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Magic and Spellcasting
And yes, that's spelled correctly

There is an essence that runs though all things, a power that is part of the divine. It unites every thing with every other thing, and so we are all at some level connected. We tap into that essence when we attempt to get closer to our gods or when we work magic. This essence is frequently called magic, although there are a variety of terms employed. A belief in this essence is an intrinsic part of Wicca.

Many Wiccans describe all energy work as magic, whether it is a practical spell, the casting of a circle, or a religious ritual. Others consider the term magic to be equivalent to spellcasting. Most Wiccans do practice spellcasting, but it is not required. Some Wiccans do not cast spells at all, and many others do it only occasionally. This site originally used magic to refer to spellcasting, but I am attempting to clarify those passages.

Modern society frequently tries to tell us that the belief in magic is superstitious and silly, and some people's perceptions of it are. You're never going to shoot lighting from your fingertips, nor will you win the lottery because you lit a green candle. And you're certainly not going to become the Big Pooh-Bah of Magic because you picked up a copy of spells from some Big Name Pagan. The following quote sums it up better than I ever could:

Magick[sic] just does not work the way that people of today want it to. Magick has it's limitations and it's uses. It is not here to solve every aspect of life's problems and challenges and it is not a replacement for facing and accepting your responsibilites.[sic] Magick has it's place and the results do not come without hard work and extreme dedication to your respected traditions. The results of Magick are also not going to just present themselves to you [in] an extremely visual manner. ¹

Magic (by whatever definition) requires dedication, concentration, and belief. If reading someone else's spells let's you better focus on other things, so be it, but there are just as many practitioners who write their own spells because it helps them focus on the task at hand. Moreover, a religious ritual will accomplish nothing if it means nothing to those performing it. It is not the gestures or the words that make magic effective, but the power and the will within us that these things help to evoke.

Magic works better on yourself than on other people. Some people write this off as psychological, and perhaps they are partially right. The effort you put into a spell makes you much more aware of the change you want in yourself. When the target is yourself, the target is generally more likely to also take other, non-magical actions to reach the intended goal, and this is crucial. Magic is a nudge. It is not going to find you a well-paying job if you haven't mailed out any resumes and spend all day on the couch. That is just as unreasonable an expectation as firing lighting from your fingertips is.

The relationship between prayer, miracles, and magic is complicated. They may all ultimately stem from the same font, but they are approached by vastly different avenues. Prayer is ultimately a request, magic is a command, and miracles are events out of our control entirely, performed directly by the will of the divine. (The concept of miracles is more clear in the context of religions like Christianity, which believes in a strong distinction between the divine and the mortal. Defining miracles in a Pagan context is more problematic, and one I generally avoid.)

Certainly there are actions within Wicca that straddle definitions. However, to entirely remove the division between prayer and magic is extremely problematic. Magic is an expression of will. It requires a commanding mind to work it. It has no room for "please" and "if the Goddess wills it", because such mentalities dilute the overall mental frame of mind. (Besides, if the Goddess wills your spell not to work, do you think she's going to be stopped because you didn't give her permission to interfere?) Prayers, on the other hand, require sincerity and a certain humility. It is intrinsically up to the deity addressed whether a prayer is answered. Ordering a goddess to manifest is absurd.

Some may cast a spell in the name of a certain deity, something like "In Hekate's name, I will that.." This still involves the willpower generally associated with magic - it needs to be approached as a command that you are giving, not with the expectation that Hekate will now take care of whatever it is that you want. Moreover, you had better be sure that your magical work is, in fact, in line with Hekate's interests. If you claim to act in the name of another, that should actually be what you're doing. Throwing in the name of a random deity is unuseful and disrespectful, at best. (I have this image of Jesus slapping his forehead and shaking his head when Christian fundamentalists shoot abortion doctors or cheer the deaths of soldiers "in Jesus's name." I also envision a thought bubble over his head saying something like "Keep me out of this. This is NOT what I taught!")

Now, as to that bizarre "k" in "magick":

"Including the "k" differentiates magick you do with directed thought, candles, herbs, oils, stones, and incense, from the magic with a "c" that a magician does on stage strictly for entertainment purposes...To be quite honest, the other reason I prefer to spell magick with a "k" is just because it looks neat, different, & unique." ²

I'm not astounded people do this. I'm just astounded people actually actually say it.

Aleister Crowley is the one responsible for adding the word "magick" to the occult vocabulary. He did express the wish to separate "real magic" from stage magic, although I see no reason why this is needed. The English language has tons of words with unrelated meanings. I've discussed magic in religion and history classes for years, and not once has anyone ever confused Celtic beliefs with David Copperfield. However, Crowley also wanted to separate himself from the magic (no "k") practiced by the Order of the Golden Dawn and others. Quite frankly, Crowley was an attention whore and loved drawing divisions between himself and others. It's a lousy reason to start spelling a word differently.

Conversely, Crowley also gave reasons why he changed the word by adding a "k", such as the mystical significance of the numbers 6 (the number of letters in "magick") and 11 (K is the 11th letter of the alphabet). He also gave a distinct definition of what "magick" meant: "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will." Will here is True Will - basically your higher and ultimate purpose in life. Hence, casting a spell to get Bobby to date you or a higher allowance would not be magick. So, when people use magick in this capacity, it makes sense. Interchanging it indiscriminately with magic, however, is silly.

Unfortunately, the real reason most people speak of "magick" is that which the Bunny above confessed to. Likewise, that reason has generated such English language abominations as "majik", "majick", "magik", and "majic". It's an attempt to be "kewl". If the only way you can define yourself as unique is by abandoning basic grammar skills, you might want to reassess your life. I promise that there are better methods.

I use the five letter spelling throughout this site. However, when I am quoting someone (such as above) and they use the term magick, I keep their spelling, just as I keep any spelling errors.

"'Magick' is the correct, historical spelling."
Yes, "magick" was once considered an acceptable spelling of the word, just as "olde" was an acceptable spelling of "old". That doesn't make it any less pretentious now. About three hundred years ago all sorts of words ending in "ick" lost their "k". A couple hundred years before that English didn't even have standard spellings. Try reading the original Robin Hood stories or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in their original English. The varying spellings make them almost unreadable.

And for the record, Gerald Gardner used the term "magic" in his books.