Editing Mage: The Ascension (section)

===Wizzads 'n Shit===
So, once you have all that bullshit figured out, how do you start casting spells? Magic in Mage is different from other systems in that you aren't assigned pre-created spells that you can cast - but rather a mix of "rotes" (tried and true magical effects that are a bit easier to cast) and "spontaneous magic" (whatever you BS in the moment). You use "spheres" (designated segments of reality that your mage has studied) as your guideline of what you can and can't do. Spheres provide rough outlines of the areas they govern, and how many dots are required to do certain things within them. Spheres are discussed in depth below, but a rough approximation would be this: Sister Agatha, our Nun, is focused in the Life sphere, granting her power over bodies, biology and anything alive. Agatha has two Dots in the Life sphere, so she has the ability to sense all the various aspects of life - age, sex, health, race, species - anything related to its biology and anatomy. Since she has two Dots, she can also gently encourage the plants in her garden to grow strong and healthy, and heal herself when she gets hurt. But, Agatha can't heal other people quite yet - as this requires three Dots in the sphere. 
[[File:32155541.png|200px|thumb|left|A realistic possibility in a game of Mage.]]
Actually using magic in the moment is a game of artful bullshit. Mage is a game about bending rules - be they the rules of reality, or even of the game system. Much of the nit-and-grit is left nebulous, so that it can be taken advantage of by creative players. A player needs to figure out what they want to do, what spheres they intend to do it with, and how they're going to get away with it without getting their teeth kicked in by Paradox. Not every act of magic will cause paradox, especially if a player is creative and can soothe the ego of their overeager [[GM]]. Multiple different effects can be accomplished by using different combinations of Spheres - it ultimately boils down to how creatively a player has their mage perform it (and how creatively the player rationalizes the magic to the GM). If we use Sister Agatha as an example again, she's going up in the world with three whole dots in the Life Sphere, now! So, she's started healing the sick and lame. When she wants to heal someone, she goes through the same ritual: she applies a handmade poultice of monkshood and chamomile to the damage area, "to ease the pain", and sings a hymn while ritualistically applying bandages or a splint - and just like that, the person feels better already. Blood might be staunched, pain from a sprained limb eased, a fever might ebb. But, something like a broken bone might just heal faster (since that's much easier to believe than it just healing immediately).