Ideas For Spells Options

Okay, I've been on a horrifying and shameful Tolkien binge lately. Literally, horrifying. Three weeks and I read the Hobbit, all three Lord of the Rings books and the Silmarillion. I'm now working on the unfinished tales. Those of you who have access to the box of spells forum (for those who don't... you'll discover many things by the time you reach thirty posts, and access to more forums will be your reward) may have seen my spell for large-scale protective shielding. I got the idea from the Silmarillion. This is the point of this post: to point out the wonderful ideas for spells and things that books can give us. So these books have given me great ones (seeing as the majority of books that include magic are distinctly Harry Potter-esque in the style of the spells used; wave a wand and it will rain candy, the gold ideas are few and far between) and I was wondering: what books have given you great (or good... or average... or bad... you get the point) spell ideas?

I think we need to take a deep breath and calm down. Maybe, take a walk or play a music instrument for a few hours before reading on.

This is pretty educational to me, hence why I'm continuing this discussion.

Cryptozoology is not the study of mythology, as you seem to think in the depths of misinformation, but the study of animals purported to exist but of which no evidence aside from eyewitnesses, photographs and videos has been collected. Vampires and werewolves are not encompassed in this, and are thus a different matter entirely. Cryptozoology deals more with Bigfoot, Skunk Ape, Mothman, etc.

You've told me what cryptozoology isn't. What exactly is it? Why exactly aren't werewolves and vampires not included? Living dead that consumed the life forces of others existed throughout all of the world. I could probably reference specific incidents in Han to Tang dynasty lore and mythos that explicitly document once-alive humans consuming others. On werewolves, and lunar based physical shifts~ they've also been documented throughout history. Take amazonian jaguar shamans, from what I understand. Though it isn't a compulsive shift, they still do occur. Why exacltly do they not count?

Or really, what does cryptozoology count as? Where does the brightline between mythology and cryptozoology count in as? Modern mythos, such as Mothman, and ancient mythos, such as the chinese cardinal beasts occur, but where, why and how do you differ between a study of mythos and where does valid documentation begin? If saint George's Dragon isn't mythos, why wouldn't the Celtic Banshee not be included into this?

Or really, what does cryptozoology count as? Where does the brightline between mythology and cryptozoology count in as?

Personally, I think the difference is that cryptozoology is looking for creatures in the physical realm, whereas mythology is a much broader study and could arguably include cryptozoology, making cryptozoology a part of mythology, but not making mythology and cryptozoology one and the same.

Just my opinion though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/egypt1.gif)