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Some theories about Arcane, the Twilight Zone & the Delirium

A short lecture by Frater IAM, Magister Templii of Ordo Rosae Crucis. Held at vernal equinox meeting of Ordo Hermeticorum.

Fratres et sorores, arcane can be viewed as a kind of denial of a mage by reality itself. The mage represents something that static reality cannot consistently accommodate within its framework. The easiest way to avoid confrontation is to simply ignore the mage as much as possible and this will make Sleepers ignore him. The mage is an active participant in this process. Most mages subconsciously deny static reality, which will make it deny them. This process will slowly weaken the link to reality, until the mage will become very hard to detect for Sleepers and much safer for the mundane forces.

On the other hand, the mage now stands outside the security of static reality. He may become completely trapped behind the scenes, together with everything else reality denies. This is of course useful sometimes but tends to isolate the mage completely. The more the mage becomes a part of this new reality, the harder it will be for him to interact with normal reality. In the long run, a mage here will become unable to influence static reality at all, living a half-life among the outcast entities of the world.

Some of you may object to this view and point out the fact that we can control our arcane. It may appear that we do, but in fact most mages are victims of it and tend to rationalise away their lack of control. By our will, we can suspend our arcane, by temporarily forcing our subconscious to accept static reality. But this state is only temporary and the subconscious will soon relapse into its normal state, reinforcing our arcane. It is my observation that many mages have become even more entrenched in their isolation after trying to suspend their arcane for long periods.

In this Twilight Zone, there are lots of dangerous entities, inconsistencies and all the plain weirdness that normal reality denies. A mage who awakens from static reality will attract these things like a magnet, turning the daily life of the mage into a surreal novel, as many of you already know from personal experience. Most mages live partially behind the scenes all the time, occasionally encountering the things behind reality, mostly by accident. When a mage suffers from reality distortions by paradox, they get pushed deeper and deeper into this world. The hobgoblins are typical denizens here, as are all the little coincidences and synchronicities that crop up all the time when a mage is present. A mage must be very careful here, to avoid having the already frail link to reality broken by blindly accepting this semi-reality. On the other hand, ignoring it could be an even greater mistake, as many extreme dangers lurk here.

Reality not only denies mages, weirdness and other obvious irritants. As the technomancer hold on reality tightens, more and more things will become pushed over the edge when they don't fit in. Already some people, mostly elderly, sick and poor, are ignored so much they disappear into the world's backstage. This happens with increasing frequency, as normal people do their best to ignore things that don't fit in. We have reached the point that some errors in the technomancer-defined reality will become invisible to the Sleepers.

This might be the explanation of the delirium of the Garou. Reality has begun to deny their existence and Sleepers can no longer see them. If this process continues, the Garou will become more and more pushed into the dream world, losing their ability to interact with static reality altogether. The disappearance of the Faerie may have the same cause. Since they in their natural state tend to deny static reality and due to their mercurial nature, they were forced out into the Twilight Zone first of all. The same thing is true for the kindred. Their masquerade may be a convenient, coincidental explanation for the fact that they also are pushed out, albeit less violently than the Garou (this may have something to do with the fact that the Garou oppose the transition, while the kindred welcome it, as it suits their purposes).

What can be done about this situation? Except obvious strategies of reality-manipulation, there are two possibilities. One is to accept it and try to make the best of it. This is the easy way, a method too many of The Continuum have already, consciously or not, chosen. Another strategy is to try to find ways of making our own subconscious accept not only our own reality but also other realities like static reality. This might be very hard but I believe that this is one of the essential steps in The Seeking. We must find the fine balance between static and dynamic reality. If we do not do that, we will become denizens of the Twilight Zone.

In nomine Tetragrammaton: Ateh. Malkuth. Ve Geburah. Ve Gedulah. Le Olam Amen.