RED MAGIC

As soon as humanity developed the organisation and weapons
technology to defeat its main natural predators and competitors it
seems to have applied a fierce selection mechanism to itself in the
form of internecine warfare. Many of the qualities we regard as
marks of our evolutionary success, such as our opposable thumbs and
tool handling abilities, our capacity for communication by sound,
our upright posture, and our capacity to give and receive commands
and discipline, were almost certainly selected for during millennia
of organized armed conflict between human bands. Our morality
reflects our bloody history, for whilst it is taboo to attack
members of one's own tribe, it remains one's duty to attack
foreigners. The only debate is over who constitutes one's own tribe.
When enthusiasm for war is limited, we devise sports and games in
which to express our aggression. From the whole ethos and
terminology of sport it is plain that sport is just war with extra
rules.

However, it should not be supposed that war is completely without
rules. Wars are fought to improve one's bargaining position; in war
the enemy group is a resource that one wishes to gain some measure
of control over. Wars are fought to intimidate one's adversaries,
not to exterminate them. Genocide is not war.

The structure and conduct of war reflects the "fight or flight"
program built into our sympathetic nervous system. In battle, the
aim is to intimidate the enemy out of the fight mode and into flight
mode. Thus, assuming there is sufficient parity of force to make a
fight seem worthwhile to both parties, morale is the decisive factor
in conflict. Indeed, it is the decisive factor in virtually any
inter-human competitive, sporting or military encounter.

Red magic has two aspects, firstly the invocation of the vitality,
aggression, and morale to sustain oneself in any conflict from life
in general to outright war, and secondly the conduct of actual
combat magic. A variety of god forms exist in which the War-self can
be expressed, although hybrid or purely idiosyncratic forms work
just as well. Ares, Ishtar, Ogoun, Thor, Mars, Mithras and Horus in
particular are often used. Contemporary symbolism should not be
neglected. Firearms and explosives are as welcoming to the red
gnosis as swords and spears. Drums are virtually indispensable.
Sigils drawn in flammable liquids, or indeed whole flaming circles
in which to invoke should be considered.

Combat magic is usually practised openly with the adversary being
publicly threatened and cursed, or finding himself the recipient of
an unpleasant looking talisman, spell or rune. The aim is
intimidation and control of one's adversary who must therefore be
made as paranoid as possible and informed of the origin of the
attack. Otherwise combat magic takes the same general form as that
used in Entropy Rites, with sigils and servitors carrying
auto-destructive information to the target, although with sub-lethal
intent.

However, the real skill of red magic is to be able to present such
an overwhelming glamour of personal vitality, morale and potential
for aggression that the exercise of combat magic is never required.