That question used to pop quiet frequently while I was practising my craft, especially when working on sigil magick.
While charging a sigil I would often wonder if I was just “imagining” the outcome instead of “visualizing” it as I should.
Now, visualizing is a powerful ,widely used ability and it helps the practitioner shape their own reality and attract desirable outcomes from their actions.
It’s really useful in meditation and goal-setting and it even goes further in evocation for some people.
That being said ,how does one know where the line between imagination and visualization lies?
Lets begin by breaking down the etymology of those two words.
IMAGINE
It originally derives from the latin word imagin which means “image” which was later used by the French in the form of “imaginer” which actually means to picture smth.
VISUALIZE
It derives from the word “visual” which means smth you can see.
As you can see the line is quiet thin , but overall they have some basic differencies:
• Visualization is a form of targeted imagination
While with imagination one can create images , “real” or “fake”, with visualization one can only reproduce “real” images and/or modify them.
F.e You can imagine you’re riding a unicorn over the sparkly rainbow ,but you can visualize a set- goal being achieved.
• One can imagine things/events that could have happened in the past or that may happen in the future ,with the latter usually not being based on current actions and decisions.
However, one can visualize events that will be happening in the near future, or in the present tense based off of their actions and choices.
• Imagination uses all five senses ,whereas visualization bases on the sense of sight or rather “mental sight”.
F.e one can imagine the smell of a food while reading it in a book ,but they can’t visualize the smell, only the appearance of the meal.
This leads me to the next difference which is:
• One can imagine things they’ve never seen/experienced before, but they can only visualize something familiar to them.
F.e you can imagine what an alien looks like ,but you can’t visualize an alien dancing because you don’t know its true form.
Hope I cleared some things up.
Feel free to spam this post with your own opinions on this.
M.V 
