Corpus Author

"Magic is Alive."

In an entente filled with Magisters of the Silver Ladder, the most famous Order Archmage in Pentacle history was also the first Mystagogue. In the 13th century, she overcame the prejudices of her society and the Quiescence to become a scholar and a mage^[1]. When she was a Master, she saw the similar goals, aims and Truth worship of both the Pancryptiates and the Keepers of the Word, and set about codifying a unified, core belief. When she broke the Threshold into Archmastery and releases the Corpus Mysteriorum (circa 1247 CE)^[2], she revolutionised both Orders. The revelations contained within convince the fractious Keepers of the Word and Pancryptiates to unite as one Order: the Mysterium, which pulls practices from both traditions equally. Diamond historians later call this period the Apocalypse Mysteriorum.

Unfortunately, the archmaster in question took great pains to render herself anonymous, believing that if she could be identified as a member of any particular Keeper or Pancryptiate group, the opposite Order would reject unification, and she would be a target for Exarchal attention. The scraps the Mysterium has learned are kept secret until certain levels of initiation per the Order’s custom, but even a Hierophant has more questions than answers. It is almost certain that the Author was a woman, and metaphorical clues in the Corpus suggest she may have been a Muslim before Awakening as an Obrimos. A section of the Corpus breaks into the first person for a few paragraphs while describing wisdom using the archaic term “Sophia,” giving rise to a controversial theory in the 18th century that it may have been her Shadow Name, and to the existence of several Grimoires collectively called the Sophiad that are the Apocrypha to the Corpus’ Bible. Modern searches for clues concentrate on 12th century Damascene Pancryptiates and 10th century Andalusian Keepers, but so far, the Author remains incognito. Several Mystagogue historians have pointed out that even if the Author’s identity were discovered, it would be immediately Censored to the very deepest levels of initiation; perhaps, say certain conspiracy theories, it already has been.

Corpus Mysteriorum

Everything and everyone fit into a hierarchy of living systems and laws. Magic, then, is that art of knowing and changing that living system. Mystagogues call the living cosmos by a number of names. The Neuthasphere (named after Nut or Neuth, Egyptian goddess of the sky and rebirth) is bandied about by mages who draw parallels from deep ecology. Others call it the Metameme and the Ultraorganism, but the common term, first used in the 13th century, is the Corpus Mysteriorum^[3].

The Corpus Author synthesized positions that the order held from legendary times: that magic was inseparable from nature and demonstrated dynamic, even sentient properties. It should be noted, however, that the Corpus Mysteriorum does not use the Atlantean word for the Life Arcanum to encompass these properties, but a broader term that current scholarship defines as “the property of self-directed change.”

The Corpus is a familiar grimoire. Most Athenaea have a mundane translation of the text. Mystagogues usually get to see a “true” (magical) copy at least once, often during a Mystery initiation. Nonmagical translations are usually Greek or Latin and omit the rotes. True copies are written in Atlantean. The Corpus Author inscribed its glyphs in several styles, incorporating them into drawings, fragments of Hebrew, Sanskrit and High Gothic verse, as well as instances of gibberish and mirror writing. Only fine alterations in the shape of characters, the composition of artwork and the negative space between scribblings reveal the Atlantean characters. Even mystagogues who specialize in the Corpus have trouble deciphering it, and it’s thought that the book still keeps a few secrets from scholars.

The Corpus is divided into 16 sections: one for each Supernal Realm, one for each Arcanum and the so-called Miscellany, which remains the least understood part of the grimoire. Except for the Miscellany, each section begins with a discussion of the Arcanum or Realm as part of a magical “organism,” followed by rotes that represent applications of the theory. The Corpus’s metaphors have far-flung geographical and even temporal origins. One passage likens magic to a stupa: an Asian monument that depicts reality descending from immaterial to solid phenomena. Another section uses Olmec Long Count mathematics to estimate the duration of a “cosmic breath”: a concept from the Hindu religion.

Mystagogues don’t just treat the Corpus Mysteriorum as a dry, intellectual theory. The idea that magic lives has powerful spiritual implications. How should mages use a living power? Other orders base their ethos on the maxim that mages should not disfigure their own souls, but Mysterium mages come to an understanding that they have an obligation to the entire Corpus. Mythology is an important guide. It informs the order’s Mysteries and, beneath the noise of Fallen tradition, points to an eternal truth about the nature of living magic. Mystagogues use myths to intuitively understand the Corpus. Meditation, ordeals and Mystery ceremonies supplement superficial, intellectual knowledge.

Current Status

The Author still takes an interest in her order, but thanks to the Pax must now do so in secret. Her avatars plant grimoires and Artifacts for Mystagogues to find, and she enlists not-yet-Ascended Exemplars in countering efforts by the Exarchs to eliminate the Mysterium. She refuses to discuss Ascension — believing firmly that like the Awakening and Threshold, the Final Key is for mages to experience on their own — and consciously takes a back seat in the entente in favor of lending assistance and encouragement when she can. She achieved her goal in teaching the principles of dynamic magic to the Mysterium, enshrining the wisdom that magic is a living, changing force among the order’s core philosophies. She now serves as inspiration and mentor to Seekers, one more step removed up the ladder.