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Underground > Temple >

What the fuck is a magician?

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22:55 / 27.09.04

When writing, I find myself more and more tired with terms like "magician", "mage", "sorcerer", "wizard", etc...

I want something modern but powerfull. Something contemporary but which still encompasses the psychic weight of the older terms.

Any thoughts? Technoshaman? Cybermage? DataPriest?

02:38 / 28.09.04

Don't care for the generic "willworker"?

Synchronicitor?
*grimace*

Hmm...

Theurge?
Occult Troubleshooter?

rising and revolving

02:54 / 28.09.04

Badass

unheimlich manoeuvre

03:10 / 28.09.04

NeoHermetist? it need not just apply to alchemy.

Charlie's Horse

04:26 / 28.09.04

It seems like trying to sound contemporary/modern allows your title to quickly sound dated in a few years. Try calling yourself a 'mesmerist' for an example. I guess dated could be a good thing, but it's not really my preference. And taking an old term and taking on 'techno-,' 'cyber-,' or the like just makes the old powerful titles a lil' too wordy and drawn out.

In the interest of avoiding throwing rocks at windows without building any of mine own, I suggest 'cunning folk.' Using sympathetic relationships to affect change certainly seems foxy to my eyes.

Great thread though. 'Magician' does have a good bit of baggage floating after it, for good and ill.

XXII:X:II = XXX

04:59 / 28.09.04

I'm partial to "Thaumaturge," myself. I think that's how it's spelled.

Maybe "Impeller"? "Reality Hacker" is good, but I think it's more commonly applied to graf artists and billboard liberationists.

/+,

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

05:07 / 28.09.04

While I do the "I'm a Magician" thing as part of a psychological excercise with myself; as labels go, I tend to prefer the radical and unpopular "human".

05:52 / 28.09.04

Dude who does stuff.

06:07 / 28.09.04

Thaumaturge has a nice ring to it.

Makes me thing of Theanthropist too.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

06:30 / 28.09.04

While I AM partial to the term "magician" myself, there's plenty of other words out there. Formal titles just sound too clunky or...well...formal to me. "Guy who does shit" or "Shit Doing Guy" are also nominal terms I could use.

For some modernist terms:

How about a post-modern mystical architect? A post-modern shaman? A globalist shaman (i'm practically ripping that right off Warren Ellis)? A chaos engineer?

Perhaps just cycle through as many possible terms you can think of until you find something appropriate seeming.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:21 / 28.09.04

"Thaumaturge", also it sounds cool, has a very specific meaning, and quite possibly not one that actually fits with how a lot of people do magic. Mind you, "postmodern" is a bit like that, as well...

Perhaps one could start by defining what one *does*, and work out what one should be called from there.

07:53 / 28.09.04

Spookmentalist

11:07 / 28.09.04

Urban Shaman.

11:34 / 28.09.04

Don't you think it's time we updated the term plumber for the new millenium while we're at it? What about urban water technician? H2O-omancer? Techno-plumbaote?

11:45 / 28.09.04

The lines between contemporary occultism and a sixth form marketing course become ever more blurred.

11:49 / 28.09.04

I tend towards 'witch,' myself, but that has a pretty narrow range of application. 'Cunning folk' is seriously foxy, but again doesn't apply to the wide field of Magic Users (to get all D&D for a second).

There are a lot of people out there doing 24/7 hands-on community-centered magic who are known only as someone who "does that stuff."

I'm sure that by adding Greek affixes to Latin roots (or vice versa), we could probably come up with something suitably impressive to the non-Classically educated (though I'm not sure it would be worth what Haus would do to us). Heck, it works for scientists.

If someone asks you what you do, intone W-I-Z-A-R-D in Enochian (practice in front of a mirror).

Heck, I think we need more straight-up 'wizards' anyway.

How 'bout 'magicker?' You know, one who magicks?

I'm done. It's early.

~Lepidopteran

p.s. Bush throws scissors, Kerry throws rock; Bush Loses

12:15 / 28.09.04

The lines between contemporary occultism and a sixth form marketing course become ever more blurred.

...by which I mean that the impulse to try and 'rebrand' practitioners of the various things loosely categorised as magic under some new buzzword – whilst I can see the impetus behind wanting a more accurate catch all term – is probably worth looking at from a critical perspective.

I think it can be looked on as part of a wider tendency in contemporary magic to try and dissolve the boundaries between magic and areas such as marketing, corporate strategy, advertising, neuro-linguistic programming, and so on.

Who are you rebranding magic for? Do you want a book deal? Do you want to sell magic as a lifestyle commodity to the general public? Do you want a term that you feel comfortable using to describe your practices to the man in the street that is free from the various connotations that come with "magician"? What exactly are these connotations? Why do you feel uncomfortable about them? Why do you have the impetus to talk to the hypothetical man in the street about what it is you do? Do you secretly want to be able to 'come out' as a magician? Do you believe that magic is something everyone should practice? Do you think that a new name for magic would lead to more people getting into it? Is that unequivocally a good thing? Is it really likely to happen? Can you realistically imagine every single person in your office or place of work, going home of an evening and practicing some form of re-branded magic? Do you feel that "magic" and "neurolinguistic programming" are broadly synonomous? Do you feel that "magic" and "advertising" are broadly synonomous? How far does this process of rebranding "magical" techniques under new terminology have to go before you turn into L Ron Hubbard?

Unconditional Love

14:33 / 28.09.04

magi, will do.

magician has an assistant called debbie and his astral body left the uk when a labour government came to power.

one on a scooter beebing his hooter
every man and women is a star.

stars of wonder.

Boy in a Suitcase

15:13 / 28.09.04

You can call me "daddy."

15:58 / 28.09.04

Bastard! I'll call you "daddy" when you start layin on the sugar.

Gypsy, short of answering all of your well-posed queries, my first impule was simply to satisfy my own frustration continually writing "mage" or "magician". Perhaps i should have simply consulted a Thesaurus but I figured you lot would be more entertaining and creative.

No, I'm not looking for a buzzword or a title for my next best-selling consumer magick paperback. But, yeah, I am interested in branding. Myself and the moevement (as if there is one). But not to sell it out to the establishment. I'm more interested in having a unified mass against the establishment. A common problem with the Left/progressives/underground/counterculture is that they are so driven by individuality that they end up bickering over little differences instead of coming together over the vast similarities.

But I digress.

I like Chaos Engineer. That just sounds wicked cool.

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:30 / 28.09.04

And lifted directly from an 486-era IBM PC computer game, which is cool.

"Magi", incidentally, is the plural, "magus" is the singular. It refers to a type of (possibly Zoroastrian) priest in classical Persia, which might be a little odd for the modern magical practitioner to model himself on, but whatever works.

17:00 / 28.09.04

I always liked R.U. Sirius's term "reality hacker" (noted by Vlad above).

I think it nicely encompasses the use of magic, meditation, physical disciplines, dance, drugs, tech, applied psychology, media criticism, and all other practical techniques to achieve willed change.

(As noted by Mondo 2000 more than a decade ago: "what's a hack? See that lamp over there? A hack would be if I somehow could use that lamp to get me a beer.")

Personally, however, I don't use any particular term to describe what I am or what I do. Go figure.

18:18 / 28.09.04

I prefer the term "Occultist" as it best describes what I am and what I do.

Madman in the ruins.

19:03 / 28.09.04

Reality Engineer.

Though Engineer has connatation with the backwards sucking through teeth noise and badly fitting jeans.
"Well missus I could create a servitor to remove your blocked drains, but its the wrong time of year for yer actual Haitian entity, Unless you want to forget the Vat of course?"

23:33 / 28.09.04

A friend of mine who's a shaman but doesn't know it yet has taken to calling himself "Transcending Element Man". However, I'm pretty sure that's not the type of nu-name we're looking for.

I quite like "Imagineer", although the disney-link is a tad discouraging. Is the name itself trademarked, I wonder?

00:37 / 29.09.04

i like the idea of a magickal practitioner of today being several olde worlde priests, as in magi.
i find the grammar problematic; both 'i am magi' and 'i am a magi' feel wrong. the former certainly beats the latter, but i feel that y'all can prolly do better.

orderless monk?
neolama?

or maybe efforts would be best spent reclaiming priest for the wider usage?

--

02:40 / 29.09.04

I usually call myself a Gnostician of the Divinity. Because it sounds really pretentious.

02:44 / 29.09.04

I am a Hamprivix.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

03:31 / 29.09.04

"Reality Hacker" always makes me think of the Virtual Adept faction in White WOlf's "Mage: The Ascension" RPG. It's a cool term, but then it makes me think someone I know who played a reality hacker in a LARP, or more to the point his character. And Genesis was just weird.

12:03 / 29.09.04

Shadow Man.

12:28 / 29.09.04

Lately I've been partial to 'Silly Neophyte' because it pretty well captures where I'm feeling these days. Maybe soon I'll go back to 'Slightly Experienced Neophyte.'

And just cause I love alliteration: Modern Mage

Nietzsch E. Coyote

20:31 / 29.09.04

Aliterative:
Deconstructive Deist
PoMo Prognosticator
slippery slope sigilizer

Other:
synchronist
sourceror
mojo didler
probability surfer

Unconditional Love

20:51 / 29.09.04

gnostician

gnosisnaut (knowsisnaut)

hmmm, gnostician.

22:27 / 29.09.04

I like to think of myself as a 'Hyper-Reality Shaker' or sometimes as a 'Hyper-Reality Crusher' or a 'Hyper-Reality Condenser (or Expander)'.

I think the important bit is the 'Hyper'. If it wasn't for that i don't think it would be worth doing really.

22:40 / 29.09.04

Perhaps just using magician in another language, to give that other-world feel. Ich bin Zauberer. (Zauberin for the ladies)

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