Seeking enlightenment on magic(k)

[D.G.]

No: HPFGUIDX 69548

Quigonginger wrote:  I've noticed posters spelling magick and magic. 
I checked the dictionary and found only magic. It is my (admittedly 
limited) understanding that magick is real and magic is fictional. 

Magick would be that which is done (usually in the religious sense) 
by actual people who actually exist. Magic would be fictional, such 
as flying broomsticks, pumpkins turning into carraiges, etc. or 
slight of hand a la Doug Henning. 

If this is the case, then wouldn't Harry Potter be magic? 

Me:

I think this one is partially my fault, so I'll try to answer to the 
best of my (very limited) ability.

I personally am not a practitioner, but I've known various wiccans 
and "white" witches who were/are.  The impression I've always gotten 
is that "magic" refers to stage magic --i.e., "tricks" that both 
magician and audience knows are fake ("sleight of hand a la Doug 
Henning". "Magick" (which I've also seen spelled as "majick" -- see 
below) refers to the actual art of using spells, charms, amulets, the 
entire armamentarium of what  witches, wizards, warlocks, etc. would 
do. I've seen some statements by wiccans and other practitioners of 
magic[k]al arts in which they've said, pretty adamantly, that they 
think this spelling distinction should be maintained.

Whether or not some of the activities related in the Potter books 
(broomsticks, etc.) are things that we usually associate with myth 
and/or superstition (thus are "unreal"), in the context of the 
reality of the stories themselves these are real practices 
undertaken by real individuals for real purposes -- i.e., they're not 
illusionists' tricks [well, not usually!] -- thus, in my 
understanding of the terminology, they're "magick".

D.G. ("JazzmanChgo"), who counts as one of his most prized 
possessions an autograph from Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack, the New 
Orleans musician (and practitioner of spiritualist/gris-gris arts in 
the New Orleans tradition), to which Mac appended the 
following:  "Musick = Majick"  

I LOOOOVE that one!