“Magic is usually mistaken for sorcery or witchcraft I therefore want to explain briefly the difference between magic and sorcery. The true magician always adheres to the universal laws, he knows about their causes and effects and deliberately uses these powers, whereas a sorcerer uses powers the origin of which he does not know, although he is fully aware of the consequences caused by his using these powers but he has no idea about their actual connections, because he has no knowledge of the universal laws. He might know one or two laws or have a partial knowledge of them, but he does not see the true connections between the operating, developing and functioning of these universal laws, as he has not reached the maturity necessary. The true magician, on the other hand, unwilling to be graded as a sorcerer, will never do anything without having full knowledge about what he is doing. A sorcerer, too, may use this or that out of his knowledge of magic with good or bad intentions, no matter whether he uses positive or negative powers. But he has no right to call himself a magician. A charlatan is a person trying to deceive other people. He is not a sorcerer, nor is he a magician. He actually is, to use common terms, a swindler. Charlatans like to boast about high magical faculties, which, in truth, they do not possess, and try to surround themselves with a veil of mystical secrecy in order to hide their ignorance. It is this category of people who are responsible for the bad name true magical science has got. The characteristics of a true magician are not secrecy, nor external pomp quite the contrary. He is modest and always trying to help people and to explain to
the mature persons the secrets of magic. Naturally, he will not give away his secrets to people not yet mature enough for them, in order to avoid degradation of the holy science. Never will the true magician demonstrate his knowledge of magic science by his external behaviour. A true magician is hardly any different from an average citizen, for he always tries to adapt himself to any other person, any situation or occasion. His magical authority is an internal one with no necessity for external splendour.”
~ Franz Bardon
Magicians were typically hired by the elites to teach them the magical sciences and arts. Bardon defines “sorcery” or “witchcraft” here as being able to do magic but without understanding the laws of nature and the connections necessary to be able to teach someone how to develop their own magical skill. It doesn’t matter what name you call it, but charlatans do exist, and I would seriously question the legitimacy of someone as a teacher if they can’t explain what they’re supposed to be teaching. Experiences can’t be taught, but natural laws can.
I’ve also noted there’s a classist element here: witches help the poor and oppressed, magicians were for the educated and wealthy. If you know upper middle-class and upper-class people, they are snobbish and think they are better than everyone; this is part of the “high magic is superior and low magic is inferior” mindset. There are other differences between ceremonial magic and witchcraft (European folk magic) or any other folk magic, such as the use of Kabbalah. It doesn’t mean one is better than the other or that one can’t walk both paths.
As for the roots of the word “sorcerer,” it’s analagous to “demonolater”:
It’s true that one definition based upon one of the words that Goetia emerged from means “sorcery”; however, we need to also consider why that word is there, and which other words were also relative to the root of that word. Sorcerer, in Latin is “fate,” in old French “sourcer,” or, “he who arranges things.” The word also relates to the word lot, and the response one gets when consulting an oracle. In another light, Crowley, a knowledgeable linguist, said Goetia means “howling” (the howling of spirits). There is also an English word that derived from the word Goetia, which is Goety (which implies that they are “dark-witchcraft demons”). From all this it becomes clear, that the word was chosen simply to describe a known grouping of demons that were willing to work with magicians.
– Jude Chi
I’ve also seen “magician” and “sorcerer” used interchangeably.
Fools That Men Adore 