Post by Allan Thornton on Dec 2, 2013 14:35:46 GMT -5
So while I was in NYC a couple of weeks ago, I didn't buy much for myself because I spent most of my shopping money on one thing, Collector's Workshop's The Complete Magick. If you don't know what this is, it's a 5 volume set of a very influential magic publication that spanned for about 20 years which was edited by Bascom Jones. You'll find a lot of great work from some of the masters of bizarre, mentalism and magic - such as Ted K., Bob Cassidy, Richard Webster, Dunninger, Anthony Raven, Doc Shiels, etc.
Each volume is 500 pages long, as of this post, I've only started reading the third volume. What I did was read it once through, then went back and bookmarked my favourite articles with post-it notes so I can dig deeper into each.
So I would like to share with you some of my thoughts as I finish reading each of them. I'll start with the first volume.
The Complete Magick vol.1
The first volume covers issues 1 - 100. To be honest, this was probably the weakest volume (at least for me) that I've read so far since a lot of the effects and ideas were more "magic" related. A lot of card, rope and other mainstream magic. There's a lot of mentalism effects, but not a lot that interests me. But don't get me wrong, there are some great principles that can be applied to other styles of magic, but they just didn't pique my interest. Here are some of the submissions that I really liked:
"Dark side of the Room" by Bob Gunther
This is like a mini, impromptu seance just using a business card and a principle that everyone here should know.
"One-Man Seance" by Marvyn Roy
A seance routine similar to Voodini's style (minus the suggestion stuff)
"The Tell-Tale Tarot" by Bascom Jones
A nice little tarot routine with a prediction and using cold reading
"The Book of the Damned" by Bascom Jones
Basically a card effect but using zodiac cards where the sitter touches a random face-down card that they are drawn to and when flipped over it matches their actual star sign.
"Daughter of Darkness" by Arthur J. Emerson
A nice voodoo/ashes to palm routine
"Dagger of the Dead!" by Blake Edward Maxam
A living/dead test using a ceremonial dagger to find the dead name
"To Wish Upon a Tarot" by Gene Nielsen
A tarot card reading using only the majors and you derive their "significator" card from their birth date.
"Shrieking Skull of Kabbalah" by Charles W. Cameron
This is one of my favourites in this volume. It's presented with great atmosphere.
A 6-pointed kabbalistic symbol is laid on the table with a candle at each point. A small skull with crystal eyes is placed in the middle of the symbol. A sitter writes a question and placed in an envelope. A tarot deck is introduced and the sitter chooses a card. The sitter takes 6 random cards and mixes them with the chosen one. You set fire to the question and as it burns, the sitter places slowly deals face up the small packet of tarot cards in front of the skull. One by one, as she deals them then all of a sudden a bloodcurdling shriek is heard. The card that was last dealt when the shriek happened was the chosen card and you then reveal the answer to her question.
"Ashes to Ashes" by E. Raymond Carlyle
A bizarre version of the Pegasus page.
"Mystery of the Feathered Serpent" by Tieneblas
A bizarre version of the old trick "wonder-bar" using a feather and a glass bottle.
"Personal Talisman" by Carl Herron (Brother Shadow)
Another one of my favourites. A stack of old papers with mystic symbols are drawn and the sitter writes their birth date and their initials in the middle of the symbols. The personalized card is placed n a box with a piece of green pencil lead and after the ritualistic words are said a personal sigil appears on the paper and then a reading is done. I'm working on a different presentation of this using either AA or HT.
"...Only from the Dead!" by Micky Hades
Another seance routine but more of a message reading style seance.
A lot of the effects don't require slight of hand and some of the presentations are just bare bones, which is good in my opinion.
If you have this, please share your thoughts on this as well and if there are a few people here that have it, maybe we can set up a private room to discuss certain effects, ideas and handling. PM if interested...
I'll post my review of Vol. 2 later this week.
Cheers,
Allan
Each volume is 500 pages long, as of this post, I've only started reading the third volume. What I did was read it once through, then went back and bookmarked my favourite articles with post-it notes so I can dig deeper into each.
So I would like to share with you some of my thoughts as I finish reading each of them. I'll start with the first volume.
The Complete Magick vol.1
The first volume covers issues 1 - 100. To be honest, this was probably the weakest volume (at least for me) that I've read so far since a lot of the effects and ideas were more "magic" related. A lot of card, rope and other mainstream magic. There's a lot of mentalism effects, but not a lot that interests me. But don't get me wrong, there are some great principles that can be applied to other styles of magic, but they just didn't pique my interest. Here are some of the submissions that I really liked:
"Dark side of the Room" by Bob Gunther
This is like a mini, impromptu seance just using a business card and a principle that everyone here should know.
"One-Man Seance" by Marvyn Roy
A seance routine similar to Voodini's style (minus the suggestion stuff)
"The Tell-Tale Tarot" by Bascom Jones
A nice little tarot routine with a prediction and using cold reading
"The Book of the Damned" by Bascom Jones
Basically a card effect but using zodiac cards where the sitter touches a random face-down card that they are drawn to and when flipped over it matches their actual star sign.
"Daughter of Darkness" by Arthur J. Emerson
A nice voodoo/ashes to palm routine
"Dagger of the Dead!" by Blake Edward Maxam
A living/dead test using a ceremonial dagger to find the dead name
"To Wish Upon a Tarot" by Gene Nielsen
A tarot card reading using only the majors and you derive their "significator" card from their birth date.
"Shrieking Skull of Kabbalah" by Charles W. Cameron
This is one of my favourites in this volume. It's presented with great atmosphere.
A 6-pointed kabbalistic symbol is laid on the table with a candle at each point. A small skull with crystal eyes is placed in the middle of the symbol. A sitter writes a question and placed in an envelope. A tarot deck is introduced and the sitter chooses a card. The sitter takes 6 random cards and mixes them with the chosen one. You set fire to the question and as it burns, the sitter places slowly deals face up the small packet of tarot cards in front of the skull. One by one, as she deals them then all of a sudden a bloodcurdling shriek is heard. The card that was last dealt when the shriek happened was the chosen card and you then reveal the answer to her question.
"Ashes to Ashes" by E. Raymond Carlyle
A bizarre version of the Pegasus page.
"Mystery of the Feathered Serpent" by Tieneblas
A bizarre version of the old trick "wonder-bar" using a feather and a glass bottle.
"Personal Talisman" by Carl Herron (Brother Shadow)
Another one of my favourites. A stack of old papers with mystic symbols are drawn and the sitter writes their birth date and their initials in the middle of the symbols. The personalized card is placed n a box with a piece of green pencil lead and after the ritualistic words are said a personal sigil appears on the paper and then a reading is done. I'm working on a different presentation of this using either AA or HT.
"...Only from the Dead!" by Micky Hades
Another seance routine but more of a message reading style seance.
A lot of the effects don't require slight of hand and some of the presentations are just bare bones, which is good in my opinion.
If you have this, please share your thoughts on this as well and if there are a few people here that have it, maybe we can set up a private room to discuss certain effects, ideas and handling. PM if interested...
I'll post my review of Vol. 2 later this week.
Cheers,
Allan