Happy pi (π) day!
Those of you who’ve watched one of our recent virtual events know that I’ve been making astrological charts based on one of the magic systems and the in-world calendar of The Mask of Mirrors. Because that system (numinatria) is so intrinsically tied to mathematics and sacred geometry, it seemed fitting to do a chart for pi day.
Numinatria is an esoteric magic system of numerology and sacred geometry. The numbers 0 through 10 and their corresponding shapes have magical associations and divine power through the Seterin godhead, the Lumen.
Numinatrian astrology is based on the Seterin calendar, which divides the 365 day year into ten months of 36 days each, and five intercalary days around the summer solstice (the Seterin New Year). These intercalary days split the month of Colbrilun, representing the division of Illi as both 0 and 10 and the break in the cycle that is death, the return to the Lumen, and rebirth.
Two centuries ago, Kaius Rex conquered Nadežra and imposed the Seterin calendar, setting the year of his conquest as year 1. The date at the start of The Mask of Mirrors is 1 Suilun 210. However, astrologers use the original Seterin year to chart horoscopes. The year at the start of the book, according to the Seterin calendar, is 983.
Astrological charts, sometimes called trines, are composed of three parts: the Prime (based on the birth month and time of day), which represents the personality of the individual or state of the situation in question, the Alter (based on the birth date and placement in the month), which represents the life path or trajectory of the person or situation in question, and the Trisect (based on the birth year), which represents how the person or situation fits in the larger world context.
Charts can be made for a variety of reasons beyond birth dates, from planning an auspicious day to hold an event, to figuring out whether two or more people, families, or institutions are compatible.
Remnants of an old Vraszenian tradition similar to the “Monday’s Child” poem associates personality with the day of the week someone was born on. It has nothing to do with Seterin astrology, but many Nadežrans still put some faith in this system.
Here’s the reading for Pi Day:
Date
Gregorian Calendar: March 14, 2021
Nadežran Calendar: 30s/e Pavnilun 985 (212)
Calculations
Prime: Sebat influenced by Sessat
Alter: 3rd day of 4th iteration, Tricat (Quarat)
Trisect: Ninat, Noctat, Quinat
Moon Phases: Corillis Waxing Crescent, Paumillis Last Quarter Fading
Charting Notes: Quad 3 sunwise spiral, Sebat on earthwise side, Sessat on sunwise side; Quarat inside Tricat in quad 4; Ninat, Noctat, Quinat on outside.
Reading:
Ruled by Sebat – Perfection-in-Imperfection
Associations: Creativity, Transformation, Renewal
Metal: Prismatium
Gem: glass prism
Color: rainbow (light spectrum)
Animal: peacock
The individual
Sebat – Today is a day to create — do art, craft stuff, make food, channel whatever is in your heart and mind and put it out in the world. It might be imperfect, but you have to make it first before you can make it better. Embrace perfection-in-imperfection.
Sessat (influence) – Appreciate friendship, camaraderie, cooperation, and collaboration. We are each one among many, and we can only reach greatness when we’re lifted by others.
The path
Tricat: All paths have a beginning, a middle, and an end, even if we can’t see those when we’re on them. Home and family are found in the people we meet along the way.
Quarat (influence): The path leads to wealth and luck — both good and ill. It is best to share good fortune and let bad fortune pass quickly.
The world
Year – Quinat: The world is shattered and shaped by great events and great people, like a chisel sculpting stone.
Decade – Noctat: The world is a gift meant to be experienced and enjoyed; it is the birthright of every person. But we corrupt that right when we make others pay the price for the pleasure we take.
Century – Ninat: This is the final truth of the world: People die, regimes fall, empires crumble. From the ashes springs new life.
Interesting Takeaways
This is 3.14 Pi day!
Seven numena from Tricat to Ninat (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are represented with no repeats. Seven numena is the most that any chart can contain.
Sebat is the numen of perfection in imperfection because it is mathematically impossible to create a perfect heptagon. Pi is 22 (11 doubled) divided by 7.
Weekday: Ošidny (Anoshkin/owl) – astute observer, aloof cynic, “Ošidny kept his watch at night.”
It has been bonkers around here for the last two months or so, with a nigh-constant stream of interviews and promotional events. That’s slacking off at last, but there are two more coming up that I want to particularly draw attention to . . .
First, this Sunday, February 28th, we’re getting the band back together! Myself, Alyc, my husband, and two friends of ours from my grad school days (Emily Dare and fellow author Michael R. Underwood) are getting together for a Rook and Rose Blades in the Dark tabletop game. We all used to game together back in Bloomington — and in fact, the only reason I use the past tense there is that Mike doesn’t live out in the Bay Area with the rest of us, so he’s not in our current gaming group. But he’s offered to GM a one-shot game this Sunday, from 6 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Pacific until about three hours later, which will be streaming live on Twitch. (My first time doing this kind of thing for an audience, eek!) We’ll be playing members of the Oyster Crackers, an Upper Bank knot of thieves that appear briefly in The Liar’s Knot; I suspect we may run into the Rook. But I have no idea! It’s in Mike’s hands! This feels so weird and so awesome at the same time!
And second, on Wednesday, March 10th, Alyc and I will be doing an event with Tubby & Coo’s, a great independent bookstore in New Orleans. This is set up courtesy of fellow author Bryan Camp, a New Orleans local; we’ll have a reading and a conversation with him. That’s at 6 p.m Central, which is 7 p.m. Eastern and 4 p.m. Pacific.
. . . plus some more interviews, but those are more of a “record it and then it’ll go live later” kind of thing. Oof. Full court press in promoting The Mask of Mirrors has been fun, but it’s also tiring, y’all.
I posted about this on Twitter a little while ago, but for those who either don’t follow our joint account or missed it in the general flood of Twitter-ness (all too easy to do): we’ve added to this site a scene we cut from The Mask of Mirrors. It originally took place late in the book — Chapter 19 of 24 — so I don’t recommend clicking through if you haven’t read the novel yet, as it is very full of spoilers. But if you have read it, enjoy!
Now we begin to enact the ritual dance of the Author With a New Book Out — which is to say, our schedule is chock-full of Things we are doing for promotion. Right now you can find our Big Idea piece up at John Scalzi’s blog and our My Favorite Bit piece up at Mary Robinette Kowal’s, not to mention the various other interviews and podcasts we’ve been lining up for the last two months. But that’s not all — we’ve also got several events coming up in the near future!
And finally (for now, anyway), Marie will be participating in virtual Boskone, from February 12th-14th! Precise programming schedule TBA.
Go forth and tell everyone the book is out! We know the world is very full of other stuff going on right now, much of it bad and more important for the general state of the world than the publication of a fantasy novel . . . but also, live goes on at the same time, and so does work. Pandemics and white supremacists be damned — we want to enjoy this moment!
We have two exciting events coming up for next week’s publication of The Mask of Mirrors.
First, Mysterious Galaxy is hosting a virtual book launch on Tuesday, Jan. 19 at 7pm PT. It’s a joint event with Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, where we’ll chat about our books and writing and try not to dwell too much on the state of the world but instead focus on our hopes for the new year.
Then, on Thursday, Jan. 21 at 6pm PT, our publisher, Orbit Books, is hosting a livechat and Q&A with us and Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter, where we’ll… chat about our books and writing and try not to dwell… you get the idea!
It’s free to register for the events, so come join us for the launch of our new adventure!
