Peering Into History’s Dark Past
"One of the last taboos to be liberated is to revel in being objectified, and I feel like indulging in taboos sometimes is a way to liberate them.” Dita Von Teese
Because it’s spooky week I’m sharing an article from last December where I take my readers on a magic journey all the way to Transylvania. It’s a Spooky Spectacular open for all my subscribers, and I wanted to share it again this weekend to better match the mood.
In the past, I’ve published my articles late Friday evening, but Fridays have been better for posting my Magic Moments because they are short video presentations of my magic. The two different publications seem to collide with each other on Fridays. So in the future, you’ll receive my Charlotte Pendragon Diaries on Saturday evenings.
I also want to take this time to thank all my subscribers from the bottom of my heart, and offer special gratitude to those so kind as to update your subscription to pay. I’m so honored and blessed.
I hope you like my story and enjoy the videos!
It was 305 AD, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria made her grand entrance on stage in front of a large public audience. Next, a big wheel used for carriages was brought out on stage and shown to the crowd. Catherine was placed on the wheel and secured with ties as a Roman executioner picked up a cudgel. Ready to break and dislocate every bone in her body, causing her unbearable pain and terror but not death, magically, the wheel broke, freeing her from the torture device and the executioner’s blows. This was not how the play was supposed to end, leaving Emperor Maxentius angry because the wheel didn't break her body and, ultimately, her spirit. (The two functions of the wheel were to inflict severe bodily damage by breaking bones and causing extreme disfigurement and a sacral purpose by thwarting the transition from death to resurrection, leaving the victim condemned to hell or purgatory). Catherine’s head was chopped off to a standing ovation, and her spirit gone to unite with her divine source to be resurrected, avoiding hell or purgatory—end of play.
Since antiquity, cruel and unusual punishment in the form of torment has been used as a method primarily to extract information or force the accused into confessing a crime. That they were innocent did not matter. Years ago, in San Francisco, I came across a book about the different types of torture devices and how they were used on victims throughout history. Starting with the breaking wheel, which dates back to the 6th century, where it's described in the writings of Gregory of Tours. This was the device used to torture and execute Saint Catherine of Alexandria because she refused to renounce her Christian faith. Another device described in the book was a cage of rats, which was placed on the victim’s stomach as a fire was lit above the cage, causing the rats to run for escape by digging and biting their way out through the victim’s stomach, causing excruciating pain. Another was an impalement where a person's body was placed horizontally or perpendicularly on a pointed spike. Once impaled, the victim was left to die a slow, agonizing death. I had to close the book and put it down. What was most eerie was the reality that these tortures occurred. They happened. Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Drăculea, Dracula), son of Vlad Dracul, became the ruler of Wallachia in 1436, which in modern times is now Romania. Vlad the Impaler, the character Bram Strokes fictional Dracula is based on, inflicted this torture on the Turks, filling fields full of dying subjects hanging on stakes, dying a slow, horrifying death. Often, entire families would scream together in agony as they slowly died together. Shutting the book didn't stop the shrieking and groans I could hear, and I became aware of the realness of history’s dark times. Once you see that part of the past, you can’t un-see it.
Magic illusions like the classic sawing-in-half, head chopper, and hang-man illusion are inherently violent tricks using mutilation devices on their subject, reflecting the gruesome history of humankind's methods of torture. I was talking about this to a friend the other day who said he had a love-hate relationship with magic because of the brutality many of these effects exhibit, suggesting sadistic murder and getting away with it because you are pretending. The movie Prestige came to his mind. The nefarious spiritual aspect of torture during those dark moments in history past is lost on most modern-day people, as they don't understand it was meant to break the spirit of the victim, making it impossible for them to revivify or resurrect. But in a magic show, the beautiful lady placed on a sword balancing so precariously and then plunging on the sword as it impales her is always resurrected back to life. This artificial death and restoration in magic reminds me of its divine roots. The defying of death these presentations conjure up are of spiritual journeys like the fabled phoenix and, ultimately, the supernatural resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jonathan and I perform Impalement on magic comic strip for Thames TV in London
One complaint many have about these defeat-of-death feats is the appearance of the objectification of woman who, more than males, performs many of these illusions. There is a strong voyeur aspect to watching someone fight death. Most are familiar with these types of magic illusions. A woman gets sawed in half, a woman gets stretched, and swords are shoved through a box holding a woman. Often, the woman gets into the trick, smiling beautifully, with make-up and her hair done while sensually stepping into the prop wearing high-heeled shoes. She continues smiling as she is sawed in half or gets her head twisted, conveying with her attitude that the illusion is harmless. The female assistant never looks in pain as she performs but is cheerful and sometimes surprised by her situation. If you search the Internet for magic illusions, you will find images and videos of horizontal women under spikes and threatened by iconic saws, and these illusions reflect portrayals of medieval torture. Most are stunned by the strength and bizarreness of these images of women being tormented performing magic and question if their roles as assistants are symbolized. Regardless, I’m practical about the entertainment medium. For instance, most professional performers want to look their best on stage. They want to create an image. They are actors who want to appeal to a broad audience, and they play their part. This is why I appeared in scantily clad outfits performing many of these dangerous-looking illusions. Audiences are intrigued by danger, which, when watched, causes an adrenaline rush in most viewers who fear for the beautiful lady’s life. As a performer, I never allowed myself to be objectified because I made the audience think of something else. I didn’t play an object. I played a strong lady who presented these death-defying illusions by conquering them through resurrection. Coming back to life unscathed was my interpretation of performing Vlad the Impaler’s illusion. Like a comic book heroine conquering evil, I felt powerful, and this is hardly objectification. Those critical of women performing these types of illusions depict their performances as commodities do so because some of the media has attached negativity towards these roles played by lady magic assistants, diminishing their role to like a robot when, in actuality, these lovely ladies evoke the true nature of the ultimate feminine essence — ladies who fearlessly face death and conquers it ensuring a position in the universe’s eternity.
The Pendragons performing impalement Live Dick Clark Presents
Dita Von Teese, a burlesque entertainer and brilliant businesswoman I admire, believes objectification as a liberating experience and claims, “I’m proof all women can unleash their inner goddess” as she embraces being objectified. Never is this incredible lady guilty of prancing provocatively on stage with nipple tassels and boasting about her boob job. She has no shame and shouldn't have any, as she confidently moves her luscious body on stage to the delight of primarily female audiences. “People should never feel ashamed of what’s real and what’s not. I’m all about creating fantasy and illusion.” Her words ring true and resonate with my approach to stage performance when, in the past, I've met similar criticism for my voyeurist presentations. And that’s what these death-defying illusions are — fantasy and illusion, which take you on a roller coaster ride of emotions as you empathize with the lady impaled on a sword. You don't just see it; you feel her terror and pain and the danger of death. When she reveals herself whole at the conclusion, you cheer her as the adrenaline drains from your being replaced with a sense of relief and wonder at the impossible. As I mentioned, two of the tortures written about in the book I picked up in San Francisco have parallel-stage illusions, the rats in a cage and the impalement effects. The cage of rats back in its day was a popular method of torture described above was simulated in a stage performance by one of my best friends and magic pals, Margo Timon, who I call a sister, an actress and model, and a member of one of magic’s most prominent families — The Willards, her grandfather being the famous Willard the Wizard traveled in a tent show during the great depression featuring Margo‘s mother Frances Willard Tucker as one of his prominent assistants in their wonder-filled show. In the illusion, Margo is placed and secured in a box filled with hundreds of rats crawling all over her body. The box is in closed and and locked and a cloth placed over it. A few minutes later, it’s re-opened, displaying the rats alone as Margo escapes their danger and reappears untouched. As a magician, I never placed myself in a box with the rats. Lol! Although I do have a good friend, Belladonna Shields from Australia, who has a pet rat, and I have since warmed up to them a bit. Maybe the illusion is in my future. 🐀 🥹 But instead, I'll stick to Vlad’s impalement
Margo Timon's performance, escape from a box of deadly rats and reappears whole on NBC’s Most Dangerous Magic in 1999
The impalement is a visceral illusion where a person appears impaled by a sword. It was created by modern-day illusion designer Kenny Whittaker, who invented it, and was first performed by magician Paul Daniels and named Beyond Belief but was changed later by someone who called it Impalement. A few other magicians had performed impalement, and I was not impressed with what appeared to be comical presentations. I remember one magician who performed it looking like an 80s Howdy Duty character. His performance focused on his assistant balancing on the sword, an incredible feat. But when the sword impaled His beautiful assistant, it came off comical. You weren’t sure whether to laugh or be stunned. To approach this illusion, you have to have a clear comprehension of the feeling you want to portray to the audience. Only adept performers effectively accomplish this illusion of resurrection. It is not a piece of magic for a beginning magician. Similar to our other illusions, Jonathan and I put a lot of work into this trick to make it effective and to get the emotional response from our audiences we anticipated during our staging.
We bought our prop from Owens Magic Supreme, which Les Smith and his crew built. Les Smith made illusions like tanks. We often shipped it in cargo without crates by wrapping it in padded storage blankets. It was my favorite prop for that reason. We used it first in Spellbound, which I discussed in last week's Substack. During our first lighting rehearsal, I was balanced on the sword, wearing the most minimal costume I owned as Jonathan instructed the lighting technician where to focus the spotlight. Jonathan spun me around, and then I was impaled. The spotlight didn’t change the like it was supposed to, and Jonathan called out to the lighting technician, reminding him of this important cue. There was silence for a few minutes, and Jonathan yelled up to him again. At this point, the lighting technician apologized and said he had to take a moment to recover. When the sword went through my stomach, and I hung there impaled, he thought it was real and was ready to call 911. That’s the extemporal response we wanted the audience to have when they witnessed our performance of this effect. Impalement requires some skilled acting abilities. When I fall on the sword, I do so in a deep bend, my body going limp as my arms and legs flailing like a ragdoll. For Jonathan‘s part, he punctuated this with his confidence, eliminating any hesitancy as to what just happened on the stage. I am revived with a passionate kiss and slowly come back to life as he pulls me off the sword into his arms. It was a compelling presentation and, in all humility, in my opinion, the best I've seen. Males have performed it solo on themselves, but a man’s center of balance is different than a woman so he appears awkward trying to balance on the sword and sometimes comical when he falls and then comes back to life. Impalement is a woman’s illusion, and her body is built for it. I'm happy to have taken this illusion with Jonathan to the level that left our audiences dumbstruck. To relieve them from their astonishment, we often followed it with comedy or an intimate, more minor effect like linking finger rings, changing the emotional volume of the audience, unlike the performance by Saint Catherine where the audience for a brief moment experienced solace as the wheel broke only to have their horror revived watching her head chopped off in response by her executioner. She didn't reappear standing in the audience like Margo, her resurrection left for divine intervention.
Until next week, good bye!
While watching your performance, I did not get the sense it was being objectified which was amazing. Your write-up on medieval torture rituals was enlightening.I feel that the brutality of human history has a connection to our present. XO
Charlotte, as an alpha male, I can't deny the erotic side of these performances along with flawless execution, since you possessed the greatest athletic abilities along with a perfectly proportioned body.
C'mon, can't take my eyes off you! Mesmerizing.