The Keeper's Path

“Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.” —Aleister Crowley

I’m going to start this off by explaining why it’s popular in Wiccan/Witchcraft and some other Pagan or Occult communities to spell magic with the ‘k’ at the end.

We have Aleister Crowley, a British occultist of the early 20th century, to thank for popularizing the ‘k’ in occult magic. He specifically used it to separate the concepts of stage performance and entertainment with true occult magic, saying that the use of the ‘k’ was the older spelling and for specific magical reasons having to do with the power of different letters. If you’ve had any experience reading anything from the Middle Ages or Renaissance, you are aware that spelling was an informal game of just trying to match letters with sounds and nothing was ever really set down as an official standard of spelling a word until hundreds of years later.

(I’m reminded of nightmares of struggling through Beowulf and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in my studies of Old and Middle English in school.)

We find magick used as the spelling for occult works in the pages of 16th century philosopher and magician Agrippa in his work Three Books on Occult Philosophy. So it didn’t originate with Crowley, but he is the reason most occultists are familiar with and use this spelling. In any case, this spelling is what Crowley chose to use in order to separate his understanding of stage magic (sleight-of-hand, performance art) and genuine magic (spells, rituals, and incantations to make things happen).

I mention that Crowley had specific reasons for the ‘k’ as well as just differentiation from stage magic: “The Anglo-Saxon k in Magick, like most of Crowley’s conceits, is a means of indicating the kind of magic which he performed. K is the eleventh letter of several alphabets, and eleven is the principal number of magick, because it is the number attributed to the Qliphoth – the underworld of demonic and chaotic forces that have to be conquered before magick can be performed. K has other magical implications: it corresponds to the power or shakti aspect of creative energy, for k is the ancient Egyptian khu, the magical power. Specifically, it stands for kteis (vagina), the complement to the wand (or phallus) which is used by the Magician in certain aspects of the Great Work.” – Kenneth Grant & John Symonds (preface to the 1973 edition of Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley).

Crowley’s main occult books were published in the very early 1900s, and influenced Gerald Gardner with his ideas and concepts. Gardner was also notoriously bad at spelling, so that might be another reason he happily embraced the ‘k’ for the practice of magic too.

Maybe. 🙂

It is for these reasons I made the personal decision many years ago to use the ‘k’ spelling to specifically reference High/Ceremonial magickal practices. When I’m discussing Wicca, Witchcraft, or various types of Pagan folk magic, I default to the regular standardized spelling.

This is because I personally think that if you are operating in a magical community, talking about magic, doing magic and the like, and you worry that there will be some confusion as to whether or not the witch next to you thinks you are talking about disappearing shells under cups, or flashy tricks with playing cards, you are hanging out with the wrong type of magical practitioners. Likewise, if you feel the need to spell magic with a ‘k’ when talking to non-magical people, you’re probably canceling out your own point because in all but a small amount of instances, you will only look insipid and silly, like you can’t spell, when you are in communication with them.

Just let it go. It’s magic, unless it’s specifically the kind of magick that warrants a ‘k’.

All of this is to say that I understand what a Witch or Occultist means when they use the magick spelling, and that’s the important thing. I won’t try to say that one is right and the other is wrong for others.

You do you.

I suppose some of it bothers me to see the ‘k’ spelling used in all formats for the reasons I’ve given above, but also because of the modern movement to disavow any influence from Crowley, because he’s dark and scary, and yet openly use his philosophies and teachings in their practice.

If you are going to use the ‘k’ spelling, and say you don’t have anything to do with Crowley, that seems ignorant at best and disingenuous at worst. As with basically anything I am going to say about doing Magic(k), Witchcraft, or anything within the occult realms, know where it comes from and know why you’re doing it.

Make that choice to use it or not, or use any of the other variants for any reason that pleases you. But know how to answer if you’re asked, “Why do you spell magic like that?”