere mortals.

I may have mentioned this on the list before, but I am a pagan in real life. I
started out practicing Golden Dawn-style Hermetic magic but I've gotten away
from the heavily ceremonial stuff and more into neo-pagan and Chaos Magic
(based on the works of authors like Phil Hine and Peter Carroll). I'm not a
Wiccan myself, but I have a lot of close Wiccan friends. I also celebrate the
Wiccan/pagan holidays (the fire festivals, the solstices and the equinoxes).

My personal "Hermetic Library" spans a long bookshelf and I use it to as a
resource to draw on for Shadowrun ideas, too. Of course, real magic has very
little in common with the fireball and turn-to-goo fantasy magic of Shadowrun
beyond a few basic concepts. As one author put it, "real magic is rarely so
spectacular, because it doesn't need to be."

For those concerned, this is not intended to spark off debates about "real
magic" on the list. If anyone wants to chat about it, they can email me
directly.

Okay, okay, back to work on SR3 magic.

Steve
(who can't wait to get the magic chapter done so he can work on the new stuff
for the Magic in the Shadows book...)