Last modified on May 10, 2007, at 23:43

Wizard

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A Wizard is a person that possesses, or claims to possess, occult or magical powers. It is derived from the Middle English word for 'wise.' Wizards are condemned by the Bible:

"And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people."[1]

Wizards in fiction

The quintessential wizard is Gandalf, in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, who is revealed to be the Maia Olorin, an angelic being sent from the far West with a human body and the power to inspire the good people of Middle-earth to great deeds resisting the evil of Sauron. In the Harry Potter books, all males with magic powers are called wizards, but the head schoolmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, is a classic wizard who resembles Gandalf in many ways. In the science fiction Gaean Trilogy by John Varley, Cirocco Jones, although female, is the Wizard of the living world of Gaea, with powers of life and death over the Titanides.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Leviticus 20:6, KJV, although this verse refers more properly to "those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular" (NET, Leviticus 19, note 52).