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[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

第二章：魔法，现实之秘艺
Chapter Two：Magick The Art of Reality

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“魔法之准则即自然之准则。”
——阿莱斯特·克劳利，《魔法理论及实践》

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The laws of Magick are the laws of Nature.
— Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice

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愚者 The Fool

释义：冲动；旅行；当下；孩童般的热忱；不顾一切；异想天开；无拘无束；乐于接受经验...

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Associations: Impulse; travel; the here-and-now; childlike enthusiasm; recklessness; whimsy; freedom from inhibition; being open to experience…

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“烧光它！”

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“BURN IT DOWN!”

呐喊声在舞台上回荡，一只狡猾的皮克西在人群中宣泄着她的反抗情绪。那人群回应，接受了呐喊并用比扩音器更为高昂的声音来放大它。漩涡般的人影让色彩鲜艳的圆圈在四肢和衣服上打转，其中一些人拖曳着火焰组成的圈箍或是球体，那火焰呈现出令人昏沉欲睡的数理图案。

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The cry echoes from the stage where a tricky pixie howls her defiance at the crowd. That crowd responds, picking up her cry and amplifying it in voices louder than the amps. Whirling figures spin brightly colored circles of limbs and clothing, some trailing hoops or balls of fire in hypnotic mathematical designs.

夜晚被这神圣的激情击裂。李·安·米尔纳感到呐喊从她的胸膛深处升起。当这些话语脱口而出时，她回忆起孕育出这些话语的呼吸，预见到她将落足在何处。时间在液态的一瞬变得模糊不清，被容纳并融合化作过去当下未来现在。

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The night cracks with sacred passions. Lee Ann Milner feels the cry rise from deep inside her chest. As the words leave her lips, she recalls the breaths that birthed them and sees the next steps where her feet will fall. Time blurs for a liquid instant, held and blended into past present future now.

这皮克西与她的乐团疯了似的胡闹起来。他们的热情令人群化作了多彩的泡沫。汗水在电子设备的强烈照射下熠熠生辉。在沸腾的人山人海之外，五彩缤纷的星系点亮了整个夜晚。孩子们不受任何约束地奔跑着；而长者们则如一册由灵魂与皮囊撰写的著作中的书页那样彼此紧紧相叠。“烧光它，”他们一致地呐喊着——不为呼吁暴力，而是为了升华。

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The pixie and her band caper like mad things. Their devotions whip the crowd to multicolored froth. Sweat gleams raw in electronic glare. Beyond the seething pit of limbs, a galaxy of colors illuminates the night. Children run free of all constraint; elders fold close to one another, pages in a book written by spirits and skin. “BURN IT DOWN,” they cry as one – calling not for violence but transcendence.

点燃过去。点燃恐惧。点燃那潜能的边界。

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Burn the past. Burn the fear. Burn the boundaries of potential

点燃那自由的冰冷火焰。

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Burn the cold fire of freedom.

把静态烧成灰。

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Burn the stasis down.

李·安的骨头因那团结一致的压力而颤抖着。通过闭上眼睛，她看见了那人群。我们即是香格里拉，他们呼喊道，每人都与单一的整体相连结。在这里没有分化——再无隔阂，再无掠夺。

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Lee Ann’s bones quiver with the press of union. Through closed eyes, she sees the crowd. We are Shangri-La, they cry, each wedded to a single whole. No divisions here – no blocks, no predation.

在悠长的这顷刻间，神圣的空间得以展现。

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In a lingering instant, the sacred space unfolds.

而在它结束后的很长一段时间里，这份记忆塑造了永恒燃烧的骨骸之火。

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And long after it will end, its memory shapes the fires of ever-burning bones.

This post has been edited by 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼: 2023-02-23, 17:33

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

科学与你的秘艺 Your Art and Science

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根据备受尊敬的银女巫达米阿那（Damiana Silverwitch）的说法，“魔法是有关摆脱你的桎梏并做成一些事的精妙艺术。” 这段直白的诗句揭示了一个简单的事实：魔法是一个动词。它是主动的，是一种实现目标的手段。在依附于这一概念的所有故弄玄虚、形而上学的胡言乱语之中，魔法的核心可以归结为一个单词：行动。

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According to the esteemed Damiana Silverwitch, “Magick is the fine art of getting off your ass and doing something.” That blunt poetry reveals a simple truth: magick is a verb. It’s active, a means of accomplishing an end. For all the high-flown metaphysical gibberish attached to its concepts, the core of magick can be boiled down to one word: action.

另一个你可以与魔法联系起来的，含有同等的真理却又是明显的异端说法的单词是：科技。你看，科技这个单词在某种意义上意味着“对秘艺知识的娴熟掌握”。并且虽然逻格斯可以翻译成“字词”与“演讲”，但这一源自古希腊的词汇有着指代深层精神世界与启示的内涵——意味着“我同秘艺与知识共为一体。”

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There’s another word you could attach to magick, an apparent heresy that’s no less true: technology. See, the word technology means, in one sense, “skillful knowledge of the Art.” And although logos can also be translated as “word” and “speech,” that Greek root word carries a connotation of deep spiritual connection and revelation – a sense that “I and the Art and the Knowledge are One.”

正如克劳利所言，魔法是一门艺术也是一门科学。它借由精炼的理解表达出内在的真理。因此，在你想要深思有关魔法的晦涩观念时，只需在心中记住一点：魔法是有关行事的艺术性科学。

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As Crowley said, magick is an art and a science. It expresses inner truth through refined understanding.And so, when you want to wrap your head around the elusive concepts involved with magick, just keep this in mind: Magick is the artful science of doing things.

而魔法到底是个什么类型的东西？你又该怎样施展它们？让我们来好好看看吧……

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What sorts of things? And how can you do them? Let’s take a look at that…

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基本要素 The Basics

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所有人都能施放魔法吗？从某种意义上来说，是的。所有有知觉的人——注意我在使用“人”这个字眼时指代的并不只是人类——都是有意变革的代理人。改编笛卡尔的一句话，“你思故你在”。通过为自己决定你想要什么，然后决定你将如何得到它，你所许诺的行动将推动你的世界前进。在做出选择时，你改写了你的世界。因此在这个意义上，每个能思考的实体都在施展魔法。
但这和我们的做法又不太一样。

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Can everyone do magick? In one sense, yes. Every conscious person – and by “people” I don’t mean only human beings – is an agent of intentional change.To rephrase Descartes, “You think, therefore you do.” By deciding for yourself what you want and then deciding how you’ll get it, you commit actions that move your world forward.When you make a choice, you alter your world. So in that sense, every thinking entity performs magick.
But not like we do.

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掌中奇迹 Miracles at Hand

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正如我之前所述，法师是变化的代理人。我们的选择能在更大的尺度上重塑现实。又因为我们已经觉醒了这种可能性，所以我们的知识也就更为深奥，并且我们引发的变化比未觉醒者所能做到的更加巨大。

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As I said earlier, mages are agents of change. Our decisions reshape reality in a large scale.And because we have Awakened to that possibility, our knowledge goes deeper and our changes get bigger than the things unAwakened people can do.

但其中存在着一项隐患；我们的选择也会带来更大的后果。

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But there’s a catch: our choices have bigger consequences too.

一旦了解了我们能做到的事并精炼出足够的启蒙意志去这样做，我们就能编织出奇迹。觉醒者法师可以召唤闪电，看透时间，支配元素。在我们成就的更高层次上，我们还能转化物件，投射意识，同时存在于几处地点或跨越时间与距离的鸿沟。是的，我们甚至能创造生命。从这个意义上说，我们变得足以比肩神明。

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Once we learn what we can do and refine enough Enlightened Will to do it, we can weave miracles. Awakened mages call down lightning, look through time, manipulate the elements. At the higher levels of our achievement, we can transmute objects, project our consciousness, be in several places at once, or sidestep gulfs of time and distance. Yes, we can even create life. In that sense, then, we become like gods.

而你如果熟悉神话，你就会意识到神明能制造出多大的麻烦。

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And if you’re familiar with mythology, you realize just how much trouble gods can cause.

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万事都有代价 No Free Rides

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没有什么东西会凭空出现。你所做的事情终将反馈到你的身上。在你意图作出重大的改变时，你也会改变那些你无法控制的东西。因而魔法中相当大的一部分内容都涉及知晓要改变什么，如何改变它，何时不去改变它以及怎样为改变带来的后果做好准备的智慧。 因为万事都有相应的后果。魔法亦有其代价。

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Nothing happens in a vacuum. The things you do come back to you.When you Will a major change, you change other things beyond your control. A large part of magick, then, involves the wisdom of knowing what to change, how to change it, when not to change it, and how to prepare for the consequences when you do.Because there are always consequences. There are no free rides on the magick train.

这些后果也可能成为黑暗的奇迹。我们可能会发疯、消失、让周围的世界因我们的存在而改变。我们也许会吸引神秘实体的注意、惹恼当地人、甚至是爆炸。我们作出的改变越多，面临的风险也就越大。当你想要豪赌时，就有可能一败涂地。一位想要在神明生涯新生阶段中生存下来的法师需要去学会如何以一种用最少反冲换取最大收益的方式施放她的法术。

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Those consequences can be dark miracles too. We can go insane, disappear, alter the world around us with our presence.We might attract the attention of uncanny entities, piss off the locals, or even explode. The bigger our changes, the bigger the risks. When you gamble big, you can lose big. A mage who wants to survive her nascent godhood learns how to cast her magick in ways that risk the smallest backlash for the biggest gains.

当你在学习使用魔法时，你就会深入到自我和周围环境的更深层次。你学会了如何去——以及如何不去——作出选择。你学会了如何改变现实以适应自己的需要。并且你还学会了，你在这样做时会因为同时存在于两个不同的现实中而矛盾缠身……而你最终不得不放弃其中一个现实。

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When you learn to use magick, you dip into the deeper levels of your self and your surroundings. You learn how to – and how not to – make choices. You learn how to change reality to suit your needs.And you learn that, in doing so, you can wrap yourself in the paradox of standing in two realities at the same time… and one of them, eventually, has to give.

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矛盾效应 The Paradox Effect

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试着把魔法想成八角笼：进来两个现实，留下一个现实。在理想状态下，胜出的现实即是你创造的现实。

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Think of magick as Thunderdome: two realities enter, one reality leaves. Ideally, the one that triumphs is the one you create.

如果情况并非如此，那你就有麻烦了。

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If it’s not, then you have a problem.

我们倾向于称这个问题为矛盾效应，或简称为矛盾（Paradox）……是的，大写的首字母表明了它是多么重大的一个概念。因为这种矛盾能把你一脚踹翻。关于它是什么，为何会生效，以及我们能为避开它做些什么有着无数种形而上学的解释，但最简单的解释是这个：矛盾是当两种现实愿景同时存在于同一地点且其中一者尚未放弃时所发生的事情。
而如果你的现实放弃了，你就将承受整个世界带来的伤害。

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We tend to call this problem the Paradox Effect, or simply Paradox… yes, with capitalized letters to show how big and important an idea it is. Because this kind of Paradox can kick your ass。There are a million metaphysical explanations for what it is, why it works, and what we can do to get around it, but the simplest explanation is this: Paradox is what happens when two visions of reality exist in the same place at the same time until one of them gives up. And if your reality gives up, you’re in for a world of hurt.

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矛盾的面相 The Faces of Paradox

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在这里我要让我刚才提到过的许多这些后果抬起它们丑陋的小脑袋。不论出于何种原因——我实打实地告诉你，法师们总能为这种事想出大量的理由——矛盾给现实的不悦摆出了一副招人嫌恶的面孔。有时候这副面孔就是它的字面意思，所谓的矛盾精魂会像警察一样抵达现场，然后把犯人押送到现实的监狱。它偶尔会戴上你给予它的面孔，比如不是那么没有脑子的小鬼，能把你最大的或隐藏最深的恐惧化作精神显现用以惩处你。它可以用超自然的鞭子抽打你的皮肤、包裹你的感知以使其疯狂或陷入被称为幻劫的自重复循环、或者直接向你体内吹气，让你像自大的热气球一样炸开。正如一个叫泽罗克斯（Zerox）的家伙曾说过的那样，矛盾是带着一把电锯的吉米尼蟋蟀。你给予它操作的材料越多，它的锯子就越大也越可怕。

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This is where a lot of those consequences I just mentioned rear their ugly little heads. For whatever reason – and I tell you this truly, mages come up with lots of reasons for such things! – Paradox puts a nasty face on Reality’s displeasure. Sometimes that face is literal, the so-called Paradox Spirits who come along like cops to cart offenders off to reality jail. It occasionally wears the face you give it, like the hobgoblins of not-so-little minds, which turn your greatest or most hidden fears into spiritual manifestations that punish you. It can lash metaphysical whip-burns into your skin, wrap your perceptions into madness or self-recursive loops called Quiet, or simply blow you up and pop you like some self-important balloon. As a dude named Zerox once said, Paradox is Jiminy Cricket with a chainsaw. The more material you give it to work with, the larger and scarier its saw.

静态魔法，动态魔法，以及科技魔法 Static Magic, Dynamic Magick, and Technomagick

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在黑暗世界中有许多存在可以作出魔法般的事情。而在游戏术语中，狼人、吸血鬼、下位法师和其他实体所使用的的神秘力量与一位法师所使用的的现实扭曲之力之间主要的区别即是静态魔法与动态魔法的区别。尽管这两者之间的不同对角色本身来说通常并不明显，但在基于游戏的效果方面，它们之间有着显著的差别。

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Plenty of beings, in the World of Darkness, can do magical things. And in game terms, the primary difference between the mystical powers of werewolves, vampires, hedge magicians, and other entities, and the reality-warping powers of a mage, is the difference between static magic and dynamic magick. Although the difference between them isn’t often obvious to the characters themselves, theres a significant difference between them in terms of game-based effects.

静态魔法（Static Magic）遵从严格的限制。比如说，模糊术律能有着一系列能隐藏或乔装吸血鬼的效果；然而，所有这些效果都是它们在基于力量等级的小范围内能做到的特定的事情。这种情况也适用于狼人的灵赋、换生灵的戏法与其他超自然能力。各种使用魔术的人类也能使用类似的力量：猎人、通灵人、下位法师、诸如此类。然而，在所有这些案例中，他们的力量都只能在一个由它们可能和不可能做到什么构成的严格界限之中运作。尽管它们也很魔法，但它们的效果——既是在故事世界之中也是在游戏规则之中——都是静态的。无论是因为血族和狼人把它们的精魂唤醒到了一条既定的道路上，还是因为数个世纪以来的民间传说已经使它们的力量与现实相交融，又或者两种解释的要素都存在，这些效果和限制都是恒定且免于矛盾的。

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Static magic conforms to rigid constraints. The Obfuscate Discipline, for example,has a range of effects that hide or disguise the vampire; all of them, however,have specific things they can do within a small variety of level-based powers. The same’s true for Garou Gifts, changeling cantrips, and so on.A variety of magic-using humans can use such powers too: hunters, psychics, hedge magicians, etc. In all cases, though, their powers operate within tight parameters of what is and is not possible with them. As magical as they are, their effects – both within the story world and within the game’s rules – are static.
Whether it’s because Kindred and Garou have awakened their spirits to a predetermined path, because centuries of folklore have integrated their powers into reality, or maybe elements of both explanations, the effects and limitations remain constant and Paradox-free.

动态魔法（Dynamic Magick）没有界限。尽管它往往也会涉及工具与仪式，但这类魔法的效果——或者，更准确的说，效应——具有不可思议的灵活性。在不同版本的《法师》规则中，指代这类魔法的“k”（即指代动态魔法的magick）曾被采用和抛弃过；但不论如何，其所涉及的游戏系统都是一致的。根据角色的知识和觉醒意志的成色，他将拥有范围极广的可选操作；这样一来，玩家就能自主定义她的法师该如何运用秘艺，而不是受限于一连串定义狭隘的法术。这种选择权的代价是矛盾。在你重塑现实的本质时，你也冒着为自己的放肆所伤的风险。

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Dynamic magick is open-ended.Although it usually involves tools and rituals, the effects – or, more properly, capital-E Effects – of such magick are incredibly flexible. In various editions of Mage, the “k” referring to such magick is either used or discarded; either way, the game systems involved are the same. The character has a wide range of options based on the degree of his knowledge and Awakened Will; that way, the player gets to define how her mage employs the Arts, rather than be limited to a bunch of narrowly defined spells. The price of those options is Paradox. When you rework the essence of reality, you risk getting smacked for your presumption.

科技魔法（Technomagick）（不论带不带“k”）指需要用到科技设备或程序的动态魔法。神经科学设备、能量步枪、高速运算和其他基于科学或伪科学的活动与设备向来都是科技法师关注的重点，所以这类法师在做事时不可避免地要依赖于她的设备。她可能需要使用电脑以完成工作，但在拥有电脑时，她依旧能拥有觉醒者法师一般广泛的可能性。

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Technomagick (without or without the “k”) refers to dynamic magick that requires technological instruments and procedures. Cybernetic gear, energy rifles, high-speed calculations, and other science- or pseudoscience-based activities and gear focus the intentions of a technomancer, so that mage almost inevitably relies upon her gear in order to get things done. Even so, the Effects of her magick remain dynamic. She may need her computer in order to get things done, but with it she still has an Awakened mage’s range of possibilities.

尽管特定人群会把科技联盟或其他科技法师称为“静态法师”，但在游戏术语中确实不存在这样的情况。就像前面提到的，所有法师都使用动态魔法，即使是在他们没有以这种方式定义自身力量的时候。在设定中，你的角色可能永远无法理解下位巫师的法术与觉醒者法师的力量之间的不同。然而，你的玩家会。

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Although certain people refer to the Technocracy or other technomancers as “static mages,” there’s really no such thing in game terms. All mages, as noted earlier,work with dynamic magick, even when they don’t define their powers that way.In the setting, your characters might never understand the difference between a hedge wizard’sspells and the powers of an Awakened mage. Your players, however, will.

在某些方面，夜裔在使用他们的力量对抗法师时具有一定的优势；然而，他们所要面对的法师可以使用大量的潜在能力，而不是少数几个受限的能力。尽管吸血鬼不冒着触发矛盾的风险就能支配人类的心灵，但法师——尽管要冒着遭受反冲的风险——却能以吸血鬼做梦都想不到的方式运用心灵领域。

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In some respects, the Night-Folk have certain advantages when using their powers against a mage; that mage, however, has a vast array of potential powers, as opposed to a few limited ones. Although the vampire might be able to dominate a person’s mind without risking Paradox, the mage – though she risks a backlash – can usethe Mind Sphere in ways no vampire could ever dream of.

This post has been edited by 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼: 2023-02-23, 17:50

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

共鸣，报应与谐振 Resonance, Karma, and Synergy

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在一个精妙而又无处不在的层面上，你魔法的回响会以共鸣的形式显现出来。如果你把施放魔法的行为想成鼓槌敲击铙钹，那么回响就是你在最初的敲击声消失之后依旧能听到的逐渐消逝的振动。共鸣紧随法师的所有作为之后，复现她用魔法做出的事情……并且通常还会复现出隐藏在魔法之后的意图与情绪。而在矛盾的另一层面（即“矛盾”一词的通常含义）上，共鸣效应通常会营造出他们独有的扰乱现实的奇异形式。

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On a subtle but more pervasive level, the echoes of your magick can manifest as Resonance. If you think of an act of magick as a drumstick hitting a cymbal, then Resonance is that fading vibration you still hear after the initial crash dies down. Resonance follows a mage in the wake of all she does, echoing what she does with her magick… and often echoing the intentions and emotions behind that magick, too.

比如一位火女巫可能拥有令人不适的温暖皮肤、淡淡的烟味、以及一种——在极端案例中——仅仅是通过触碰某些东西就意外放出小型火焰的经常性行为。在这里，共鸣通常被视为矛盾效应的次级显现……然而，它的效果仅凭自身就能变得相当怪异。现实的涟漪可以比在第一现场引发这道涟漪的施法行为更加明显，这看上去似乎很奇怪。但你确实会遇到这种情况。它确实会发生。值得庆幸的是，共鸣显现似乎不会在它变得奇怪的过程中唤起更多的矛盾能量。然而，它们可以让一位想要保持低调与隐蔽的法师相当难办，因为她的共鸣回音会把她的周围搅得一团糟。

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A fire-witch, for example, might have uncomfortably warm skin, a faint scent of smoke, and a tendency – in extreme cases – to accidentally set small fires just by touching something. Now, Resonance is often considered to be a minor manifestation of the Paradox Effect… and yet, its own effects can be noticeably weird in and of themselves. It seems odd that a ripple in Reality could be more obvious than the acts of magick that cause that ripple in the first place. But there you are. It happens. Thankfully, Resonance manifestations do not appear to invoke even more Paradox energies in the process of being strange. They can, however, make things difficult when a mage wants to stay on the down-low and remain hidden, but her Resonance echoes stir shit up all around her.

一些人认为共鸣即是报应（Karma），但这种观点基于对“报应”一词含义的错误理解。在印度教和佛教的形而上学理念中，报应是在数个人生中累积起来的力量与动量，过去的行为借此塑造了现在和未来的处境。尽管报应和共鸣的本质有所联系，但报应有赖于轮回观念，而共鸣则基于你在你这一生中所做的事情。即使如此，许多法师依旧会在谈论共鸣时援引“因果轮回，报应不爽”这种论点。

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Some folks consider Resonance to be karma, but that’s based on a misunderstanding of what karma means. In Hindu and Buddhist metaphysics, Karma is the force and momentum of accumulated lifetimes, in which past actions shape present and future circumstances. Although the principles of Karma and Resonance are related, Karma depends upon the idea of reincarnation, whereas Resonance is based in what you do in this lifetime. Even so, lots of mages still invoke the “Karma’s a real bitch” argument when they talk about Resonance.

可能还存在另一种共鸣效果，其有时又被称为谐振。就谐振而言，回声来自于一个外在源头——例如一座鬼屋——被法师反弹，成为了她超自然振动的一部分。一些人认为共鸣与谐振是一回事，但又有人认为它们是不同的能量，或者甚至否认其中一者或两者的存在。

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There might be another sort of Resonance-effect, one that’s sometimes called Synergy. With Synergy, the echo comes off of an external source – a haunted house, for example – and bounces off the mage, becoming part of her metaphysical vibrations. Some folks consider Resonance and Synergy to be the same thing, but others consider them to be different energies or deny that one or both of those energies even exist.

为简化问题，只要这样想就好：你改变了世界，而世界也改变了你。

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To simplify matters, just think of things this way: you change the world, and the world changes you as well.

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谐振是什么？What’s Synergy?

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谐振和共鸣是一枚硬币的两面。不同的法师书对共鸣有着不同的定义——有时是法师行为的回响，偶尔是法师与宇宙之力的联系。为调和这些不同的定义，《法师》20周年版介绍了共鸣的可选概念。更多细节详见第六章和第十章有关共鸣的小节。

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Synergy and Resonance are two sides of the same coin. Various Mage books define Resonance in different ways – sometimes as the echo of a mage’s deeds, occasionally as a mage’s connection to the forces of the universe.To reconcile those different definitions, Mage 20 introduces the optional concept of Synergy. For more details, see the sections about Resonance in Chapters Six and Ten

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

骄傲 Pride

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矛盾的另一形式也在这一法师真理有所体现：没有风险就没有收获。不和矛盾叫板，你就无法释放你真正的潜力。过于安逸会让你在这个游戏中一无所获。一位法师必须敢于按他的意志行事。而这种胆识需要骄傲。

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Another small-p paradox comes from this magely truth: risk nothing, gain nothing. Unless you play chicken with Paradox, you cannot unlock your true potential.Being too safe gets you nothing in this game. A mage must dare to do as he or she Wills. And that daring demands pride.

“可别太骄傲了，”人们会这样告诉你。骄傲曾被称为失败随之而来的罪恶。灭世者自豪地戴上了“堕落者”的标签，会告诉你骄傲是所有成就的最终来源。而且这确是实话：他们是对的。没有某种优于一般人的感觉，不觉得你所做的事应当很重要，你就不可能施放魔法并造就改变。

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“Don’t get too proud,” folks will tell you. Pride has been called the sin that goeth before a fall. The Nephandi, who proudly wear their tag “the Fallen,” will tell you that pride is the ultimate source of all accomplishment. And here’s the truth: they’re right. Without a certain sense that you are better than the average person, a feeling that the things you do should matter, you cannot do magick and create change.

你必须以成为一名法师为傲。

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You must be proud to be a mage.

"骄傲"一词的拉丁语词根意味着“拥有优势”。通过觉醒，你拥有了一项优势。为了使用它，你必须有意地去使用它。你必须认为自己足够聪明，足够勇敢，足够博学和明智，足够优秀，值得使用人生给予你……以及你自身在人生中创造的优势。魔法是解放你宇宙的钥匙；如果你相信自己值得拥有它，你的骄傲就会为你开启大多数人甚至无法目见的门扉。

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The Latin root of pride means “advantageous.” By being Awakened, you have an advantage. In order to use it, you must be willing to use it. You have to see yourself as smart enough, brave enough, knowledgeable and wise enough, just plain good enough,to be worthy of the advantage life has given you… and of the advantages you make in life. Magick is the key to your universe; if and when you believe you’re worthy of it, your pride can open doors that most folks don’t even see

正如我前面提过的，其志所向，其事必成。

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As I mentioned earlier, what you Will, will be.

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意志 Will

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“意志”这一单词同时是骄傲与魔法的核心。它意味着意图、精华和卓越。“意志”一词从“意”开始，这反应了你让事情如你所愿发生的决意。并且尽管克劳利在魔法方面既非先驱也非新潮，但他在这一点是上完全正确的。

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That word, Will, is the heart of both pride and magick. It signifies intention, goodness, excellence. Capped off with a great big “W,” Will reflects your determination to make things happen in accord with your desires.And though Crowley was hardly the first or last word in magick, he was utterly right on that score.

我们法师就是这世上最为意志坚定的混账玩意。我们必须如此，方能行事。

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We mages are the most determined motherfuckers on the planet. We have to be, to do what we do.

现在，很多人都会来和我争论。他们会说魔法来自于精魂、神明或科技。一些人声称它是一份礼物，而他们是对的——它确实是。但如果我们不去有意地使用它，这份礼物就只会烂在盒子里，不被拆封、不被使用、不被享受。

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Now, lots of folks will argue with me. They’ll say that magick comes from spirits, gods, or technology.It’s a gift, some claim, and they’re right – it is.But until and unless we’re Will-ing to use it, that gift just sits there in the box, unwrapped, unused, unenjoyed

除非你有意地去打开这个盒子并使用你收到的礼物，不然成为一位法师又能有什么乐趣呢？

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And what fun is being a mage unless you’re willing to open the box and use what you’ve received?

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傲慢 Hubris

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你是否曾有过一个因玩得太过火而被你搞坏的玩具？或者你是否利用过你拥有的一些天赋、技能或才能，却因为在使用时的不小心而把事情搞得一团糟？这就是当你在对你的意志、傲慢和魔法漫不经心时将以非常严重的方式发生的大事——你把事情搞砸了。

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Did you ever have a toy that you ruined by playing too hard with it? Or have you ever taken some gift, skill, or talent you had and then made a complete mess of things because you weren’t careful with how you used it? That’s what happens, on a really big scale, when you get careless with Will, pride, and magick – you break things.

而我把这种漫不经心称为傲慢：破坏性的、压倒性的骄傲。

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And I call that carelessness hubris: destructive, overwhelming pride.

在创造出这个单词的希腊人看来，傲慢是优秀的阴暗面。它是从“嗯，我看上去还不赖……”变成“……所以我可以为所欲为”的那一时刻。如果你曾见过这样一个傲慢的混蛋（面对现实吧，我们都见过）——他利用他的外观或魅力或金钱或任何东西以把你当做垫脚石，好让他感到自己比其他人更优秀——你就理解傲慢为什么这么操蛋了。在希腊传说中，傲慢会把一个人吸进自我毁灭的漩涡，并把他身边的一切也拖下水。

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To the Greeks who coined the term, hubris is the shadowside of excellence. It’s that moment when Damn, I look good… becomes …so I can do whatever the hell I want. If you’ve ever met one of those arrogant assholes (and face it, we all have) who uses his or her looks or charm or money or whatever in order to feel better at your expense, you understand why hubris sucks. In Greek lore, hubris can suck a person into a vortex of self-inflicted ruin, taking everything around him down as well.

法师无时无刻不在干着这种恶心事。但我指的不只是科技联盟或灭世者，而是我们所有人。

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Mages do that shit all the time. Not just the Technocrats or Nephandi, but all of us.

当一群如此自以为是的自豪行愿者决定把这个世界重塑成他们的图景时，升华之战也就打响了。赛博格在夜色中完成跟踪任务。疯狂科学家制造怪物。女巫诅咒她们的敌人，直至其骨肉分离。欢喜徒试图让世人看见他们眼中的美丽色彩，而这种幻觉却让那些人陷入疯狂。

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The Ascension War is what happens when a bunch of proud Will-workers get so full of themselves that they decide to remake the world in their own image. Cyborgs wind up stalking through the night. Mad scientists create monstrosities. Witches curse their enemies until flesh slides off of bones. Ecstatics try to make folks see the pretty colors that they see, and that trip drives those folks insane.

矛盾可以看作是现实为了摆脱这团狗屎而甩向法师的一记耳光！

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Paradox can be seen as Reality bitch-slapping mages to knock that shit off!

那么，在骄傲与傲慢之间，在导向力量的意志与导向毁灭的力量之间——以及为了在我们看来完全正确的所有理由而兼顾两者导致的矛盾之间，我们只得在这细线上起舞。

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It’s a fine line we dance, then, between pride and hubris, between the Will to power and the power to destroy – and the paradox of doing both for what look like all the right reasons in our eyes.

This post has been edited by 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼: 2023-02-10, 00:47

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

力量 Power

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然而，力量是有趣的。它理应如此。就像我说的，你收到了一份礼物。所以尽情享受它吧。

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And yet, power is fun. It should be. Like I said, you’ve got a gift. Enjoy it.

我们被一个告诉我们不要变得强大的世界所包围。他们说，把这些东西留给专家吧……而所谓“专家”就是他们自己。放弃你的权力。当一只勤劳的小工蜂。让大人物们帮你处理这些难题吧。

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We’re surrounded by a world that tells us not to be powerful. Leave that stuff to the experts, they say… the “experts” being themselves. Give up your power.Be a good little drone. Let the big people take care of the hard stuff for you.

我可去他妈的。

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Fuck. That.

如果你是法师，那你就是这些大人物之一。魔法即是证明。在编织秘艺时，你让一些事情发生了。而这相当了不起。

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If you’re a mage, then you are one of the big people. Magick is the proof. When you weave your Arts, you make things happen. And that’s BIG.

这就是力量。

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That’s power.

并且这份力量令他人畏惧。

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And that power scares people.

在过去，人们会为像我们这样的人点燃火堆。不论我们是女巫、异端、还是以科学理论威胁到他们那一成不变的渺小世界或者仅仅是因为太酷、太漂亮、太过擅长我们所做的事情，这些都不重要。如今，这些火堆看上去更像是互联网上的口诛笔伐……当然，除非是你引起了那些家伙，那些仍然会在字面意义上烧死你，就因为你威胁到了他们的现实的家伙的注意。而在这个腐朽的世界上，这些人就在那里——而且往往与我们无异。

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In the old days, folks made bonfires for people like us. It didn’t matter then if we were witches, heretics, people whose science threatened their flat little world, or if we were simply too cool, too pretty, too damn good at what we did.These days, those bonfires look more like flame wars on the Internet… unless, of course, you attract the attention of the people who still will burn your ass literally to death because you threaten their reality. And in this rotten world, those people are out there – and quite often, they are us.

如果你是秘法师，你会迎来让你闭嘴的科技吏官。如果你是名科技吏官，那些该死的现实干犯者会像卷起碱水面包的面疙瘩那样扭曲你的世界。狂人想要我们所有和他们一起坠入兔洞，而堕落者想要我们伴随着世界的最终毁灭起舞。甚至是在我们自己的行列中，那些被我们视为朋友或盟友的人也有可能因为我们过于自由、过于封建、过于直觉、过于学究，在网上花费了过多的时间或在森林中裸奔而背刺我们。

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If you’re a mystic mage, you’ll have Technocrats coming to shut you down. If you’re a Technocrat, those damned Reality Deviants twist your world up like pretzels. The Mad Ones want us all down the rabbit hole with them, and the Fallen want us to dance to the world’s eventual damnation. Even within our own ranks, the people we consider friends or allies might kick our ass for being too free, too restrictive, too intuitive, too scholastic, for spending too much time online or for running naked through the woods.

力量与力量互相威胁。而骄傲讨厌被证明自己是错误的。

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Power threatens power. Pride hates to be proved wrong

骄傲与力量的矛盾既擢升了我们又摧毁了我们。

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The paradox of pride and power both exalts us and destroys us.

当法师并不容易。

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It’s not easy being a mage.

但你知道吗？它值得这份痛苦。

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But y’know what? It’s worth the pain.

与其永远在黑暗中闷闷不乐，空想着自己本可以成为什么，不妨熊熊燃烧，照亮世界。

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Better to burn bright and illuminate your world than to forever smolder in the darkness, wondering what you could have been.

This post has been edited by 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼: 2023-02-10, 01:09

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

我们是谁，我们要做什么 Who We Are, What We Do

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所以，我们该怎么做？这种事又是如何运作的？这便是谜团所在——一个理论很多、确凿的答案很少的神话与诗歌之领域。每个派系和哲学家都有他们自己喜爱的起源学说。归根结底，我们知道的只有这些：我们之所以这样做，是因为我们理解了我们能这样做——不仅在智力层面上，也在宇宙层面上。

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So how do we do it? How does it work? That’s the mystery – a realm of myth and poetry with lots of theories and few hard answers. Every faction and philosopher has a pet genesis. Ultimately, this is what we know: we do what we do because we understand that we can do it – not just on an intellectual level but on a cosmic one as well.

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本源破碎，化作众生，芸芸众生，化作我等 All Into Many Into Us

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一种流行的神话观念坚称万物本为一体。一体破碎成众多生命，而那众生成为了我们。不过，“我们”指的是穴居人、天使、半神还是英雄，这点还有待讨论。古巫是神话的参考对象，这些原生法师的事迹为奥林匹斯、雅利安人，达努神族、拿非利人等民族传说提供了灵感。据说，这些“元神”（我知道我知道——命名他们的人可不是我）的力量足以让造物跟着他们的歌唱起舞。而这些神话具有多大的真实或夸张成分？谁知道呢？有人声称自己当时就在那里，但和法师世界的许多事情一样，这种事唯有旁观者清。

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A popular myth insists that All were originally One. That One fractured into Many, and that Many become us.Now, whether “us” means the cavemen, the angels, demigods, or heroes is open for debate.
Myths refer to the Wyck, primordial mages whose deeds inspired the tales of Olympians, Aryans, Tuatha de Dannan, Nephilim, and so on. Supposedly, these “pure ones” (I know, I know – I’m not the one who named them)had powers that made Creation dance to their tune. How true or exaggerated are these myths? Who knows? There are folks who claim to have been there at the time, but as with so many things in a mage’s world, the truth is in the eye of the beholder.

随时间推移，这些实体把他们的力量精炼成我们现在称之为魔法的秘艺。一些人从内心深处汲取秘艺，另一些则向他们的神明乞求帮助。还有一些人构建起科学——语言、数学、艺术和机器——帮助他们在做这些事时能有某种脚踏实地的感觉。接着，故事说，他们也教会了其他人如何做到这些事。宗教、仪式、科技和贸易帮助人类从动物提升到我们最终称之为文明的存在。多亏魔法，人类文明得以繁荣。

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In time, these entities refined their powers into Arts that we now call magick.Some drew their Arts from deep inside themselves, and others begged their favors from their gods. Still others built technologies – language, math, art, and machines – that helped them do the things they did with some sense of reliability. And then, the tales say, they taught other people how to do those things too. Religions, rituals, technologies, and trade helped uplift the human animal into what we’d eventually call civilization. Thanks to magick, humanity prospered.

冲突与变革 Conflict and Change

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但我们人类是群暴脾气。即使是在最好的情况下，我们也只不过是裹在猿猴皮囊之下的天使。天堂之战在我们每个人的心中上演，并且不论它源于某种缠绕在生命与知识之树上的蛇形劝诱者、源于诸神的一时兴起、源于地狱的叛逆、还是源于我们自己的自私基因，冲突从未改变。我们战斗。我们杀戮。我们死去。我们绝望。我们怀揣着天堂赠予的所有礼物，在地狱之中肆意奔行。这是宇宙的恶作剧、原罪、荒诞的幻觉，或者仅仅是生死往复再次重生的驱动力？答案取决于你向谁提问。但不论出于何种原因，觉醒者与沉睡者之间……以及觉醒者彼此之间……的分歧逐渐成形。

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But we humans are a fractious lot. Even at our best, we’re angels wrapped in monkey-skins.
The war of heaven plays out inside every human heart, and whether its origins come from some serpentine tempter wrapped around the Trees of Life and Knowledge, from the whims of gods, from infernal rebels, or from our own selfish genes, the conflicts are the same. We fight. We kill. We die. We despair. Given all the gifts of heaven, we run wild in hell. Is this a cosmic prank, original sin, a grotesque illusion, or simply the drive of life and death and rebirth again? That depends on who you ask.For whatever reason, a divide grew between the Awakened and the Sleepers… and between the Awakened and each other.

有人声称这些分歧源于对魔法的滥用。根据科技联盟的教条，疯狂的巫师奴役着人类文明，直到勇敢的英雄挺身而出用他们的秘艺和科学推翻术士。秘学法师则声称早期的科技联盟利用帝国镇压他们的邻居，使民众对科技统治趋之若鹜。历史和宗教都展示出了互相竞争的国家崛起并以神明或王朝的名义征服彼此的景象。在这类战争中，每一边都有魔法，并且它们铸就的仇恨从未被消除过。

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Some people claim that these divisions came about because magick was abused. According to the Technocratic gospel, mad wizards enslaved humanity until brave heroes used their Arts and Science to throw down the sorcerers. Mystic mages claim that early Technocrats deployed empires to crush their neighbors and unite the masses under technological rule.Both history and religion show rival nations rising and conquering one another in the name of this god or that dynasty. There was magick on all sides of such wars, and the hatreds they forged have never been undone.

魔法的历史是冲突的历史。也许这就是我们这个世界的运作方式——以其他生命为代价，去成长、去吞噬、去生存，直到死亡把我们变成未来世代的养料。不论有没有我们的帮助，大自然都是这样运作的。魔法让我们在自己的人生方向上有了发言权，但它仍未改变这种人生模式。说实话，魔法和法师往往还要仰仗于动荡。毕竟，冲突能迫使我们学习和成长，创新和变革。那么，法师——变化的代理人——在战争上花费如此之多的时间又何怪之有呢？

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The history of magick is the history of conflict. Perhaps this is the way of our world – to grow, to devour, to live at the cost of other lives until death turns us into food for future generations.That’s how Nature works, with or without our help. Magick gives us a say in the direction of our lives, but it has yet to change this pattern. Truth be told, magick and mages often depend upon upheaval.Conflict, after all, forces us to learn and grow, innovate and change. Is it any wonder, then, that mages – agents of Change – spend so much time at war?

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觉醒与启蒙 Awakened Enlightenment

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在所有这些变化的过程中，很显然我们之中的一些人做到了其他大部分人都做不到的事情。我们意识到了我们的力量，并学会了如何使用它。一些法师称其为觉醒，另一些则叫它启蒙，还有一些完全拒绝给它一个名字。不论怎么称呼它，这种觉醒都让我们做到了其他人做不到的事。

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In the course of all these transformations, it became obvious that some of us could do what most other folks could not.Aware of our power, we learned how to use it.Some mages call this Awakening, others Enlightenment, and still others refuse to give it a name at all.By any name or none, such awareness allows us to do things other people cannot do.

有关是否所有人都曾施展过魔法，或者是否所有人都应当施展魔法的问题是一场无休止的争论。这种事情现在已经无关紧要了。最重要的事实是，就在这里，就在此刻，只要有人还确切真实地记得，我们觉醒者或启蒙者能做到超越凡人之力的事情。这一点是肯定的。

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The questions about whether or not all people could once perform magick, or whether or not all people should perform magick, get tangled into endless arguments.Such things are not important now. the vital fact is that right here, right now, and for as long as anyone can honestly remember, we Awakened or Enlightened folks can do things that transcend normal human capabilities.That much is a given.

而且它来之不易。

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And it does not come easily.

也许在很久以前，觉醒者们在觉醒时自然而然地就知道了他们能做些什么。但事情不再是这样了。今天，觉醒通常都代表要用思维组成的重型棍棒痛击你的脑壳。在觉醒后，世界看上去不再是以前那样了。这可能相当可怕；就像我之前所说的，力量令人畏惧。导师和伙伴能为你提供更为平滑的转变，但大多数法师——至少是在今天——是在超自然的恐慌攻击中手忙脚乱地觉醒。世界被这种狂野天赋所颠覆，沉睡的终结创造出了怪物。

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Maybe once upon a long time ago, Awakened people just naturally woke up knowing what they could do.That’s not how it works anymore. These days, Awakening usually involves some heavy-duty clue-bat cracked upside your skull. After it, the world no longer looks the way it once did before. This can be terrifying; like I said earlier, power is scary. Mentors and companions can provide a smoother transition, but most mages – at least these days – wake up thrashing around in metaphysical panic attacks.The world gets turned inside out by such wild talents, and the end of Sleep produces monsters

才智与化身 Genius and the Avatar

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谢天谢地，法师有一套内置的指导系统，也就是我前面提到过的“神圣守护天使”：化身（Avatar）。这种与生俱来的才智能为一位懵懂的法师提供灵感。取决于你向谁提问，这个神明般的副驾驶可能是前人的化身、一位乐于助人的精魂、你的大我的反映、甚至是你的心灵在试图合理化你刚意识到的你能做什么时虚构出的错觉。随便你怎么称呼，这道神性碎片为魔法的道途提供了一张路线图。因为它，我们开始感知到现实的更深层次……并能进一步操控它们。

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Thankfully, mages come with a built-in guidance system, that “Holy Guardian Angel” I mentioned earlier: the Avatar. This innate Genius provides inspiration for a budding mage.Depending on who you ask, this godly co-pilot might be a previous incarnation, a helpful spirit, a reflection of your Greater Self, or even a delusion cooked up by a mind that’s trying to rationalize what you just realized you can do.Call it what you will, this divine shard provides a road map for magick’s Path.Because of it, we begin to sense the deeper levels of reality… and to manipulate them, too.

魔素能量，式样与门扉 Quintessence Energy, Patterns, and Doors

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化身能帮助你看透形式与物质的虚像，让你意识到万物都是由名为魔素的能量组成的。这种能量会沉淀为在我们的感知中呈固体形态的式样。当你注意到这种能量，看到了式样，并在直觉和智力层面上意识到了你可以改变它们时，你就能感受到现实的钥匙开始在你的手中隆隆作响。领域——我之后会详细介绍它们——是一种隐喻。它指的是你可以用于解锁……如果你想的话，甚至包括造物本身的门扉……的各种能量式样。

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The Avatar helps you look past the illusions of form and substance and to realize that everything is composed of the energy called Quintessence. This energy settles into Patterns that we perceive as solid forms. When you spot the energy and see the Patterns and recognize on an instinctive and intellectual level that you can change them, you feel those keys to reality start to rattle in your hands. The Spheres, which I’ll describe shortly, are metaphors for the different sorts of energetic Patterns you can unlock… the doors, if you will, of Creation itself.

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

法师与魔法的历史
A History of Mages and Magick

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法师的复杂传说、法师的社会以及法师对这个世界的影响详见第五章开头部分的小节——“一段觉醒者的历史”。

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For a detailed look at the complex saga of mages, their societies, and their effect upon the world, check out An Awakened History at the beginning of Chapter Five.

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狂野天赋 Wild Talent
一位魔法能力未受训练或未被精炼的法师拥有名为狂野天赋的缺陷。他的觉醒之力可以发挥作用，但他几乎或根本不能控制这股力量的作为。这往往会让法师成为他自己以及他身边所有人的危险。各种不同的魔法科目——哪怕是巫术最为黑暗的形式——都会提供方法引导这股原始力量，令其发挥出不那么具有破坏力的作用。
正如第五章所展示的那样，没有它们，一位未受训的法师就有可能成为一名劫夺者。

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A mage whose magick has not been trained or refined has what’s called a wild talent. His Awakened powers function, but he has little or no control over what they do.This tends to make that mage a danger to himself and everyone else within reach. The various magickal disciplines – even the darkest forms of sorcery – provide ways to channel that raw power toward a less-destructive end.Without them, as shown in Chapter Five, an untrained mage may will become a Marauder.

狂野天赋的相关游戏规则详见第十章(P.527-528)。

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For the game rules surrounding wild talent, see Chapter Ten, (pp. 527-528).

This post has been edited by 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼: 2023-02-10, 10:21

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

如履薄冰 Skating on Thin Ice

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这一切听起来理所当然。但就像滑冰一样，实践可比看起来要难得多。你已经将这一生都用在制约自身去告诉自己，雾气既非岩石亦非飞鸟，更不是飞机。而这些式样之间交互的形式，还有魔素在它们之间流动徘徊的方式则更为棘手。法师们花费数十年，乃至数个世纪去学习如何让这些要素随他们心意而动。同样地，就像滑冰选手那样，一名法师会锻炼自己像能量那样流动弯折，从而掌握这些隐秘的特性与变化以求像在冰面上自由滑行一般施展能力而不“跌跟头”。在能玩转领域之前，你需要训练、焦点和大量的实践。你的头脑可能已经掌握了理论，你的精神可能很乐意去转动这些钥匙，但在你到达一个能让所有正确的肌肉以完全确切的方式发力的整合点之前，你本质上是在一片薄冰上滑行，而且脚上还绑着煤球。

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This all sounds obvious. But like ice skating, it’s a lot more challenging than it looks. You’ve got an entire life’s worth of conditioning that tells you that fog is not a rock is not a bird is not an airplane. The ways in which those Patterns interact, and the ways in which Quintessence flows and hovers within them, are tricky as hell. Mages spend decades, even centuries, learning how to make them dance to the desired tunes. Again like an ice skater, a mage trains herself to flow and bend like energy does, to master the subtle quirks and shifts that allow her to glide instead of crash. It takes training, focus, and tons of practice before you can juggle the Spheres. Your mind might grasp the concept, and your spirit might be willing to turn those keys, but until you attain a point of integration where all the right muscles work all the right ways, you’re essentially skating on thin ice with cinderblocks strapped to your feet.

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焦点，范式，技法，法器和魔峰
Focus, Paradigm, Practice, Instruments, and Arete

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为了用利刃武装自己的意图，每位法师都必须找到一个适合自己的焦点。这个焦点来自于她的范式——反映了她的世界观的信念模型——塑造了她所使用的工具，她所执行的仪式以及在她如滑冰选手一般开始滑越名为‘造物’的冰面时所能做的事情。它可能会决定她如何挑选朋友，显著影响她的办事风格，通常还会决定哪些敌人会试图阻碍她的道途。你看，是信念为我们转动了钥匙并给锁上油。

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To provide blades for her intentions, each mage must find a focus that works for her. Drawn from her paradigm – the model of belief that reflects her view of the world – this focus shapes the tools she employs,the rituals she performs, the things she can do when she starts skating across Creation’s ice. It’ll probably decide her choice of friends, definitely influence the style of her practice, and often determine the enemies who’ll try to block her Path. It’s belief, you see, that turns the keys and oils up the locks for us.

与未觉醒者类似，信念在法师看来也是一件大事。信念塑造了我们的一切，我们所做的一切，以及我们掌握的所有工具。这些工具——焦点的另一种形式——成为了吾等信念的象征性反映。我们用蒸馏将计划提炼为行动，用图表绘制出成功的潜在可能，用祈祷呼唤神明的援助，用宝剑把我们的意志切入空气。法师运用法器和仪式，设备和科技塑造、引导并锻造她的道途。没有它们，法师就只是站立在‘冰面’之上。

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Like unAwakened folks, mages take our beliefs seriously. Those beliefs shape everything we are, everything we do, every tool within our grasp. Those tools – another form of focus – become symbolic reflections of our beliefs. We use brewsto distill our plans into actions, graphs to chart our potential for success, prayers to call in favors from our gods, swords to cut our Will into the air. A mage employs instruments and rituals, devices and technologies to shape and direct and forge her Path. Without them, she’s just out there standing on the ice.

秘索与超叙事 Mythic Threads and Hypernarratives

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某些技法和法器用到了秘索：在共识中承载着大量形而上学重量的象征。塔罗牌、巫毒娃娃、满月、雾气……这类象征因为具有与集体潜意识的深层联系而令人肃然起敬。然而，为了发挥出尽可能大的作用，相关的秘索必须适合特定法师的焦点。一位试图使用塔罗牌的赛博格简直就是在和自己的程序作对，也可以这样说，它们在他手上发挥的效果完全无法同一位迷人的占卜师手上的牌相媲美。

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Certain practices and instruments employ Mythic Threads: symbols that carry lots of metaphysical weight within the Consensus. Tarot cards, voodoo dolls, full moons, fog… such symbols command respect because of their deep ties to the Collective Unconscious. In order to be effective, though, the Threads in question must fit a given mage’s focus.A cyborg who’s trying to use Tarot cards is running against his programming, so to speak, and they won’t work nearly as well for him as they might in the hands of a bewitching fortune-teller.

信息时代也有它们自己的一种秘索：包含常见媒体套路、飞车追逐、煤气罐爆炸、在半空中双枪齐发在内的超叙事——这类形象已经烙印在了大众的元故事里。从本质上讲，一套超叙事的套路能让你成为媒体时代神话故事中的英雄。因此，就其所有的实际用途而言，超叙事就是我们这个时代的秘索。它们之间的区别可能仅仅是一个原型传统对抗媒体意识的问题——只要经过几次重塑和几个世代的流传，它们就会化为同一事物。

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Information Age mages have their own sort of Mythic Threads: hypernarratives composed of common media tropes. Car chases, exploding gas tanks, flying through the air with both guns blazing – such images have burnt themselves into the collective metastory.Essentially, a hypernarrative trope makes you a hero in the story of media-age mythology. For all practical purposes, then, a hypernarrative is a Mythic Thread for our era. The difference between them is simply a matter of archetypal traditions versus media consciousness – just a few retellings and generations away from being the same thing.

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超越焦点 Growing Beyond Focus

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当然，大师们会说，工具和‘冰面’都只不过是虚妄。当你在你的求索之路上取得了足够的卓越成就时——那崇高的魔峰程度——你就将意识到你不用该死的溜冰鞋也能滑冰，并且冰面之所以在那里只是因为你认为它在那里。这是最伟大的一种觉醒，是代表你开始超越我们世界的幻觉的那种层次。能达到这一层次的法师都是我们之中最为强大的存在——尽管不总是最明智的。

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Of course, the Masters say, both the tools and the ice are just illusions. If and when you achieve enough excellence in your pursuits – that sublime degree of Arete– you’ll realize that you can skate without the goddamned skates and that the ice is only there because you think it is. This is the greatest kind of Awakening, the level where you begin to transcend the illusions of our world. Mages who attain this point are among the most powerful of our kind… though not always the most wise.

而信念太容易变成狂热了。这种情况太过常见了：有人毫无疑义地确信自己相信的东西是真的，坚持认为其他所有人也必须相信他所相信的东西。如果你要求你的现实必须成为唯一的现实，你无需成为伊斯兰教圣战者或福音派疯子就能做到这点。有些时候你只需要成为一位法师，让魔法冲昏自己的脑袋就好。因此，魔法大师们往往会成为暴君，把他们的意志强加在我们其他所有人身上。这就是另一个法师悖论：超脱性的理解往往会滋生停滞……并且令它演变成混乱的轻松程度低到令人害怕。

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Belief too easily becomes fanaticism. All too often, the man who knows, without a doubt, that what he believes is true insists that everyone else must believe it too.You don’t need to be an Islamist Jihadi or Evangelical whackjob to demand that your reality must be the only reality.Sometimes you just need to be a mage who’s let magick go to his head. As a result, Master mages often become tyrants, enforcing their Will upon the rest of us. That’s another magely paradox: transcendent understanding often breeds stagnation… and, with fearsome ease, becomes chaos.

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[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

共识与信念 Consensus and Belief

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所以为什么我们这些觉醒者不能为所欲为？如果魔法真的是种神明般的力量，那为什么我们不干脆一起去美国的大街上用火球打保龄球呢？

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So why can’t we Awakened souls do anything we please? If magick is godlike power, why don’t we all just go bowling with fireballs down Main Street, USA?

因为现实本身不会让我们这么做。

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Because Reality itself won’t let us do that

请把现实想象成一大团水。你可以在里面嬉戏、饮水、游泳或是沉溺其中。然而，不论你多努力地向星星许愿，你就是没办法把它变成五彩纸屑，因为它在你出生的许久之前就在这里，并且在你逝去的许久之后依旧在这里。这就是法师观念中的“现实”之后的现实。它比任何法师、任何法师团体都要庞大。

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Imagine reality as a large body of water. You can splash around in it, channel it, swim in it, or drown in it.You can’t just turn it into confetti, though, no matter how hard you wish upon a star because that water was here long before you were and will be here long after you’re gone.That’s the reality behind capital-R Reality. It’s bigger than any mage, than any group of mages.

我们可以和它合作办事，但它并非，并且永远不会成为我们的奴隶。

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We can work with it, but it is not, and never will be, our slave

现实拥有规则，而决定这些规则的乃是共识：全世界信念的集体力量。这个术语一开始是科联的时髦词汇，但许多别的法师也会使用它。共识现实基本上就是尘世既定的基准现实。它具有一定的延展性，但许多规律都是不可更改的。上升的东西必须下落。运动中的物体倾向于保持运动。静止的物体倾向于保持静止。诸如此类的东西。人类不可能变成牵牛花，除非有某些强大的力量介入……而如果他们真这么做了，这件事做起来也不会那么轻松。因为违抗共识现实就是在邀请矛盾给你两下狠的。

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Reality has rules, and those rules are decided by the Consensus: the collective power of belief across the world. The term began as a Technocratic buzzword, but plenty of other mages use it too.Consensual reality is essentially the established baseline reality for our Earth. It’s got a certain amount of give to it, but many laws are immutable. That which goes up must come down. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. An object at rest tends to stay at rest. That sort of thing.People don’t morph into petunias unless acted upon by some powerful force… and if they do, they don’t do so easily. To defy consensual reality is to invite Paradox to kick your ass.

那又是什么决定了共识呢？好问题。现实规律的起源正是法师们争论不休的又一个话题。我们确实知道的只有：人类的信仰在共识的形成过程中发挥了强而有力的作用。并且尽管法师能用我们自己的信念改变“水”，但沉睡者的数量超过我们数百万倍。可以说，归根结底，他们的信念所掌握的“水”比我们的更多。

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What determines this Consensus? Good question. The origin of its laws is just one more subject of debate among mages. What we do know is this: human belief plays a strong role in the shape of the Consensus. And although mages can shift that “water” with our belief, the Sleepers outnumber us millions of times over.Their belief, ultimately, holds more water, so to speak, than our own.

据说，在很久以前，共识比现在更具流动性。因为大部分人与自家以外的文化或社区少有交流，所以地区化的信仰往往会塑造出地区化的共识。然而，随着科技、贸易和征服把文化传播到各个大洲，许多信念成为了这个世界上大部分人口——如果不是所有人的话——的固有信念。自文艺复兴晚期的征服时代以来，魔法就一直更难施展，其效果也被共识的重量所削弱。是科技联盟对我们的世界做了这件事吗，或者，是沉睡者帝国的副产品超出了法师们的控制吗？再说一次，这是一项争论激烈的话题。不过有一点是肯定的：各个派系的法师曾支配过共识数百、甚至数千年之久……并且这种支配现在仍是各地法师派系的主要目标。

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Long ago, it’s been said, the Consensus was far more fluid than it is these days. Because most people had little contact with cultures or communities other than their own, localized beliefs tended to shape localized Consensus.As technology, trade, and conquest spread cultures across continents, however, many beliefs became fixtures across most, if not all, of the world. Since the Age of Conquest in the late Renaissance, magick has been a lot harder to perform, its effects diminished by the weight of the Consensus.Did the Technocracy do this to our world, or is it the byproduct of Sleeper empires beyond any mage’s control? Again, that’s a subject of heated debate.One thing, though, is certain: mages of various factions have been manipulating the Consensus for centuries, if not millennia… and doing so remains a major goal for Awakened factions everywhere.

正如《沙丘》中的哈康宁男爵所言，“谁控制了香料，谁就控制了宇宙。”把“香料”换成“共识”，你就将明白事情的真相。自征服时代以来，控制现实的就一直是科技联盟——和它的前身理性之子。其他派系偶尔能在不同地区保留控制权……并且在一些地区至今守住了这项权力。但是，在过去的150年里，全球现实或多或少都掌握在科技联盟手中。

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As the Baron Harkonnen said in Dune, “he who controls the spice controls the universe.”Replace “spice” with “Consensus” and you’ve got the truth of the matter.Since the Age of Conquest, the Technocracy – and its antecedent, the Order of Reason – has controlled the Consensus.From time to time, other factions have retained control in various regions… and, in some areas, they still hold it.The global Consensus, though, has been in the Technocratic Union’s hands for more or less the last 150 years

但控制并非命令。他们的掌控力每时每刻都在下降。它在两次世界大战期间几乎就要滑走消失了，因为科技以机械化的精确度收割了数以百万计的灵魂。人类有关科技是一种祝福的信念在这些机器看上去像是怪物的时刻动摇了。而现在，一些人说，它又已经从他们的手中滑落了。我想时间会判断一切……但至少在现在，科学信仰体系在共识中具备最有利的优势。因此，在今天使用传统意义上的魔法将招致灾难，除非你聪明、机灵又敏锐。

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But control is not command. Their grip has slipped from time to time. It almost slid away completely during both World Wars, as technology reaped millions of souls with mechanized precision.People’s faith in technology’s blessings wavered at those points, when machines seemed monstrous. And now, some folks say, it has slid from their grasp again. Time will tell, I guess… but for now at least, a scientific belief system holds the most favorable edge in the Consensus. And so, to use magick in its classic sense these days invites disaster unless you’re clever, smart, and subtle.

This post has been edited by 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼: 2023-02-23, 13:21

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

焦点与信仰 Focus and Belief

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法师的信念指导了他所追求的技法以及他作为技法的一部分施展的法器。在游戏术语中，这意味着法师的焦点。

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Your mage’s belief guides the practice he pursues and the instruments he employs as part of that practice. In game terms, that means that mage’s focus.

在更老版本的法师中，“焦点”这个术语指的是法师用于施放魔法效应的工具。但现在，焦点结合了法师对魔法的信念，他所遵循的技法，以及他用于将信念引导为魔法效果的法器。
所有这三个元素结合成了一个单元：范式+技法+法器=焦点。

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In older editions of Mage, “focus” was the term for the tools a mage used in order to cast magickal Effects.Now, though, focus combines the mage’s beliefs about magick, the practice he follows, and the instruments he uses to direct that belief toward magickal results. All three elements are combined into a single unit: paradigm + practice + instruments = focus.

焦点取决于相关人员的信念以及作为这些信念的延伸为他们所追求的技法。比方说有三位法师：一位赫密巫师、一位武术家和一位启蒙者商务高管。巫师相信他的高等仪式魔法给了他通向宇宙的钥匙。武术家相信她能通过践行精神与身体的纪律导引她的生命力场。高管相信他是欲望之艺的专家，相信他的技法能帮助他以不可思议的方式支配他人。在游戏术语中，他们都在做一件事，但这些角色持有不同的信念系统，并追求着不同的实践。在老版本的法师中，这些实践被称为“风格”；在《法师》20周年版中，信念决定了风格，而风格又决定了法器。

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This focus depends upon the beliefs of the people involved and the practices they pursue as extensions of those beliefs.Let’s say you have three mages: a Hermetic wizard, a martial artist, and an Enlightened business executive. The wizard believes that his High Ritual Magick practice gives him the keys to the universe. The martial artist believes that she’s channeling her life force by practicing mental and physical discipline. The executive believes that he’s an expert in the Art of Desire and that his practice helps him manipulate people in uncanny ways. In game terms, they’re all doing the same thing, but the characters hold differing belief systems, and they pursue different practices. In older versions of Mage, these practices were called “styles”; in Mage 20, belief determines style, which in turn determines instruments.

这些法器引导信念与技法化为实际行动。我们的巫师精心设计了充满卷轴、符文、咒语和经典神秘学工具（魔杖、护身符和所有这类东西）的仪式并付诸实践。武术家履行了粗综复杂的招式套路、令人印象深刻的锻炼、深层冥想以及毁灭性的武术技巧。与此同时，高管穿上他的权力套装，喷上特别的古龙香水，把流行语用作飞弹，用他的性格魅力迷倒或压倒了他遇到的每一个人。这三种不同的方法——全都行之有效并基于法师各自的信念。每种方法都利用不同的工具塑造了法师的意图，然后将其瞄向法师预期的结果。有关范式、技法和工具的更多细节，详见第六章(P. 256 & 259)和第十章(P. 529-530 & 565-600)。

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Those instruments channel that belief and that practice into action.Our wizard enacts elaborate rituals filled with scrolls, sigils, incantations, and classical mystic tools (wands, amulets, and all that sort of thing).The martial artist performs intricate katas, impressive exercises, deep meditations, and devastating techniques.Meanwhile, the executive wears his power suit, dashes on a special cologne, deploys buzzwords like buzzbombs, and charms or crushes everyone he meets with the sheer force of his personality. Three different approaches – all of them effective and based in the beliefs of the mage who employs them. Each one uses different tools to shape the mage’s intentions and then aim them toward a desired end.For details about paradigms, practices, and tools, see Chapters Six (pp. 256 & 259) and Ten (pp. 529-530 & 565-600).

This post has been edited by 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼: 2023-02-23, 13:28

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

未来命运：科联范式 Future Fates: The Technocratic Paradigm

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根据《法师》规则的修订版，科技联盟的信念系统在20世纪末赢得了升华之战。沉睡者接受了由科技定义现实的共识。正如这本书中此前提到过的那样，这种论断忽略了全球信仰的几个重要元素，无论是在当时还是现在——尤其是在现在。
然而，它也为法师编年史增添了一种戏剧性的紧迫感。

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According to Mage Revised, the Technocratic belief system wins the Ascension War by the end of the 20th century. Sleepers accept a Consensus in which science defines reality. As mentioned earlier in this book, that conclusion misses several vital elements of global belief, both back then and especially now.Nevertheless,it adds a dramatic sense of urgency to Mage chronicles.

根据你的团队意见，你可以假定……

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Depending on your group’s desires, you can assume that…

• 科联胜利：当然，有许多人相信所谓的超自然。然而，占主导地位的科技信仰完全压制了神秘学的观念。因此，任何看似是魔法的东西在尘世的任何地方都会破则。
  
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  The Technocracy Won: Sure, plenty of folks believe in the so-called supernatural. The dominant belief in technology, however, crushes mystical viewpoints. Anythingthat looks like magic is therefore vulgar anywhere on Earth.
• 科联信仰支配了世界的特定部分：科联范式统治了大部分工业化世界，但这比人们所意识到的要灵活许多。破则和巧合魔法的定义取决于第十章(pp. 611- 617)所述的现实域。
  
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  Technocratic Belief Dominates Certain Parts of the World: Technological paradigms rule most of the industrialized world, but there’s a lot more flexibility than people realize. Definitions of vulgar and coincidental magick depend upon reality zones, which are described in Chapter Ten, (P.611- 617).
• 变化的世界：科技联盟似乎胜利了，但这种观念并不准确。现实域决定了巧合与破则魔法的界限，而尘世可能甚至正在滑向另一个神话时代，一个由另一种范式支配世界的时代。该选项可能会给你带来一段相当狂野的法师编年史。某些形式的明显魔法将变为巧合魔法，而某些科技手段将变为破则魔法。如此高魔的编年史将拥有一个与官方黑暗世界相当不同的现实，但它适合一段末日传奇——一段为支持神秘狂乱而拒绝了科学承诺的冒险。
  
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  Reality’s in Flux: The Technocracy seemed to win, but that perception wasn’t accurate. Reality zones determine the boundaries of coincidental and vulgar magick, and Earth might even be sliding toward another Mythic Age in which a different paradigm dominates the world.This option would give you a much wilder Mage chronicle, with certain forms of obvious magick becoming coincidental (in the old form, casual), whereas certain approaches to technology would become vulgar. Such a high-magic chronicle would hold a very different reality than the official World of Darkness, but it would suit an End Times saga in which the promises of science had been rejected in favor of mystic chaos.

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

巧合魔法 Coincidental Magick

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尽管不总是最容易的，但规避矛盾的最好方法是让你的魔法看上去像是环境的自然组成。这种巧合魔法似乎能被当地的信念系统全盘接受。比如说，你不能凭空变出一个苹果——但你可以从你的背包里摸出一个……而如果你的背包里此前并没有苹果，好吧，除了你自己又有谁能知道呢？巧合魔法的基本规则即在于此：如果一位凡人目击者看到了你的魔法行为，且仍然接受它是自己周边环境的一部分，那么它就只是一个有利于你的巧合。

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The best, if not always easiest, way to avoid the Paradox Effect is to make your magick seem like a natural part of the landscape.Such coincidental magick appears to be totally acceptable to the local belief system. You didn’t conjure an apple out of thin air, for example – you pulled it out of your backpack… and if there wasn’t an apple in your backpack before that point, well then, who would know that except for you? The baseline rule of coincidental magick is this: if a mundane witness could see you perform a magickal act, and yet accept it as a normal part of his surroundings, then it’s just a coincidence that things went in your favor.

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神秘时代 The Mythic Age

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在古代，这种事通常被称为巧合魔法；它有着明确且可信的成因，因此被当时的信念所接受。然而，那个时代的可信意味着它符合该地区对现实的主流观念。如果民间传说说女巫可以骑着扫帚飞行，那么，一位女巫就可以骑着扫帚飞行并被认为是可信的。牧师的祈祷可以召唤出火焰，而术士可以诅咒他的敌人并看着他们死去。这种事情在今天永远不会被视为巧合，但它们在当时是信念系统的一部分。因为几乎所有的信念系统都支持魔法现象的存在，现代法师通常称这段时期为高魔时代（High Mythic Age）。就像其他许多黄金时代一样，在后人眼中它有着某种光辉般的崇高，但这种崇高并不符合那个时代的肮脏真相。

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In the old days, this sort of thing was often known as casual magick; it had a clear and believable cause and was therefore acceptable by the beliefs of the day.Back then, however, believable meant that it fit the prevailing view of reality in that area. If folklore said that witches flew on brooms, well then, a witch could flyon a broom and be considered believable.A priest could call down fire with a prayer, and a sorcerer could curse his enemies and watch them die. Such things would never be considered coincidental today, but they were part of the belief system back then. Because almost all belief systems favored the existence of magical phenomena, modern mages often referto this period as the High Mythic Age. And like so many other golden ages, it has achieved a certain glowing reverence in hindsight that clashes with the grubby truth of that era.

在今天，一些秘学法师意图重现神话时代或创造一个支持自身信念的新时代。这种转变无疑会对整个世界产生过激的影响，但这似乎并没有过于困扰他们。嘿，如果你能再次骑着扫帚在空中飞行，谁又会真正关心那些被误导的可怜沉睡者依旧只能待在地面上呢，对吧？这便是这些秘学法师的原初傲慢：当我们夺回权力，能够再次为所欲为时，这个世界将变得更好。

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These days, some mystic mages want to bring back the Mythic Age or create a new one that favors their beliefs. The fact that such a shift would have radical effects on the world at large doesn’t seem to bother them very much. Hey, if you can fly through the air on a broom again, who really cares if those poor misguided Sleepers remain grounded, right? That’s the primary hubris of these mystic mages: the world will be better off when we’re back in charge and able to do whatever we want.

尽管科技联盟从大部分角度看来都不折不扣地像是扫兴的家伙，但很容易就能理解这种东西为何有悖于他们的程序。这种神话现实可能在某些秘学法师看来很酷，但它对其他所有人而言无异于地狱。根据既定的福音（像法师世界的其他许多东西一样，它可能不如它应当是的那样真实），理性之子通过强制推行基于科学而非魔法或宗教的全球秩序推翻了神话时代。然而，如果说这是真的，那么他们的工作必然做得一团糟。

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Although the Technocrats seem like monumental killjoys in most respects, it’s pretty easy to see why this sort of thing goes against their program. Such mythic reality might be cool for certain mystics, but it’d be hell on everybody else. According to the established gospel (which, like so many other things in a mage’s world, might not be as true as it’s supposed to be), the Order of Reason brought down the Mythic Ages by imposing a global order based upon science, not magic or religion. If that’s true, however, they’ve done a lousy job of it.

毕竟，至少有三个宗教似乎认为他们得到了上帝的特别恩赐，并且其中至少有两个坚持认为科学是他们的敌人，除非科学能给他们更好的赚钱与杀人方法。由于科联范式中存在着这种缝隙，秘学风格魔法的活动空间实际上比它一眼看上去所拥有的要大。

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There are, after all, at least three religions that appear to think they’ve got special dispensations from God, and at least two of them insist that science is their enemy unless it gives them better ways to make money and kill people.And because of such cracks in the Technocratic paradigm, there’s more room for mythic-style magick than is immediately obvious.

不过，巧合魔法在规避矛盾效应方面依旧是最安全且最可靠的方法。通过以看似不魔法的方式展现你的秘艺，你可以避免被矛盾的显现扔进现实监狱。

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Still, coincidental magick is the safest, most reliable way to sidestep the Paradox Effect.By manifesting your Arts in ways that don’t seem magickal, you avoid getting thrown in Reality Jail by manifestations of Paradox.

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科技法师的优势 The Technomancer’s Edge

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由于显而易见的原因，科技法师在矛盾游戏中拥有巨大的优势。现代世界大多数地方的大部分人群都接受高科技是他们的现实不可或缺的一部分。再次强调，这并不适用于所有地方，但它是工业世界的一个共通基准。

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For obvious reasons, technomancers have a monumental edge in the Paradox game. Most people in most places throughout the modern world accept high technology as an essential part of their reality. Again, this isn’t true everywhere, but it’s a common baseline in the industrial world.

因为占主导地位的人类信念支持科学，你得到了科幻小道具依旧被视为巧合的正当机会。一位从手中发出闪电的巫师显然不符合人们对现实的共识看法；然而，如果给这位巫师配上一套整洁的制服和一把脉冲步枪——多亏了数十年来的科幻电影——他的能量爆发突然就看上去相当可信了。

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Because the dominant human belief favors technology, you’ve got a decent chance that sci-fi gadgetry will still be considered coincidental.A wizard firing lightning bolts out of his hands clearly does not fit into the Consensus view of reality; give that wizard a neat uniform and a pulse-rifle, though, and suddenly – thanks to decades of science-fiction films – his energy blasts seem pretty believable.

科技法师——无论他是否属于科技联盟——还拥有另一项信念优势：他的科技不只符合共识世界观，而且也符合他自己的世界观。他不是在用他的科技愚弄世界。他自己本身就相信科技的力量。正如我所说的，信念是一个强大的东西——而如果你不是用信念努力对抗你周边的世界，而是让它契合共识，它发挥出的力量就能更加强大。

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The technomancer – whether or not he belongs to the Technocracy – has an additional edge of belief as well: His technology doesn’t simply fit the Consensus worldview, it also fits his own. He’s not fooling the world with his technology. He himself believes in the power of technology. As I’ve said, belief is a powerful thing… and if your belief fits the Consensus, then it’s got more power than if you’re striving to contradict the world around you with your beliefs.

我就这么说吧：如果你从小就相信人类不能飞翔，那你认为自己能飞的看法就是在对抗你根深蒂固的信念。然而，如果你的信念认为喷气背包是一种潜在的科学现实，那么你自己的信念就能帮助你用喷气背包飞行。因此，尽管有许多秘学法师声称科技法师不过是在用科技伪装他们的魔法，但这种观念并不准确。这不是一种伪装。科技法师真心相信着他所做的事情。

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I’ll put it this way: if you’re raised to believe that people cannot fly, you’re going against your ingrained beliefs to think that you can fly. If your beliefs include jetpacks as a potential scientific reality, though, then your own belief helps you to fly with one.So although many mystics claim that technomancers disguise their magick with technology, that perception isn’t accurate. It’s not a disguise. It’s not a disguise.The technomancer truly believes in what he does.

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

破则魔法 Vulgar Magick

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还有一些魔法似乎是在打现实的脸——那些公然违背了宇宙表层规律的东西：召唤恶魔，用南瓜制作马车，把吸血鬼变成草坪家具——诸如此类的事情。一位强大的法师可以完成此等壮举，但这样做并不明智。这种明目张胆的魔法被视为鲁莽之举，是一种虚荣，一种破则。

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And then there’s magick that appears to slap reality in the face – stuff that blatantly contradicts the apparent laws of the universe: summoning demons, making coaches out of pumpkins, turning vampires into lawn furniture – that sort of thing. A powerful mage can perform such feats, but it’s not wise to do so. Such blatant magick is considered rude. Vain. Vulgar.

“破则”（Vulgar）一词的原意为：常见，用于指代庸俗的人与物。不过引申开来，这个单词就有了粗鲁无礼的含义，而这也是人们对破则魔法的感受。祈唤破则魔法的法师在别人看来就是在一处圣地上小便。使用破则魔法违背了我们被教导要相信的一切信念。

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“Vulgar” originally meant common and referred to things and people who were unrefined. By extension, though, the word came to mean obnoxious, and that’s how vulgar magick feels.A mage invoking vulgar magick is seen as pissing on sacred ground. To use it is to go against everything we’ve been taught to believe.

虚荣与灾祸 Vanity and the Scourge

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“破则魔法”这一短语的出现可能是因为某些巫师……或者说，更有可能就是那些科技吏官……感觉凭空飞行或扔火球这种事只适合普通术士，而不适合像他们这样的优雅上流人士。然而，随着时间的推移，这个术语和另一个更古老的短语合并了：虚荣魔法。这是种趾高气昂，在上帝的脸上吐痰的魔法。一位虚荣法师被视为是感到自己的力量胜于神圣秩序……因此需要受到惩罚的人。

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The phrase “vulgar magick” probably came about because certain wizards… or, more likely, Technocrats… felt that doing things like flying through the air or throwing fireballs was for common sorcerers, not for refined gentlefolk such as themselves. In time, though, the term merged with another, older phrase: vain magick. This was magick that strutted its stuff and hawked loogies in God’s face.A vain mage was considered someone who felt that his power trumped the Divine Order… and who therefore needed to be punished

在当时，现实会用一种名为灾祸（Scourge）的东西回击虚荣魔法。与矛盾类似，这道神秘之鞭将敲打自以为好过其他所有人的法师；但偶尔，灾祸也确实会奖励骄傲。那几乎就像是某种力量在说：“嘿，孩子，干得好！你本不应该这样做的，但我喜欢有种的法师。”灾祸会伤害你，但它也会帮助你，并且你在鞭子抽下前永远无法肯定事态将如何发展。

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Back then, reality lashed back at vain magick with something called the Scourge. Like Paradox, this mystic whip beat a mage for presuming to be better than everyone else; every so often, though, the Scourge actually rewarded pride. It’s almost as if the Powers That Be were saying, Hey, kid, good job! You shouldn’t have done that, but I like a mage with guts.The Scourge could hurt you, but it could help you too, and you never quite knew which way things would go until the whip came down.

今天，这种惩罚来自于矛盾，并且毫无疑义的残酷。使用破则魔法的法师将招来矛盾效应，并且不管它有没有立刻惩罚她，法师迟早都要被折磨。这种痛苦来自于上天的道德审判吗，又或者仅仅来自于她的能力式样因对抗现实而遭受的裂痕？和往常一样，答案取决于你向谁提问。但不管怎样，其后果都是一致的。或早或晚，破则魔法将招致伤害……因此大多数法师都会避免使用它，除非他们确实必须这么做。

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These days, that punishment comes from Paradox, and it’s unequivocally harsh.A mage who uses vulgar magick invokes the Paradox Effect, and whether or not it punishes her immediately, she’ll suffer for it sooner or later. Does this pain descend from moral judgments on high or simply from tears in her energetic Pattern that come from straining against reality?As usual, that depends on who you ask. Either way, the result’s the same. Sooner or later, vulgar magick leads to harm… so most mages avoid using it unless they absolutely must.

这又导致了另一个矛盾的概念：为了成为我们自己，我们有时必须逆流而行。法师是敢于挑战的存在。反抗矛盾便是我们的作为；如果我们永远不这样做，我们也就拒绝了改变的潜在可能。因此，使用魔法是一种可量化的风险。巧合魔法需要才智与技巧，破则魔法则需要直面后果的胆量与意愿，而为了做我们要做的事和成为我们要成为的人，这两种手段都是不可或缺的。

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Which leads to another paradox: to be what we are, we must sometimes go against the flow. A mage exists to dare. Defying Paradox is what we do; if we never do so, we deny our potential for change. And so, using magick is a calculated risk.Coincidental magick demands cleverness and skill, vulgar magick demands nerve and a willingness to face the consequences of your actions, and both approaches are essential to doing what we do and being who we are.

从来没有人说过成为一名法师是一件易事。
但如果没有那些敢于冒一切风险的人，人类就不可能完成任何有价值的事业。

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No one ever said that being a mage was easy.But without people who are willing to risk everything, nothing worthwhile is ever done.

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

九大领域与现实之语 Nine Spheres and the Language of Reality

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好的——那我们该如何施展魔法呢？答案是通过学习使用领域——数个专注于九大现实元素并向我们展示了该如何玩转这些元素的知识领域。

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Okay – so how do we do this magick thing?By learning to use the Spheres –fields of knowledge that focus on nine elements of reality and then show us how to juggle them.

把每个领域想象成一种语言。如果你理解空间（Correspondence），你就能与各种联结原理“交谈”；如果你知晓生命（Life），你就能与组成了有机生命的式样和能量“交流”。通晓多门“语言”的法师能做到许多事情。每个领域的潜在能力都能复合另一个领域的潜在能力；你理解的语言越多，你对它们的理解也就越深，并且你能统御的潜在能力也会越多。

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Think of each Sphere as a language. If you understand Correspondence, then you can “talk” to various principles of connection; if you know Life, then you can “have a conversation” with the Patterns and enorganic life. A mage who masters many “languages” can do many things. Each Sphere’s potential compounds another Sphere’s potential; the more Spheres you understand, and the better you understand them, the more potential you command.

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秘学领域 The Mystic Spheres

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领域意味着“去包含”。而这便是领域的作为——它们包含了现实的特定元素。通过这一行为，它们也为尘世的魔法实践提供了数百甚至数千个基准模型。你可以和一位西伯利亚萨满、一位埃及炼金术士、一位波利尼西亚卡胡纳*和一位巴西天主牧师交谈，然后就他们的施法方式得到四种相当不同的解释。他们可能不会谈论“领域”，并且他们通常也不知道你在使用这个术语指的是什么。然而，你最终仍然会得出结论，认为他们全都在以某种方式行使相同的九大基本原理。

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Sphere means “to encompass.” That’s what the Spheres do – they encompass certain elements of reality.By doing so, they also present a baseline model for the hundreds, if not thousands, of magickal practices on Earth.You could talk to a Siberian shaman, an Egyptian alchemist, a Polynesian kahuna, and a Brazilian Catholic priest, and you’d get four very different explanations about how they do what they do. They probably won’t talk about “spheres,” and they often won’t know what you meant by that term. In the end, however, you’d still come down to the same nine basic principles they all use in some way:

• 空间（Correspondence）——存在于明显分离的事物之间的联结元素
• 熵（Entropy）——机率、命运与死亡的原理。
• 力场（Force）——对元素能量的理解。
• 生命（Life）——揭晓生与死之秘的钥匙。
• 物质（Matter）——所谓的无生命物体背后的原理。
• 心灵（Mind）——对意识潜能的探索。
• 原质（Prime）——对存在于万物之中的原质能量的理解。
• 精魂（Spirit）——对异界力量和异界住民的理解。
• 时间（Time）——时间之力与时间感知的奇异运作方式。

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• Correspondence – the element of connection between apparently separated things.
• Entropy – the principle of chance, fate, and mortality.
• Forces – the understanding of elemental energies.
• Life – keys to the mysteries of life and death.
• Matter – the principles behind supposedly inanimate objects.
• Mind – exploration of the potentials of consciousness.
• Prime – an understanding of the Primal Energy within all things.
• Spirit – comprehension of Otherworldly forces and inhabitants.
• Time – the strange workings of chronological forces and perceptions.

*卡胡纳（Kahuna）：夏威夷语词汇，指任何领域的专家，从历史上的使用情况来看，它曾经被用来指医师、外科医师、牙医师、牧师和巫师，也可以是精通农业、建筑或其它技能的专家。当有新建筑物落成或新人结婚时，社区居民也可能请卡胡纳来给予祝福。

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科联领域 The Technocratic Spheres

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就像我前面提到过的，科联法师不相信他们的行为是魔法。在科技联盟的成员——甚至是那些坚称魔法只不过是一门尚未得到普遍理解的科学的传统宗派成员——看来，领域不是神秘学理论，而是启蒙科学定义明了的范式。就像我刚才描述的秘学法师一样，践行这种先进理解的各色技术人员和科学家用满口的希腊语、拉丁文、首字母缩写和公式定义了他们的理解。然而，当你把所有这些都归纳起来，你依旧会留下反映了不同种专业知识的九种影响领域（即“领域”一词的通常含义，指学术研究的范围）：

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As I’ve mentioned earlier, Technocratic mages do not believe that what they do is magick.To members of the Technocratic Union – and even to members of the Traditions who insist that magick is simply science that’s not yet commonly understood – the Spheres are not mystic concepts but defined paradigms of Enlightened Science.As with the mystics I described a moment ago, the various technicians and scientists who practice this advanced level of understanding tend to define their understanding with mouthfuls of Greek, Latin, acronyms, and formulae.When you boil all of that down, however, you’re still left with nine spheres of influence (not a capitalized term, by the way) that reflect fields of specialized knowledge:

• 空间原理（Correspondence Principles）——单点空间的物理学。
• 界层科学超物理（Dimensional Science Paraphysics）——量子振动频率的实际应用。
• 熵态控制（Entropic State Control）——倾向于熵态结果的概率操纵。
• 力场超物理学（Force-Based Paraphysics）——元素物理的高级研究。
• 生命科学（Life Sciences）——对生物生命形态的操纵掌控。
• 物质科学（Material Sciences）——对惰性物质状态的统一研究。
• 原质经济学理论（Primal Utility Theory）——探索和应用统一场能量以及它们与人类之间的联系。
• 超心理学（Psychodynamics）——分析和操纵有知觉的意识。
• 时间科学（Temporal Science）——对时序场（chronological field）式样的研究和应用
  
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  • Correspondence Principles – the physics of single-point space.
  • Dimensional Science Paraphysics – practical applications of quantum vibration frequencies.
  • Entropic State Control – manipulation of probabilities tending toward entropic results.
  • Force-Based Paraphysics – advanced study of elemental physics.
  • Life Sciences – the governing aspects of biological life forms
  • Material Sciences – unified study of inert material states.
  • Primal Utility Theory – exploration and application of unified field energies and the human connection to them.
  • Psychodynamics – analysis and manipulation of sentient consciousness.
  • Temporal Science – research and application of chronological field patterns
• 一些信息时代科技法师也提到了数据领域（Data）：通过量化信息达成联结的原理。它究竟是空间原理的一部分或者本身就是一个领域取决于你向谁提问。但是，值得一提的是数据领域的原理也为不属于科技联盟的某些科技法师所使用。根据九宗内部的一个团体，虚拟行者的说法，提出数据领域的是他们，而科技联盟只不过是从他们那里承袭了这一领域。
  
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  Some Information Age technomancers also refer to the Data Sphere: the principle of connection through quantified information.Whether or not this principle is part of the Correspondence Principles or is its own field entirely depends upon who you ask.It’s worth noting, though, that these Datasphere Principles are also used by certain technomancers who do not belong to the Technocracy. According to the Virtual Adepts, a group within the Nine Traditions, they came up with the Data Sphere, and the Technocracy adopted it from them.

许多团体从来没有用领域描述过魔法。他们会说他们利用了自己与神明、精魂、地球或内在自我的联系，而不会说他们利用了生命或时间的某种普遍原理。然而，不论他们使用哪种命名，所有的法师在操纵现实时都应用着类似的原理。它们的名字远不如它们的效果重要。

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Many groups don’t ever refer to magick in terms of spheres. They’ll say they draw upon their connection to gods or spirits or the earth or their inner selves, not upon some sort of generalized principles of Life or Time. Regardless of the names they use, however, all mages employ similar principles when we manipulate reality. The names aren’t nearly as important as the effects.

第十领域？A Tenth Sphere?

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根据某些权威的说法，魔法世界也存在着第十个领域。毕竟，这种想法本身就具有一定的对称性——就像量子物理中的暗物质一样——它之所以被认为存在，仅仅是因为其他元素之间的空间似乎给它留了位置。

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According to certain authorities, there’s a Tenth Sphere too. The idea has a certain symmetry to it, after all, and – like dark matter in quantum physics – it’s thought to exist simply because there appears to be a place for it in the space between the other elements.

一些人称这个理论上存在的领域为联合、平衡、统一场理论甚至是升华。他们说，通过理解这一领域，你能超越其他九大领域的限制，打开通往终极实相的大门。但是，迄今为止，如果说有任何人真的发现并掌握了这个第十领域，那他们要么是完全没有分享他们的洞见，要么就是超脱了尘世并带走了他们的奥秘。现在，就我所知，第十领域——如同升华本身——是一个抽象的造诣目标，而不是某种人们已经达成然后拿去到处谈论的东西。

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Some folks call this theoretical Sphere Unity, Balance, Unified Field Theory, or even Ascension. By understanding it, they say, you can go beyond the limitation of the other nine Spheres and open the door to Ultimate Reality.So far, though, if anyone actually has discovered and mastered this Tenth Sphere, they’re either not sharing their insights about it or they’ve transcended this Earthly mudball and taken the secret with them.Right now, so far as I’m aware, the Tenth Sphere – like Ascension itself – is an abstractgoal of attainment, not something that people achieve and then hang around to talk about afterward.

专擅领域 The Affinity Sphere

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不论你如何定义你所做的事，不可避免地会有一个领域在你心中的分量高于其他任何领域：专擅领域，你研究和联结的首个领域。它反映了你在可能性世界中的“初吻”。也许你在孩童时代着迷于生物生命的奥秘；那么你的专精领域就将是生命，因为生命是你与一个更伟大现实的最初联系。也许你是个赌鬼或以其它方式依赖于幸运女神的仁慈；那么你的专精领域、你神秘原理上的“初恋”就将是熵。一位从蜡烛或天气模式开始探究真理的法师将发现自己专擅于力场，而一位生来就感觉“时间在不断流逝”的法师将倾向于时间。

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Regardless of how you define what you do, there’s one Sphere that inevitably means more to you than any other one: the affinity Sphere, your initial field of study and connection. This reflects your “first kiss” within the world of possibilities.Maybe, as a kid, you felt obsessed about the mysteries of biological life; your affinity Sphere would be Life, because life became your original link to a greater reality.Perhaps you gambled or otherwise threw yourself on the mercies of Lady Luck; your affinity Sphere would be Entropy, your “first love” among mystic principles.A mage whose inquires begin with candles or weather patterns would find an affinity for Forces, and one with an innate sense that “time keeps on slippin’” would gravitate toward Time.

这种亲和通常显现在觉醒期间，也许就是在觉醒者展现出与某个领域有关的狂野天赋之时；一个在房屋失火时觉醒化身的女孩——可能正是通过引发火灾而觉醒——将很有可能发现她自己亲和于力场，而一位因觉醒而免于溺水的法师可能感到自己最接近生命领域的原理。这种事情没有什么固定规则，但正如俗语所说，“物以类聚”。与造物的特定方面有着强烈联系的人往往都能找到并培养出一项专擅领域。

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The affinity often manifests during the Awakening, perhaps through a display of wild talent connected to that Sphere;a girl whose Avatar Awakens during a house fire – perhaps by causing that fire – would most likely find herself affiliated with Forces, whereas one whose Awakening saved her from drowning might feel closest to the principles of the Life Sphere.There’s no hardand-fast rule about such things, but as the saying goes, “like follows like.”A person with some strong connection to a certain aspect of Creation will often find and nurture an affinity Sphere.

这种观念既适用于个人也适用于团体。不同的秘学或科联派系都基于它们与特定领域的亲和而践行着特定的原则，并且尽管这些团体不会坚持要求他们的所有新人都拥有相同的专擅领域，但每个团体都会基于他们最喜爱的原理而看重特定的理想与教导。比如说，圣叶探索肉体的生命之艺，而新世界秩序深入研究人类心灵的可能性。欢喜宗法师可能是唯一一些足够缥缈，因而能真正理解时间的法师，圣殿骑士则在上帝的号令下控制力场。如果你想理解一个团体，那就去看看他们偏爱的那种魔法。通过研究其他人的专擅领域，你能了解到很多有关他们尊崇和尊敬何物的信息。

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That same idea holds true for groups as well as individuals. Various mystic and Technocratic factions align themselves with certain principles based on their affinity for a given Sphere, and although those groups do not insist that all of their initiates share the same affinity Sphere, each group values certain ideals and teachings based around their most cherished principles. The Verbenae, for example, explore the carnal Arts of Life, and the New World Order delves into the possibilities of one’s Mind.Ecstatic mages may be the only ones unmoored enough to truly understand Time, and Templars marshal the Forces at their God’s command. If you’d like to understand a group, look at the sorts of magick it prefers.By studying someone else’s affinity Sphere, you can learn plenty about the things they revere and respect.

[劳伦斯·塔利斯曼]

玩转领域 Juggling the Spheres

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每个领域本身就拥有一系列可能。但真正的魔法只会在你开始把不同的领域结合起来时出现。通过把现实的各个元素以往往不可预知的创造性方式结合在一起，一位法师能释放出令人叹为观止的效果。一点原质、一点物质和一点对生命的合理理解可以造出控制论设备并允许它们发挥作用；力场与原质的融合可以召唤出火焰、气流与光芒。
仅凭空间领域的魔法，一位熟练的法师就能从一处地点迈向另一处地点，而无需通过两者之间的空间；加上时间，她还能看到在远方发生的过去事件；加上力场，她还可以把她看到的画面投射在一堵墙上；转而只使用物质与空间，她可以在一个地方打开一扇门，在下一个地方打开另一扇门，并在这两扇此前不存在也不可能存在的门之间来回穿越。这便是领域的真正威能。通过对单个领域原理略有不同的理解和对不同领域的广泛理解，你几乎可以做到现实会勉强让你得逞的任何事。

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Each Sphere, in itself, features an array of possibilities.The real magick, though, comes when you start bringing Spheres together.By bringing elements of reality together in creative and often unpredictable ways, a mage unleashes remarkable effects. A bit of Prime, a bit of Matter, and a fair understanding of Life installs cybernetic devices and allows them to function; a blend of Forces and Prime conjures fire, wind, and light. With Correspondence alone, a skilled mage can step from one place to another without passing through the intervening space; add Time, and she can see past events in a distant place as well; add Forces, and she could project the images she sees upon a wall; use Matter and Correspondence instead, and she could open a door in one place, open another door in the next, and step between two doors that had not existed – and could not have existed – until that moment. That’s the true power of the Spheres. With a nuanced understanding of their principles and a broad understanding of different Spheres, you can do almost anything Reality will let you get away with doing.

当然，如此伟大的知识更容易在理论而非实践上达成。掌握数个领域、延展它们的可能性、学会如何发挥出它们的全部潜力并在此过程中不把自己炸成原子通常需要耗费数十年、有时需要耗费数百年的时间。不论哪个派系，都只有极少数的法师能达成此等登峰造极之技艺。更为常见的是，一位行愿者只会找出几个专业领域，然后围绕它们构建自己的研究与经验，最终掌握有所限制但依旧令人印象深刻的一系列魔法。 每个领域的潜在可能都足以让一位法师花上一两辈子的时间仅用于学习现实的一个方面能做些什么。

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Such great knowledge, of course, is easier to achieve in theory than in practice. It takes years, often decades, sometimes centuries, to master the variety of Spheres, stretch their possibilities, and learn how to use them to their full potential without blowing yourself to atoms in the process.Very few mages of any faction achieve such proficiency. More often, a willworker finds a few fields of expertise, builds her studies and experience around them, and eventually masters a limited yet impressive range of magicks. There’s enough potential within each Sphere that a single mage could spend a lifetime or two simply learning what that one aspect of reality can do.

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效应的循环：构思、形式、感官与腐朽
The Cycle of Effect: Conception, Form, Perception, and Decay

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当然，所有领域都是互相联系的，它们的性质在一道联结之圈中循环。这一循环既统一了这些原理，也维持了单一领域作为研究与效果的特化单元的性质。直白地说，一个领域导向另一个领域，而所有这些领域都在一个更为宏大的体系当中扮演着各自的角色。

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All Spheres are, of course, interconnected, their properties cycling through a circle of connections that unite the principles while keeping each individual field a specialized unit of study and effect.In plain English, one thing leads to another, with all of them playing a part in the greater scheme of things.

这个循环从明显的虚无之中创造出了事物——从一个想法的最初构思，到它的形式，到形式的感官，再到形式的腐朽。在这腐朽中，想法、想法的物质和想法的本质得以回归循环的起点，并以某种新形态重新开始这一切。

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This cycle creates things out of apparent nothingness – from the initial conception of an idea, to its form, to the perception of its form, to the decay of that form so that the idea, its materials, and its essence can return to the first point of the cycle and begin all over again in some new state

循环的每一步都会涉及一系列的领域。一个效果从原质能量领域的原初构思起步，通过心灵的意识得到集中，再借由精魂取得实体。实体在力场、生命或物质的式样之中被授予形式，并通过空间和时间与其他式样交互。最终，它被熵分解，它的元素散落回原质领域，以重新开始。如果第十领域存在，它所管辖的可能就是这整个进程，就像围住了这一循环的又一个圈，维持了它的完整和运转。

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Each step of that cycle involves a series of Spheres. From original conception in the energy field of Prime, an effect gets focused through consciousness in the Mind and attains substance through the Spirit.Given form in Patterns of Forces, Life, or Matter, the substance interacts with other Patterns through Correspondence and Time.Finally, it breaks down through Entropy, its elements dispersed back to the Prime to start all over again. If there is a Tenth Sphere, it probably governs the entire process, like a circle that encloses this cycle, keeping it all whole and functioning.

值得庆幸的是，你无需使用所有这些领域就能使效果成形。一般来说，这只需要用到原质和其他一些力场、物质与生命的组合，可能还有心灵。空间、时间和熵倾向于自行其道，除非有一位法师令其加速或改变它们的自然流向。

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Thankfully, you don’t need every single Sphere in order to bring things into being.Generally, that just takes Prime and some other combination of Forces, Matter, Life, and perhaps Mind.Correspondence, Time, and Entropy tend to take care of themselves unless a mage speeds them along or alters their natural flow.

至于精魂——当然，有些法师甚至不相信它存在——它显然也是一项自然进程。然而，精魂大师们坚持认为，一个存在或事物的灵魂——它的灵魂本质——很大程度上取决于它被注入的能量。如果你真的相信某物或某人，它往往就能从这种信念中获取一定程度的精神能量。这就是奇妙仙子如何能在孩子们拍手并大喊“我相信有小仙子！”时恢复元气。据说，他们的行动产生了精神能量，进而使这位小仙子恢复了活力。当然，这在现实生活中并不容易——不然的话，我们恐怕满脑子想的都是小精灵、马、鱼和金钱了。不过，这项原理应当是真实的，尽管在效果描述方面可能有点夸大其词。再次强调，这意味着信念是一个非常强大的东西——远比大多数人所认为的要强大。作为法师，你可能会发现自己时常要直面他人信念或自身信念的产物——而这并不总是件快乐的事。

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If you really believe in something or someone, it tends to acquire a certain degree of spiritual energy from that belief. That’s how Tinkerbell can rally when children clap their hands and cry “I DO believe in fairies!” Their actions, it’s been said, generate spiritual energies that invigorate the fairy in question. It’s not that easy in real life, of course – otherwise, we’d be up to our ears in pixies, horses, fishes, and money. Still, the principle is supposedly true, if a tad exaggerated for effect. What this means, again, is that belief is a very powerful thing – far more powerful than most people give it credit for being.As a mage, you’ll probably find yourself face-to-face with the products of other people’s beliefs, or your own, quite often… and that’s not always a happy thing at all.