Musings on Malkuth
Mar. 13th, 2006 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeregenestIn a continuing attempt to lay forth my game mastering style on the table to hopefully stem some tendencies I have I want to present my game master cheat sheet for the next session. I’ll be honest this also combats another tendency I’ve had lately, not being prepared for a session. Out next session is the 21st so this gives me plenty of time.
The first thing I do is come up with a list of correspondences and symbols I want to use for the session. If I do things right they pop up again and again. If I do things wrong they fall flat on their face (which happened last session by the way).
As I stated earlier we are going on a quest up the tree, symbolically represented by cities.
So we start with the Sephiroth Malkuth. So in this post I’m going to run down the list of symbolisms that I like. A next post will involve Vienna, my chosen city. And then I’ll tie it all down in a third. So really this post is all brainstorming.
Astrology: Earth at the nadir, Imum Coli, the cusp of the fourth house, the transformation point. The Fourth House is all about roots and this session(s) will be once more a look at the roots of the characters and how it applies to the world they wish to fashion.
The game time is November 2005, at this point the Sun is in Scorpio, giving me salvation and inheritance (and sexuality), and it is in conjunction with Venus, reinforcing those three things. Its trine with Uranus would maybe be relevant (faith, magic and self-transformation) if I had ever figured out what to do with those outer planets (Venus and Uranus are in trine too). I think the Sun is also conjuncting with Mars in Scorpio too.
Jupiter is also in Scorpio but it is squared in a rather explosive tug-of-war with Saturn which is in Leo. This gives a great theme of karmic obligation.
Astrology, like most symbolisms, is fun because I can always find something that I want to work with. So I have earth, the center, the rootedness in reality entering a time of great transformation which hinges on the dual themes of salvation and inheritance, with a heavy dose of sexuality thrown in. Scorpio is those roads off the beaten track, which means the characters need to take a different way than normal. Solomon’s grand road is not for them, which perhaps means they’ll be going through the sewers, abandoned subway cars and utility pipes. An apt image given the focus on the underground that I has been dominating my mind lately. Need to be careful because I’m not so sure everyone is on the same page I am here.
Mythological entities (Godforms) associated with Malkuth include Isis, Nephthys and Osiris (Egyptian), Persephone and Adonis (Greek), and Lakshmi (Hindu). It also has as its animal the Sphinx, which is a real entry point for me.
Tarot wise I’ll run with Malkuth’s identification with the 4 Tens, and the Empresses. The empress allows me to work in some stuff with my two members of that Arcanum.
My tens are: Wands, Oppression; Cups, Satiety; Swords, Ruin; Discs, Wealth. The tens actually fit nicely into my astrology high points above.
Yellow seems to be a crucial color. Must resist (probably poorly) King in Yellow references.
And the number ten should come up a lot.
My next step is to take this list of symbolisms and go into my chosen city and decide what’s going to happen. I chose, and I think I made the right choice, fin de siecle Vienna. So I’ll go into my session checklist with images of inheritance and sexuality through transformation (all fitting into my initiation theme) and the various stuff I talked about above in my mind. I’ll write up that part tomorrow because I need to reread a book at fin de siecle Vienna tonight.
The first thing I do is come up with a list of correspondences and symbols I want to use for the session. If I do things right they pop up again and again. If I do things wrong they fall flat on their face (which happened last session by the way).
As I stated earlier we are going on a quest up the tree, symbolically represented by cities.
So we start with the Sephiroth Malkuth. So in this post I’m going to run down the list of symbolisms that I like. A next post will involve Vienna, my chosen city. And then I’ll tie it all down in a third. So really this post is all brainstorming.
Astrology: Earth at the nadir, Imum Coli, the cusp of the fourth house, the transformation point. The Fourth House is all about roots and this session(s) will be once more a look at the roots of the characters and how it applies to the world they wish to fashion.
The game time is November 2005, at this point the Sun is in Scorpio, giving me salvation and inheritance (and sexuality), and it is in conjunction with Venus, reinforcing those three things. Its trine with Uranus would maybe be relevant (faith, magic and self-transformation) if I had ever figured out what to do with those outer planets (Venus and Uranus are in trine too). I think the Sun is also conjuncting with Mars in Scorpio too.
Jupiter is also in Scorpio but it is squared in a rather explosive tug-of-war with Saturn which is in Leo. This gives a great theme of karmic obligation.
Astrology, like most symbolisms, is fun because I can always find something that I want to work with. So I have earth, the center, the rootedness in reality entering a time of great transformation which hinges on the dual themes of salvation and inheritance, with a heavy dose of sexuality thrown in. Scorpio is those roads off the beaten track, which means the characters need to take a different way than normal. Solomon’s grand road is not for them, which perhaps means they’ll be going through the sewers, abandoned subway cars and utility pipes. An apt image given the focus on the underground that I has been dominating my mind lately. Need to be careful because I’m not so sure everyone is on the same page I am here.
Mythological entities (Godforms) associated with Malkuth include Isis, Nephthys and Osiris (Egyptian), Persephone and Adonis (Greek), and Lakshmi (Hindu). It also has as its animal the Sphinx, which is a real entry point for me.
Tarot wise I’ll run with Malkuth’s identification with the 4 Tens, and the Empresses. The empress allows me to work in some stuff with my two members of that Arcanum.
My tens are: Wands, Oppression; Cups, Satiety; Swords, Ruin; Discs, Wealth. The tens actually fit nicely into my astrology high points above.
Yellow seems to be a crucial color. Must resist (probably poorly) King in Yellow references.
And the number ten should come up a lot.
My next step is to take this list of symbolisms and go into my chosen city and decide what’s going to happen. I chose, and I think I made the right choice, fin de siecle Vienna. So I’ll go into my session checklist with images of inheritance and sexuality through transformation (all fitting into my initiation theme) and the various stuff I talked about above in my mind. I’ll write up that part tomorrow because I need to reread a book at fin de siecle Vienna tonight.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 09:32 pm (UTC)"And the number ten should come up a lot."
Also, the Roman numeral X
heh
Tom