Practitioners of symbolic magic are somewhere in the grey area between humans and the supernaturals. This magic comes straight out of folklore, and people sometimes have a knack for it, though most don't. This magic draws on symbols -- herbs, stones, coins, dolls, etc. -- to focus its power into charms or hexes, healing or blighting, blessings or curses.
NOTE: There is no hard-and-fast mechanic for symbolic magic. This is an experiment in magic without statistics. It is important to realize that Mage magic actually twists the fabric of reality while this magic plays within the paths already in reality.
There is a spectrum of power and ability for each of the types of magic; naturally, some people will be more gifted and some people will be less gifted. In some things, Mage magic is more "powerful," while there are some things that Mage magic cannot "realistically" accomplish which symbolic magic can (the typical example here is a multigenerational curse: while a Mage would need ridiculous ratings in Spheres and Arete to accomplish this, a Symbolic mage could do it with a simple ceremony and a few objects with important arcane ties to the subject... or even, at a particularly key moment, just a statement of, "You shall be cursed unto the seventh generation...").