The Spheric Tradition
The Spheric Tradition is outside the mainstream of the'standard' magical theories, Hermeticism and Shamanism. Sphericism numbers only in the dozens of practictioners, but in general Artisans, as they call themselves, look in disdain upon those they call Ether-Worshippers or Sprit-Mongers.
Newton Tchaikovsky, one of several Artisans who agreed to be interviewed, was very open about the tenets of Sphericism. 'As a venerable science fiction writer once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." You could say that is definitional to our creed. All practioners of 'magic' are simply obeying universal laws through what everyone will someday think of as basic science. Just as splitting an atom generates huge amounts of energy, the spells of a Shaman, Mage or Artisan are simply a different way of harnessing the energy that is omnipresent in all things."
"We don't subjugate spirts as the mage or worship them like the shaman; those are simply illusions they build for themselves because they cannot comprehend the science. We create constructs through the arts and sciences, much as a programmer might code an artificial intelligence or a bio-engineer does for sentient dolphins. For Artisans, ideas have power. Through the use of a mathematical formula, we can create a concussive force, or various forms of energy. Through a geometric proof, we can reconstruct a physical body to add strength, agility, even intellect. And through thought itself, or what Spherics call the Binding Principle, or just Truth, we can create something tangible from the intangible."
"Artisans use the arts and sciences to create a framework for power generated by the ever-present harmonics of the celestial spheres. No, don't raise your eyebrows. Copernicus almost had it right and could be considered the founder of our society. Why do you think all of the most important objects in our lives are spheres? The sun, the moon, the planets. Even more, any object you can imagine spinning and rotated at sufficiently high speeds will take on the appearance of a sphere. I am not talking about the spheres as presented in ancient times, which was a naive notion. But like many of the ideas propogated throughout the renaissance, there was a huge kernel of truth in Copernicus' ideas. All matter in the universe exists within the boundaries of progressively larger dimensional spheres. When I apply thought to that mathematical formula mentioned earlier, it causes a resonance in the sphere layered on this space, generating energy, which is manifested physically when the barrier separating the physical from the immaterial is temporarily disrupted."
Artisans believe there are 4 pillars upon which the Binding Priniciple rests. The pillars of science are Geometry and Mathematics and the pillars of art are Language and Music. Upon this structure, they say, the entire universe is built.