Magic vs. Magick

"Magic" and "magick" are two very different things, though most people would likely stumble if asked to explain how. In truth, it's fairly simple.

• "Magic" is the type of entertainment flogged by magicians (think of illusions like pulling rabbits out of hats and purportedly sawing people in half).
• "Magick," on the other hand, encompasses a series of techniques used to harness energy (both internal and external) to help change oneself and one's surroundings.

Real Magic(k)

 from: "Simplifience"  (Reality for Beginners)

Imagine a world where we did discover magic. “True magic”, as a modern youth might claim, raised on Harry Potter books and completely devoid of empathy for medieval peasants. Magic where you can wave a wand and say a word and levitate through the roof.

If that actually happened in this world, we wouldn’t all throw down our scientific models and shout “magic is real!”. We wouldn’t burn down the discoveries we’ve already made and start over. No, we’d say “well isn’t that funny”. We’d scratch our heads and wonder “hey, how did that work?”

If hard magic was discovered, we wouldn’t try to hide it. We wouldn’t try to rationalize it away. Rationality can’t make things go away: rationality uncovers the truth. If you could wave a wand and levitate, we’d be very very confused – and then we’d figure out how you did that.

If we found magic, we wouldn’t label it “magic” and give up. We’d approach this new mystery like we’ve approached all other mysteries in the past. We’d figure it out.Once we’d figured it out, it would be another domain of science. For science is the study of all that is.

Something must be mysterious in order to earn your wonder, then you aren’t pining for a world with magic: you’re pining for a world with stupider humans. No matter what reality looks like, humans will try to understand how it works – whether you think it’s magic or not.

Here’s the kicker: we found magic. We can wiggle special substances in special patterns in order to send messages to the other side of the world. We’ve discovered miraculous healing techniques. We have unfettered access to the combined knowledge of our ancestors. We found the magics of reality, and we understood them — and so we call them science.

In the real world, magic doesn’t get labeled as such. We study it, and it becomes a science. That doesn’t make it any less magical. If you actually look at our world, you’ll realize that magic is real. We found it. It lets us build buildings that scrape the very skies. It lets us explore the depths of the oceans. It lets us stand on the moon.

The fact that it’s real doesn’t make it mundane.