Dragonskull Magik presents a profile of Brother Shadow.
'Brother Shadow'
(Carl Herron)
| Now residing in New Jersey, USA, Carl Herron is a
true gentleman with a wealth of knowledge and experience always ready to
help & advise whenever called upon. He is especially devoted to
promoting Storytelling magic, if necessary, traveling great distances in
order to meet with like minded people. Below is his history, penned by
himself. "My family history goes back to the sixteen hundreds on the North American Continent, and part of it goes back further. My grandmother on my mother’s side was half Sioux Indian and half Canadian French. Those early French fur trappers and mountain men got lonely and mixed with the Indians. I like to feel that the blood of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull is in my veins. They are the ones who defeated Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. I learned much at my grandmother’s knee as I was growing up and it is probably why today I am a Pagan. She taught me to respect Mother Nature and the cycles of life. She often told me, “Listen with a wise ear, it makes the spirit big.” She taught me about the healing powers of herbs. There was always a story, before I went to bed about Indian legends. Her mother was pure Sioux Indian and the wife of the tribal Shaman. On my father’s side it was early Dutch settlers in the New World. he grew up in a small coal mining town in Pennsylvania. At the age of twelve he was working in the coal mines, pushing the coal carts when there was a cave in and his father was killed along with many of the men in the town. He was lucky enough to be on the surface when it happened. At the age of thirteen he left town and became a hobo, riding the freight cars back and forth across the country, then he joined a carnival. By the time he was seventeen he tried his hand at vaudeville, being one of the many lesser acts. By nineteen he became a pitchman demonstrating and selling items on street corners all over America. By the time I came along he settled down in New York. I was six years old when I started shilling for him, and at that young age learned how to attract a crowd, as well as knowing how to spot a cop, and another part my education began. The three room flat that we lived in was always visited by carnies and pitchmen when they were in New York. Before being sent to bed at night they entertained me with stories and teaching me magic tricks. Once I was in bed, I stayed up half the night listening to them telling stories to each other, or what they called, “Cutting up Jackpots. By the time I was twelve, with their help, I was doing magic shows for the neighborhood social clubs and getting a fee for it. I thought I died and went to Heaven. Getting money for something I loved to do. My teachers were hard task masters, not allowing me to perform for my friends until I proved to them I could perform the tricks they taught me. Notice I said perform, not do. I wish it was my line, but it bears repeating, “Only dogs and hookers do tricks.” There is a big difference. They told me to use stories to make the magic more interesting. It was like a pitchman making the people who watched him feel they couldn’t live without what he was selling, and happy to spend their money for it. It was magic in it’s own way. At that early age, they instilled in me the importance of being able to tell a story as I performed, and I’m still doing it. I was lucky to have such teachers and lucky again when I got older. It was a great training ground and I haven’t looked back since. I almost gave up on magic when I was invited to see a magic show that was being held for children. I was excited that I would see a real magician in action. He was everything that my teachers told me not to be. He strung together a bunch of tricks, doing them one after the other with nothing to connect them, or a story. He made fun of the children to get a cheap laugh from the adults who were there. I was so disappointed I told my father and his friends that I was giving up magic and why. They talked me out of it, saying now I knew what not to do. That was almost sixty years ago, and I am still at it, and still learning. I was very lucky and know it. My teachers are now long gone, but the memory of them will live with me always, and the best way I can say thank you to their spirit, is to try and pass the torch to others. Three people had a lot to do with the way I feel about magic, all
dear friends, and sadly, now all gone, except in our memories. In the
United States it was Tony Andruzzi, better known as Masklyn ye Mage, in
Germany it was Punx, and in Scotland Charles Cameron. I owe
them a debt I could never repay.
Punx, then Carl next to Charles Cameron (center) and Tony Andruzzi.
As Brother Shadow, he has had his many writings appear in various publications including, Invocation, New Invocation, Magick, M.U.M. magazine and the Linking Ring. He had his own column in most of the issues of The Altar Flame and is currently providing a monthly column M.U.M. magazine. His handcrafted effects are works of art in their own right and it takes many days to produce such items as, The Wheel of Fate, The Zodiac Cards of Bilitis, The Witches' Casting Stones & Pick a Sin...Any Sin. One particular handcrafted effect, The Silver Key, was a limited edition release, unavailable for years now and is highly regarded as a prized collectable. Other effects include Ten Little Indians (a tale of death) and I'll Be Damned. His published books. Brother Shadow's Book of Copyright Free Arcane Art, The Art of Storytelling Magic, The Empress, Have Séance Will Travel, The Papers of Gautama Siddhartha, Theory and Presentation of Magick and his latest one, Some Shadowy Paths and By Ways. Meeting with Carl at a Gathering (whether in the States or Scotland) is a highlight for many but more so if he was accompanied by his equally charming wife, Bertha.
Bertha and Carl at the Charles Cameron Memorial Gathering held in Edinburgh, Scotland, October, 2001. |
