How to Choose a Magickal Name: Your Craft Identity – Part 1

Many of us have a magickal name. We often like to use these names during ritual or while we’re at festival. This is quite different from our legal name in the sense that it doesn’t appear on any of our government identification and probably wasn’t given to us at birth.

Is it all for fun? Nope! We’ve got good reasons for it. And there’s actually a long-standing historical tradition — one that stretches back to ancient times — of magickal or spiritual practitioners operating under a second identity.

Perhaps you’ve been asked to choose a new name by a High Priest/ess/ex or someone mentoring you in the Craft… or perhaps you’ve just been toying with the idea on your own. If you’re in such a position (or think you might be in one in the future), you might be wondering how, exactly, to sort all of this out, narrow down options, and make a selection that you’ll be happy with.

Don’t worry. You’re not alone. This is a topic that comes up frequently and just about everyone has gone through it. Few of us have ever just woken up one day and suddenly known what our new name will be. It took thought, meditation, planning, and decisions!

In this two-part series, we’ll go over everything you ever wanted to know about choosing a magickal name.

Setting a Precedent

In many witchcraft traditions, a postulant choses (or is sometimes given) a new name at significant times in their spiritual journey, such as dedication, initiation, or elevation.

But this isn’t just a witchy practice. In general, it’s a pretty common thing to do in other religions or forms of spirituality as well. In the Catholic Church, for example, once a newly elected pope has accepted the papacy, they are immediately asked “Quo nomine vis vocari?” which is Latin for “How do you want to be called?” And in that moment, they pick a new name to help set the tone for their papacy. This has been going on for more than a thousand years ever since Pope John II abandoned his given name of Mercury in 533.

Biblically, of course, there are many examples of names being changed. One of the most well-known is perhaps Jesus renaming one of his disciples, Simon, to Peter. Or if you want to go Old Testament, Abram became Abraham, signifying a new covenant with Jehovah.

In some forms of Buddhism, Dharma names are given by monks or teachers.

Many well-known figures in the occult community have operated under different names. Eliphas Levi was born Alphonse Louis Constant. Dion Fortune’s real name was Violet Mary Firth. There’s plenty of other examples if you do a little bit of digging.

These authors use magickal names… why shouldn’t you?

Prefer to go the New Age route? No problem. Eckhart Tolle was born Ulrich Leonard Tölle.

Names used to mean something. And I don’t mean just like… having the last name Smith to let people know you could make a suit of armor or being called Cooper because you worked with barrels. What I’m talking about is on a spiritual level — a soul level.

So where does this all come from? Okay, look… I know I say this a lot… but seriously… it probably comes from Ancient Egypt.

The Story of Isis

Isis, (or Ist, as she was called by the Egyptians) is an extremely powerful goddess — mother of Horus, wife of Osiris, and possessor of magick. But what really makes her even more badass is the fact that she was often known as “She Who Knows All the Names.”

In order to understand why “knowing names” can give someone so much power, we need to talk a little bit about Ancient Egyptian culture. It was common practice for people, especially nobility, to have secret names. In fact, Pharaohs might have had like… five different names. You’d have your regular name, sure… something that everyone else could call you, but you’d also have a true name that was only known to you and the gods.

Why keep it so secret? Wouldn’t a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? Nope, sorry Romeo. In this case, if you can name a thing, you have power over it. And this is best represented in a myth that revolves around Isis and Ra, where she tricks him into revealing his true name to her. Yes, even the gods themselves had secret names.

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The following story comes from a Ramesside incantation to remove poison from a patient.

Then said Isis to Ra:
‘Tell me your name, my divine father.
A man lives when called by his name.’
‘I am the maker of heaven and earth, the binder of mountains,
creator of what exists upon it.
I am the maker of water, for the Great Ocean to take form,
the maker of the bull for the cow,
for their sexual movement to take place,
the maker of the secret heaven of the horizon,
the one who placed the souls of the gods within it.
I am he who opens his eyes and there is light,
who shuts his eyes and there is darkness,
he at whose command the Nile Flood strikes,
whose name the gods cannot know.
I am the maker of hours, for day to exist,
I am the cleaver of the year, who creates the seasons.
I am the maker of the fire of life,
to enable the work of the house to take place.
I am Khepri in the morning, Ra at noon, Atum who is in the dusk.’
The poison was not dislodged from its course,
the great god was not soothed.

Then said Isis to Ra:
‘Your name is not among those you have told me:
tell it to me.
The poison leaves a man when his name is pronounced.’
The poison bit in with its bite,
more powerful than the burn of fire.
Then the Presence of Ra said:
‘Give my your ears, my daughter Isis,
for the issue with the name from my innards to your innards,
for the most divine among the gods hid it
to be broad ranging in the sacred boat of millions.
If it happens as the time of the desire going out to you,
tell it to the son, Horus,
when you have bound him by an oath of god,
the granting of the god his two eyes.’
The great god raised up in his name
to Isis great in words of power.
‘Fail, scorpion, go out from Ra,
eye of Horus, go out from the god,
Burning of the mouth,
I am the one who made you, I am the one who sent you,
Fall to ground, poison,
I have power, see the great god has raised up in his name.
Ra lives, the poison has died.
So-and-so born of so-and-so is alive, the poison has died.’
From when Ra said his own name to Isis the great mistress of the gods.

-translation lifted from University College London

That’s just a small portion of the story. To summarize, Isis secretly created a very poisonous snake and made it bite Ra. Ra called everyone to his aid, but Isis was the only one who had the power to save him. This was all part of her plan! She told him she could only heal the poison if he revealed his true name to her. And once he did that, she gained his power.

Practical Reasons

Now that we’ve examined some of the religious and mythological factors that surround the idea of names (or re-naming), it’s time to take a look at some more practical reasons for taking a magickal name.

Sometimes we don’t really identify with our magickal personas the same way as our mundane, everyday personas. For many of us, the practice of witchcraft marked a significant shift at some point in our life — taking a new name is appropriate to mark that change. As part of regular practice, using a magickal name is almost the same as putting on robes, sacred regalia, or any other type of ritual garb. It also helps us assume the right mindset prior to entering into a ritual space. When we step into circle, we are leaving the mundane identity behind and fully becoming the extraordinary part of ourselves.

And of course, there’s the age old tradition of protecting identities for safety. Back in the day, if you didn’t know anyone’s real name, you could never confess and identify them under duress. We don’t usually like to think that our lives would be in danger today due to our religious practices (and I won’t comment right now on how close we really are to those situations), but it should certainly be easy to imagine how someone’s livelihood could be jeopardized. There are plenty of people who have lost their jobs or families due to others finding out they practice witchcraft. Plus, it’s just a matter of respect. Not everyone wants to be public or out of the broom closet.

Conclusions… for now..

In the first part of this series, we’ve taken a look at why we choose a magickal name, but you’ll have to wait until next time for the discussion of how to do it. I hate to make you wait, so in the meantime, here are a few books you can grab on the subject.

Some reading for you…

In the next installment, we’ll talk about different things that might inspire your name, what to do if you get tired or your magickal name, titles, how to handle having multiple names, and much more.

Do you have a magickal name? If so, when and why did you take it?