Previously, I have discussed awful paradigms for magicians, and this is often a topic within my paradigm breakdown posts. So we have indicators of bad paradigms. What about good ones? Note, Rune explained all of these in his online Geekomancy Course. So I can hardly take credit. Most of what I am doing here is just putting these into my own words. 

Is this Paradigm Safe?

Does being a practitioner doom one to a life of suffering, or a horrible death? No? Does the act of magic actively hurt the practitioner? No? If magic, the practice magic, or occult knowledge don’t actively hurt the magician in any way, that’s a great sign. Check one. 

Examples of Unsafe Paradigms: 

• Lovecraft Mythos (Do you want cosmic horror-induced madness? Because that is how you get cosmic horror-induced madness.)
• The Laundry Files (Magic punches holes through your brain like prions. Hard pass.)
• Dragon Age (Your milage may vary. Nothing overtly awful happens to you, but the church will persecute you. Then again, if the church is already in your business no reason to fear it?)
• The Mistborn Series (The powers are cool, but you have to consume metals to use them and I cannot stress enough that you should not be actively eating metal. Eating metals will actively hurt you.) 

Examples of Safe Paradigms: 

• The Slayers Anime
• Pathfinder Game
• Magic the Gathering
• Pokemon (Your Milage May Vary, depending on how seriously you take pokedex entries.) 

Does this Paradigm Benefit You as a Practitioner?

This is just another way of asking if you get anything out of this paradigm. How flexible is this magic? One major criticism of a Magical Girl Lyrical Nano or Madoka paradigm is that you don’t get a lot of benefit outside of combat. This might be great inspiration for astral combat. But, how much is this going to help you in your daily life? Flashy fireballs are all well and good. Unfortunately, they are just one tool and it’s good to have as many tools as possible to throw at the problems in your life. This question is broader than ‘does this make you feel powerful?’ 

Although these days I don’t look at the Harry Potter Paradigm, considering how awful Rowling is, it can be considered a rather robust and flexible paradigm. Many tabletop game paradigms have a variety of spells, potions, and artifacts that are flexible enough to meet this requirement. 

Does this Paradigm Spark Joy? 

All Marie Kondo jokes aside, magic responds to emotions. The more love you have for a paradigm, the more you will get out of it. If you feel just ‘meh’ about a paradigm or a setting, it may not be the one for you. And it’s going to do you absolutely no good to pick a paradigm that you actively dislike. 

Further Notes

There are a few very curious assumptions people tend to make that are absolutely untrue. First, you don’t have to stick to just one paradigm. You can also take aspects of multiple paradigms to integrate into your overall practice. No one is the expert on your own practice but you.

That said, the human brain can only concentrate on so much at once. So it is probably a good idea to only actively work on developing one new paradigm at a time. Fucking around and finding out has always been at the core of magic. All of our actions have consequence as well, so play stupid games at your own risk.