There’s a lovely little story in Eugene Burger’s book Magic And Meaning about an aboriginal¹ custom of going out hunting evil spirits once a year, each time taking the young boys who have come of age and are ready to face the monsters themselves. The boys must take a brave stand against the unseen creatures roaring in the distance as the group splits up, and only those brave enough to face the beast will learn that the roaring is produced by a strip of carved wood swung around on a piece of cord² by one of the elders, and there are in fact no monsters. The instruments are then burned in a great fire, leaving ash to show the creature was defeated without the lack of a corpse giving the game away³.
This could be considered the earliest form of magic, similar to the magic of Father Christmas, The Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy⁴. A magic for everyone, a secret kept by the elders but which is eventually known by all.
But of course, when we normally talk about magic, we talk about the performance of apparent miracles by secret methods known by very few. Indeed, revealing these secrets to the world at large would destroy an entire performing art, industry, and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of magicians.
Or at least, that’s the theory.
Continue reading “The Charmed Circle
or The Empty Safe”
