This has led to divisive reactions in the Magic Circle magician community. Incidentally, Penn & Teller are not Magic Circle members due to the fact they reveal magic secrets in their shows. In 1935 Magic Circle member and first president David Devant was temporarily expelled for revealing some of his own magic in The Windsor Magazine. The Rules of The Magic Circle (1925) photo above explain the expulsion guidelines for spilling the proverbial magic beans. Revealing magic secrets remains a harshly-penalised activity for the club. It still is on the club’s logo to this day. Despite the correct translation of the motto being known in circles within The Circle, the false translation has so far prevailed. Still being recognised as Caesar, came the phrase indocilis privata loqui which actually means ‘not skilled at speaking of commonplace things’. In a 2019 interview on The Magician’s Podcast, Teller explained (yes, Teller really can talk) that the phrase derives from a description of Julius Caesar trying to go in disguise amongst the common people – but not quite able to pull it off undetected. Scholars, including the silent shorter half of the double act Penn & Teller who was once a Latin teacher, have corrected the myth about the meaning of the motto. As the tale goes, it means ‘Not apt to disclose secrets.’ Generations of magicians have told each other and their audiences that it’s a posh Latin way of saying the popular phrase ‘a magician never reveals their secrets.’ The only problem is, it doesn’t actually mean that…

But almost everyone who tells you what it means is wrong.

Indocilis privata loqui is the latin motto of The Magic Circle.

What does the club’s motto ‘indocilis privata loqui’ mean?Īn impressively well-dispersed piece of misinformation has to do with the matter of Magic Circle secrets themselves.

The magic circle show