# Psychics Suck Big Time

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-suck-big-time/26236>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [July 20, 2000, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-suck-big-time/26236 "2000-07-20T13:46:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-suck-big-time/26236/21 "2000-07-22T15:48:39Z")

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Goboy asked:  
“Why do Wiccans spell magic with a k?”  
Quoting Johnny Angel from this thread:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=26822&pagenumber=2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=26822&pagenumber=2)

Magick – we should distinguish magick with a `k' from other forms of conjuring. Magic with a `k’ is vegetarian yuppie ecofeminist magic. It is clean and innocent, does not involve the invocation of evil spirits, and takes as its paraphrenelia clean and nifty things like crystals, candles and herbs. Magick with a `k' users never harm animals, or use viscera or fecal matter of any kind in their spells. The goals of such spells tend to be abstract positive ones that would not be measurable in any way even if they succeeded, such as `realign the spirit’ or `purge negativity.’

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**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-suck-big-time/26236/22 "2000-07-22T17:52:42Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Why do Wiccans spell magic with a k?

[Here’s](http://www.brunching.com/features/feature-fantasygeek.html) the best explanation for that phenomenon that I’ve ever seen. 😉

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-suck-big-time/26236/23 "2000-07-23T01:02:51Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> It’s “I before E except after C, or when sounded like A, as in ‘neighbor’ and ‘weigh’.”  
> -Kimtsu

You know, sleight completely fails to have an /a/ sound for a vowel. It has a /long-i/ sound. Yet it’s still spelled with an /ei/. Just proves that in English orthagraphy, all rules have exceptions.  
One more thing:  
Wiccans (the shysters they are) misspell magic to create a kind of ‘group spelling’, which makes other hucksters more recognizible (at least in text-based media). Cockney, British rhyming slang, had a similar origin among London’s street criminals.

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