Words Are Spells

Antithetical Way Podcast · Jul 12, 2026 · 8m

I’ve always had an eerie feeling about the word “spelling,” because it can have two meanings. On one level, it is simply the arrangement of letters into a word. On another, it is the casting of something into the field through language, intention, and repetition. We are taught to treat those meanings as unrelated, but I’m not fully convinced they are. A word does not merely describe reality. It can frame it, bend it, shrink it, enlarge it, and in some cases trap the mind inside it. Say something enough times and eventually it stops sounding like language, and becomes atmosphere.This is why I…