Magician (paranormal)
- For other uses of the term, see Magician (disambiguation).
A magician is a person skilled in the mysterious and hidden art of magic, which can be described as either the act of entertaining with tricks that are in apparent violation of natural law, such as those performed by stage magicians or illusionists, or the ability of those who claim to attain objectives, acquire knowledge, or perform works of wonder through the use of sorcery and supernatural or nonrational means.
The latter kind of magician can also be referred to as an enchanter, sorcerer, wizard, mage, magus, necromancer, or thaumaturgist. These overlapping terms may be distinguished by some traditions or some fiction writers. When such distinctions are made, sorcerers are more often practitioners of evocations or black magic, and there may be variations on level and type of power associated with each name.
Some names, distinctions, or aspects may have more of a negative connotation, than others, depending on the setting and the context. (See also Magic and Magic and religion, for some examples.)
For a combination of reasons, including those above, authors of fantasy fiction have often muddled the meaning of each of the terms (especially when the target audience is children), often using whatever term felt to be the most accurate, but the least controversial, though this is not always the case. (See Harry Potter for an example.)
Historical Magician claimants
Numerous people have stated that they were magicians or wizards, or were commonly believed to be so at the time.
A wizard, in this case, is a person who claims to be skilled in arts considered hidden or arcane.
Throughout history, there have been many who have claimed that to have secret knowledge, meant having great, often supernatural, power. Some claimed to know occult (literally, "hidden") techniques that they felt could be of great aid.
Perhaps the oldest example of this is the knowledge of the making and tending of fire[1], a secret jealously guarded.
It should be noted that a person being attributed alleged magical power does not necessarily indicate the person is a wizard.
Some historical figures have also had magical powers attributed to them by legends and in fiction, with their actual abilities lost or unknown.[citation needed]
In modern use, the distinguishing aspect for wizards from other magicians is that their abilities were based off of knowledge, rather than faith. This is not to say that wizards did not invoke religion, but it was usually done through secret techniques and rituals as opposed to only prayer (See also Magic and religion and Gnosis).[citation needed]
Jehoshua Ben-Pandira - An Egyptian wizard suggested by scholar Gerald Massey to be the original Jesus.
The "Atsinganoi", early Roma people as described in the time of Constantine IX [2], Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa occult writer and alchemist, John Dee, Queen Elizabeth's court astrologist, and the controversial figure Aleister Crowley are among examples of these.
Magicians
Learning Magic
In the past, teaching of magic has been a very secretive and sensitive subject, where upon magicians did not want to share their knowledge with any one out side of the magic world for fear of laymen discovering there secrets. This made it very hard for anyone to learn magic beyond a very basic level. Some magic organisations had and still have strict rules that demand members must not discuss magic secrets with any one but established magicians.
As the interest in watching performing magic grew sources started to become available to learn from books, where a very useful way to learn and still have a very strong position in todays market. However due to the nature of the media video has now overtaken books. Being able to see someone perform and then reveal the method of how a trick is done makes it a much more desirable learning platform.
The next step up from videos is magic clubs or workshops, here magicians, both experienced and beginners can work together helping each other improve, and to learn new tricks, discussing all aspects of magic and performing for each other, receiving advice and criticism.
Much more accessible to the general public are online forums where the art of magic can be learned and discussed in the same fashion as a magic club. But without the commitments of time keeping for meetings or travelling to venues, members can discuss magic and tricks in either open or secure areas of a forum depending on the forums policies. Images, text sound and video can also all be displayed in these online forums.
An individual can decide on their own ethics on magic by choosing which type of forum they join, be it a forum that is open for anyone to view, who are happy to teach and share magic secrets with everyone including laymen, not caring what they might do with this information. Or a forum that demands registration before the forum can be viewed, and requires its members to be actively learning magic to perform and not give away secrets to non magicians.
See also
- List of occultists
- List of magicians
- Magic (illusion) for information about professional magicians
- The Magician for fictional works with that title