The Linguistics of Magick

Language and witchcraft have always gone hand in hand. The casual observer will note that in our modern English, 'spell' may refer to either grammatical rules or magickal enchantments. The even more astute observer will know that the term 'grimoire', referring to a book of magick, is derived from the French grammaire, which in turn evolved from the Latin grammatica, meaning 'of letters', which today has become grammar, the student's nightmare and teacher's delight (Davies, 2009). Clearly, the arts of writing and magick have a shared history.

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For these reasons, we at Raventree have carefully chosen how describe our work and practices, in full recognition of the power of words. Whoever said "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" had clearly never met an accomplished magickal practitioner! We know all too well the power words hold, whether to heal, enchant, ensnare, or banish.

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Students and faculty may wonder at the titles of some of our courses, practices, and even disciplines. "Duskwalking" is a phrase we coined to describe the arts deemed perhaps a little more morally grey than other arts -- some may wonder why we did not simply use "black magick" to describe these areas. Our reasoning is two-fold: The primary drive was to steer away from such racially charged language, and utilize phrasing more sensible in the 21st century. Magick is the province of all, and we hope to foster an environment which welcomes everyone on equal footing. Our secondary drive was to be linguistically precise as well as proper. Declinations such as "white" and "black" magick are not only insensitive  but also frustratingly vague. In Western cultures, we tend to associate "white" magick with healing and blessing -- positive acts of the supernatural. However, in some Eastern cultures, white is associated with death and the dead. In order to broaden the scope and community of magickal practitioners, we must work towards utilizing language which erases borders and social constructs, rather than cementing new ones.

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Besides, magick rarely, if ever, falls into such neat and tidy boxes as "good" and "evil". So often, the morality of the act lies in the eyes of the beholder. Folklore and fairy tales are rife with examples; take a classical example, that of Rapunzel. In this tale, a desperate husband trespasses in a witch's garden to gather an herb (Rapunzel) which will save his dying wife. When caught by the witch, the husband must bargain away his unborn child to be permitted to gather the healing wort and save his wife. The wort does indeed save the husband's wife, and both are overjoyed; yet when years later their daughter is carted off by the witch, this seems in hindsight more a maleficent act of magick than benevolent. Were the parents or the witch in the right here (and does the child Rapunzel get any say in the matter?)? Was the magickal pact formed with the witch (or plant spirit) "good" or "evil"? Perhaps we can learn more about this magickal practice by viewing it through multiples lenses, rather than trying to sort it into a tidy category. Interested students may pursue this particular example even further in LR 207: Tales of the Brothers Grimm.

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For these reasons, we decided to group the classically (but far from universally) more nefarious arts of hexing and cursing under "Duskwalking". Dusk is a temporally liminal time, a frayed and undefined border between day and night, so duskwalking is the art of practicing such morally vague arts. Engaging with creatures such as demons and the undead also falls under Duskwalking at Raventree, as again, these are arts that have historically been associated with malevolent purposes, but are often simply misunderstood rather than "evil". These are also topics which fall into the twilight of reality, straddling the daylit world of what we can see and interact with, and the nightside realm of dreams, the subconscious, and the underworld.

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This linguistic precision is utilized all across the entire discipline of Duskwalking. We have Imprecatory Arts instead of black magick, to more accurately discuss the act of using magick to cause harm, destruction, or general ill will (we are grateful to Martin Duffy for coining this phrase is his work Anathema Maranetha). As modern practitioners, we hope we can all continue to use more inclusive and accurate language which reflects not only our modern society, but also our modern perspectives: rarely is anything cleanly cut into good or evil, right or wrong. As a global community, Raventree Academy is seeking to create a language of magick which reflects the challenges and mysteries of modern day practitioners.

Sources

Grimoires: A History of Magic Books, Owen Davies, 2009

Anathema Maranetha, Martin Duffy, 2022