Magician

A magician is a person who is or who claims to be skilled in the usage of arts considered mysterious or hidden from the general population. It has two quite distinct uses: firstly, the stage illusionists or conjurors of the present day; and secondly, the ancient and still existent tradition of people claiming to wield or be in contact with paranormal powers.

The latter kind of magician can also be referred to as a 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.)

Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition, arbitralily distinguishes between the sorcerer and wizard character classes as follows:
* "Sorcerers create magic the way poets create poems, with inborn talent honed by practice."
* "Wizards depend on intensive study to create their magic... For a wizard, magic is not a talent but a deliberate rewarding art."

Steve Pemberton's The Times & Life of Lucifer Jones describes the distinction thus: "The difference between a wizard and a sorcerer is comparable to that between, say, a lion and a tiger, but wizards are acutely status-conscious, and to them, it's more like the difference between a lion and a dead kitten."

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, "wizard" has essentially the common usage meaning. The eighth son of an eighth son has more magical powers and will normally become a wizard, while a Sourcerer is a wizard squared (an eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son) and is a "source of magic" who can create new spells and is immensely more powerful. During the series only one sourcerer has appeared (in Sourcery) and in due course nearly brought about the end of the world.Pratchett also comically refers to the word's etymology, claiming in one of his footnotes that the word "wizard" originated from the ancient "wyz-ars", meaning "someone who, at bottom, is very smart." A pun, of course, on "wise-arse". (See Also: Wizards (Discworld))

Diane Duane describes wizards as emmissaries of "the One" (see God), who take an oath to use powers beyond the comprehension of a non-wizard in the service of life, to keep entropy, personified as a Lone Power, under control and therefore delay the demise of the universe. They are said to still exist in the present day, but due to negative public perception, work undercover.

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 firehttp://www.highbeam.com/ref/doc3.asp?docid=1E1:fire and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3670017.stm, 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.

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).

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 www.kuviyam.com Issue 31, 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.

See also

* List of occultists
* List of magicians