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

Agreed, Sorceress. I regard myself as a Sorceress.

Ceremonial magicians like to use the term sorcery to define magick that is not their high theurgic idea of magick. To Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare was a sorcerer--what Crowley called a "black brother." What he meant by this was that AOS (and others that Crowley termed black brothers--including Jack Parsons!) weren't aligned with his idea of magick. Bardon is an expert in ceremonial magickn so he also has decided to label occultists that are his idea or "right" and not. Kraig does the same thing (I hate his flawed book by the way eventhough everyone thinks its great). Not all occultists are ceremonialists or theurgists--and post-modern magick especially is not particularly theurgic. Occultists who are not ceremonialists and aren't into Pagan witchcraft can be termed sorcerers. If you look in a dictionary, sorcerer, mage, and wizard mean about the same thing. If you look up the word mago or maga or magoi in a foreign dictionary, the defintion is "sorcerer." If some groups need to hairsplit and make up terminology, whatever. The words magoi ,witch , and Pagan were highly derogatory and exclusionary terms until the mid 19th century despite persistent popular belief.

As for what Chaos Magick is, zyguh, you are misinformed. Here is a definition of Chaos Magick from a CM board I belong to:

"Chaos magic is a form of magic which was first formulated in West Yorkshire, England, in the 1970s. Through a variety of techniques often reminiscent of Western ceremonial magic or neoshamanism, many practitioners believe they can change both their subjective experience and objective reality, though some chaos magicians dispute that magic occurs through paranormal means.

Although there are a few techniques unique to chaos magic (such as some forms of sigil magic), chaos magic is often highly individualistic and borrows liberally from other belief systems, due to chaos magic having a central belief that belief is a tool. Some common sources of inspiration include such diverse areas as science fiction, scientific theories, ceremonial magic, shamanism, Eastern philosophy, world religions, and individual experimentation. Despite tremendous individual variation, chaos magicians often work with chaotic and humorous paradigms, such as the worship of Hundun from Taoism or Eris from Discordianism."

Chaos magicians do not draw on "universal Chaos" unless it is their belief paradigm to do so. They draw on potentiality. "Nothing is true; thus, everything is permitted." CMT practitioners can be said to be "sorcerers."

This post has been edited by SororZSD23: Jan 1 2010, 11:19 AM