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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5243677" data-attributes="member: 4937">If you go 'way back', the term is closest in meaning to the actual meaning of the word 'shaman'.  Sorcery refered to the practice of taking a narcotic/halucegenic agent and then becoming possessed by a spirit which would the reveal hidden information or perform magic.  Just like 'shaman' broadened to include pretty much any animistic priest, sorcerer has broadened to include pretty much any arcane practice.It's been brewing for at least the last 1000 years.  Historically magic has always been 'priestly', in that it involved the worship, appeasement, and occasional command of unseen spirits.  I think you are correct to say that ancient wizards are always priests of some sort commanding spirits of some sort, and that the idea of the wizard doing magic directly by force of will (rather than using his force of will to command spirits to perform it) is comparitively modern.  But the shift away from magic being the mystery element of a religion first occurs under monotheism, which renders such practices anathematic.  So the would be magician who wants to ply his trade or research how the world works has to come up with an explanation for what he is doing which doesn't depend on commanding forbidden unseen spirits.  In the West, this created a number of vying and overlapping traditions and the attempt to distinguish between 'natural philosophy', 'theurgy', and the stuff that was officially forbidden.</blockquote>

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