Magick is such a buzz word these days… But what is magick, really?
There’s a saying that says, “if you ask 10 different witches what magick is, you’ll get 16 different answers.”
In 2018, I decided to actually test the theory!
I asked witches in my online community what the word “magick” means to them. Here’s what I’ve found… Starting with me!
“My definition of magick is pretty much inserting your intention into the tools and the elements that are available to us as human beings, and using that to take conscious responsibility for the direction of your own life.”
“Magick to me is whatever you manifest energetically. So, setting your intention for something you desire and putting your goals into it, and physically taking action. But you’re also manipulating your energy in order gain whatever it is that you’re wanting or looking for. Magick is everywhere. It’s wishing… making wishes on shooting stars. It’s blowing out candles…”
“I call myself a witch because I’m connected to my inner magick, my inner life force, and my inner power, if you will. My definition of magick stems from the Hindu tradition in India, and to me, it’s Shakti, and that means power. And another word for that is potency. And it’s essentially our inner life force that is one with us. So it’s always there. It’s always existing, but we have the kind of job of remembering that it exists and then learning to work with it and tapping into it.”
“Regardless of whether somebody knows about my religious beliefs, they always call me a witch from everything else that I’m doing and creating, so it’s sort of this thing that I kind of associate with me regardless, because, yes, I use outside forces to influence what I’m creating and what I’m doing and my life. And I think we all can. Lately, I’ve been leaning toward priestess, but really I would just call myself powerful. Magick is being able to use the energy of the world around us to create our desires.”
“I’ve probably called myself a witch a lot in my life, mainly a timespace witch… A timespace witch is someone who can walk through time and space and just kind of like knows the right timing for everything and kind of like comes into your life at the magical moment; seems to know the right thing to say… She’s just got good timing. I think that magick is the way that the unseen affects the seen. And when you’re in touch with the unseen, you can manipulate it to affect the physical world around you. I think the world itself is magical by nature. I think that us, as a society and a species have kind of lost touch with that. We take it for granted that the sun rises every day, the moon going around, the tide… We take that as just ‘oh, that’s just how it is.’ But me, I’m like in aw of that kind of thing. I really think that life is a miracle, and I really feel like there’s no reason for this to exist… like it’s completely magickal. And no matter how much science can explain things, I just feel like the nature of the world is completely magical.”
“I think magick is giving yourself a little bit of wonder and mysticism in an otherwise ‘meh’ kind of life, ya know? [What would life be without] the power of wonder? It’s such a powerful emotion. It keeps you grounded while at the same time really lifting your spirits and your heart and your mind into some really crazy, beautiful and open places. And everyone buys into it, therefore creating this reality.”
“What I find spiritual, or where I find that connectedness is through the environment. It’s just magical to me that Earth is a thing in space, and that space is a thing at all, and like the conditions have been so right on this planet that humans exist… That we went from a living organism in water to on land… Just the whole evolutionary process it took for me to get right here where I am now is insane. That in and of itself is what I find most inspiring.”
“I definitely call myself a witch. Kind of transitioning… I’m trying to find a word that feel a little bit more in your face. But witch is symbolic of rebellion, and just being a strong, independent person. I register with the word ‘Bruja’ a lot; ‘wildwoman’… you know, something that’s just a little chaotic, I guess. Magick to me is using tools that you have; using nature; using a natural rhythm to physically manifest things into your reality.”
“I’m absolutely a witch. Natural witch, earth witch, biz witch. I perceive magick to be like the energy that’s in everything, between everything… Like the cosmic energy of creation, essentially. It’s in all of us. In the seen, the unseen. The in between things.”
“I absolutely call myself a witch, and I call myself a witch because I am a priestess of the goddess, and I believe in and practice magick. One of the greatest definitions… Although I’m not a fan of how Aliester Crowley lived his life, I do agree with his definition, that being, ‘magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.”
“I just feel like I’m everyone’s spiritual BFF. Just there to help people at all levels of their journey, and kind of just like bounce things off of. I mean, I definitely am a witch in that I work with energy, and I’m like down with the metaphysical, but it’s not like my ‘title.’ My magick is definitely… I wanna say connection. Connection in all ways. So like connecting to other people, reading their energy and being able to support them in that way. But also connecting to my chakra energy and like tapping into my own kind of super powers that lie in my chakras, and then helping peole connect to theirs as well.”
“I definitely call myself a witch. I feel like I call myself a witch because I know that ‘witch’ is more of an essence. It’s sort of like an essence that I feel like a lot of us are reclaiming, and like a power that we’re reclaiming. So I feel like it’s not just inclusive to just one thing. You know an artist, or a singer-songwriter a painter, they can all be witches. They all have their own witchcraft. So that’s why I call myself a witch. It’s not just about, you know, conducting spells in the traditional sense, or anything like that. It’s just an essence that you have that you’re able to tap into. I feel like magick is more of channeling like a certain energy. Like directing energy; directing it into a certain focus. Magick is sort of a concentrated energetic sphere that you’re able to direct. And this ability that you have move energy and create some kind of outcome with it. And in an intent for it.”
“There’s really been a reclamation of the word [witch] in recent years. You know, obviously it’s had a negative connotation for a long time, and I think that people… whether they started of with Wicca, or just came to witchcraft on their own in another way, I think that witch is really powerful for a lot of people. Because it feels like reclaiming something that has a lot of power, but that has been seen negatively by a lot of people. So I consider myself a cottage witch, which is like a holistic combination of kitchen witchery and garden witchcraft and and just like daily life, which I think is really powerful. I think that magick is really kind of the way that the mystical and our idea of mysticism intersects with just the natural world. I’m really big on like the psychological element of magick and the correspondences of the elements. There’s a real intersection between like mysticism and and nature.”
“I definitely identify with the word ‘spiritual,’ and just like a being of the universe. I think that [magick] is really your intentions and dreams come to life.”
“Magick is really to product of your own personal power from within, and really owning that innate ability to acknowledge and tap into that power. I really believe it is tapping into the power that you hold within yourself. So I really believe that we’re all such powerful, unique beings, because of this whole world, and how our whole universe is pure magick. The fact that we’re even here, you know? We live on a planet that creates life, and in turn, we create life ourselves. So I mean, that’s just so magickal. And if we create life, we can create anything else within that life into existence. I really believe in honing into your own power.”
“We have so much power to decide what we’re going to do with our lives, and help others, and tap into intuition and everything. I think magick is… very magical, obviously, but I think it’s not just a coincidence. I think with every single thing we do, and with every daily practice, with every meditation, decision that we take, contribute to our own magick, to our own magical life.”
“I do call myself a witch publicly, but it’s not something that I introduce myself as when I meet a new person, for example. You know, it’s in the name of my business, but I don’t go around going, ‘hi, I’m Joanna, I’m a witch.” But if I called myself something else, what would it be? I do not know… An artist? I think that creative gravitate frequently to witchcraft, because… craft! I feel like it’s the craft of spirituality, and it gives you these tools for creating, crafting your own spirituality in a really personal way. And I love that. It came into my life at a time when I really needed it. [Magick is] creating change in conformity with will. Sometimes I say creating a change of consciousness in conformity with will, but I think they’re the same thing. Creating a change of consciousness changes everything.”
“There’s like the whole emotional magick thing, that would be anything that lights you up. Anything that makes you smile and brings joy to your life. And when I think about this type of magick, I really kind of think of children, because I think kids are the most magickal corporal beings on this earth. Just always seem to bring hope and laughter with them wherever they go. And I think especially where we are right now as a society and a culture, we can use that magick and laughter that children have with them. So that’s one definition. The other is being aware of your energy, and the energy of those around you, and then using that awareness for the good of all.”
“I definitely did not call myself a witch until about seven years ago, but today, I actually take the pride to be one of them. And I think if there is any woman who considers herself sacred or divine, it is a witch. The more I am getting involved into discovering my witch side, and my divinity and my sacredness, I realize that magick is not something that we do, but magick is something that we truly are. And it’s all about returning to our divine nature, pretty much. It begins with connecting to my deep essence, my true essence, my divine nature. And I make it a practice that I wake up and I tap into that resource that each one of us have. And the more we are connected to this essence, it leads us to beautiful synchronisities. It’s important to remember different practices, divinations, the goddesses, the faeries… there’s so many things available to us. We are living in the bestest of times that we have access to a lot of information and a lot of tools that we as women can now practice to really incorporate this magick with a K!”
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