Study › Magick › What is magick?
Magick is an old spelling of "magic", used to set the real thing apart from stage tricks. Crowley called it the art and science of causing change in line with the will.
What is magick?
Magick is an old spelling of "magic". Aleister Crowley popularised it to separate the thing itself from stage magic, where a performer does tricks and pulls a rabbit out of a hat.
Crowley defined magick as the art and science of causing change to occur in conformity with the will. Put simply: magick is what you do to make your will manifest in the world.
As within, so without
Its first law is the Hermetic saying As within, so without; as above, so below; as the universe, so the soul. The inner world mirrors the outer one, and the soul is a small universe in the image of the whole. Everything is connected, so a change you invoke in your own reality is mirrored in the common reality around you.
How strongly it is mirrored there depends on you — on your personal power, and on the purity and strength of your energy.
One way to practise it is rune magick, with bind runes and runic staves.
Questions
What is the difference between magic and magick?
Magick is the old spelling, used for the practice of causing change by will, to set it apart from stage magic.
Who defined magick?
Aleister Crowley, as the art and science of causing change to occur in line with the will.