Marucci's Bizarre Bazaar

Coincidence Or...
by Peter Marucci

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Sympathetic magic is based on the belief that like can affect like.

It is the basis for the claim of “psychic detectives” that touching an item belonging to a person, or connected to an event, gives the detectives magical contact with that person or event.

Sticking pins into a voodoo doll is a form of sympathetic magic, in that the pins supposedly create pain in the doll and, in doing so, that pain is transferred to the real person.

Carrying a rabbit’s foot – or any other talisman -- for luck is a form of sympathetic magic, as is the cannibalistic practice of eating the heart or drinking the blood of a brave but defeated warrior.

However, we look on ourselves today as more civilized and less bloodthirsty than those who would eat hearts or drink blood.

But the magic may still be there.

A less-than-bloody experiment may show that to be true.

(The magus brings out a deck of Tarot cards – the major arcana only)

These are Tarot cards, used to divine possible gateways into the future; they cannot tell us what will be, only what might be.

Nonetheless, they are a powerful tool and may help us in our quest this evening.

(The magus divides the pack into two halves and gives half to each of two spectators)

Please mix the cards as well as you can. Having done that, I would ask you to remove any one card from your pack, look at it, and show it to the others, without showing it to me. When you have done that, give the card to the other person and place her card into your own pack. Then mix the cards again, as well as you can.

(After all this has been done, the magus takes the packs of cards from each person and looks through them, removing one card from each and placing it face down on a table).

Without knowing which card the other was to pick, each of you took a card out of your own packet and replaced it in the other’s packet. Before we began, you had no idea of the names of the cards or even that Tarot cards would be used to test this phenomenon.

Now, I have removed one card from each well-mixed packet.

For the first time, would you each name aloud your card?

(When they do, the magus turns over the two cards he has taken from the deck; they match the names of the ones selected.)

Working:
I must admit that I cannot remember who it was that came up with the idea for this wonderful little deception and deserves credit for the handling.

There are 22 cards in the major arcana of a Tarot deck; they range from O (The Fool) to 21 (The World).

Separate the cards into two set of 11 cards, one set odd and the other set even numbered. Put the two halves together to make a full deck of 22 cards.

When handing out the packets, divide the deck at the 11th card (easy to do; it’s the point where the odd and even cards meet).

Thus, one person gets all the odd cards, and the other gets all the even cards. This will go unnoticed since the numbers are usually in Roman numerals, the faces of the cards are very “busy”, and the spectators are much less familiar with a Tarot deck than they would be with a regular deck of cards.

When they take a card out and have it put in the other’s packet, an even card is now among all the odd cards and an odd card is now among the even.

Shuffling the packets will have no effect on the cards.

When you take the packets, you simply look at the odd packet and take out the even card, placing it face down; and look at the even packet and take out the odd card, placing it face down.

When the spectators announce the names of their cards, you turn over the two tabled cards, proving that sympathetic magic “works”.

Second Thoughts:
The more exotic the Tarot deck the better in this case; some of your audience may be familiar with the more common Rider-Waite deck.

I use a Gothic Tarot deck that I got from Doug Byrd at Bizarre Magick.com, when he had that site. (He has since sold it but I believe they still have the cards there.) It is, in a word, beautiful. It is so bizarre that just about anything you do with it appears to be magical.

And I keep the major arcana of that deck in a red-lined black velvet bag; it’s not necessary but it adds that touch of mystery and the exotic – and a touch of realism, too.

Remember, this is a test of sympathetic magic (or telepathy) between two members of the audience so keep the focus on them and NOT on you.

Peter Marucci