Sorcery, merged with older thread Options

“Sorcery has no bounds or limits, except those that are put in place by the practitioner. It is the Study of Raw Power and often of Dark Energies. It stems from an Inherent need to delve into the deepest and darkest parts of One’s Self and although it may be dangerous and painful to Realise your Primal fears and desires it is well worth the effort”.

I was somewhat disappointed but not surprised to see so little interest in this category. I know that information is hard to find but so is anything that is worth the effort.

Although this is not the Path for everybody I hope that at least some of you are interested.

I am therefore inserting a basic description.

EDIT - text reduced to normal size. Mediocracy 01/04/2005

Sorcery is the need to study the deepest and darkest parts of ones self. Through understanding their primal desires, obscure passions, and emotionality the practitioner than draws on his or her own Raw Power. Most Sorcerers adopt an aggressive stance in their magical works. They tend to ignore whether or not they use their power for “good” or “evil, and often dismiss such concepts from their lives altogether.

Sorcery cares not what it changes.... it simply changes

Central to sorcery are Balance and Polarity within ones self, this can then be transferred to the world around us. The sorcerer is an expert at bending things to their own will. The most common way of achieving this is by using Twilight – this is a realm of the mind which is characterized by its extreme distortive properties, roiling energies, and occurrences bizarre enough to shock even the calmest, most accepting individuals. The practitioner can make changes in this shadow world that will then manifest themselves in the everyday world.

The unique art known as Sorcery is one which knows no bounds and has no limits, except those which are allowed by the user.

Another aspect of Sorcery is Glamour. This grants its wielder immense powers of persuasion. Ultimately it changes the way People Perceive the Person that is using it. It can Instill fear and create harmony. Oh and if you wish to temporarily change your appearance it can be useful to.

Hope this was some Help

This post has been edited by mediocracy: Apr 1 2005, 09:18 AM

This is all very interesting! Could it be that I have at long last discovered the source of sensible discussion on the Internet?! *touches wood*. Next stop, El Dorado and the Fountain of Youth!

As to definitions of sorcery, My understanding of it is as a broad term encompassing many different sub-sets of magic(k), and denoting something like: "Causing change, in accordance with will, by nonphysical or indirect means, through the use of correspondances and directed to a specific purpose for the benefit of the worker in the mundane (mortal) plane." (This sets it apart from traditional Ceremonial Magic and spiritual alchemy, which seek to purify and improve the 'soul' or 'pneuma' of the worker on other levels; most Neopagan and especially Wiccan worship rites, which seek to benefit the Earth or the Universe as a whole entity; and deciding to get out of your armchair to make a cup of coffee, which is an act of magick according to Crowley's definition but clearly not what we are talking about here.) To take specific examples, a Voodoo hex would be an act of sorcery, as would a modern New-Age candle-burning ritual to bring success in a job interview, as would an Ancient Egyptian fertility rite - although all of these workings may (or may not) involve other factors, such as worship, petition to the Gods, psychological and 'self-help' techniques and so forth. (Of course, they are only truly acts of sorcery to the extent that they work.) I'm not aware of any sources which define sorcery as a rank or grade of practitioner. Many languages have words for magicians who practice techniques of shamanism or witchcraft for 'black' purposes (or at least, very dark grey ones), and this is often translated into English as "sorcerer"; see Aradia, Gospel of the Witches by Charles G. Leeland for one example of this, and Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians by Pierre Clastres for another, but this is obviously to over-simplify matters immensely.

On to controlling forces by means of sorcery; and perhaps the above has already indicated the nature of the key which I am about to suggest. Just as mundane forms of energy need to be transformed, transported, transmuted and contained in order to turn them into work, so does 'magical' energy. One of the first laws of magic is that "like affects like" (which is, interestingly, one of the most significant conclusions of modern quantum mechanics, but that, I feel, is another story). Thus, we can cause Change A to occur to Subject X by causing Change B to occur to Subject Y, insofar as B and Y are similar to A and X. To illustrate with another example: say I have a friend who has a headache, and wants me to help him to ease it. I could do so nonmagically, by fetching him an asprin and drawing the curtains for him to have a nap. I could stand there willing, with all the energy of my being, for him to get better - although my experience has always been that the only effect of this will be to give me a headache too. Or I could do it sorcerously, through correspondances: I might, for example, take an apple, which is associated in many cultures with the head, and cleanly cut into it, removing any blemishes or bad spots, with the intent that they affect the 'bad spots' in my friend's own head. Remembering my astrology, it occurs to me that Aries is associated with the head, so I perform the working at the Hour of Aries which I find in my handy Sorcerer's Almanack (the compilation of which has become so much easier since the arrival of the internet!). This leads me on to Aries' association with Mars, so I may use an iron knife and a red apple, and an anointing mixture containing oils of pepper and pine. (Obviously, not if it's a stress-induced headache!) The more correspondances build up, the more the apple (Subject Y) has 'in common' with my friend (Subject X); the more 'like' each-other they become, and the more I can affect him through the likeness. Of course, I've deliberately chosen a benign example which makes it sound like a species of home medicine or kitchen-witchcraft (it's not, since I'm not offering him any lotions or potions or direct 'treatments' of any kind; we don't even have to meet during the entire process), but the basic principle goes all the way back to the highest and most exquisitely complex workings of hermetic alchemy and ancient miracles. Workings of great power can be completed at a seemingly insurmountable distance using this basic truth. Him that has eyes, let him see!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bigwink.gif)