Despite the many learned books and articles which have treated the theory of spinning in some depth, there still remains an aura of black magic about it. This article is written in an attempt to explain the spin in simple language and hopefully to take away some of the black magic. It has been written primarily with the HS Gnat in mind, because, although it is forbidden to spin a Gnat, there have been incidents over the past fifteen years that it has been in service, where even experienced pilots have got into spin prone situations. Now, it might be said, that a new generation of pilots has emerged who do not appreciate the reasons for the prohibition of Gnat spinning, which have been lost in the mists of antiquity.