I want to make a longevity ritual for someone who is 62. Unfortunately I am just 27 and have a magic theory score of 4. Now I was wondering if I could bypass the seasonal vis limit simply by taking 2 seasons? Or is that simply not how things are done?
Not how it's done, unfortunately. One way to get round the problem (other than just raising your Magic Theory to 7 / 6 + speciality) would be to just have the 62 year old magus retake his old ritual (assuming he has a previous one that failed); in that case, the "casting" vis limits of the Art score is used (page 42 of [strike]HoH:MC[/strike] TM:RE).
There's also a few other ways to increase the limit; for example, Merinta have a limit of (Magic Theory + Faerie Magic) x 2 per season when using entirely faerie tainted vis (which I'm sure will have entirely no side effects when used in a longevity ritual) (page 88, HoH:MC). The infernal has something similar. Verditius Elder runes don't help as they only apply when enchanting items.
[Edited for getting a reference wrong originally.]
I would just point out that there's probably (although this may be saga dependent) a magus out there with sufficient skill to prepare the ritual, who'd be willing to spend the necessary season do so in exchange for two seasons of service by your magus (plus the vis expenses, of course). Ask the Redcaps!
Well the guy isn't a magus, he is just a really valuable old grog. Also I'm not a verditus, and we have no fairy vis. Thanks though.
I looked up page 42 of hoh:mc, but found nothing about casting limits. Perhaps you miss sourced?
The casting limit (Art score) on vis is on page 82 of the core rule book. Using vis in the lab (magic theory x2) is on page 94.
Ezzelino has a point, if he's important enough to receive a longevity ritual, you have to ask if it's worth an extra season of your magus's time to hire a specialist to do it...
Apologies, I got the wrong book. It's The Mysteries: Revised Edition. (Too many mysteries).