(Nicheve, Queen of the Underworld)
Ideas: An allegory of death in all its implications, this Imago is
positively associated with transformation and liberation, resurrection and
rebirth, domination and strength, evolution and necessity. Negatively, and
more commonly, the Imago of Death is associated with decomposition,
destruction, and the inevitable end of all determinate and specific things.
It is emblematic of the Earth (from which all things came, and to which all
things return), the Underworld, and Queen Nicheve, who rules them both.
Powers: death-magic, transformation, disintegration
Visual Description: A female figure in white, veiled and crowned, standing
stiffly on a earthen field of body parts which seem possessed of life,
against a dark background.
The Year-Cycle
(Temperance)
Ideas: Symbolic of the yearly cycle of the sun and seasonal change, this
Imago is representative of time in its positive aspects. The Year-Cycle is
associated with fertility, both male and female generative powers,
regeneration, purification, and the natural, worldly cycle of life, death and
rebirth.
Powers: storm, thunder, rain, motion, change, transformation, fertility
ritual, cleansing and renewal rituals
Visual Description: A winged, androgynous being in a red tunic and cloak
with a green-blue lining, pouring water out of a silver vessel into a golden
one.
The Sphinx
(The Dragon; The Devil)
Ideas: The Imago of the Sphinx is symbolic of magic in its darker, chthonic,
and more mysterious aspects; it is associated with nightmares, mastery of the
elements, desire and perversion, the unfettered instincts, commerce,
eloquence, regression and stagnation, the earth and the spirits of the
underworld. The Sphinx is viewed by most with suspicion at best, and at worst
fear and loathing, despite associations which might reasonably be considered
mixed.
Powers: dark magics, influence, hex-magics, curse magic
Visual Description: A chimeric figure, with the head and upper body of a
beautiful woman, the wings of either a bat or a dove (depending on the
culture), the forequarters of a lion, the rearquarters of a bird, and the
tail of a serpent, against the background of a magic circle.
The Riven Tower
Ideas: Symbolic of disaster and weakness, the Riven Tower competes with
Death and the Sphinx for the status of most-feared Imago. Associated with
sudden subversion, disease, the plague, horror, confusion and disorder, this
Imago exemplifies the dangers and results of overconfidence, the sin of
pride, megalomania and small-mindedness.
Powers: confusion & bafflement, insanity, fire, plague, hex-magics, curse
magic, defeat rituals
Visual Description: A tall tower bursting into flames as its top is struck
by lightning; tumbling from it towards the ground are a crowned man in kingly
robes and a man holding schematic drawings of the tower (or some other symbol
to reveal him as the tower’s architect).
The Stars
(The Heavens; Yhera’s Milk; The Realm of Dreams)
Ideas: This Imago is an allegory for the intercommunication of the various
worlds, and in particular the influence of the celestial, heavenly realms
upon the material world. Associated with the spirit, guidance, movement, the
night sky in its positive aspects (as opposed to darkness), inspiration and
dream-illumination, the Imago of the Stars is representative of the pursuit
and achievement of immortality (in any or all of its forms) and the gift of
celestial power to material elements.
Powers: guidance, movement, soul-flight, dream-flight, dream divination,
(divine) enchantment
Visual Description: One bright star and seven lesser ones hover above a
naked girl who kneels besides a pool. From a golden amphora in her right
hand, she pours a luminescent liquid into the still water of the pool; from a
silver amphora in her left hand, she pours a clear liquid onto dry earth,
from which springs a sprig of acacia (or mistletoe) and a rose in full bloom.
The Moon
Ideas: Representative of both a celestial body and celestial persona, this
Imago symbolizes the Moon and its rulership of material forms and the
changing world of visible appearances. Associated positively with water, the
seas, intuition, imagination, symbolism, inspiration, and the revelation of
the changing nature of all things, the Moon is also associated more
negatively with illusions, error, rampant subjectivity, and overimaginative
fantasy. The Moon is considered the gateway to the celestial world.
Powers: illusions/glamours, form/shape changing, divination, material
manipulations
Visual Description: A silvered disc, bearing within it the outlines of a
woman’s face, from which is emitted a halo of long golden rays and shorter
reddish ones. A path appears to lead upwards towards the disk, but is
guarded in the near by two watchdogs/wolves, which howl at the Moon, and in
the distance by two square, gold-edged towers. Water droplets which almost
appear to be tears hang in the air between the Moon and the ground below.
The Sun
Ideas: Symbolic of the summit of existence and the fires of both Heaven and
inspiration, this Imago is associated with the concepts of revelation,
illumination, glory, spirituality, reason, objectivity and constancy. Though
generally perceived as standing for the positive aspects of both fire and
light, the Sun is also associated with vanity, unrealistic idealism, and
willful blindness.
Powers: fire magics, light magics, inspiration, dispelling illusions
Visual Description: A disc which bears the full-face visage of a noble
youth, from which radiates a halo of straight golden rays and flamelike red
rays. Golden droplets fall from it on a young couple on a green field before
a wall.
Fecundity
(The Judgement)
Ideas: This Imago is an allegory of the generative powers of the Earth; it
is associated with vegetation, growth, fecundity (as opposed to fertility),
regeneration, and the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Negatively, this
Imago is associated with irrationality and the loss of humanity in rapturous
ecstasy.
Powers: cleansing and purification rituals, growth, fertility, healing,
regeneration
Visual Description: A winged androgynous figure with a sun-symbol on its
forehead and with silver hair, sounding a trumpet before a rising miniature
tree which possesses both a golden branch and a silver one.
The World
(The World Tree)
Ideas: This Imago is often considered the culmination of the Imagos that
have come before it, producing and describing in their interactions the sum
total of the manifest world; it is the Imago of the macrocosm, the cosmic
whole. Associated with the Elements, the body as the vehicle of transitory
life, the senses as the means of receiving and interpreting that life, and
the manifest realities of all the known worlds.
Powers: mastery & comprehension of the Elements, the senses and the body
Visual Description: A young girl with two sticks runs around the base of a
huge and ancient tree which possesses both a golden branch and a silver one.
The girl and the tree are surrounded by four abstract symbols of the
Elements, or by a lion, an eagle, an ox, and a winged man (as allegorical
symbols of the Elements).
The Fool
Ideas: One of the most difficult Imagos to explain or approach, the Fool is paradoxically a symbolic representation of something which is technically outside of all symbolic systems; it is the Imago of the irrational, the instinctual, the unconscious. Often taken as a symbol of the microcosm, a companion to the Imago of the World in its role as symbol of the macrocosm, the Fool is symbolic of being outside: outside of or on the fringe of systems, orders, and even oneself. It is representative of multiplicity, incoherence, schizophrenia, and paradox. As an Imago associated with ekstasis, the Fool is sometimes considered a companion, if a distant and peripheral one, to the Imagos of the Minstrel, the Hanged Man, and the Stars. Powers: unknown, though associated with ekstasis in all its forms Visual Description: A man in many-colored, even patchwork, costume walking away from an overturned obelisk and about to step off a cliff. He carries a staff with a bag hanging from one end (slung over his shoulder in hobo tradition), and wears a small purple tulip pinned to his clothes and a golden belt with twelve plaques. He is being bitten on the left calf by a white lynx, but gazes up and to his right, unperturbed at either the lynx behind him or the cliff before him.
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #242
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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