Shine and bling,
Din din,
A rain drop pirouetting down,
Its luster absorbed.
Communicated through phone.
The one below of mycelium,
of course.
Refreshened the tree leaves,
Washed the skies.
Even the dying grass,
greener to mind.
And light!
What to utter about the sun left behind?
Wonders!
Waves and particles the right time,
Blues to sing life,
Maroons to golden revived.
The darkness upon,
A gift to rejoice.
Una reina en el estrado. Hilary Mantel
El rey dice: ¿Qué pasó con su ropa? ¿Su tocado? Él dice: —Lo tiene todo la gente de la Torre. Les corresponde a ellos. —Comprádselo —dice el rey—. Quiero cerciorarme de que se destruye.
Este no es mío. No obstante lo pongo en la sección de jueves de invitados porque el que lo arresten a uno por plantar un árbol ya es bastante raro, pero que lo arresten a uno trabajando como voluntario de un programa de reforestación [ auspiciado por la Universidad Nacional de México] es uno de esos cuentos raros que les gusta escribir a los gobiernos. Solo denle click al enlace.
Photo by Erik Mclean on Pexels.com
MAGIC IS NOT EASY TO LEARN
I mean, it is so so simple to play magic cards and become familiar with the dark mage and the red eyed dragon… I couldn’t find a single video explaining how to play them I could understand [in Spanish, I never add difficulties to my quests if I can help it]! If it wasn’t the exception, X condition, crevice or strange feature coming up; no one’s explaining did a lot of explaining useful enough to start. At least not without being more confused than pristine as I started.
YOU AND I, A GAME FOR TWO
However, I learnt something. The game is played by two people, which can be treated as inconsequential and obvious if we don’t think plot1.
Think plot and what do we have? Main character vs antagonist!
Why? Mainly because our resources are limited and stories have to be simple. It’s enough to sneak upon chess and checkers. How many players? Two. Both players can move ONE piece at a time and the turns are alternated. You play, then I play.
WANDS AND TURNS
Just like in magic systems. Most magic systems. The attack is limited to a single spell and then the other does defend with a single spell. Between two characters [which is why wand dares are so flamboyant]. Indeed its complexity might vary from the only forward as in checkers or Ls for the horsies and diagonals for the bishops. Malfoy sends a Desmaius; Potter defends with a Protego. None can cast two to three spells at the same time. It is one and one.
TO BE CONTINUED
I move a little,
they change,
Scurrying aside.
Hey hey,
Dance.
Un, deux, trois...
The orchestra crunches.
A step back, go forth.
Masks on hands.
And the sun beams,
They dapple as they hop and glide.
My hand above,
A sun eclipse.
The fact that two such separate tale types have been combined here demonstrates how the folk process constantly remakes old themes in new ways, and thus keeps the tale alive in the retelling.
Lilith’s Cave Jewish Tales of the Supernatural. Schwartz, Howard.
El hecho de que dos cuentos de tipo tan disímil entre si se vean combinados aquí; demuestra como el proceso folclórico renueva temas viejos, manteniendo con vida dicho cuento al contarlo de nuevo.La cueva de Lilith.
Cuentos judíos de lo sobrenatural. Schwartz, Howard.
SCARCITY AND FEAR
From that feature, scarcity and difference, fear comes in. What happens if not everybody can use magic? Is there racism because of magic? — Read muggles and dirty blood. Are the magical people freaks and in consequence, something to obliterate as unwanted? Maybe just passe?
OLD FASHIONED
When magic becomes old fashioned and people stop believing in it, what happens to mythological animals? Do they exist because of humans or do they exist without human belief?
Gerald Durrell made this question and had mythological animals to depend on belief so they almost become extinct once humans go believing in tech instead than believing in magic!
That’s how he invents Mythology, a place where mythological animals believe the ones in the others in The talking parcel.
ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH
Then, maybe you’re not as familiar with animals as you’re with… Boarding schools?
It’s time to have people educated in a far away place with special professors, prizes, punishments, classes in hidden classrooms, sports and perhaps, family calls. Remember, you better write about what you’re familiar with.
FROM THE DICTIONARY
Not. Because it is not about using an Oxford or a Merriam [Webster] dictionary to define magic. IT IS TO DEFINE ITS IMPORTANCE.
Is it a McGuffin we chase, something important or something that exists and that’s JUST it?
Remember. No one explained why Melissande required a king’s blood to give birth to a shadow. Normally, shadows can come out of anyone’s blood (vengeful spirits). So long there’s blood. However, it didn’t matter. We were already too absorbed in who was getting the throne to care why. Magic existed, period.
In stories where magic does matter, you need cat herb harvested under a blue moon and dried over a rhino beetle (okay maybe a mandrake). Yes, silver knifes to press garlic to get more juice and wolf’s bane to kill wolves (no matter if wolf’s bane is botanically poisonous in general). You need ten knots, elemental magic — fire being a result of heat, fuel and oxygen won’t deter a fire user to summon it in Alaska. That’s why it is magic. Still we need to stablish there are four elements and such elements are part of the way the user casts magic.
CONSEQUENTLY, DEFINITION IS:
AM I TO ANSWER EVERY SINGLE QUESTION RAISED FROM MY MAGIC ELEMENTS?
In the time you ruminate the answer, define how much you like or dislike this entry. Have fun writing magic. Pasto kalo.
Photo by Los Muertos Crew on Pexels.com
Seda fruncida,
Puntilla y bordado.
¿Qué hacen las mujeres que aún no ha acabado?
La novia con una boca de cólera.
Mientras ellas alrededor,
Enhebran con sus deseos,
Las agujas bordando una flor.
Ellas con risas en las mejillas,
Miradas de azúcar,
Y el banquete previsto en la lengua.
¿Por qué ellas y no el primor?
¿Qué sucede?
¿Por qué su risa no es un color?
¿Por qué la rosa no abre su corazón?
¿Espera un jilguero que se perdió?
¿Es esto una ejecución?