The Adept

Gilbert Williams

In Fencraft, magic is Lunar. What do we mean by magic?

There are many different phenomena that could be considered “magic” or “magical”, but we use the word “magic” in a very specific way.

Magic is not Solar. Solar happenings are derived by “right”. Arthur has the ability to draw the sword from the stone (Merlin couldn’t have done it), and Aragorn can call on the army of the Oathbreakers (who awaited only him). These acts are not magical, but they’re certainly not everyday either. A priest prays for blessings that are delivered due to their consistent routine of devotion; a mother gives her life for her child, and that child is in turn protected by a powerful force no one can undo.

By definition, and in contrast, magic is something anybody can claim – and indeed, magic’s “evil” status arises from the fear that anybody can take and use it (as opposed to, the “safe and appropriate” magic that an authority figure, such as a priest or king, has access to. Women, poor people, wildwooder weasels - whatever next?! Anarchy!)

Magic is not Stellar. Stellar happenings are beyond human comprehension – say, the sudden transformation of man to rock or rock to man – or man to tree – the day turned inside out – the sudden presence where there should be nothing, or a sudden absence where there should be something. The forces of the weird and the eerie, most commonly depicted in horror (but not exclusively). Things that cannot be under human control: time, fate, the sea. Entering the glade of the Guardian of the Green is a preternatural experience, otherworldly and divine – to describe it as “magic” sounds a little cheap, for the Stellar is the indefinable.

Magic is not Solar-Stellar. To rouse the powers of the Solar-Stellar, we get lost – in sex, in dance, in music, we raise ecstasy and delight and communion with all things, through the sumptuousness of art which seems to cast a spell over us, through the overwhelm of encountering nature. But is it magic? Magic implies control, whereas on that path our only choice is to begin – and be willing to go where the golden river takes us.

So when we say “magic is Lunar”, the mental image we have is narrow and specific: of somebody doing a magic spell – the Magician card of the Tarot, or a witch with a spellbook. An “undeserving” mortal person has tapped into a fundamental energy – through skill, relationships, practice and the application of certain secrets – and as a result, they have power to change the world around them.

Most “magic” commonly discussed in neo-Pagan circles is of this kind; we could describe it as “ceremonial”, but in truth a lot of things labelled as “witchcraft” or “Wicca” springs from the same conceptual root. There is emphasis on willpower – which links to the Lunar theme of the individual; in being centered, grounded and balanced – three key Lunar states; on skill, knowledge and practice – all governed by our Moon. There’s a set of instructions, and some kind of energy is manipulated. The rest is aesthetics.

A tarot card labelled "Morgana". She wears a blue hood with a Viking-style brooch, and sits on a carved throne in the forest. Behind her is a crescent moon.
From the Camelot Tarot by John Matthews, Will Worthington

Some Powers

This archetype is for those primarily associated with magic. This would include:

As well as Lunar being the ruler of the aspect of any gods with a strong magical function (i.e. the aspect of Odin that is merely “magician”) or any time we understand a god as Teacher Of Magic.

(notice that Hekate, probably, starts shading down into the Lunar-Stellar – being not only a mistress of magic, but deeply frightening. Meanwhile, Gandalf starts shading up into the Solar-Lunar – he is deeply concerned with the world, and was sent to use his magic to help society. In both cases, the Lunar is part of what they are, but it probably isn’t their central core – or for whom an aspect is their most popular form)

This sphere can also, essentially, represent Powers who are masters of things that are understood as a-kind-of-magic/closely adjacent to magic. Common examples in history are speech, writing, and medicine. Or, within a specific system, this archetype can represent – say – a saint, a master of wuxia, whatever the “power” within your system is, here it is mastered in perfection.

Notice that this list is predominantly “not real Gods” – it’s folkloric figures, or images developed within the magical tradition. That magic-vs-religion is a very old division, going back at least as far as the Greeks: as the “bad thing that outsiders” do, it is rarely represented as “inside” the system. If these figures feel mechanical, like their icon images are in some ways as much of a tool as a crystal ball is - something the power is reflected through - this surely reflects the perspectives of the sort of person most likely to seek this kind of spirit.

An older woman in a blue dress, with red hair veiled in gauze - sits in a garden. She holds a staff and flowers, and is surrounded by candles. It is nighttime, there is a crescent moon and fireflies. Behind her is a tree and steps up to a little stone building
Gilbert Williams - 'Wisdom'

The Adept and the Lunar

The Adept is an archetype we apply to people who only/primarily do magic – and this archetype has its own journey.

(After all, in folklore there are many figures who combine magic with their other roles and skills – the Dagda, say, often described as a magician, as is Odin; Mercury has a long history for alchemists and mages, but this is so far from his only role. For these, they merely have a Lunar aspect which fits this archetype)

This has something to do with the single-mindedness of the Lunar, replete in their sphere, unconcerned with things except their study. A parish priest who ministers to her flock is Solar-Lunar – a bridge between the mortal and the divine – but an Abbess who runs a secluded contemplative order is Lunar, eyes turned only to the heavens.

Somewhat like the Sun King and the Solar, the Adept is closely intertwined with the underlying concept of the Lunar.

Like the Moon – the Adept embodies its independence and ability to move, hence her facility with magic of all kinds. She is unbound. She is not fixed to any particular element or landscape, not fixed to any time of day or year, and certainly not bound to particular social conventions or responsibilities. She embodies a vision of magic that is essentially neutral – not good or bad, not gendered, not associated with the community or social roles, or with any culture or tradition (bearing in mind that neutrality, of course, is a culturally bound vision of magic in its own right)

In Landcraft, spheres are aware of nothing but themself – everything within the sphere is of the sphere, and consequently both static and satisfied with its stasis. A magician makes change but is not of change or changed (after all, a firm grounding and a sense of self is key to most traditional magics) – any changes that do occur are directed by the magician’s will. On the three paths, you experience volatility, influence, changeability, transformation, loss of control – things that are generally not the goal of a magical operation. The circle or the temple, or a bubble of pure white light, all define themselves as Lunar spaces – other things are shut out, and you control what comes in utterly; they represent the certainty, the purity of single-mindedness, uncluttered spaces dedicated to a sole purpose. You are the mistress, surrounded by the walls of your will.

Besides which, to succeed in magic as a sole discipline – similar to succeeding in astronomy or mathematics – requires dedicated focus, something the shutting-all-else-out of the Lunar provides.

About the Name

There was an earlier point where I rather stubbornly decided to gender the archetypal figure of this point as female, as opposed to male, a sort of emphatic “we’re going to do Card 1: the Magician, but reject the traditional association of those skills as male-coded”. I’m still firm on that and, indeed, still intend to paint up the core oracle cards for this figure as female.

But I think “witch” carries a lot of additional connotations, which I want to explore elsewhere – that includes persecution, the feminist reclamation of witchcraft, its sexuality, a certain spookiness, a relationship to a coven or a community, the devil. All of those are treated with on the opposite path, the Solar-Stellar – or maybe in a place in-between.

Whereas this archetype is very specifically, that mage dude – whose magic is drawn from will, focus, study, and an austere rejection of lesser matters – an archetype very much created by the ceremonial magicians of the 1910s & 20s. I went with “Adept” as a neutral-seeming vibe.

In many ways, this archetype is ungendered and unsexual – which is to say, their primary orientation is to MAGIC and their primary gender experience is MAGIC. Having a social gender is less important here than in some of the other positions on the Map, because this sphere is unconcerned with the rest of society; and certainly, having a sexuality is no priority at all, because that might imply connections with others, where the Lunar sphere grants us space to think and act independent of all influence. You might imagine a phD student who simply has no time to date right now.

(as well as considering, that the traditional ceremonial concept of a mage that must be “both male and female” points at not merely a gendered metaphor, but at a gendered archetype which is unbinary)

In at least some Tree of Lifey occultisms, magic is split up between Hod magic and Netzach enchantment. As far as I can tell, this is gendered nonsense - assigning male figures from folklore to the rational and sensible, and female figures of folklore to the sexy and alluring. As standard, the Skyish Adept does magic (they think of) as rational and sensible regardless of gender.

But it would be folly to think this archetype is without emotionality, just as anyone you've ever met online who feels their politics are 'sensible' and 'logical' is a simmering mess of control issues, rage and masks. This archeype is controlled in contrast to the Changeling's delighted self-loss, and that is both a strength and a weakness.

A tarot card image (1 - the Magus). A golden statue-like figre with wings on his heels burst forth against an abstract background of deep blue and white lines.
Frieda Harris - from the Thoth Tarot

Colour

The colour of the Lunar is white, and its metal is silvers.

For the Adept, this tends to be a sort of, everyday silver, somewhat dull like a silver spoon. Amplifying it to a white-silver denotes great, natural, unforced magic – saints, elves – an even more “Lunar” variant which is more rareified and otherworldly. We could say it’s the kind of energy that mortal magicians most aspire to – that “pure white light” which is not ours automatically, but which is sought. Tuning it darker makes it more stellar, suggesting the dark magic of iron – that negates and cuts.

The colour of the Lunar landscape is Sky, which we depict as a midnight blue.

Two archetypal images, I think, that solidify these connections for me is paintings of Diana, midnight blue against the white of the moon; and the archetypal wizard in a blue robe, with a white beard and white stars. I think about the night flight, that coven of witches which is to the air what the wild hunt is to the land, and I think about the streaks of Stellar-black cloud across the sky, and the blackness of the goat introducing a note of fear into the landscape of night-time under the crescent moon.

Magic, of the kind we describe, has always been coded as sky-ish. There’s the centrality of astrology in Western Esotericism, stretching back as far as we have written magic texts; and the identification of the Mage with the Classical Element of Air. Magicians are depicted with close relationships to birds – owls, crows, hawks. On the Map, the Lunar stands opposite the Solar-Stellar, which tends to gather magics of the kind coded as earth-ish.

Somewhat like the Keeper, we can also imagine the Adept as having “no element” and thus “no colour” – another Lunar attribute, as the Lunar is flexible and can be everywhere and claim power over all things. White means “a little desaturation”, so think dull browns and nondescript yellows, the colour of indifferent leather and well-worn robes.

To be attached to an element is to be drawn into the swell of the world, to be drawn into interconnectedness instead of stood apart in mastery. Rather like Saruman, the Adept is white because she contains the potential to be Of Many Colours – she has a full pallette of paints in front of her, but wears a white artist’s apron which (improbably) never gets splashed.

The addition of other colours can denote particular styles of magic (so, green for witches who use herbs and bones, desaturated blues for those who use shells and kelp), but part of what is implied by the Adept in Fencraft is “universal magical technology”. If you wanted to have power over only one thing, you’d be in another sphere. So the Adept is green for “I use herbs, and can do anything with them” as opposed to “my specialism is the garden and the land”, and most certainly opposed to “I am lost in the all-consuming power of the woods and fields and draw my power from it”. I often see some purple coming in here, which in my heart often denotes a certain outside-of-everything – pale lavender for loremasters, bold purples for Aradia and Ariel, vivid purples and pinks for spirits of the Stellar occult. Purple is a good colour for all-around “magic”, isn’t it? I think because royal purple is a non-natural colour, by and large, it’s a natural choice for representing magics that aren’t linked to the landscape.

Weather

The Adept’s weather is non-weather, a curious Fencraft concept I suppose represented best by an overcast day which is neutral and undistracting. At night, the mood is placid and the stars visible in a clear sky. In the day, it can be sunny – but not warm or overly bright. And a little rain is fine – perfect for staying indoors with a book – but not the drama of a storm.

Or even – to be indoors, the Lunar that is private and internal, mirroring its absolute control of magic and energy by its absolute control of a physical environment, at just the right temperature, with just the right lighting, and a door you can shut on the world. After all, this Domain governs the magic that likes to have it all just so, the kind of magic ideal for an clean, empty room.

Festivals and Seasons

None. The nature of Magic and the Lunar is to be set apart from time and not bound to it. The Magus is merely different kinds of powerful across the moon’s cycle.

The same is true of the Witch Gods – there is no indication that they pass with the harvest or are reborn with the renewing sun. Or, as the parish priest might phrase it – evil never sleeps.

This is an important part of my conception of witch gods; to split off the agricultural-cycle-religion elements of Wicca, which surely necessitates tides of energy that ebb and flow, from the Mistress of Enchantment that Valiente sings of, or the Black Goat of Stuart witch panics from Pan of the woodland. There’s no sense that the Devil goes on a summer break, no indication that a powerful witch would be disempowered in a thunderstorm – whereas, I think that very strongly is implied by any kind of nature-based or celestial-based system: we go as the earth goes, and when it rests we rest.

In terms of festivals, we might suggest each full moon as a time to realign – and especially if routinely checking in with a magical patron is required as part of a more “religious” model of witchcraft. But the fundamental strentgh of the Magus is to see potential in all things, and the energy of the world as one, big, interchangeable paintbox of possibilities.

Appearance/Magical Tools

All of these, at one time, have been depicted as the “tools of magic”, and the Adept wields all of them in turn to demonstrate her mastery over all the Domains.

In short, there’s nothing novel or unique about how we depict magicians: a big book of knowledge, a candle, an owl.

And perhaps this is an important part of Adept-as-archetype in that, anybody can be a magician, and thus anybody can be the Adept. It’s not like the Solar powers, which are only given to the King, the Priest, the Mother or so-forth. This magic is forced outside the Solar village specifically because of the fear that anyone can take and use it. Additionally, Shapeshifting is one of the key magical powers that “magician types” have in folklore, a certain silver slipperiness. It does not seem authentic to how we understand magic in our system to expect this figure to appear in a single guise. And while this is understood to be true in Fencraft generally, it is especially true of the Adept.

There’s definitely a “statue of Athene” vibe that comes to me – and with it, that severity that seems to embody “controlled” – but I don’t think that’s the only possible image. I also like imagery that has a lot of “structure”, objects, symbols, abstraction, as if the figure was somehow lost in the mind or in an otherworld made up of concepts and ideas.

Ileana Cerato

Nature

As the role of the Adept spirit is usually as a kind of teacher or patron – it is normal for the teacher we need to be different to different times, or to move between teachers, or for teachers to move between forms.

In general, the Lunar suggests a couple of “kinds” of Power.

So the Adept can appear in all kinds of guises – Gods, or frequently, ascended ancestors (that’s a goal for you to work towards!); teachers from the otherworlds; but I want to draw your attention to that middle one especially. Baphomet, Hermes-Trismegistus and Aradia: the “they did not exist so we had to invent them” Gods, which function as symbol that our own power flows through.

The Lunar relationship is not one of God-to-Mortal, but more of an alliance, pact or exchange. So it is also typical for these figures to be non-Gods (or not-appearing-as-Gods), but rather on more of a human-like level (without necessarily being human). We think of the traditional witch figure whose powers derive from the Devil, or the historic sorceror whose power was worked through familiar spirits and demons: these figures are not, exactly, Gods but rather patrons and helpers.

Reverence

In keeping with this, think of working with the Adept-spirits in terms of highly individual pacts rather than generic religious behaviour. There is no particular food, rite, or tool. There is not one landscape – though typical Lunar landscapes include a garden, retreat, abbey, library, university or hospital; the edges of the forest, outskirts of the village, or wandering on hilltops – but you will need to be more specific.

In terms of behaviours valued, think in the lines of “being a good student” – curiosity, hard work, independent study, keeping deadlines. Meditating on their image and being dutiful can often form a part of this relationship! Using them as a focal image to learn through.

Key Themes

There’s not much here because there’s not much to it: the Adept is the archetype of spirits defined by their magic, and who you might want to contact to learn magic from in a very specific “becoming a student of an otherworld patron” kind of a way.

Part of the purpose of the Adept is to flag up what she is not. Not religious witchcraft – that’s Solar, as is the magic that weaves into everyday life. And it’s not seasonal/natural witchcraft – that’s Solar-Stellar. It’s the purity of magic for its own sake. The Adept-figure is definitely influenced by the tradition of chaos magic, which tends to ask – what works? – while refusing to be fixed to a particular tradition or form.

Other forms of 'magic'?

They are both part-Lunar, so there’s a bit of Magic-as-we-use-the-term in there.

You might find Adepts whose core is in one or the other of these places; triple spirits who appear in all three guises; aspects of the same Adept; and, of course, this taxonomy might tell you things about your magical ambitions and how to think of what you do, or to bring an eclectic practice together.

In the next article, we’ll talk more specifically about different aspects of the Adept.

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