im not sure if something like this is already a thread, but i need help on telling the difference between a Mage and arcanists. also if being a mage or arcanists affects magick.
If anyone else wants, you can use my post to ask the difference between things such as types of magick, withches, wizards, sages, etc...
if this is a stupid or dumb question im sorry, but i really want to know, so please help.
It is not a stupid question.. and the only answer I can come out for it is that an arcanist is a person who knows pottery... O_O yeah.. and mage is known best as magicians.. and magicians are better known as stage magic... O_O but mage are people who use magick..
and no, being a mage or arcanists does not affect magick, instead is the other way around.. ^_^
"Arcane" ...some people use that word to mean higher or more powerful, but it really just means 'secret'.
"Mage" just means somebody who uses magic, but I seem to remember some magickal Order used 'Magus' as a title for their elders.
I personally subscribe more to terms like... Ceremonial magician. Most ceremonial magicians don't like to be called "wizards" even though that's what it looks like: robes, sacred geometry drawn on the floor while they walk around and shout out magic words while waving a wand... some are in the tradition of High Magick, that use rituals like this to pray. Witch. While witchcraft can include some ceremony, I consider it Low Magick, or magic that uses personal power to encourage mundane events to go a certain way-- instead of power from other spirits. This label is being reclaimed by Wiccans, though, so it can be a High Magick too. Psion. Someone who uses direct magic-- no wands, robes, herbs, or chants needed. They work directly with just their mind into magical energy. It began with a parapsychologist's article that introduced "psi" as a term for both ESP and psychokinesis, and psi became the word for the energy behind those things. Chaote. Or chaos magician, works first with magical thinking, and maybe includes energy. Everything is only perception, and our power is being able to change our perception.
Those can all be considered occultists, but it might sound a little high-faluting.
There's a different, bigger list here: http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/tomekeeper/
While I think the techniques are alright, terms like "wizard" and "sorcerer" don't seem to have caught on elsewhere. (Guess it's too "Dungeons and Dragons.") But the rest are simple enough: Necromancers work with the dead, Elementalists work with the elements, Summoners call in spirits from other planes, and Healers heal etc.
There are those who say magic has no color, that "white" or "black" a false division... but that's been used to describe a path too: white witch, black magician, I've even heard of someone claiming the label of Blue Mage (though I was never really clear on what that involved... I kept imagining Quina from Final Fantasy IX.) ... and if it works well to describe their path, I don't see why they can't use it.
We haven't even mentioned specific traditions/religions of magic. Shamanism, Druidism, Wicca, Voodoo, Thelema... and those can be white or black, with or without ceremony, focused on energy or mind, involving elements or ancestral spirits or healing... so it can get confusing.
You can even describe a specific path that isn't part of tradition exactly: I've read of Sea Witches, Kitchen Witches, I've heard of Cat Magick spoken of like a separate craft, and many sub-classes of otherkin (sanguine and psionic vamp(i/y)res, for example.)
And then of course there's the stage magician.
It's all just labels, though. I agree with Variados, it's not so much what they call you but what you answer to that matters.
