A Topic That Occured To Me, whilst in a discussion of sorcery in religion a problem occured releva Options

As in the topic depicting what you claim yourself, "mage, magus, sorceror, witch, wizard..." many others such as that, a single problem seems to appear and that is simply the language that there is. To me this seems to be the biggest problem with peoples perseption. Generally when people speak of something on the same or similar subject they automatically assume that the other persons in the conversation knows what they mean when they use certain terms. Two very good examples are the discussion of demons and of the term gods. demons to me and to most general descriptions would be a dark being. however I found in a discussion with my good friend whom is a devout christian with god given "gifts". that such a simple term as demon can have drastically different meanings, the discussion was on a grave site with "dark spirits" "demons" however you like to call them, and he refered to a demon as a fallen angle saying ways to banish something thrown from heaven. this prompted the discussion of that term because if an evil spirit escalates to that malevelence without being cast out of heaven than what would it be called. Thus bringing up an old subject on views of multiple gods such as the greeks or native indians "some could add the Wicca religion into this but i shall not for purposes of keeping descrete (that and my knowledge of it is still limited)" and that is that even though most of them followed different gods most of them had one god that triumphed as supreme over all of them, or so I have seen I could be off on some aspects, however the main point is to some the term god simply means a being of power on another plane of existence instead of the supreme lord of existence and marking that distinction adds a very large area of perception that some hadn't thought of. The point of all this, I find daily different magical and spiritual terms that seem to carry different meanings for different groups or individuals. I am a firm believer that a different view on terms or situations can bring forth a new level of understanding or comprehention, I am curious what terms and instances similar to this that others have to offer. obviously terms are important and views on them much more so.
-Magus2500x

I think there's a singular entity who (like with multi-user virtual environments), acts as a central server coordinating and remembering information between our realities. With us ultimately rendering that information into the world we know and love, but leaving coordination of that world to the environment. I can imagine other beings like gods or demons, or us, just avatars with different levels of access, so to speak. A lot of stuff I've read on metaphysics seems to point towards something like that.

"There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe."
- The Science of Getting Rich
"God is every where because nowhere; and intellect is everywhere because nowhere; and soul is everywhere because nowhere. But God is everywhere and nowhere among the things that are after him; and he is there only as he is and desires."
- The Journal of Speculative Philosophy vol. 3 (1869)
"The universal mind is the creative power throughout Nature; and as the originating power it must first give rise to the various forms in which objective mind recognizes its own individuality, before these individual minds can re-act upon it; and hence, as pure spirit or first cause, it cannot possibly be anything else than subjective mind; and the fact which has been abundantly proved by experiment that the subjective mind is the builder of the body shows us that the power of creating by growth from within is the essential characteristic of the subjective mind."
- The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science
"In the Upanishads, Brahman is not only the principle and creator of all there is, but is also the sum totality of the universe and its phenomena."
- India Glossary, Brahman
"The great Tao flows everywhere, both to the left and to the right. The ten thousand things depend upon it; it holds nothing back. It fulfills its purpose silently and makes no claim. It nourishes the ten thousand things. And yet is not their lord. It has no aim; it is very small. The ten thousand things return to it, yet it is not their lord. It is very great. It does not show its greatness, And is therefore truly great."
- Tao Te Ching (verse 34)

This post has been edited by SeekerVI: Nov 22 2007, 07:10 PM

Language is huge in perception. In order to be a powerful speaker, beyond charisma and all the other things one depicts, one must know the language of the audience or they must change it. Motivational speakers usually do both. They introduce a concept phrase and then explain it so that everyone is not in agreement as to the meaning of the term. For all other things they are careful in what words they do use.

Now, in this subject “magick” there is a huge issue of language and it’s lack of unifying terms. Every tradition has it’s own terms for very similar experiences, but the terms take on a life of their own.

However it is not only that, it is fundamental in the way we think. We usually think with words. Words carry power. They carry power because we give them power. Demon for a Christian has a very different context then for an anime fan.

Also, dependant on the Christian it may be that all spirits are demons. Because that is the language they have for it.

So when communicating with another person, it is very helpful that you define things, specially if they are things not in the common lexicon.

two very good posts and I very much enjoyed the quote given. The remark about the christian definition for the term demon however isn't so much a spirit or entity, generally it refers to a fallen angel according to a friend of mine (devoted christian and youth minister) though ther view the main body of the world shares of the term demon does follow the discription you mentioned