Mediation is the function of a priest/priestess; a mediator is one who intercedes or acts as an interface between divinity and humanity. In magic mediation has a more precise meaning, based upon the important truth that we all contain divinity (or the original source) within us, just as we are all contained within the being of the universe.
In true mediation, any individual may reach deeply into the states of consciousness where transhuman entities are met. Such beings may be aspects of divinity, or god-forms, or entities who have transcended human experience and exist solely in the inner worlds. In mediation, a human acts as a focus or gateway (a portal) for the consciousness of such transhuman beings ... but it is not the sole purpose or type of mediation found in magical art.
In other words, mediation is not a matter of passive reception (as in the popularised and superficial process of mediumship) but of refining and clarifying personal modes of awareness. When these higher modes are attuned to the worlds or beings so essential to magical holism mediation may arise.
Most significantly, mediation is not a matter of 'messages'; if it was so, it be more or less valueless, as higher modes of awareness or higher spiritual energies transcend and obviate verbal communication. A true mediator may be able to translate certain key images or intuitions of the spiritual realms into words, but he or she is more likely to act as a channel for a specific power to flow out into the magical circle, or ultimately into the world. It is the last sense that true priests/priestesses are known - they mediate the power of divinity. (R J Stewart - p47/48 Living Magical Arts)
