Difference between Magick and Magic

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Joshua

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I've noticed that throughout this season, in the subtitles; whenever Willow or Tara mention magic, it's always subtitled as "Magick".

What's the difference between Magick and Magic? and Why is it spelled differently on "Buffy"?
 
I always took it as Magick is spells and stuff whereas magic is the showy stuff done for fun (like card tricks and stuff)
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
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Magic is the normal word, that is the correct spelling of the word.
Magic was used with a 'k' instead of the 'c' (magik) by the followers of Aleister Crawley. (Also mentioned by followers of 'the golden age of the golden dawn' of which Crawley was a member)
On a side note, he was kicked out of Italy and the abbey he founded there was eventually closed, mainly because of all the blood sacrifices that were being done.
So, magic with a 'k' used to be associated with devil worship.
Having magic spelt as 'magick' is probably just some bright sparks idea of making himself famous ie How to get yourself noticed.
Hollywood has lots of people like that.
Go to the libraries that have books about witchcraft written 100 years ago or more, when ever the term magic is used, try counting the number of times the word is spelt with a 'ck' or a 'k'.
Magic is magic, is magic. The spelling will not change, regardless of the size of what is being done.

Why should you believe me? If you choose not to that is up to you, however.
My views on the varied spellings of the word stems from meetings I had with old 'practitioners of the craft' that I had when I was learning the craft some forty years ago.

Most card tricks are not magic at all, they are trickery, illusion or just sleight of hand.
 
I think it depends who you ask. I doubt there is a official reason for it. I guess it depends on what kind of context they're used in.

I think a lot of people assume using a "K" makes it sound more serious, so that's why they use it. Then other's just use it to sound snobbish. Then there's probably some who actually define the words differently. And those that think it's the same, just different spelling. Not that magic of any form is easy to define, no matter how it's spelled.

I mean, if you ask a orthodox Catholic what magic is, the answer will be different from what any sort of wiccan think it is.

---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:06 PM ----------

ILLYRIAN said:
Why should you believe me? If you choose not to that is up to you, however.
My views on the varied spellings of the word stems from meetings I had with old 'practitioners of the craft' that I had when I was learning the craft some forty years ago.
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I believe that is the way you and many people think. Doesn't mean it's the only way to define it. Maybe it even happens to be the most common definition, but if it's one thing I've learned, it is that ideas/terms/phrases can be defined differently depending on the context, without one being more "right" than another.

Obviously, that varies too. If someone calls a chair a couch, we're allowed to object. But with a word like magic and magik, there's not exactly a common definition.

I'm not saying you shouldn't define it the way you do though. I hope it didn't come off that way. If it's common practise for you and others, that's fine, interesting even since I've been curious about the different spellings before.
 
Sometimes in the subtitles its just spelled magics so its inconsistant anyways both work. No matter hows its spelled it most likely just means Willows about to open a can of Mojo on someone.
 
I thought it might be an Old English version fo the word, but the precursors of the word "magic" are:

Magique - Old French
Magice - Late Latin
Magike - Greek - the sorcerer's art
Magikos - Greek - pertaining to magic
Magos - Greek - sorcerer
Magus - Old Persian

It sounds like something from Old English that would denote sorcery involving summoning of dark powers as opposed to a magician's trick. But it is more likely a screenwriter's attempt to make some of the material appear to be old and derived from mediaeval sorcery.
 
T
tec
Woah this was my I lerned something new today subject
I always just figured magick was the pretentious version.

It doesn't annoy me as much as when "Wicca" is used to refer to a person, rather than as an abstract noun referring to the practice.
 
The Dark Avenger said:
What's the difference between Magick and Magic? and Why is it spelled differently on "Buffy"?
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I forgot this part of the post. I guess they were simply inconsistent, no thought behind it.

---------- Post added at 09:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 PM ----------

tkts said:
I always just figured magick was the pretentious version.

It doesn't annoy me as much as when "Wicca" is used to refer to a person, rather than as an abstract noun referring to the practice.
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Speaking of pet peeves: I was reading up on lots of different religions and the occult as a teen, and apparently not all wiccans are witches or all witches are wiccans. There are different kinds of witches of wiccans all together. Not a easy to define bunch.

I vaugely recall Willow using wiccan and witch as a synonym.
 
I'm not sure if she ever used "wiccan," or just "wicca."

I could speculate that in the Buffyverse, a wicca is somebody with actual power while a wiccan is one of the "blah blah Gaia, blah blah moon, menstrual life force power thingy" people, but I don't think there's any canon evidence for a semantic distinction.
 
Religions, beliefs, so many thoughts about them, so many of them.
When Jesus was, the religion was Jewish, then the term christian was talked of and along came loads of others.
The same can be said of witchcraft, although the words wicca and witch were synonymous with each. Loads of names are used for different aspects of witchcraft. What didn't help the confusion was the bright sparks who decided to call 'their' new religion wicca in England in the 1950's.
One reason for that time was that the law was changed in 1952, it wasn't illegal to be a witch.
Wicca existed long before then. Wicca is the name of the belief, a wiccan is a follower of the belief.
 
tkts said:
I'm not sure if she ever used "wiccan," or just "wicca."

I could speculate that in the Buffyverse, a wicca is somebody with actual power while a wiccan is one of the "blah blah Gaia, blah blah moon, menstrual life force power thingy" people, but I don't think there's any canon evidence for a semantic distinction.
Click to expand...

I did a google search for wicca Buffy transcript and found lots of hits. Kind of seems like they use wiccan/wicca and witch as synonyms.

But, I don't recall hearing them say "evil wiccan", so maybe they use wiccan as a way to describe a good witch.
 
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