Steampunk Magic: Working Magic Aboard the Airship

Gypsey Elaine Teague on ‘Steampunk Magic: Working Magic Aboard the Airship’

What exactly is Steampunk and the culture that carousels around it? I know sort of what it is visually but I’m still trying to understand it really.

Steampunk is Victorian ‘what if’? What if there was never electricity other than static and direct? What if there was never a gas engine or an airplane or nuclear power? What if everything ran on steam and we progressed from there with airships and robots and computers, etc.? Steampunk takes out the worst of the age, the early deaths, the squalor, the drab and crime, and we emphasize the brass and the garb and the guns and the corsets, hats, and goggles.

How would we go about crafting our own magical toolkit and the contents therein?

Most tools are common to anyone or any system or path. We use a compass, a key, different knives, and different elemental items. The only thing that is really different is the directional gear and you can make one out of cardboard or posterboard if you can’t fashion one out of wood or metal. The book explains how to make goggles, the wands, and the key with step-by-step photos and directions. The book also shows the directional gear, at least the one from our airship, being forged. It’s as inexpensive to outfit an airship for magic as it is to outfit any other circle.

Could you tell us about an Absinthe ritual? That sounds like fun. I never had Absinthe and have always wanted to try it. Its been mostly due to lack of coin.

Absinthe isn’t expensive. You can get a fifth of Absinthe for about $17, which is far cheaper than good wine or good Rum/Whiskey. True, it’s nice to have an Absinthe fountain and an Absinthe spoon and an Absinthe glass but we’re not all rich… I know I’m not. You can make simple syrup and keep it in the fridge instead of dropping melting ice cubes on sugar cubes until you get enough cold water to dilute the Absinthe. We use pastry serving spoons for our Absinthe spoons since period spoons are now way too expensive. We were at an Absinthe bar in Ormond Beach, FL over Yule and the bar alone was 2K. The equipment for the ritual was all original and antique and was another 1-2K. Heck the lamp at our table was a Tiffany Absinthe lamp and was 25K. And yes, the K is thousands.

What are the origins of Steampunk exactly historically speaking? Where did it originate?

Jeter coined the term in 1979/1980 when he wrote his first Steampunk novel. He and Morcock were in a bar out west and the name stuck. Some say it’s Goth with Earth Tones but that’s too simplistic. The roots of Steampunk would take three books to explain.

To finish reading much more of this interview on Steampunk Magic and find out more about the author visit the following link.

http://www.examiner.com/article/gypsey-elaine-teague-on-steampunk-magic-working-magic-aboard-the-airship