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On Terms and Nuance

We occultists, priests, and spiritual folk are outright notorious for using elaborate technical terminology and other forms of jargon. To a large degree, it makes sense: we often require a sort of specialized language in order to make sense of our ritual practices and draw fine, nuanced shades of meaning. While we should all strive to make ourselves understood by each other (which is the fundamental purpose of language in general), we have to remember that jargon is always, crucially and critically, context-dependent. Without context, such words can easily be misunderstood. Besides, given the sheer number and variation in the spiritual, religious, magical, and occult contexts we get up to, some terms might mean radically different things for different people, even within the same tradition across history. It's just natural linguistic progression!

The thing is that we all get in trouble (even myself, especially on Twitter but not just) the moment we try to declare our own meaning of a word as its only possible meaning, or just one single context's use of a particular word as its only possible use. Down that path lies ruin for everyone, so we should all take care to clarify what we mean and the extent to which we mean it! After all, one person might not be wrong in how they use a word, but others might not be in how they use the word in their own separate senses at the same time, either! Heck, even the same person might use the same word in radically different meanings in different contexts. Context determines so much here; there is never a text without context.

A long while back on Twitter, there was a time I said that witchcraft must necessarily involve an element of the transgressive or the cosmos-upheaving, without which it's just magic with an aesthetic. That makes sense within a particular context or from a particular perspective, sure, but I messed up by trying to make that use as being the only use in other contexts that I don't subscribe or belong to. Others rightfully called me out on that! Sure, I was right about my understanding of the word in my context, but I was wrong to deny others their understanding in theirs. Had I stated that I was speaking from a particular context, that would be a conversation that would preclude the discussion of other contexts as being out-of-scope. I did not, and so opened myself up for a bigger discussion—and I learned plenty from it, burned hand and all.

Regardless of platform or character limits, we should all strive for nuance and clarity, even if we might need to spend a bit more time or text to establish context and common definitions first before saying something meaningful to ensure that our meaning is caught. Being wordy as hell can be a virtue, but only if those words are well-used. Conciseness only works if you also maintain clarity; otherwise, you're not being concise, just incomplete.