More On The Interrelationship Between Yin and Yang

One thing that's important to note is that while there are instances in which Yin and Yang mesh well together, it is possible for there to be conflict between the two. For instance, there are two points in the "Strengthening Your Magic 'Yin'" which I believe to be fundamentally true, and those are these... All other considerations being equal, I believe that visual magic is stronger in Yin than implied magic, and vanishes and productions of larger objects are also stronger in Yin. Here's a key thing -- I'm not saying they're better magic effects, necessarily, only that they're stronger in Yin.

The distinction between "strong in Yin" and "better magic effect" is important, because sometimes making an alteration in Yin has drawbacks in Yang. Say, for instance, you have the chance to either vanish and reproduce an elephant, or vanish and reproduce a coin. If Yin is the only factor, the elephant wins out. However, Yin is not the only factor, and methods will complicate matters somewhat. We have multiple ways of vanishing and reproducing a coin, so that allows us to build conviction in the effect, giving credibility to the Yin. However, there are only so many ways that we can vanish and reproduce an elephant, and the concessions required (distance, inordinate amount of cover, etc.) have a drastic impact on Yang, which can influence the overall effect.

Which brings us to the concept of visual magic. Again, very strong in Yin, since they get to see the effect and the moment the effect takes place, and there's no misdirection from it. However, so much of the visual magic that we do requires us to do a bad move at a time close to the effect, and the juxtaposition of the two weakens Yang, which has a negative overall effect on Yin. This is one of the great benefits of get-readies and half-moves, in that sometimes the get-ready itself can be covered, leading us into a position whereby when we want to demonstrate an effect (or else pull off the illusion of an innocent action). Then, after we punctuate with a pause or some such, when it becomes time to do the action that has an external reality to it, it's smoother and looks closer to the way it should as if we were using no method.

(At some point I'm going to need to re-write this, and reincorporate it into the previous notes)