Baldwin said:
Actually, it’s a magic(magick) staff disguised as a normal household object.
Flyfisher, if she weighs the same as a duck, she’s a witch. 
Who is this Irishman, who is so learned in the ways of Science?
It’s a sad thing when such a line goes unacknowledged for so long.
If we’re going to make the distinction between “magic”, which is prestidigation, and “magick”, which is real, then one must ask what Harry Potter, say, or Merlin, does. In the context of the King Arthur stories, what Merlin does is real. Likewise, Mr. Potter does “real” magic, in the context of his stories. So are they practicing magick with a K?
Sounds reasonable to me. I think (not certain, mind you) that the pagan/wiccan crowd would agree.
The real question is what does Pratchett have to say?
Would that mean that a real guitar player would be an acoustick guitar player?
Very comickal, Dr. Cobweb. 
Julie
What I wanna know is: Why did they append a “k”? Why not remove the “c” and THEN append the “k”? Why not call it “magik”?
Are they trying to confuse me?
Maybe the broomsticks were like this one:
Or should that be broomstics?
Julie
This is a case, I should think, of “the people who use it can decide.” Wiccans seem to have agreed (although I’m not sure I’m aware of whether Wicca is centralized) on the usage, and I’ve seen it around.
According to the alt.magick FAQ, Aleister Crowley popularized a then-archaic term. After well over a hundred years of usage among the mystic-types, I’d guess that it’s fairly well-established.
We also note that Robert Asprin used the term exclusively in Another_Fine_Myth and its sequels, and with his notable background as an editor it’s hard to imagine him using the term lightly. If memory serves me, the topic is briefly discussed by a couple characters in the book, but it could just be my mind playing tricks after reading this thread and related materials.
Cheers –
– Quothz
quothz@yahoo.com
This is a case, I should think, of “the people who use it can decide.” Wiccans seem to have agreed (although I’m not sure I’m aware of whether Wicca is centralized) on the usage, and I’ve seen it around.
According to the alt.magick FAQ, Aleister Crowley popularized a then-archaic term. After well over a hundred years of usage among the mystic-types, I’d guess that it’s fairly well-established.
We also note that Robert Asprin used the term exclusively in Another_Fine_Myth and its sequels, and with his notable background as an editor it’s hard to imagine him using the term lightly. If memory serves me, the topic is briefly discussed by a couple characters in the book, but it could just be my mind playing tricks after reading this thread and related materials.
Cheers –
– Quothz
quothz@yahoo.com
This is a case, I should think, of “the people who use it can decide.” Wiccans seem to have agreed (although I’m not aware of whether Wicca is centralized) on the usage, and I’ve seen it around.
According to the alt.magick FAQ, Aleister Crowley popularized a then-archaic term. After well over a hundred years of usage among the mystic-types, I’d guess that it’s fairly well-established.
We also note that Robert Asprin used the term exclusively in Another_Fine_Myth and its sequels, and with his notable background as an editor it’s hard to imagine him using the term lightly. If memory serves me, the topic is briefly discussed by a couple characters in the book, but it could just be my mind playing tricks after reading this thread and related materials.
Cheers –
– Quothz
quothz@yahoo.com
Gah, sorry, kept getting timeouts and thinking it hadn’t gone through. Er, I’ve slightly edited between posts.
Quothz
Exodus 22:18 “mkasheepaah lo’ tchayeh” in Hebrew/“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”
“M’kasheepaah”, translated “witch” or in modern versions “sorceress”, literally means “whisperer” or “enchanter”
(the root is “kishuf/p”- whisper" & is related to
“nakhash”/serpent), which in Atlantis’s interpretation is taken to mean “slanderer/gossiper/rumor-monger/false accuser”.
However, Hebrew authorities agree it does indeed mean those who mutter incantations/cast spells- some will qualify that to also imply they be harmful spells.
As an aside, it is often claimed that the word really should be translated “poisoner”. This is using the Greek Septuagint translation which renders “m’kasheepaah” as"pharmakaios", which literally means “drugger”.
What I’d like to see is a cite to back up the false claim that the “Spanish Inquisition” or any office of Inquisition “changed” the interpretation.
Now, I have come across a claim in Discoverie of Witchcraft, written during the era of James IV and I of Scotland and England, that it was the “witchmongers” who changed the interpretation, but “witchmonger” was not considered identical to “Inquisition” in that particular book. It should be noted that the book was a “Discoverie” in the sense of being an exposé of the weaknesses of the claims of those who would try and punish so-called “witches”.
The “K” is used to distinguish between the slight of had “magic” and the Magick used to brig about change within ones surroundings from will.
Dogface- it’s doubtful that the Inquisition, Spanish or otherwise, had anything to do with the interpretation. Mainly because the Inquisitions had little to do with the Witch Hunts, focusing instead on “heretics” such as Cathars, Marranos Jews & Protestants. Indeed, some sites (I don’t have the addies handy, alas) from neo-Pagan historians on “the Burning Times” have even noted that some Witch Hunts were interrupted by the Inquisitions.
FriarTed, what I wanted a cite for is the supposed change in the interpretation set out in the OP, as Dogface has mentioned. My take is the same as yours in your above post.
Thanks,
RR
I have no evidence at all of this being the case, but I find it likely that to a peasant for whom life under the rule of the Godly might have been very unpleasant, there might well have been an impulse to try the Other Side. If your children were starving and the priest told you it was God’s Will, you might decide that the priest was a fool (which was unlikely, since he wasn’t in the Guild) or you might just say, “Well, then maybe the Devil will give me a better deal.”
Think of the devotion to evil expressed by Julia in “1984”—she’s seen “Good”.