Magic: The Gathering, How has this card game influenced your magic? Options

Greetings!
I have closed the other thread on Magic, the Gathering for its potential for abuse and one line responses. Instead, I'd like to expand the topic with the added question : Has this card game influenced you in your practice of Magic? ...and how?
Quite often practioners of Magic get really down on games and role playing endeavors. Occult forums discourage conversation that is centered on games...and rightfully so, being seekers of knowledge and esoteric wisdom. But some of our younger members started out learning of the occult by use of such games. Unfortunately a vast amount of make believe and mis information is introduced to the public using games as a medium. And what people read they tend to believe...*sigh* a human trait... I'm a big AD&D gamer from 0way back and I know that the pantheons written for the game are 90% CRAP! ...but the game is still fun! So...how, if at all, has this card game influenced your path or techniques in the occult Magic of your study? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Well, for me, I started playing MTG shortly after I got involved in the occult, late in highschool. Didn't last long, but I read a few of the books out of interest in the game, and I'll readily admit to taking a page out of the system towards my own energy work. I've always felt that there was a distinct kind of energy to be found in different landscapes, communities, etc. Beyond just a bit of nomenclature (when I write in my journals, I refer to the process of collecting energy from any source as 'tapping' the energy, and I use the term 'mana' originally coined from the game, to refer to mystical energy in my journals as well, even now knowing its more specific cultural origin) it influenced my classification of those various energies, and while I no longer visualize energy in the way I used to then, at the time the five color system was the basis for much of my visual queues regarding energy.

Also, the idea of classifying land 'types' and alotting a particular number to one spell, a particular number to another, and the need to have multiple sources of 'mana' in order to 'upkeep' standing enchantments, still influences the way I work magick to this day, though in a more subtle way than it did originally. I have a number of standing enchantments that I pay daily 'upkeep' to, either through my own direct daily action, or through various forms of power supplies set up for that purpose.

What I work now hardly resembles the system behind the MTG card game, but none the less hails from those adapted paradigm modifications picked up those several years ago.

When it comes to role-playing in general, while I can't speak for everyone who plays classic tabletop RPGs like DnD or the more recent White Wolf games, I personally play storyteller to a couple of small groups maybe every other week or so, and find it to be an excellent platform for instruction in occult philosophy, correspondence, symbolism, even basic techniques of magick - characters can be required to find various ingredients, work out the theory behind a new spell to accomplish some task in the game, or decipher occult mysteries by studying up on the relevant literature. I centered one campaign exclusively around the Golden Dawn tradition and had my players reading israel regardie's books by the end, just to get a leg up in the story as the characters' 'down time'.

Properly planned and executed, Role Playing is an excellent way, in my opinion, to initiate into the occult at the most basic level. The key of course is to make it realistic with a hint of easily distinguishable fantasy. DnD isn't so good for it, but the white wolf games, particular the Mage line, is ideally suited for such a purpose.

peace

My father was a Dungeon Master for his friends, and brought the game to my friends and I when we were young. I think the game helped intoruduce all of us to things like mythology, medieval warfare, strategic cooperation, and other interesting subjects. Eventually I took over as Dungeon Master and continued to play for years. At this point I only occasionally write adventure modules as a hobby, my gaming group having gone separate ways. I will probably introduce my own children to D&D when they are old enough.

I can definitely say the game gave me a special interest in magic, the occult, and the possibility of something more than "Papers and Paychecks" as a lifestyle.

The list of "wizard spells" has some interesting ideas, if you take out the game terms. Some are

1. Well-known rituals (Protection From Evil known as the Magic Circle, Identify as Psychometry, Change Self as a Glamour, etc...),
2. Some are plausible yet not mentioned elsewhere (Alarm, Detect Magic),
3. Some are borderline between plausible and implausible - and may be workable in a lesser form (Armor, Burning Hands, Wizard Mark), and
4. Some are outright fantasy that we'll not likely ever see happening (Spider Climb, Tenser's Floating Disk, Unseen Servant).

This is just from the 1st level spells! I think categories 2 and 3 are the most interesting, and would make good experimental material for real life sorcery. Half the work is sorting out categories 1 and 4 to avoid redundancy and futility, but the other half of the work might yield some impressive effects.

Situations where the spells would be useful and applicable, and thus testable, would need to be defined and explored. Methods which could be employed to accomplish the effects are suggested in the "components" given for the spells. A lot of people will say "add visualization" or some such, but really what you need to add are the Magic Words, Magic Sigils, and Magic Gestures which do require some personal artistry.

Imagination has provided the basis for a good deal of innovation in other fields, and it'd be interesting to see how its exploration adds to the development of the magical arts. Obviously, as in all magic, it will be important to reasonably estimate your results, lest you end up just another gamer-dork who thinks he's a powerful wizard.

I've never played MTG, but I've known people who would make real voodoo dolls to curse their tournament opponents.

I have a prototype for a Goetia board game that says more about tactics than techniques, and it's highly competitive. I think that knowing what to do with magic is often more useful than knowing how to do it, and games like MTG, D&D, or similar things can give people an edge when it comes to making magic work for you.

I mostly use the land cards. Each series of cards has its own unique style pictures for each type and the differences spark my imagination. By taking a card and looking at it long enough I can imagine what's going on in the scenery

Some examples:
(IMG:http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/Acid9/WateryGrave.jpg)
(IMG:http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/Acid9/Vitu-GhazitheCity-Tree.jpg)
(IMG:http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/Acid9/Plains.jpg)
(IMG:http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/Acid9/DuskmantleHouseofShadow.jpg)
(IMG:http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/Acid9/DimirAqueduct.jpg)
(IMG:http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/Acid9/mtg/Island.jpg)

These are just from one series of cards and there like some 2 dozen series each with different pictures. Its sort of like each picture is a window into a whole realm and with so much variety the possibilites are nearly limmitless. By visualizing the imagry I can extrapolate from that and create motion and life within the picture. I can then explore the realm within the image. Its useful in pathworking rituals. I can also conjure the image of the pictures within my dreams and incorperate them into my dream scape and magick.

Then the creature cards I can use as servitors. For example:
(IMG:http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/Acid9/mtg/Grozoth.jpg)
Big mean nasty looking critter. Imagine being some astral nasty trying to infest my dream scape and running into this. Now there are thousands of different creatures that I can use but this guy is amung my favorites. Because its a blue creature I use water to create it. Since his total cost is 9 manna I use that as a term to diffine the amount of time, rather than energy, required to create. In this case 9 days. I can use other spell cards in a similar manner as well. For example if I'm not feeling good or need to create a spell with a big affect I can create a spell bomb using say this card:
(IMG:http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/Acid9/mtg/Demonfire.jpg)
Now while I don't have this exact card I do have cards that do pretty much the same thing. Because the cost for this card is one fire manna and then x amount of other manna the amount of time it takes to complete the spell depends on how big of an affect I want to create. I personally like this card:
(IMG:http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/Acid9/mtg/PsychicDrain.jpg)
Total pain the ass to get hit by when playing the game but the use for it in actual magick can be as a tool to increase psychic senses, inspiration, thought processes, creativity, all those mental things, and potentially to decrease them in myself or somebody and transfer that loss to myself or somebody else as well. Sorcery cards are useful in spell craft.

Artifacts and enchantments are nice to use as tools in my dream magic or astral travels. There are so many different kinds of artifacts it'd take awhile to explain the use of them all. But basically what they can do in the game is how I use them in my dreams or astral journies.

Really I think MTG is a greate tool to use in one's personal magick provided they understand the fundamental differences between the game and real life.

This post has been edited by Acid09: Apr 11 2007, 06:11 PM