Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    What about priestess?   or witch?  or Mage (one of
    my favorite non-gender specific terms for those of
    the magical persuasion).
    
    Nanci

    Argh, Mez!!  What does this person do?  (I just *know* the
    failure to describe the position was a clever ploy to make
    me (personally) nutz with curiosity. . .)
    
    Steve
    

    	Well, MEIS has "Wizard of the Week", rotating from the elite
    group known as The Grand Council of Wizards.  At one time, the council
    was composed of 3 males and 2 females, but Rita Tillson has since
    resigned from the Grand Council due to time conflicts.  The Grand
    Council has had at least one female member since it was formed.
    
    	In our case, the WOW is the "system manager in the Hot Seat."
    
    					--Doug (Wizard, this week...)

    sophe = wise woman
    scorceress
    good witch
    wizardess
    

Steve,

It's like 'exalted system manager' :-).

And Mage is taken; it's the person who manages the wizards.
	Mez

    sage
    sybil
    guru
    sorceress
    thaumaturge
    bruja
    conjuress
    whizard
    
    (I like the last one)
    

    Wizard is a gender-nonspecific term in itself, tho arrogated in recent
    usage to men.  Witch is also gender-nonspecific, tho arrogated to
    women.  The only related terms that are actually gender-linked (m) are
    "warlock" which has an unflattering etymology anyway, and "sorcerer"
    but only if we consider as valid the now-moribund feminising ending
    "-ess" which I for one don't.

    Hi Mez,
    
     Since I know you, and I know the implications of what you will be
    doing, and I know of the Mage,  I think, for you, "goddess", would
    be a better term......Crash that system, YEAH!
    
    8-}  
    
    gc

       Factotum has a certain air to it.  
       
       (In fact, it might be a good job title now that JEC is again
       clouding up the mirror shoved in its face.) 
              
       --Mr Topaz, 

    The Infinite Radiant Is
    
    (courtesy of Richard Bach)
    
    

Perhaps:

	     All Powerfull Mistress of Time, Space and Reality

    Will a simple "Your Majesty" do?
    
    Mike

    Oracle
    
    Shaman (Shaperson???)
    
    Necromancer (MY favorite, being a Neck-romancer!)
    
    Theurgist (In case you get The Ur...  Nevermind!)
    
    Jack  (NOT a suggestion - that's already taken!!)

    One friend's online thesauri came up with-
    
    Harridan -
    Termagant - both of which imply old and scolding, so probably not
                appropriate.
    
    Fury - which I liked, being an opera fan.
    
    I also liked Brujo and Sybil, suggested earlier.
    
    DougO

    Thaumaturgist, neuromancer (with apologies to...), wiccan (We
    can, after all!), leximancer.
    
    						Ann B.

    
    Big Kahuna
    Grand Imperial Poobah
    Big Cheese
    The Boss (. . .oh yeah, forget that one. . .)
    The power and the glory
    
    Steve
    

    Don't use "bruja" -- my recollection is that it's (perhaps more
    than) slightly perjorative.  The phrase "hijo de bruja" is literally
    "son of a witch" but actually translates to "son of a bitch."
    
    Witch doesn't fit well because it tends to be paired with warlock
    rather than wizard.
    
    A sybil is more like an oracle than a wizard (magical in nature
    but specializing in different fields).
    
    Sorceress isn't bad.

    Oz the Great and Terrible?
    
    --- jerry

      Maven

    
    	   Actually, I don't think necromancer and wizard can be
    	used interchangeably.  Necromancer implies 'one who speaks 
    	with the dead'.  Thus, any holder of seances could be called
    	a necromancer, but they would hardly qualify as a wizard,
    	which more correctly translates into sorcerer/magician.
    
    	- Greg

    Perhaps one is a "necromancer" if the system is down?
    
    :-}
    
    

From a mail message from a member of my group:



Last night I did a little research and found an even better word.
The word is 'wicce'.  It is Old English and is the word that witch is
derived from.  It's the feminine correlative for 'wicca' which is the
masculine form - both meaning a magic user, aka wizard.  So basically
we've found a word which has the same meaning as wizard without the
masculine denotation.


Since 'wicce' has fallen out of use for the last many centuries,
it carries none of the negative connotations as it's contemporary
derivative.  It harks back to a time where both men and women
could practice the arcane arts with little persecutive and perhaps
even with the respect of others.

    ARRRGHHH!!  
    
    Fortunately, I read all the responses before I made my suggestion;
    I *really* did plan on suggesting Wicce.  Like wizard, it's a
    genderless word that been associated with a sex (wizard with males,
    wicce with females).  It's a good word, with none of the negative
    connotations of witch. 
    
    
    Good choice, Mez.
    
     					andrew

		Mez,

	I have waited too long to reply it seems.  

	Anyway, I think that I would perfer the term to stay the
	same for both females and males.  (Ok so I seem to be wimping
	out.)  Over the past few years I have tried to use WITCH for
	WIZARD and it just does not seem right.  I think that WITCH
	encompasses much more that does WIZARD.  (You know the 
	difference between a good engineer and a good technication
	where WITCH is the engineer and WIZARD is the technication.)

	There is also another side, I belong to a group of DECies
	who refer to themselves as LIZARDS - (it comes from being
	Lounge Lizards - which comes from an individual some of us
	met during our search for a watering hole).  So my dilemma
	is solved - I just refer to myself as the Le Grande Ole Lizard.
	I could have been a Sr. Corporate Consulting Lizard but I
	resigned due to inconsistantancies in our "Mission".

	_peggy

		(-)
		 |
			Lizards are to low to be humble,
			and too restless to be caught.

    Until this note, I had never considered the term "wizard" to
    imply a male.  I don't see anything strange about a female wizard.
    But then again, I don't claim to be really up on the sociology of
    sorcery.
    
    					Steve

    
    re:.-1 Steve,
    
    I used to think that wizard was genderless also.  But according
    to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, wizard is defined
    as "man skilled in occult arts."
    
    
    alison
    

>    I used to think that wizard was genderless also.  But according
>    to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, wizard is defined
>    as "man skilled in occult arts."
 
So, now that she's a wizard, (and, hence, a man), does she get a 40%
pay raise?

Martin.

    re: .29, Alison:
    
>    I used to think that wizard was genderless also.  But according
>    to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, wizard is defined
>    as "man skilled in occult arts."
    
    Okay, so the Oxford Dictionary is the last word, but from my
    "Dec-issue" American Heritage Dictionary:
    
    wizard n. 1. A sorcerer or magician.  2. (informal) a clever or
    skillful person: "a wizard at mathematics.
    
    The usage of our group's term "wizard" is clearly the second.
    But then why does a long, pointed black hat with silver stars
    and a glittery wand come with the job?

    Also, I looked up "socerer", "magician", and "person", just to make
    sure that the term "wizard" didn't have a sexist dependency.  Those
    words came up clean.