Hidden Runes

You show a small cloth bag, which you tip out to reveal a collection
of Rune Stones. You show a few of them, comment on their
meanings, and then drop them back into the bag, before having a
spectator reach in and grab four.

The magician takes the four stones and hands them to four different
spectators, with the request that they hold their stones tightly until
the end of the effect.

Now the magician removes what looks like a deck of large cards…
and shows them to bear the symbols of the runes on the faces.
Each of the spectators cut the deck, thus selecting a card.

At the conclusion, it is shown that each spectator has cut to the

card that matches the rune they were given at the start of the
effect.

Discussion

To perform this piece, you need a set of Rune Stones, a deck of

Rune Cards, and a suitable change bag – although there are some
alternatives.

The Rune Stones you can get from any new age shop (I actually got
a lovely handmade wooden set from e-bay a little while back),
though the Rune Cards may cause you a little more trouble. My
ones are “Aquarian Rune Cards” by Anthony Clark, and the ISBN is
0 – 85030 – 988 – 3

If you cannot find a set, you can easily adapt the effect by buying a
pack of double blank cards (or double blank index cards) and
drawing the symbols on yourself. If you do this, you can easily add
the meaning of the symbol on the bottom of the card, making them
ideal to learn the stones from as well.

Finally, get a change bag that looks as plain as possible. As you

have to carry 20 small stones in something, having a bag is logical,
as if having the stones selected from it. Just avoid ones with
handles, tassels and glitter!

From the stones, choose four symbols to be your force symbols. I

use the following ones.

Liam Montier October 2004

Is - I Drawn with one line
Geofu - X Drawn with two lines
Ansur - F Drawn with three lines
Rad - R Drawn with four lines

This simple system means that if I number the spectators one to

four from left to right, I can ensure they get the correct stones in
performance, by giving them the stone that matches their number.

So begin with the force stones in one side of the change bag, and
the rest of the stones in the other side.

All that remains to do is to stack the rune cards for any version of
cutting the aces that you might know. I use John Bannon’s from his
lecture notes “Cardzilla is Coming”, although you are free to use
your favourite method.

Liam Montier October 2004