MAGIC WORDS In Literature: • "Magick is the most vital force in our lives. It gives us personal mastery over our destiny so we are no longer victims of fate. To study magick is to study life, and to understand the concept of controlled coincidence." -- Lady Sabrina, The Witch's Master Grimoire (2001) • Veteran theatre director Peter Brooks recalls: "Walking along Charing Cross Road one day, peering into the windows of the bookshops, my eye had been caught by a fat volume on display. On its cover in large letters was printed the magic word Magick. At first I was ashamed at my interest and several times would enter the shop and pretend to rummage on other shelves before furtively turning its pages. Suddenly, a footnote caught my attention: 'A pupil who reaches the grade of Magister Primus can produce wealth and beautiful women. He can also call up armed men at will.' This was irresistible, and although the book was far too expensive for me, I bought it and at once set out to trace the author, whose very name, Aleister Crowley, was notorious enough to produce a thrill of excitement and fear. A letter to the publisher produced a phone number, which led to an appointment at an address in Piccadilly, where gentlemen-about-town lived in expensive service flats. The great magician was elderly, greentweeded, and courteous. He had been known in the twenties as 'The Wickedest Man in the World,' but I think he was down on his luck. He seemed touched by my interest, and we met a few times, strolling along Piccadilly together where to my great embarrassment he would stand in the middle of the traffic at noon to raise his elaborately carved walking stick and chant an invocation to the sun. Once he took me into the Piccadilly Hotel for lunch, and again in the crowded and startled dining room, he roared out a conjuration across the soup. Later he allowed me to hide him in my bed room in Oxford so that I could make a sensation by producing him at the height of a college party, and on the same occasion he outraged a waiter at the Randolph Hotel who asked him for his room number by bellowing, 'The number of the Great Beast, of course -- 666!' When I did my first production in London, Doctor Faustus, he agreed to be magical adviser and came to a rehearsal, having first made me promise that no one should know who he was, as he just wanted to watch unseen from the back of the stalls. But when Faustus began his incantation, it was too much for him and he was on his feet, roaring impressively, 'No! No, no! You need a bowl of bull's blood. That'll bring real spirits, I promise you!' Then he added with a broad wink, 'Even at a matinee.' He had demystified himself, and we laughed together." -- Threads of Time (1998) • "'Tell us how you did your trick,' Sam said. 'Now. A bargain's a bargain.' Merilynn glanced around. 'Magick. Magick with a k.' Sam looked annoyed. 'Magick with a k. That's just New Age Wicca hokum.' 'You're wrong.' Merilynn looked triumphant. 'Look it up, Sam. Magic is sleight of hand, tricks of a stage magician. Illusions. Magick is the real thing. I can do a little of that." -- Tamara Thorne, Merilynn (200 )