Mixing Tarot and Magic

KMilliron

Anyone showboat their tarot with card tricks? I want to, as I'm a fan of both tarot and card tricks. I would never do it professionally though, just as a fun kind of thing to add to the presentation if just messing around with my friends.
 

Minotauro

well if you can do magic I'd suggest making the death card or devil or tower or any other spooky card appear constatnly to friend so scare them! that wopuld be so awesome XD lol
 

nisaba

There's a difference between conjuring and magic. To me, magic is about creating change in accordance with will, more times than can be explained statistically. It's about using focus and mysticism. It's not about sleight of hand.

The kind of shuffling and card-tricks conjurers do, by contrast, looks magnificent - in the right setting.

But I know I, and I suspect most of my clients, would be off-put and filled with loathing if I did sleight-of-hand stuff to frame a real reading - they would assume that the reading was as full of trickery and deception as the handling of the cards. Not a great look, except in a circus.
 

Lleminawc

The word "magic" has acquired a parallel meaning as a branch of show business involving sleight of hand and illusion - just as happened with "conjuring" which used to mean summoning up spirits. Aleister Crowley added the "k" to "Magick" partly to separate these two senses. It is unusual to find someone on a tarot forum using the showbiz sense of "magic", but it doesn't mean they're wrong. But I'd agree with the previous poster - don't do it, it's disrespectful to the cards and your clients.
 

KMilliron

well if you can do magic I'd suggest making the death card or devil or tower or any other spooky card appear constatnly to friend so scare them! that wopuld be so awesome XD lol

Haha, I've totally done that before.
 

KMilliron

There's a difference between conjuring and magic. To me, magic is about creating change in accordance with will, more times than can be explained statistically. It's about using focus and mysticism. It's not about sleight of hand.

The kind of shuffling and card-tricks conjurers do, by contrast, looks magnificent - in the right setting.

But I know I, and I suspect most of my clients, would be off-put and filled with loathing if I did sleight-of-hand stuff to frame a real reading - they would assume that the reading was as full of trickery and deception as the handling of the cards. Not a great look, except in a circus.

eah hence me just doing it with my friends for fun. I actually have a lot of nervous energy, so cards are one way I kind of keep that energy in check.
 

Alta

Two things, yes, we do have a few stage magicians as members. And second, Card Shark makes a version of the Renaissance Tarot with marked backs especially for card tricks. I have the deck, and while I can understand the markings (they are subtle) up close, I very much doubt my eyesight would allow it from a distance. They are tiny omissions in the leaf pattern on the backs.

That said, the Card Shark people outdid LS with both colouration and cardstock with this version.

http://www.card-shark.de/index.cfm?page=19&lang=en&shop=true&Category=3

It is right at the bottom. Awesome tarot deck and made for stage magicians.
 

Aerin

I was going to say the same thing Alta...

For some odd reason I can't find the deck on that page, just the extension sets. Probably just me.

There was a thread here too http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=118562 and I seem to remember another but I can't find it.
 

Mnemonica

I worked in a magic shop for many years and there are TONS of magic tricks using tarot cards. There is actually an entire genre of magic known as bizzare magic that focuses on tricks with esoteric themes and I know several magician who are also tarot readers. Here's one of my favorite "tarot tricks" :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pHWz0STTCk