I remember once I met a guy who was raised in a strong Protestant family, and he practiced the faith quite strongly. In his twenties, he escaped corp life through a series of misadventures and ended up in the shadows. Once he displayed that he was touched with magic, a hermetic mage— Sally Tsung, I believe—tried to give him training in the arts, but couldn’t figure why he was such a slow learner. Given time, Dog appeared to this guy, who was now calling himself Twist, and revealed that he belonged to the shamanic tradition. Now, nothing in Twist’s past or family history suggested that he should would be a shaman, let alone have an animistic totem, which is why Twist resisted the gift so strongly. Given time, however, without giving up on his Protestant faith, he merged the two. Still believed in God, in the tradition of his Protestant upbringing, but also accepted the tutelage of Dog. Ended up doing some pretty fantastical stuff, too, if the rumors are true. Point being, for lack of a better phrase, Twist had to find his own truth. Over time, I’ve seen quite a few of these tradition-bending mages. They remain rare, and they struggle to find adequate training, but they are just as effective as others, regardless of the secrets of their power.