Magician, Sorcerer, Wizard?, What do you consider yourself? Options

I still am very fond of the term Mage after the last several years.

It remains short and sweet and right to the point for me, compared to all the others.

Good evening,

This is perhaps a topic that has been mentioned quite regularly, but what in your opinion should a male practicing magic call himself? Why do some choose to call themselves "magician" instead of "wizard." Next, when should a male, or female for that matter, begin to call themselves by these different names? It is sad to think that an armchair magician is calling himself a great and powerful mage. I understand that these different names have to do a lot with your background, but I thought I'd get everyone's imput on the classification of these sorts of men and women alike. Shouldn't a woman who practices magic be considered a witch? Or shouldn't a male who does the same thing consider himself a magician? Let's keep things simple, right? There seem to always be complications that arise with the term. What do you consider yourself and why? What's your background? Any thoughts would be a very interesting read.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curi

Versed in both sleight of hand and in ceremonial magick, I prefer the term "magician."

Haha, it's a little hard to answer the question without feeling pretentious, but I'd have to roll back to the Victorian era and dredge up Spirit Worker for myself. I think that comes closest, but at the end of the day it comes down to what matters to you. And off the soapbox I go. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blablabla.gif)

Haha, it's a little hard to answer the question without feeling pretentious, but I'd have to roll back to the Victorian era and dredge up Spirit Worker for myself. I think that comes closest, but at the end of the day it comes down to what matters to you. And off the soapbox I go. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blablabla.gif)

Now after 42 years of magickal study and lots of reading and practise, I have still just skimmed the surface of a vast amount of magick subjects that have my interest , so I call myself lifetime student of magick.
Me I am not into titles. I am selfthaught and a student who lighted her own lamp.

I typically classify myself as a mage, a diviner, a psychic and a healer as I do have a knack for both psionic and magical healing, and I am fairly good at divination spells. I also practice sorcery and druidic earth magic, I have connected with a dryad by the name of Dendranaliandra, and she often assists in my rituals at my sacred glade in a nature park near my home.

I agree with some of the previous posters that I think 'witch' has been pretty well claimed by wiccans of both genders. I both love and hate the term sorcerer because it is dramatic, making it great in terms of self identifying for magic, but not so much for defining oneself in public. Magician immediately brings to mind stage magic, not something I look down on by the way, those guys are incredibly talented performers and occasionally engineers.

My friends who know I practice magic like to call me a Dark Wizard because ONE TIME I may have accidentally cursed a guy. Don't worry, that was early in my path; I learned my lesson. On the occasion I try to explain my practice to someone new, I usually tell them I am shaman; it doesn't carry the stigma of witch or the over-the-topness of sorcerer, but still conveys the spiritual nature of my practice.

Wave Master

.... Pattern... Manipulator?

People have used props for thousands of years to assist in their focus during magickal workings. Poppets, herbs that burn and sting to induce pain and anger, stone circles, and anything else that would help to create the proper mood, help to stimulate and intensify the right emotions, and help to direct one’s energy and focus are known as "props."

One should be powerful enough to influence one’s environment using the power of one’s mind alone without having to rely upon props. Props definitely help in beginning magic as they provide a focus.

Advanced working with props is a different matter and requires infusing them with energy or binding thoughtforms or souls into them. Here is where props have real power and can become magickal assistants within themselves. From observation the name one adopts is aligned with the props one uses. But the true adept need no props, so he/she doesn't need any 'name' as the adepts goal is that of literally becoming a god. All the true adept needs is his/her mind which has become exceptionally powerful because of consistent power meditations.
http//:www.joyofsatan.org

A Title is like a name, if your name is bob and you believe yourself to be named bob then to you, you are bob. The deference between a name and a Title is other people's acceptance in referring to you as that title... I mean to say that a King is only a king if others believe him to be king And the same goes for any other title. If I just start proclaiming myself to be the president then like you would expect. Nobody would believe me and "The title would not stick" and only i would be calling myself the president which would be delusional.

In the case of a wizard or magician the same is true, In my opinion if there is one other person out there who believes you when you say your a wizard then to that person that is what you are. Not everybody has to believe your title is legitimate in much the same way some people call Jesus a "Messiah" (which is a title) while others don't believe that to be true like muslims and jews.

At the end of the day your title Is based on belief others have in you. If My title is a wizard then that simply means that people believe I am a wizard, If my title is king, that simply means people believe I am a king and if my title is messiah then that simply means that people believe I am a messiah.

You have to convince people that you are what you say you are otherwise people wont have much of a reason to believe you when you proclaim that you are this or that. That is the whole reason why wizards do magic. So that people will believe the magician is supernatural when in reality the magician is simply pulling off a simple trick of slide of hand with a little prestidigitation. But The point of the magic trick to begin with was to MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE you are supernatural.

Wizards, witches, conjurers, mages, sorcerers, clerics, scientists, politicians are all part of a group of thinkers who have one goal in mind and that is to get you to believe in something. But they differ in WHAT they want you to believe and have different techniques to get you to believe what they want you to believe. Scientists for example want you to believe in the big bang theory and all the other things which they collectively believe to be true whether it is or not. The way scientists make people believe in something usually means doing an experiment which is done like a magician does magic.

The scientist will illustrate why what he wants you to believe is true based on the scientist's hypothesis (which is his theory, what he believes is true) and if people believe his explanation then it might as well be fact unless someone can prove it is not.

politicians want you to believe that they will be a good leader and that you should believe their lies so that they might get a political position. Then he won't do what he promised.

clerics want you to believe what ever the hell they can get away with, so that you donate and warship at their marble and gold plated alters.

As for magicians and most any synonym of the word we want you to to believe that we have powers and can do the impossible, like casting a demonic spirit into your house to haunt you. Having people believe that you can do this can be quite useful at getting what we want. we do magic so that we can get people to believe we have power over the supernatural.


It's called make believe people and that's what titles, lies and magic are for.

I don't think it really matters what you call yourself, but if you want a title then I would recommend convincing people that is what you are.

If I had to choose my favorite word to refer to a magic practitioner I would choose: Wizard because I like how the classic blue starry wizard looks and I like what it represents which is power though wisdom and knowledge. I personally believe that wisdom and knowledge is truly powerful but only when it is aligned with your personal goals otherwise wisdom and knowledge can be quite useless and a burden.

Merlin the great wizard of legend saw that England was locked in a foolish civil war so he devised a magic trick, a contest to pull an old sword from the grip of a stone. The prize for pulling the sword from the stone was to be chosen by god to rule England. War lords came from all over England, they came so that when they pulled the sword from the stone the people of England would accept them as the one true king. The contest was obviously rigged by Merlin so that he might choose for himself who would be king. Merlin saw all of the warlords and decided
that non of them was fit to be king so he chose a small boy from the crowd because he saw righteousness in him. This story is iconic in the world of magic because it illustrates that sorcerers are greater then kings and that magic and make believe can shape the fate of our world.


I think the only difference between words describing anyone practicing magic who goes by a title like wizard or witch is association If you call yourself a street magician then you are associating yourself with a type of street performer. If you call yourself a witch then your associating yourself with Wicca. and so on.

This post has been edited by Master Sareth: Jun 22 2016, 10:06 AM

i would most of the time liked to think myself as a Mystic, that's fine with me. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)