Seekings and Epiphanies

Seekings are always a subject with a lot of variance between Storytellers, so we want to be upfront about what we want to see with Seekings.

The game of Mage: the Ascension is not about firing cool looking laser guns, having tea with spirits, or about sticking it to the Technocracy. Mage: the Ascension is about reflection, enlightenment, and discovery, and a Seeking is a brief flash of that ultimate truth (rather than a training session where your Avatar shows you how Rank 4 Spheres work). With this in mind, there are a few things that we look for in a Seeking, and expect players to have answers to the below questions in mind before asking for a Seeking.

What new magickal understanding do you expect to reach?: A Seeking is a measure of achieving enlightenment, but achieving enlightenment means changing, enhancing, or expanding your world view. Your Paradigm note will change in some way with each Seeking. General ideas are better than specifics.
What 'truth' is demolished or created?: A Mage is a belief machine. They eat, breathe, and live their paradigm, which only works because, for the Mage, their Paradigm is Truth^tm. A Seeking will make some Truths suddenly not so truthy, or make completely new Truths for you to tangle with.
If you are surpassing Instruments for a Sphere, which ones?: Understanding of those Spheres should play into the Seeking itself.
What about your character will change?: All of the items above lead to this main question. How has your newly expanded horizon, which has changed what you believe (and with belief being so central to a Mage), how has that made who you are different? This can (but is not required to) make alterations to your sheet. For example:

Nature
- eg. The Stodgy Hermetic who realized that their emotional distance from people meant that they had few allies, and allies would be necessary to achieve their goals, so part of their Seeking led them to be much more outgoing and welcoming to people. Nature changed from Sage to Benefactor
Shifting Attributes
- eg. The Akashayana who used to practice for hours and hours, but the Seeking teaches them that practice doesn't truly prepare you for using your skills, and so he goes out into the world to learn through experience. Drop a dot in Stamina, gain a dot in Perception
Merits and Flaws
- The examples here are numerous, but with as transformative as Seekings are, there are a lot of possible options.
Resonance
- Resonances can shift wildly with a Seeking as well.

As with the above, there are a few notes and expectations that players should have:

Seekings at Arete 5 and above have the potential to be lethal.
Gaining the 4th dot in a Sphere requires an Epiphany. Epiphanies of this nature will be much more related to the Sphere itself, and are not quite so in-depth and transformative as a Seeking.

Wards (and Bans)

By default Correspondence 2 can set Wards that inhibit or enhance the actions of targets within the ward (difficulty modifiers, slowing the ability to cross a distance, etc) and Correspondence 4 can actually Bar (completely disallow) entry or exit. Because this does affect the relevant patterns it requires the Spheres at the appropriate level to cast the effect being added to the ward. SEP fields (Somebody Else's Problem) require Mind 2, for instance, and fire attacks require Forces 2 and an appropriate source of fire, or Forces 3, Prime 2.

Wards and their Triggers can be confusing because the concept of a 'Trigger' isn't really used elsewhere in Mage. Trigger spells need to be able to determine when the trigger conditions for the Ward/Ban happen. Your ward needs to understand what a Vampire is before it knows to Ward the space against them.

This always takes the relevant spheres at rank 2. Setting triggers does not involve transmuting, altering, or in any way affecting a pattern so the rank doesn't vary with the target. Instead it functions like sensory magic (although it requires Rank 2 of the Pattern Sphere). Setting triggers against iron is Matter 2, against cats is Life 2, and against Vampires is Life 2, Matter 2.

So your Ward that sets all Vampires who step within it on fire is Corr 2 (for the ward), Life 2, Matter 2 (to set it for Vampires), and Forces 2 or Forces 3/Prime 2.