Deep Aspects of Magic Words A Special Reverence for the Mystery Every word is magic, a story achieved through will. -- Rochelle Lynn Holt, "Take Nothing for Granted," Bless the Day (1998) If intoned in the proper spirit, any word can be a magic word. In The Re- enchantment of Everyday Life (1997), Thomas Moore notes that "we may evoke the magic in words by their placement, . . . rhyme, assonance, intonation, emphasis, and, as [mythologist James] Hillman suggests, historical context." Even the mundane connotations of the words we use depend frequently on the many details of their packaging. The more essential the responsibilities we intend for a given word, the more we depend on the magic of its presentation. A "key" word should enjoy a flourish as it is revealed. We should draw it forth like a prestidigitator who, with great drama, produces an egg from his mouth. "Historical context" may seem like a peculiar attribute to group with the elements of pronunciation and the techniques of poetry. But historical context is a fundamental property of any word, and can be a heavy determinant of its potential impact. As Thomas Armstrong explains, "In a sense each word in the English language rides upon the waves of history. It represents the outcome of an evolutionary process that has its origins in archaic languages and at each step in history underwent a refining process in