Word Etymology - Conjure

If you haven't noticed by now I love magic and illusions and the history of it all. Especially because it plays so well into storytelling and vica versa. The word conjure is one of those old words that makes something tingle in your spine when it is whispered, as if it is a secret... as if it belies something dark and mysterious. The word however is used very seldom outside of speaking of witchcraft, magic, illusions, and the occasional story about a sorcerer.

The word has origins in Middle English, Old French, and Latin. The Latin is what we will stick with today. The Latin origin of the word is "conjurare" which is made up of two parts "com" meaning 'together' and "jurare" meaning 'to swear.' So literally the word means "to swear together." The original and now mostly obsolete meaning of the word was "to be sworn together in secrecy." However over time the meaning changed and the word became related to certain pagan religious practices and primitive superstitious rites and rituals especially ones in which a spirit or demon is summoned and then bound to the summoner through some incantation or magical words. In more recent times it has been associated with and more commonly used in relation to illusionary magic and legerdemain (that is sleight of hand).

What it means to Storytelling: I love the old meaning of this word, "to swear together" and I think it has a great application to storytelling. Over the years I have seen many Magicians and Storytellers but very few Storytelling Magicians. But I have seen one.... And he STANDS out. He was a conjurer in the old sense because he bound his audience together and to him by the words that he spoke, he literally swore them together. He did this by making the audience a part of his presentation, by including them physically and by making them invest emotionally in the story. Of all the performers I have ever seen in any field I have never seen anyone that was like him. Perhaps in time some of us will learn to conjure people through our stories.