On the Cover By Karl Rabe

Magic Messenger October 2025

Club VP Mike Bogdes poses with guest improve teacher John Sturk.

Secretary's Report By Karl Rabe

Improv Class

We had a very special event for our September meeting. John Sturk taught an improv class for about 30 attendees. A variety of theater games and exercises were "played" with all attendees getting an opportunity to participate. The consensus was that the class was a resounding success and participants found it fun and they learned a lot. Thank you John Sturk.

Pop-Up Magic Show and Flea Market

We had a nice turnout for the Pop-Up Magic Shop and Flea Market. Kranzo showed up with a lot of his products which he donated to the club, including some special new releases. There were treasures galore for the bargain hunters with something for everyone. Thank you everyone who volunteered, rented a table, attended and donated to the auction!

Around the Town By Karl Rabe

Find details for all these events in the calendar on our website.

• Tonight is our Parlor Competition. We have an exciting lineup of prestidigitators.
  • Dan Jones
  • Mike Bogdas (may not be able to make it)
  • Mike Thornton
  • April Barrett
  • Phil Mann
  • Lincoln Stone
• Tickets are now on sale for our Fall Parlor Show

We need volunteers for….

• Distributing Door Hangers
• Distributing AAMC Cards at local farmers markets and other events
• Selling tickets to friends, family, groups you belong to, etc
• Volunteering for the show
  • Ushers
  • Box Office
  • Concessions
  • Stage Hands
  • Cleanup

See any board member or Dan Jones if you can help.

Other Calendars

• Check out John Luka's Magic page and his well maintained list of Michigan Events
• All AAMC Events and details can be viewed on the website calendar.

Ex Libris By Dr. Joaquin Ayala de Cedoz

	Issue	Best of Ex Libris
	Book Title	The Discoverie of Witchcraft
	Author	Reginald Scot
	ISBN	0486260305
	AAMC Library?	Not in the AAMC Library

This month we run a Best of the Past Ex Libris, digging deep into our archive to unearth a prior review written by Joaquin. This Months rerun is from May of 2015.

Ex Libris by Joaquin Ayala, PhD.

Hello fellow Magi and welcome to the Ex Libris article for the month of May, 2015!

This month being our first foray into this article, I thought it most appropriate to start with what

many consider to be a foundational book, among one of the first comprehensive books written

on conjuring, The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot.

The Discoverie of Witchcraft was written in 1584 and is considered to be the first practical

treatise on conjuring written in the English language. Its purpose was not to serve as a text of

magical secrets, rather it was somewhat akin to Houdini and his debunking of psychics and

exposing their trickery secrets – it was meant to serve as a skeptical look into the practices of

magic and supposed witchcraft, or, black magic, to counter the witch hunting craze during the

Inquisition and ridicule the “standard” texts on the subject and their implications. The

Discoverie of Witchcraft was a book, according to Scot, “wherein the Lewde dealing of Witches

and Witchmongers is notablie detected, in sixteen books … whereunto is added a Treatise upon

the Nature and Substance of Spirits and Devils, 1584.”

Reginald Scot believed that it was irrational and un-Christian to accuse people of practicing

witchcraft and to prosecute them of such. He believed, and held firmly in the belief, that the

Roman Church was responsible for this unjust way of thinking. It was a popular belief for many

years that all copies of this manuscript were burned upon the accession of James I, the son of

Mary, Queen of Scots.

Scot had done research and gathered his information from studying the works of various

authors, which he numbered over 200, the superstitions of witchcraft, especially in the legal

courts where the prosecution of witches saw no end, as well as in villages where it was all but

too easy to accuse another person of witchcraft as the belief of black magic and its progenitors

came from every imaginable thing. If your cow died of old age, surely, it was not old age but

was rather the cause of it having been touched by a witch…

The people in a village who tended to be accused, tried, prosecuted and executed as witches

were those who were poor, elder, less-social and newcomers to a village. Scot was attempting

to prove that witchcraft was rejected by logic and religion, that any sort of manifestation was

nothing more than the result of a person willing themselves to believe it and that the resulting

illusions, perceived as works of a witch or warlock, were figments of a strong or overactive

imagination. By disproving the common belief, Scot was hoping to spare innocent lives of those

accused of witchcraft.

The author himself was indeed superstitious, at least in a contemporary sense. He believed that

unicorns held medicinal value; he believed that the existence of precious stones was directly

influenced by heavenly bodies and that to a certain degree that the Devil had the ability to

absorb souls. These were related in the book as references to medicine and astrology. He alsowrote stories in the book about magicians with supernatural powers performing for various

courts of royalty.

This tome became the reference for all things concerning and related to witchcraft, spirits,

spirituality, alchemy, magic, legerdemain and of course, skepticism, especially his, and

especially as related to witchcraft. It was such an influential text that William Shakespeare

studied this book and used it to draw specifics when created the witches in his play, Macbeth,

and Thomas Middleton used it in the same way for his play called The Witch. The sections

detailing the accomplishment of “magic tricks” served as a basis for later and equally influential

books, The Art of Juggling written by S. R. in 1612 and of course, Hocus Pocus Junior, written in

1634, whose author is still unknown today. The early writings of Scot constituted the majority

(in some cases, nearly all) of the text that existed in the English language on the subject of

conjuring in the 17th and 18th century.

Of course, this book did not come without its detractors and those who sought to discredit Scot

and his work. Among the many who spoke out against him were George Gifford (in his works of

1587 and 1593), Gabriel Harvey in the 1593 book Pierce’s Supererogation, Henry Holland in his

Treatise of Witchcraft from 1590, James VI of Scotland in his 1597 book, Dæmonologie in which

he labeled the opinions of Reginald Scot and one of his greatest influences, Johann Weyer (the

author of De Præstigiis Demonum, 1566), as “damnable”

. There were many others, but one that

was probably more well-known than others was Thomas Ady, author of Candle in the Dark: Or,

A Treatise Concerning the Nature of Witches & Witchcraft, which was written in 1656.

Now to the part which I am sure some of you were eagerly awaiting, at which you may be

somewhat disappointed, or perhaps (hopefully), fascinated: the chosen effect from this book.

It may surprise many readers to read how many of our rather “standard” magic effects, or at

least some of their origins, appeared in The Discoverie of Witchcraft. The effect that I am going

to detail here might sound familiar to many of you. It comes from Chapter XXXII (32): To burne

a thred, and to make it whole again with the ashes thereof. Sounds a bit like the modern ‘Gypsy

Thread’, and indeed it is. In short, and transliterated for your ease of interpretation, the secret

is thus: Take two threads or small laces, each one foot in length, roll one of them into a ball

about the size of a pea; hide it between your left forefinger and thumb.

Take the other thread and hold it in front of you between the thumb and forefinger of each

hand, holding all other fingers openly, relaxed. Have a person cut, with a knife, the thread in the

middle. Place the ends together, re-grip between the thumbs and forefingers as before and

being sure to keep the whole thread hidden, and repeat. Once or twice more, this is repeated

until the pieces are very small in length, and then roll all of the loose pieces together the same

as the whole thread, using your right fingers. The left hand takes the knife and rests the rolled-

up cut pieces on the tip and thrusts it into the flame of a candle until the threads are burnt to

ashes.Pull the knife out and dump the cooled ashes into the left thumb and forefinger, and after you

rub the ashes for a while, use the right thumb and forefinger to draw out the hidden thread to

show it restored.

I think that this effect has stood the test of time, though it has undergone many presentational

and methodical transformations, because it is inherently simple and straightforward. It is also

easy to do. Whether you use this particular handling or a more modern approach, using it to tell

a story about the loss of a great love or the triumph over personal trials and tribulations, this

sort of thing connects your audiences with one another and with you. That connection happens

on a rather deeper level and will affect each person in a different way, all of which are very

powerful. I urge you to explore the ‘Gypsy Thread’ effect for this very reason, if you do not

already perform it yourself. To get you started, here are a few resources of some excellent

versions: The World’s Greatest Magic DVD library: Gypsy Thread, the Dragon Thread DVD by

Mike Wong, The Eternal String by Max Londono and The Gypsy Balloon by Tony Clark.

If you have not read this book, I would highly recommend it because it is rather enlightening

with regards to the history of the art of magic – not only the for the methods but the thinking

that was ultimately behind (read: responsible for) them. The book is written in Early Modern

English (EMnE) and may be indecipherable to some readers without knowledge of that period

language, or even a working knowledge of Middle English. If you do tackle the book and need

help transliterating it, please let me know and I would be more than happy to help!

I hope you have enjoyed this first article and found it to be of value, whether to the satisfaction

of your own fascination with magical history or, perhaps, to tell you about the existence of

potentially interesting and informational books on our humble art form, which you may have

been unaware of. Happy reading folks and I will see you next month!

Joaquin Ayala, PhD.

Club Librarian

I.B.M. Ring 210/S.A.M. 88

Funny Business By Karl Rabe

Last month's challenge was the AAMC Crossword Puzzle. Only two members submitted complete and correct crosswords… Mike Bogdas and Frank Machniak. A drawing was held and Frank Machniak was the luck winner of the 2025 Abbott's Catalog. Congratulations Frank.

The solved puzzle is show below...