Dark Magick

[Benvarry]

In my view, "dark magic" is a term best reserved for fantasy and RPGs; ideologically, it's a carryover from the dualistic thinking you get in many Western societies today (light = "good," gentle, compassionate, masculine, politically correct - Christlike, basically; "dark" = feminine, vindictive, "bad," introspective, unrestrained, woodsy, blah blah blah). So, I suppose "dark magic" exists if you believe what you're doing to be "dark" for some reason, really. I don't take it too seriously, myself.

[Torey]

Originally Posted by Sequoia

"To differentiate it from stage magic."

That's what I've been told, anyway.

And so says the majority. 'Tis why I spell it that way...

[Rae'ya]

Originally Posted by SerenityMoon

...I want to know why some people insist on spelling "magic" as "magick".

Aleister Crowley popularised the spelling to differentiate between the magick of witchcraft and ceremonial ritual etc, and stage magic or parlour tricks. It's in fairly common usage now within the neo-pagan community (although not an across-the-board standard, by any means). Some people choose not to use it because it Crowley didn't have any historical or entymological reasons to back up his usage of the term, but personally I like it. I like the way it differentiates and I like the way it looks written down or typed out. I certainly don't assume that people who use the spelling 'magic' are talking about something different than I am though, so it's purely semantics and really doesn't matter which spelling a person prefers to use *shrugs*