This tome was, according to it's introduction, written by a Kelpian mystic as a gift to the so-called drylander mages. Within the pages of this tome, one can gain a working overview of the mystical beliefs and practices of one of the Kelpian Magick Schools, known typically as a Praxis and named for the founding mystic. Thus, this tome imparts the knowledge and practices of the Praxis founded by the mystic Mawqui.
Mawqui's Praxis focuses more on artifice than on any other aspect of magick, though they do not ignore or set aside other paths. In fact, Mawqui's Praxis, and indeed many Kelpian Schools, actively encourage their students to explore other paths, and should one call to a seeker more than their original School, then they are encouraged to walk that path instead.
It bears mentioning as well that there are some good indications that this tome was written specifically to entice Damian Maist to study artifice with Mawqui's Praxis, something he reportedly did, going so far as to be recognized as a mystic within that school.
In which you are introduced to the basics of our spellcasting tradition
Can you contain the tides?
Can you shift the currents?
Can you redirect the winds?
Then why do you seek to restrain magick?
-Tanahqui, First Mystic of Mawqui’s Praxis
The seeker must first understand this truth: you are. Where some question the nature of self and reality, our understanding of both and our place within them, the seeker of magicks must know that they are, that reality is, and that it is the intersection of both where the arcane is found and wonders are possible.
There are many who embrace the self yet ignore reality. This current leads to the dark depths of the selfish who allow their perceived power to corrupt them. There are also some who cleave only to reality and deny the self. While the student will see in further lessons that some degree of selflessness is called upon, those who most often deny the self tend to swim in the wells of faith, where mystic wonders may occur, but a deep study of their nature does not. The student of Mawqui must find a balance where these two currents meet.
Once the seeker has embraced their existence, then they must learn their strengths. In the same way that the world is made of the five elements, yet each has their own domain, so too are we all made of the five elements, yet we feel an affinity or call to one over the others. Consider yourself. Look within and find what pulls the currents of magick within you. Students are sent on Commune to the shores of the drywalker’s world and told to meditate with the five elements there where the earth, sea, and sky meet.
Mawqui tells a story in his epistle Dialogue with the Abyssal Clam of a seeker who felt an unusually strong affinity to fire. As you may imagine, this was a difficult affinity to explore for one of us. Yet Mawqui says that this seeker worked and worked to improve their abilities with water and air until they could safely descend to the volcanic vents in the depths below, and there the seeker learned of fire and worked wonders.
In this lesson, Mawqui tells us that our affinities do not define us, constrain us, or limit us. Simply because one may feel the pull to air, this does not mean that earth workings are beyond them. In this, the final lesson of you is placed before the seeker: understand that the only thing that limits you, is yourself. Allow nothing to stand between you and that which you seek, says Tanahqui, for the seeker must remain true to themselves.
Once the lessons of self have been internalized, the seeker then must learn to cooperate with fellow seekers. Pursuit of the arcane is, almost axiomatically, both an individual and communal pursuit. Some things can only be learned, or understood, or accomplished in conjunction with others.
This seems to be, on first glance, an idea at odds with the first lesson. Overcoming this paradox is the first task of the seeker. How can you be focused on the self and focus on another? In this, we turn to an ancient sage, Minosis of the Thunder Rift. Minosis stated that this paradox is, in fact, the entire point: The student of the mystic must build in themselves a tension between the self and the other. The self is the driving force, the ambition, the desire. The other is the second sight, the voice from beyond the waves, the fount of new wisdom and the check on incipient power. Only through tension between them can the student develop.
Under Tanahqui, Mawqui’s Praxis paired seekers together to encourage this tension to grow. We have heard it said that drywalkers will embrace a master and apprentice relationship to a similar effect. While we applaud this parallel development, in our structuring, the seekers are given more leeway to chart their own course through the sea. The pairing of seekers also allows for more direct accountability in their work and learning. The mystics over them need not, then, be tied into the role of mentor, instructor, assessor, guide, and councilor. This allows the mystics to continue their own journeys.
Eventually, as the seeker pair learns and grows, they will be sent out together. Unlike the Commune, this Sojourn requires that the pair visit five locations of arcane importance and spend at least a year with the mystics in each place learning from acknowledged masters in each of the five elements. These sites are: the Belanoque Caves, the Gods Forge, the Deepest Sea, the Forgotten Forest, and the Necropolis Abyss.
While on their Sojourn, seekers are encouraged to visit other mystics and seek out other ways of knowing and learning. Mawqui’s Praxis is far from the only place of arcane learning and it has long been accepted that some seekers will resonate with a different mystic or a different praxis. This is good and valuable as not all teachings are as focused on artifice as Mawqui’s Praxis. Some focus on the academic or theoretical side, some on active spellcasting, and some have approached artifice from completely different directions.
The seeker pairs are encouraged to visit and question and study with these other mystic schools. Should a seeker find a greater resonance with one of them, they are welcome to adopt that praxis. There is no benefit in forcing someone into a mold that they do not fit. This, then, is the final assessment of the second lesson: do you belong with us, or is your place elsewhere?
What good is any of this knowledge and power if it is not used to aid us all? This was the question that led to the great schism centuries ago. Some of the ancient arcane orders believed that power and knowledge were goals unto themselves. Some believed that there was no implicit burden on a mystic to utilize their knowledge for the betterment of all. And some believed that it was the explicit purpose of such knowledge and power to guide and aid all of us who dwell in the oceans. The great schism was, blessedly, a nonviolent one. There were, the chief mystics and sages agreed, more than one ocean, more than one sea within them, and plenty of room for us to spread out and pursue our visions on our own.
Over the centuries, many of these schools of thought have been carried away with the tides of time. Mawqui’s Praxis is one of a dozen who hold that it is the duty of the wise to aid the whole. We know that at least one academy is devoted to an internalization of knowledge, or knowledge for its own sake. We also know of one wide spread teaching that uses their power to dominate those in their seas.
Yet our praxis is still spreading. We have embraced the lesson of all and seek to use our knowledge and power for the good of all who dwell in the seas. This lesson is a historical one that focuses on the past and on the damage that power such as ours can cause. We must not allow the Silt Storm to happen ever again. This is the third lesson: magick is a tool for all and must be wielded without malice.
Magick, as we have seen, is an inherent component of our world. How we elect to interact with it becomes one of the anchors of any school or praxis. Mawqui taught us to view magick as an unseen current and drew this metaphor:
When we approach a known current, we have two options. We either swim with the current, or we swim against it. Now, some might say “Mystic Mawqui, why would anyone swim against a current? You would expend much energy going nowhere at all.” Such a question is not wrong, yet it ignores the intention of the swimmer. If a swimmer is seeking to travel far in a short time, then swimming against the current would be foolish indeed. If, however, the swimmer is seeking not to travel, but to strengthen themselves, then swimming against the current would do so!
So it is with magick. When faced with the current that is the arcane, the seeker must consider their goals before deciding how to approach it. A seeker may swim against the current of magick, to attempt to constrain and control it, and in so doing, they will either find themselves swept away with no idea how to escape or navigate. Or they will find themselves growing stronger. In contrast, they may elect to enter the current and swim with it. In doing so, they will find themselves moving faster with plenty of energy to spare. Yes, the unaware seeker may find themselves thrown against a reef or swept into an abyss, yet with guidance and caution, one may learn to navigate the current.
Thus, how one approaches the great mystery has more to do with the seeker’s view of magick and their goals in the learning. Should strength be their goal, then they will swim against the current, despite the clear invitation to, instead, travel where the current will take you. Should exploring the depths of the arcane be their goal, then they will swim with the current, despite the looming unknown that all such seekers face.
The seeker must note that Mawqui never suggested that either path is without danger. Nor did the Mystic denounce one path in favor of the other. Mawqui himself spent many years studying with our brethren in the Western Oceans who firmly believe that it is the duty of all seekers to master the magickal energies and that to swim with the current is to be swept away and lost within the myriad mysteries. Instead, Mawqui insisted that both paths held value and he frequently encouraged his students to embrace both choices in moderation.
When Mawqui passed into the deep and Tanahqui became the First Mystic, this lesson was expanded. Tanahqui stated that every student should labor against the current one tide out of every eight spent awake. In this way, he said, the seeker will become stronger, yet they will still have the time and energy to explore the mysteries of magick.
This becomes the lesson of flow. The seeker must decide how they want to approach the study of the arcane and then commit themselves to that path. Should their flow carry them to a different philosophy or praxis, then so be it. They will go with our blessing and with our best wishes for their success.
Remember above all that the seeker is the only one who can chart their own course. The great mystery holds many avenues of exploration and there are countless points where one may approach its current. Thus the lesson of flow has less to do with magick, and more to do with how the seeker themself embraces the arcane flow.
When one dives into the great mystery of the arcane, one of the first things most seekers realize is that magick exists all around them. Not simply in an emotional, awe-inspiring way, but in a very real sense. Magick flows within our entire world and everything real holds a connection to this energy.
The earliest practitioners believed, not incorrectly, that living things had a stronger connection to this mystical energy than non-living things. By their measure, a stone would have very little connection, while a tree would have more of a connection, and a living person would have the strongest connection short of an actual deity.
Over time, our perception has shifted. Magick, in its core essence, is not generated by living things or by the world we live in. Magick simply exists. Yes, we can observe nature flourishing in the presence of magick, such as a forest growing around a nexus of ley lines in the drywalker’s realm would grow denser and larger than a similar forest would otherwise. However, it has also been observed that in places of death and suffering, if they are also on a nexus, the land around them is slowly corrupted. Plants struggle to live and resources become scarce.
It would, therefore, be more correct to say that nature is as affected by magick as anything else could be. We need look no further than the Silt Storm in the southern sea, a wound in nature caused by magick being deployed in hostile and murderous ways. The storm has been churning for centuries around the ruins of Capundo with no sign of stopping and despite the best efforts of many Mystics who sought to heal that entire region.
When a seeker has understood this simple lesson, they are ready for the deeper dive into how a mystic may utilize nature and natural materials in their spellcraft and workings.
It is most critical to understand this first: one may carve all the runes they like into a stick, but without intention it will never be a wand. The grand secret of the natural world is that things do not want to change, yet everything inevitably changes in their attempts to outrun death. Even a limb from a mystical tree would fail to function as a staff without the proper intention being pushed on to it during the making.
So then, what is the lesson? The seeker must never forget that while magick flows all around us, it requires a will to produce an effect. Without intention to direct it, the arcane energy would simply continue to flow through the world.
All of this to say: a seeker of Mawqui’s Praxis will encounter this test early in their studies. A student is told to go up to the drywalker’s realm, enter one of their forests, and find a stick or limb from a tree. They are told which forest to go to and which tree to seek out. It is, in fact, growing directly on a ley line. The seeker will bring this stick back and be given the designs for a wand, stave, or other focus, designs that are found deeper in this tome.
They will be given two weeks to prepare the very best work they can produce. This focus must be personal to them and it must be capable of casting a medium complexity spell without destroying itself. Those students who succeed are declared ready for their Sojourn, those who do not succeed are given more instruction.
Please refer to the chapter on materials for a greater exploration of how these various materials can best be used, but understand that at the end of the tide, your will and intention are more important elements than the material itself. When the seeker understands this, then they are ready to explore the lessons of artifice.
Before a blade ever touches wood, the seeker must first understand this truth: power does not flow from an object, it flows from the mage.
Any act of artifice is an effort to create a focus, a tool designed to aid a mage in their spell crafting. In time, a practiced, skilled mage will find that they are able to achieve the same results with any focus. In even more time, the mage should be able to replace their physical focus with a mental one.
Does this mean that every seeker must hold the intention to move beyond a physical focus? No, for Mawqui understood that every seeker is unique. Some may never set physical foci aside and some may never need to pick one up in the first place. Both are completely acceptable so long as the seeker is not hindered by the choice.
With this understanding, a student may begin their exploration of making. For most seekers, this begins with either a stave or a wand of some sort, though there is nothing to say that one could not begin with an amulet or some other mystical tool.
As Mawqui taught:
The shape and form of the object is less important than the representation of the object. A stave is frequently used by drywalkers due to its size and utility. A stave, or walking stick, is directly viewed as an instrument to support an individual in their labors. This translates into the mystic arts quite directly as a focus. A wand is designed to conduct and direct arcane forces, and thus its typical shape as little more than a pointed stick, regardless of how elaborate it may be designed, a wand achieves this goal through the simple expedient of “point at where the spell should go.”
As will be seen in the chapters on the various foci, these all serve as stand-ins. It is relatively simple to bespell a chunk of crystal to glow when commanded, yet for a practiced seeker, it takes hardly any extra effort to command a wild and un-spelled crystal to do the same. Understanding the reasoning behind the creation and utilization of these tools is the largest hurdle in this lesson.
The final lesson is one that is not meant to ever be concluded. At its core, the lesson of will seems to be a simple one: the seeker must understand that all arcane wonders, all acts of magick in any form, are an outward expression of the mage enforcing their will upon reality. Yet, the reality of this lesson is a blue hole without a seafloor.
This particular text will not concern itself overly much with this lesson. As the last lesson of Mawqui’s Praxis, is it understood that every seeker will explore this lesson and forge their own path deeper into the mysteries of our practice. Mawqui himself, in his final days, said that the exploration of will and its effects upon reality were the true uncharted territory of arcane knowledge:
I beheld the coming days, beloved Tanahqui. Soon, I shall pass from these seas and you shall commit my body to the abyss. Yet do not mourn for me, for I shall be embarking on an exploration of pure will. I have exerted my will upon reality and now, I shall find myself woven into the very same fabric of reality. There is no need for the seventh lesson to conclude upon the passing of this mortal shell.
We seekers already stand with one foot in the ethereal world. Death is simply stepping fully into it and leaving all but your will behind. Though my mortal time is done, the will of Mawqui shall continue and when it is time for you to be committed to the abyss as well, you will find me waiting for you.
Understand this final lesson, beloved Tanahqui: the seventh lesson removes the prior six, for to be immersed in pure will is to find that even concepts of the self are irrelevant when compared to the infinite. Perhaps, beloved Tanahqui, we shall find out how one may awaken.
Much ink has been spilt by seekers attempting to make sense of this final line. An interested student may refer to the text “The Awakening of the Sleeper” by Lepqui which has been included at the end of this tome. One may take comfort in knowing that even in death, there are further mysteries to be explored.
Take heart, noble seeker! Your journey into the wonders of artifice are soon to begin. Take with you this final benediction: May the seeker’s will be as strong as the bronze coral, and their mind as sharp as the tooth of a needle shark. May their workings inspire wonder and their art inspire awe. May they cling to their curiosity and rest in the eternal currents of knowledge.