Thread: Magic vs magick

The vast majority of the English speaking world uses the spelling magic while a few people prefer the other spelling.

As a writer in the genre of fantasy, among others, I would like to address a difficulty I have with the use of a spelling that, in all of my dictionaries, is listed as archaic. If we are writing in modern English, shouldn’t we use the accepted modern spelling?

If we use archaic spellings from say, the time of Chaucer, when spellings were not standardized, are we not creating unnecessary confusion? Why should one write a work of fantasy or post a comment and use this old spelling when all of the other words in the piece use accepted spellings of our modern day language. Since the time of Samuel Johnson, learned men have struggled to attain consistency of spelling and usage. To fly in the face of these efforts strikes me as an act of elitism and arrogance by some modern day magic practitioners who favor the incorrect spelling.

Might I suggest that we re-adopt the hitherto discarded polite pronouns into modern usage simply because they appear in the Bible (KJV)?

People like Aleister Crowley and his followers used/use the term "Magick" to distinguish what they term the "real thing" from the illusions and tricks of performers.

Aleister Crowley had zero idea about the whole topic, and he would have been more knowledgeable if he'd read from the cereal box.

Anyway, Magick just sounds childish & stupid in my opinion.

"Magick" or "Majik" or any of those permutations feel to me like a cheap way to try to add mystique to a dull and overused word and doff its many connotations. If you're going to use magic, I think it's generally stronger to give it a new name (Like "The Force" in Starwars) or to not have a name for it at all (Does LOTR ever call it magic? I can't remember). If you're going to use it, spell it normal. If you're writing in English and you're not doing a historical piece on Crowley, I suggest spelling it "Magic."

People who believe that there is "real" magic tend to use the -k spelling. Personally, I don't like it because it reminds me of "womyn" and the like -- trying too hard to be different without being *really* different.

I understand the *reasons* for "womyn" too--it just seems like the writer is trying too hard to show "I really *am* a feminist"

"I really dig magick" Yeah.

I think my opinion is a hybrid of almost everyone else's! I think the move should always be to consolidate spelling and rules, and language should always be internally consistent. If you write in modern language, everything should be in modern language barring a flashback or time travel. In those cases, language becomes a great tool for distinguishing where in time you are.

I don't get too upset if someone spells a word differently, but as a reader I expect a reason why. If they're doing it "just cuz" then it becomes a barrier for me to really get into the story.

Kind of like changing vampire to 'vampyre' -- silly and transparent attempt to dress up a word. Like others have said, if the regular spelling isn't doing it for you, better off coming up with a new word altogether.

Originally Posted by LaughinJim

The vast majority of the English speaking world uses the spelling magic while a few people prefer the other spelling.

As a writer in the genre of fantasy, among others, I would like to address a difficulty I have with the use of a spelling that, in all of my dictionaries, is listed as archaic. If we are writing in modern English, shouldn’t we use the accepted modern spelling?

If we use archaic spellings from say, the time of Chaucer, when spellings were not standardized, are we not creating unnecessary confusion? Why should one write a work of fantasy or post a comment and use this old spelling when all of the other words in the piece use accepted spellings of our modern day language. Since the time of Samuel Johnson, learned men have struggled to attain consistency of spelling and usage. To fly in the face of these efforts strikes me as an act of elitism and arrogance by some modern day magic practitioners who favor the incorrect spelling.

"Magick" personally annoys me, along with any weird or quirky spelling changes to make a word seem different. I have no problem with using a different term completely (like, as mentioned by a previous poster, The Force) but if a word that has an accepted English spelling is being used, it should be spelt that way.

Originally Posted by LaughinJim

Might I suggest that we re-adopt the hitherto discarded polite pronouns into modern usage simply because they appear in the Bible (KJV)?

I'm assuming here that you're talking about "thee" and "thou". Firstly, they're not polite; they imply quite the opposite, familiarity. Secondly, I would love to see them brought back into the English language, because the number of times I've wished that I had the ability to distinguish between the singular and plural second person pronoun is quite ridiculous. As an Aussie, I can get away with "youse" for plural in casual conversation, but "thee" and "thou" would allow me to make the distinction in more formal contexts as well. Apologies for the slight off-topic tangent, but this has always been a bit of a pet issue of mine.

Originally Posted by Baron

People like Aleister Crowley and his followers used/use the term "Magick" to distinguish what they term the "real thing" from the illusions and tricks of performers.

Yeah sort of.

So what happened with Magic and Magick was that yes Crowley wanted to separate 'stage magic' from 'real magic' and yeshe craved attention but there were other things too. Magick spelt with a 'k' has 6 letters and K = the 11th letter which are both powerful and potent numbers in the world of 'real magic'. There are other reasons, but who wants a biography of Crowley?

Anyway Crowley saw an oppourtunity and, craving attention, he took it.

Technically speaking it is not wrong to spell Magic with the 'k' and Magick isn't 'archaic'; it really just depends who you are supporting. Everything is politics.

that kind of thing is a big reason why i get 'turned off' books. i hate it. i even hate the way philip pullman calls those things in His Dark Materials 'daemons' or whatever. i know in a sense it's excusable because a 'daemon' is in fact quite different from a 'demon' but, like johnm said, i don't understand why then he didn't just come up with a new word entirely or else use a conventional term closer related to what he was trying to portray - a 'familiar' perhaps. but 'daemons' as far as i'm concerned can go hang. as cynical as it sounds, i have a feeling he only decided to go with 'daemon' to give the whole thing some kind of occult flavor. humbug.


also i love occult-themed writing and anything to do with spirituality, but i honestly can't understand why anyone gives a crap about a charlatan hack like crowley. his 'books' were atrociously infantile, even back then.

Originally Posted by Missy

Technically speaking it is not wrong to spell Magic with the 'k' and Magick isn't 'archaic'; it really just depends who you are supporting. Everything is politics.

you're right and all, however i think anyone who insists on such trivial expressions of 'politics' will have a hard time getting taken seriously by anyone over the age of 15. so will anyone dumb enough to think inclusions of unnecessary letters somehow make anything 'powerful' and 'potent'.

Originally Posted by j.w.olson

"Magick" or "Majik" or any of those permutations feel to me like a cheap way to try to add mystique to a dull and overused word and doff its many connotations.

Exactly this. Magic is magic, no matter how you spell it. If you spell it differently, it's only to make it look special, and you might as well save your time.

Originally Posted by j.w.olson

(Does LOTR ever call it magic? I can't remember).

Kind of. The Rings of Power are always referred to as "magical," and it's understood that Gandalf is magical. However, later in the first book, when they meet Galadriel, she seems to have no idea what "magic" is, acting as though people only call things magical if they don't understand them. She only calls her mirror "magic" because the hobbits do, for example. I think there's sort of an understanding in the book that magic does exist, but most things that are considered "magical" really aren't.