I was thinking a bit on this, and it occurred to me that perhaps the apotheosis of man is personified in his quest for magical knowledge and mastery over the illusionary arts. Where other can man truely come so close to equalling the precieved powers of god, and enjoy the wonders of creation but through his own art?

This is good thought practice, but I’d always assumed it as a given.

As a “power”, Magic stands unequalled in its capacity to place one above the masses. Businesses need to control what the public believes in order to excel. Financial leaders must “finesse” the figures to suit the audience, if they wish to remain in control. Even political power must be reinforced by illusion and misdirection. (Earlier rulers actually had magicians as court notables if not actual officers or celebrities.)

Other forms of power govern only a limited scope and may be achieved by anyone bold enough, clever enough, or stupid enough to make the attempt. Magic in its purest form is (to all appearances) an exclusive and solitary domain, the pinnacle of which mere mortals may gain only by cheap trickery.

That, and I like making stuff float…

:cool:

To quote HB Jr. "We're gonna do a card trick!"

That made my day.

Well, that can get you to high places, guys...

Father Guido Sarducci: "To be made a saint in-a the catholic church, you have to have-a four miracles. That's-a the rules, you know. It's-a always been that-a. Four miracles, and-a to prove it. Well, this-a Mother Seton-now they could only prove-a three miracles. But the Pope-he just waved the fourth one. He just waved it! And do you know why? It's-a because she was American. It's all-a politics. We got-a some Italian-a people, they got-a forty, fifty, sixty miracles to their name. They can't-a get in just cause they say there's already too many Italian saints, and this woman comes along with-a three lousy miracles. I understand that-a two of them was-a card tricks."

Jim