[UA] Postmodern Thaumaturgy

[Bailey Watts]

>You seem to skirt very close to the central concepts
>of Shamanism here.  The idea is that the Shaman is not
>the shaper of supernatural powers, but the
>intermediary.  Furthermore, shamen commonly have
>doubts in their own supernatural effectiveness, but
>will quickly assure skeptics that, even if they can't
>quite appease the Secret Masters or whatever Numina
>they traffic with, this one Shaman they heard about
>next door can really shake the pillars of heaven.

Actually the thaumaturge isn't an intermediary.  He simply finds something 
with some power and respect and shamelessly milks it for all that it's worth 
using lies about secret masters and ancient lores to make themselves look 
good.  He may not even have remotely similar technique (picture a 
thaumatugic pornomancer who gains charges by cranking out porn with 
subliminal thaumaturgic sigils, sorry don't have the URL handy) or even a 
similar philosophy, but he can sure fake it.

Thaumatuges are like the Disney of the occult world.

If anything the magical domain would be exploitation intertwined with 
whatever they were exploiting.

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