Sorcerers And Sorcery Options

I have a soft spot for the title Sorcerer and the art of such called Sorcery.
And yeah, I'll admit it, it goes back to that infamous Apprentice by the name of Mickey Mouse.

What I have noticed over the years in various occult literature is the use of terms mostly has been to derogate whatever magickal approach for which the writers gave low regard.

What disappoints me is: regardless of how cool the terms are, the fact remains that there really is not a specific kind of magickal approach associated with them. I do not mean one particular universal paradigm here. I mean a kind of flavor that when tasted with one's meta-sensibilities clearly indicates a Sorcerer and Sorcery just as much as certain spices, herbs, and sauces clearly indicate unique ethnic cooks and their respective cuisines.

My preference would be for Sorcery to reference pathways that lay between the traditional old school and the modern new school - brushing shoulders with the nature-based and rubbing elbows with the technological - enabling group participation and allowing fierce independence - etc...

Regardless of my preference, however, I remain surprised that no one has been able to do for Sorcerers and Sorcery what Gardner (and Alexander, Buckland, et.al.) did for Witches and Witchcraft.

Note: make no mistake with that last parallel. I am not saying that Sorcery should end up exactly like Witchcraft today. The point of making that parallel is: those authors took those terms and dared to cook and to create memorable meals for a magickal approach that has a consistency, fragrance, flavor, and ambiance not only unique - but also very recognizable - compared to non-Witchcraft approaches ... even with all the diversity within Witches and Witchcraft.

This post has been edited by Praxis: Dec 4 2008, 12:40 PM

The problem is that Sorcery HAS been well defined in several places, and within several branches of ocuclt study, and all in a derogatory way. The most detailed, and complete is in the works of Franz Bardon.

Especially in his second book, The Practice of Magical Evocation. He gives fair warning to the Magicians who are working thru his system to not fall trap to the desire to skip steps, and jump to exercises before they are ready or they run the risk of becoming common Sorcerers.

A Sorcerer is someone has hasnt done the work of developing their own magical powers and abilities, but instead wants to jump to the "end results" without putting in the hard work of mastery.....so they end up gaining power from pacts with spirits. (basically is how its described by Bardon). The Sorcerer tries to summon spirits and demons , or use other magical powers that are way beyond their current level of development. What sometimes happens is that a demon or spirit will see that they can amuse themselves for awhile by playing around with this person, so they either appear to the Sorcerer or they cause the magic spell the Sorcerer is trying to cast work.

In the second case, say someone wants to cast a spell to make that girl of their dreams fall in lust with them, and throw themselves at them. They have found some spell in some of the shelf book at Barnes and Noble or from the interenet, etc. They get worked up, and cast the spell, and.........in most cases nothing happens. BUT if some spirit happened to be in the area at the time, they might decide to make the spell work. So in that case, the Sorcerer THINKS their spell works because they have some incredible powers. They dont. It was the spirit doing it.......and here is the trap. If the Sorcerer keeps casting that spell, then the second time they have agreed to a kind of pact with the spirit that caused the spell to work. The more they cast that spell, and others, the stronger the pact becomes. So the Sorcerer is running around all over town making girls jump in bed with him left and right, thinking its because he is really powerful and magical.......when in reality he is digging himself in deeper with the spirit that really empowers the magic.

When the Sorcerer dies, they travel to where the spirit that they were in the pact with resides, and must serve that spirit for a period of time. If the Sorcerer is lucky, they eventually get a chance to be reborn and try again on Earth. BUT its very easy for the same spirit to tempt the Sorcerer the second time around....they are already attached to other in a way, so its extra hard for the Sorcerer NOT to fall into the trap a second time around. If they do, this time they have lost their immortal souls because if they go back to serving the spirit, its forever the second time.

Its a LOT more complicated than that, and you should read the Bardon stuff yourself, but what I wrote above is a pretty good summary.

I've heard the same basic description of what Sorcery is from 8 or 9 different tradtions/paths of occult and magical study over the last 30 years: Sorcerers are weak and undisciplined and only appear to have power because they serve spirits that are powerful. Without their masters power, they have no power.

SO....Im just saying. I dont necessarily agree with all that....but I have always heard the term used in a derogatory way....and in every case because of the basic definition above. Its like the definition of Chaos Magic.....I always thought that a real Chaos Magician would be a person who used NO RITUALS of anykind.....instead they learned how to reach out and tap directly into the raw energy of Chaos......the energy that everything came from, and that everything will return too. Then they used the energy of Chaos itself to make changes in reality....But every single book on Chaos Magic I have seen teaches....thats right....rituals. They have just devised a new tradition of ritual magic, and dont want to call themselves ritual magicians so used the name Chaos Magic instead of Ritual Magic. To me its a croc......a REAL Chaos Mage would never use a ritual of anykind for anything. They would simply summon up a healthy burst of raw Chaos....shape it into what they want, and cast it out into the world.

It sorta sounds like what you percieve Sorcery and Sorcerer as is what I envision real Chaos Magic as. Someone who draws from the source of all power, energy/ magic and shapes that energy with their will and throw it out into the world.

But you know.....there IS already a well defined definition of Sorcery that has existed for at least 30 years (because it was at least that long when I first heard definitions of what various paths of magic were), and the Bardon definitions and explanations have existed longer than that.