History of Magick

Imagine you’re a member of the Medieval middle class. All you know about faith is the temple in which you grew up in deep thought and prayer. It’s in your house on your walls, in your language, and part of your culture.

Then one night you look out your window and see your neighbors running around in the dark and doing what you can only surmise to be the devil’s work. They’re running so fast and chanting so loudly. You even think you catch one riding a broom.

You’d be pretty scared! Not just for yourself but for your family and your community.

What were they doing?

You didn’t know that this group was practicing a form of sympathetic magick, during which they would go into the crop fields with brooms to show grains how high to grow.

They didn’t fly or cackle or curse the ground where everyone stood.

It wasn’t exactly mainstream to perform in this way, but they just wanted a fruitful yield.

Even still, it could be scary if you didn’t know what was happening.

Magick is the method to altering reality

Simply, magick is…

…the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity of Will.”

-Aleister Crowley

And the strange, archaic spelling? It comes from the need to differentiate from stage magicians!

It might seem incidental, and magic/magick are still interchangeable, but a lot of modern witches use magick to specifically refer to their own home practice.

Where does magick come from?

That depends on your faith tradition, but considering that witchcraft is such a liberating practice that focuses on personal accountability and the unity of mankind, most modern witches believe magick comes from within.

If you read my post on what a witch is, you might recall the 1484 endorsement of the Malleus Maleficarum, a guidebook on how to get witches to confess to their evil sorcery so they could be banished or executed.

These persecuted peasants just wanted their crops to grow.

Witches vs Doctors

Before Big Pharma, witches were the doctors and healers of their community groups.

These home remedy doctors were mostly the women who stayed in the homes and raised the children.

Women were barred from getting an education or reading books or attending lectures.

They passed their knowledge from mother to daughter and became known as “wise women”, especially for those in poverty who couldn’t afford anything else.

In order to move on, we do need to talk about male dominance and control

This is very significant because it caused a turning point in the history of magick.

Ther are…

…two separate, important phases in the male takeover of healthcare: the suppression of witches in medieval Europe, and the rise of the male medical profession in 19th century America.”

-Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English

Where does that leave magick today?

Today we find a lot of holistic mothers who don’t trust doctors.

There’s major discussion on vaccines and the simple thoughts and prayers sent to natural disaster victims.

Does that mean magick is a load of malarkey? No, but with everything there needs to be a balance.

There’s no medication you can take to become a better communicator.

I thought “witch” is a gender neutral term

It absolutely is! Anyone can be a witch.

But looking into women’s rights in the past is also a very painfully current social commentary.

We notice the push and pull of the political struggle for women to achieve bodily autonomy.

What does this have to do with magick?

The reason why we’re having this discussion is that there’s been a bit of a revival for women’s rights and witchcraft.

That’s not a coincidence.

Let’s discuss something a little more recent

English Wiccan Gerald Gardner drafted what he called his Book of Shadows. We can go into more detail later about this book, but in essence this was a collection of texts about ceremonies, spells, and basic belief system.

Gardner founded a revival of those oral traditions passed down from mother to daughter. This soon became known as Gardnerian witchcraft.

As of 1959, Gerald Gardner is the reason why Wicca and its affiliates are now legally recognized.

Magick today

Today you’ll see beginner witches trying their hand at their own Book of Shadows or grimoire. I love this!

Women were not always allowed to read books, let alone write their own. That’s why a lot of people are drawn to witchcraft.

Feminists, activists, and social workers can now celebrate the liberation of calling themselves Wiccan, Pagan, or Heathen.

And that’s part of what magick really is.