A Trevena - From Sanctity to Sorcery: An Authors Guide to Building Belief Structures and Magic Systems

FROM

SANCTITY TO SORCERY

AN AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO BUILDING

BELIEF STRUCTURES AND MAGIC SYSTEMS

A TREVENA

Copyright 20 Angeline Trevena

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be copied or transmitted in any form, electronic or otherwise, without express written consent of the publisher or author.

Cover art by P&V Digital

AUTHOR GUIDES SERIES

DAYS OF WORLDBUILDING

An Authors Step-by-Step Guide to Building Fictional Worlds

H OW TO DESTROY THE WORLD

An Authors Guide to Writing Dystopia and Post-Apocalypse

F ROM SANCTITY TO SORCERY

An Authors Guide to Building Belief Structures and Magic Systems

HOW TO CREATE HISTORY

A n A uthors G uide to C reating H istory , M yths , and M onsters

angelinetrevena.co.uk/worldbuilding

INTRODUCTION

I am one of those authors who have been writing, pretty much, since they were old enough to hold a pen. I have a folder of old stories, typed up on an old typewriter, that I dont even remember having written.

I was rarely seen without a book in my hand, and spent every spare hour I had, buried deep in fantastical worlds. I was lucky in that my parents encouraged it. They never told me that I was wasting my time, or to keep my head out of the clouds. They even let me read at the dinner table, eating one-handed.

I was also lucky to have access to a local library, and quickly worked my way through the fantasy catalogue in their childrens section. I swept my way through all of the Choose Your Own Adventure books; not only following the adventures of kidspassing into a fantasy world to fight dragons, mounted on their bicycle steedsbut I got to control the stories. I could re-read them over and over, choosing different paths each time, creating a multitude of adventures for myself.

My love of speculative fiction had started young. It was my dads job to read the bedtime stories each night, all of us huddled together to listen. He often picked books from his own collection which, almost exclusively, consisted of classic sci-fi novels. And so, as a child, my bedtime stories were written by the likes of H.G. Wells and John Wyndham. Looking back, I suspect that The War of the Worlds and The Day of the Triffids were probably inappropriate choices for children about to go to sleep, but it must have caught my imagination. I will forever thank my dad for introducing me to such tales.

At the age of 16 I finally picked up the Chronicles of Narnia books, reading all seven of them in just five days. It was then that my Narnia obsession began, and it has never waned.

Before starting at university, I worked in an antique auction house. Every wardrobe that came through the saleroom, I would check in the back of it for Narnia. It reached the point that the staff would come and inform me each time they took receipt of one!

When they announced the latest film adaptations, I scoured the internet daily for news. I saw each of them on their day of release, going to the cinema alone for an uninterrupted experience. A pure absorption of them. I can still name the four actors who portrayed the Pevensie children, their names branded into my memory. Yes, the woman who cant even remember her own phone number!

One of my most treasured possessions is an old wardrobe. I bought it from a second-hand furniture shop for just 20. It has moved house with us several times, and has practically fallen apart, with my husband tasked with fixing it back together. Carved into its door is a beautiful rendering of a ship, in full sail, riding the sea. And the serpentine hinges on it are like sea monsters. It is beautiful, and largely useless. It isnt deep enough to hold a standard coat hanger on its rail, and the mirror on the back of the door is so mottled and degraded it hardly reflects anything at all. In fact, it has rarely ever been used as an actual wardrobe, and currently holds my increasingly out of control to-be-read pile.

But, because it looks like it may have once stood in the captains quarters on board the Dawntreader, I will never part with it.

And, over the years, I have collected other bits and pieces that remind me of Narnia. Including film props, and a good collection of behind-the-scenes and the-making-of books. My obsession is complete, and incurable. All that is left is to find a way to Narnia myself. Im still looking, and I wont give up.

As for my interest in religion, well, I wasnt brought up in a religious family; rather, by parents who routinely wrote Church of England on forms simply because it was the done thing. But my best friend was a Christian, and attended the local Methodist church every Sunday. When I was around 8 years old, I asked my parents if I could go with her. And so, I became a regular churchgoer, along with my sister.

I cant claim to have ever been particularly devout, and I was far more interested in the social side of the church rather than the spiritual side of it. I made lots of solid friends through the church, and I met boys. We went to local events, national events, and it was a really fun part of my childhood.

But, still, I couldnt make myself interested in the religious side of things.

I was a typical teenage misfit; completely obsessed with the X-Files, huge crush on David Duchovny, and just beginning to discover punk music. I read extensively about conspiracy theories, paranormal events, myths and legends. I believed in ghosts, and fairies, and dragons. None of that quite suited the church. I was a jigsaw piece that didnt quite fit. In fact, at times, I was completely at odds with it.

That sense of displacement was exacerbated when I studied for my Sociology A-Level, and I was introduced to Marxism. The teachings of Karl Marx seemed to explain and corroborate the hypocrisy and double-standards Id witnessed within the church community. Teaching forgiveness and acceptance with one breath, and casting judgements and prejudice in the next. Paradoxically, it pushed me further away from organised religion, while increasing my fascination with it from a sociological point of view.

I became more interested in the occult, watched The Craft back to back, and started to look enthusiastically at Paganism and Wicca. I cant imagine that shift surprised anyone. By my late teenage years and early twenties, I had drifted away from the church altogether, instead joining spiritualism and psychic development groups.

Ive not been able to settle into a religion, preferring to take bits and pieces from here and there as the mood takes me. Ive had people describe me as non-religious, which is true, but they often understand that to mean that I dont believe in anything, which is completely untrue. I definitely believe in something. In fact, lots of things. Probably too much. Its all a bit of a confusing mess, to be frank.

All I know is that I cannot accept that this one life is all we have. I cant quite believe that all existence came about by a random reaction between two random atoms, or whatever. I believe in some higher power, whether they are listening, intervening, puppeteering, or have forgotten about us altogether, I dont know. I believe in the things Ive seen, and the things Ive experienced, yet I remain sceptical of it all.

Im a questioner. Or, perhaps more aptly, a questioneer. Yes, I like that. That sums things up nicely.

In the meantime, I will continue to be as drawn to the awe-inspiring majesty of cathedrals as I am to the thrumming power of stone circles.