When we talk about stories , we are talking about language. Language shapes consciousness, and the use of language to shape consciousness is an important branch of magic.

Language distributes power.

There is a corollary to the principle that knowing something's name gives us power-with it. It is this: that the names we choose, the language that we use, also have power-with us, and shape us. Names embody thought-forms. They carry both the idea and the context. When we choose a false name, we place an idea in a false context and its shape changes, becoming, perhaps, something we do not intend. And because our language has itself been shaped by the culture of estrangement, whenever we choose the names that make things sound comfortable, acceptable, respectable, academically sound, scientific, we are almost always placing the thing we name back into the context of estrangement-removing its power and our own, alienating ourselves yet again. The names for the thought-forms of immanece, the names that carry power, often sound simple, childish, or threatening; sometimes they sound funny. They are uncomfortable words-take "Magic", for exemple or "Witch".

from "Dreaming the Dark" by Starhawk.