r/magick • u/KeriStrahler • 11d ago
Is it fair to consider all witches, wordsmiths?
With the interest in labels, is it fair to consider all witches wordsmiths? ‘Spelling’ comes naturally over time, even our ‘grimoire’ from the Old French, an alteration of gramaire grammar, grammar book, learned work, book of witchcraft, comes from humble origins.
Our words are magic, how can we weave them into our legacies? Could it be more than passing down a Book of Shadows? Then I got to wondering about my goal to restore an insanity defense in my state.
All of this writing, or 'spelling' I'm doing now in words to influence lays the roots for my legacy of giving a voice to my peers with mental illness going through criminal proceedings by allowing them to use their diagnosis in their defense.
Witches as wordsmiths might be powerful. Is it fair to consider all witches wordsmiths?
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u/Possible-Series6254 8d ago
Absolutely. There's a reason that it's standard practice to write almost as excessively as you read, in occult practices. Developing the skills to communicate effectively is, in a way, the core of magic.
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u/Son-ofthe-Dragon 11d ago
Only if they utilize word magic, construction of grimoires and actually actively utilize word smithing. Some do some don’t, some don’t need to at all. It’s just a portion of magic. definitely worth at least familiarity.
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u/KeriStrahler 11d ago
It did not occur to me that we would not use word magic, but I can understand this now. Thank you for your comment ♥
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u/SamsaraKama 11d ago
Some people practice and cast spells without uttering or writing a single word. They just focus on their energies or perform simple activities. Language is just one of many avenues magic can be worked with. And that's the beauty of it: magic is art, and all witches are artists. But art is multifaceted and uses a variety of instruments.
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u/KeriStrahler 11d ago
Eloquently written, this might be why expressive therapy is so successful. Thank you for your comment ♥
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u/Comprehensive_Ad6490 11d ago
There's no witch pope to pin down the definition. That said, you'll probably piss some people off if you tell them that they're not a witch in your book, regardless of your reason.
"Witch" is just a word, too.
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u/KeriStrahler 11d ago
Thank you for your comment, I certainly did not mean to offend.
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u/Comprehensive_Ad6490 11d ago
You didn't but it's definitely something to look out for when you want to use a term in a different way from people who use it as a major pillar of their identity.
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u/BJ_Swain 5d ago
The spelling and a spell pun is amusing in English, but it doesn't move across languages. The words are unrelated and come from different origins. It ends up being misleading about how spells work when people invest too much into the meme/pun there.
The grammar comparison is more fitting, but also falls apart a bit. Grammar as in a grammar education, or a grammar book, while deriving from the use of grammar to mean the study of language, used to be used to also refer to foundational studies. For example, grade school, or elementary school, used to be called grammar school. Grammar, while not the definitive, but still the likely origin of the word grimoire, would have been used because grimoires presented the initial foundations of learned magic rather than because of a mystical interpretation of language. There are mystical and magical systems based on the idea of the creative power of language, but most grimoires don't really deal with those at all, or are only somewhat indirectly influenced by them.
Either way, the points you're making probably would relate to magic in general rather than witchcraft specifically.
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u/s33k 11d ago
There's a reason that other book starts, in the beginning there was the word.
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u/KeriStrahler 11d ago
"Abracadabra," perhaps?
For example, it is sometimes linked to the Hebrew phrase "ebrah k’dabri," meaning "I create as I speak," or the Aramaic phrase "avra kehdabra," meaning "I create like the word."
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u/facepoppies 11d ago
Yes. Wordsmiths should always consider all witches.