Magic: Good or Evil

How does perform magic effects and illusions square away with being a Christian? This has been a hotly debated subject because the bible expressly fobids the practice of magic. Being a Christian, I've had similar misgivings. However the art of magic has little to do with the practice of "real" magic. For the record, I don't believe in "real" magic. I prefer to place my faith in a higher power; a benevolent god.

Although 90% of American's identify themselves as Christian in polls, it is not a prevelant belief amoung magicians. Chris Angel recently remarked on the Larry King show that he felt most magicians are atheists (Angel remarked that he grew up in a Christian home and was a believer). From my experience on the magic forums, this appears to be true.

In fact, I would have to say that, from my experience, magicians can be downright hateful to anyone with a Christian point of view. My guess is that due to scriptural references against witchcraft is what keeps the faithful away from magic.

First a quick definition from the Konjurer dictionary; "magic" in the context of this article and this blog is the practice of an entertainment art form. It is akin to juggling, acting, singing or playing a musical instrument and is meant to bring joy and wonderment to the people who watch. Like the other fine arts, it is a craft that requires hours of weekly practice and years to perfect. Believe it or not, there is no supernatural component to magic.

There is a lot of debate on the subject of magic and Christianity; especially during the rise in popularity of the Harry Potter books. Although I think the practice of magical entertainment as a Christian is a different topic altogether. Magic is an entertainment medium and has nothing to do with the occult or witchcraft except by misguided mediums who are looking to fool the gullible.

Although words like "conjurer" and "magician" may have some historical roots in a pagan practice, they have a completely different meaning today for 99.9% of all modern magicians. For us Christians, if the historical roots of the English language is going to be the standard for when not to use certain words then we're going to have difficulty speaking the English language without researching the etymology of every word we speak.

Atheists accurately point out that the holidays we now celebrate as Easter and Christmas have pagan roots. Should we not use those words or avoid the traditional dates of these holidays because they coincided with pagan celebrations?

So feel free to be a practicioner of the conjurering arts because, in modern times, it simply means you love to entertain people with some skillfully executed, non-supernatural feats. If someone gives you grief about being a magician then look at it as an opportunity to minister to or witness your beliefs.

If you are a Christian and a magician and you are struggling with this whole concept, keep in mind that there is a whole branch of magic called Gospel Magic. You can purchase magical effects that correspond to a Christian message or object lesson. There are a lot of magicians that use magic as a ministry to communicate Christian messages.

Note: Although there is no chapter in my region, you could also join a chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians. http://www.fcm.org/

Stacked Set-ups: Stacking the Deck for Mulitple Effects

I'm surely not the first magician to discover a method for stacking multiple preset tricks in a single deck; a method I've dubbed Stacked Set-ups. However I can't find any information about deck stacking other than sequential stacking methods such as the Si Stebbens or Eight Kings. Sequential stacking or memorized decks serve a different purpose than the Stacked Set-ups I have employed here. I'm simply setting up multiple tricks in a single deck in a fashion that doesn't look like I've stacked the deck.

I stumbled upon this technique after practicing a series of new tricks. Each night, I would put away the deck into the case with various card packets on top so that next practice session, I would just grab the top cards and work through each trick.

The interesting by-product of that practice regimen was that I found a method of running through a series of tricks, each requiring specific cards, in a way that gives the illusion of working with a normal, shuffled deck.

Let's take a closer look at the problem that I am solving. Just as I've seen many other magicians, in my magic carrying case I have several decks of cards. Each deck has a purpose. A haunted deck, an ace assembly, a deck with gaffs, a deck with two 6 of diamonds, and so on. Most of these decks are setup for one trick. Switching packs between tricks raises suspicions amongst your spectators and isn't terribly practical. So how about packing several complimentary routines into a single deck by stacking the set-ups?

A lot of magicians shy away from tricks that take a lot of set-up in favor of tricks that can be performed with any deck of shuffled cards. That's a valid argument. But that perspective rules out a lot of killer card effects.

Let's look at my accidental solution. I have been working on four great tricks loaded up in a single deck of cards. The tricks are Weighted Aces, Pip-Thru (using a gaffed card), Jumping Geminis and an in-the-spectators-hand transposition. This sequence provides about 15 minutes worth of material package nicely into a single deck. The scripted sequence also has benefits of polishing the presentation so that all four trick flow smoothly.

Here is the order of the Stacked Set-up deck:

Weighted Aces
A-H, A-S, A-D, A-C randomly placed in the deck

Pip-Thru
2-S (to be forced), 3-S, 3-S gaffed

Jumping Geminis
K-D, K-S, 10-H
4-C randomly placed in the deck

Ultimate Transposition
6-D, 6-D

Biddle Trick (closer)
Doesn't require set up so I just do a real shuffle and perform the Biddle Trick.

To recap, the top-loaded cards in order are:
2-S, 3-S, 3-S, 2-S, 3-S, 3-S gaffed,K-D, K-S, 10-H, 6-D, 6-D

The rest of the deck is random including the cards I pull out of the deck as needed such as the 4 of Clubs for the Jumping Geminis trick. Locating and removing certain cards from the deck implies a randomness that eliminates the need to do a lot of false shuffles or cuts between tricks.

I begin by executing a false cut and then spread the cards face up on a close-up pad. I invite the spectator to look over the cards as I find and remove the 4 Aces. Because most of the deck is in a random order they have little reason to think differently. I turn the remaining cards over and perform the Weighted Aces.

After the Weighted Aces I discard the Aces and retrieve the pack of remaining cards. The next three cards are already queued and ready to go. I force the 2 of Spades from the top and do the Pip-Thru effect. This effect ends with an obviously gaffed card so I discard a double and I'm loaded for the next routine.

Next is the Jumping Gemini trick which requires a 4, a 10 and two Kings. Again, I spread the remaining deck face up, locate and remove the 4 of Clubs. The spectators again sees the cards face up in apparently random order. I take the 4-C and patter about the "4 Card Trick" as I gather in the spread cards and turn over the deck. The I deal what appears to be 3 indifferent cards, face down, from the top of the deck as I remark "this is also called the trick with 4 cards."

There are two 6 of Diamonds next in the sequence at the top of the deck for the Ultimate Transposition.

Finally, a do a real shuffle and finish with the Biddle Trick or Ambitious Card Routine which has no setup.

This may seem an obvious method of working through several tricks that require setup. However there are some subtleties that hide the setups. Not every trick requiring setup would work in a Stacked Set-up. However, it does allow you to carefully script and sequence 4-5 tricks for maximum impact. I'm going to be devising other Stacked Set-ups and I'll report back.

I would be curious if you have run into any resources on this subject or if you come up with any killer Stacked Set-ups that you would like to share.