Black Shadow System to sequentially memorize a deck (especially good for Harding) use Rubix palace.

Note that this system does not memorize card positions but is a quick way to memorize a deck of cards on a memory palace that has 27 loci within the palace. This gives mental "next card" capability but does NOT give mental "acaan" position capability.

Note that I call this the "Black" Shadow system because the card color is a variable within the mnemonic story.

Each card value has a name:
Ace=Sun
2=Shoe
3=Tree
4=Door
5=Hive
6=Stick
7=Heaven
8=Gate
9=Wine
10=Hen
J=Jack
Q=Queen
K=King

All of the above are normally mentally thought of as being red unless the magician mentally overrides the appropriate cards (Spades and Clubs) being black.

The card in the very first loci (If any) will be a minor suit ie: diamonds or clubs.
For all other loci the first card in the loci will be a major suit ie: spades or hearts. Other cards in the same loci (following the major suit card) will be minor suits ie: diamonds and clubs.

Note if the very first card in the stack is a major suit (Spades or Hearts) then don't mentally put anything in the first loci. In that situation start the first card in the second loci.

Example 1:
5S, 3H, 9C, JS, JC, 8H, 7D, QS, KC, 2H, 2S, 4D, 6D, 10C and so on.

Example 1 Loci# and contents:
1. Nothing
2. Black Hive,
3. Tree, Black Wine,
4. Black Jack, Black Jack
5. Gate, Heaven,
6. Black Queen, Black King,
7. Shoe,
8. Black shoe, Door, Stick, Hen,
and so on.


Example 2:
5D, 3H, 9C, JS, JC, 8H, 7D, QS, KC, 2H, 2S, 4D, 6D, 10C and so on.

Example 2 Loci# and contents:
1. Hive,
2. Tree, Black Wine,
3. Black Jack, Black Jack
4. Gate, Heaven,
5. Black Queen, Black King,
6. Shoe,
7. Black shoe, Door, Stick, Hen,
and so on.

Making a mental story out of the above Example 2:
The first location has a red beehive.
The second location has a red tree with a black glass of wine.
The third location has two black jacks sitting side by side.
The fourth location has a red gate into a red cloud.
The fifth location has a black queen followed by a black king.
The sixth location has a red shoe.
The 7th location has a black shoe, a red door, a red stick, a red hen.
And so on. You can mentally dress up the mnemonic story better than I have done.

Interpreting the above story into playing cards:

If the first Loci has anything in it then it will be a minor suit. It does (in the Example 2 above) therefore the red five must be diamonds so the first card is the five of diamonds. Loci number one is an outlier therefore use the rules below for the other 26 Loci.

The second Loci has a red tree which must be a major suit therefore the first card in the second location is the three of hearts, the black glass of wine must be the nine of clubs (because following cards in that location must be minor suits).

Note that according to this video Lance Tschirhart came up with the shadow system of two card pairs to reduce memorizing 2704 names down to 1352 names. Reminder that they are using techniques for sequential speed memorization, they are not memorizing position numbers.

https://youtu.be/cTR3f71NgAc?si=kwuMwht1Qn0Yn-bu

Others have made different modifications such as Sherlly Mentalism below. I have reduced it further but there are obvious pros and cons to each of these methods.

The Harding stack has built-in method to calculate position numbers but it is very lacking at figuring the next card or for that matter being able to reconstruct the deck if it accidentally got shuffled. This black shadow method might do well at letting the Harding magician reconstruct his deck without having to refer to a cheat sheet and with a lot less memorization than memorizing the whole stack which would totally defeat the purpose of using the Harding stack algorithm. Reminder that this black shadow method is just determining the "next card" and nothing else (no position numbers) therefore not as much memory work.

Not sure that my Black Shadow method is any better than the simple shadow system memory (a cosy introduction Sherlly Mentalism) that has two different names for the Kings (major suits together as one name and minor suits together as a different name etc same principle with the other value cards).

https://youtu.be/w_f_8bYVa8Y?si=KYGnbFZ7htmj-rU6

Sherlly Mentalism method:
Cat, Dog, Parrot, Fire, Boat, Lantern, Pizza, Dinosaur, Doctor who, Man, Woman, SpiderMan, Superman, Sword, Shield, Diamond, Pickaxe, Dwarf, Elf, Dragon, Carrot, Pillow, Bed, Ben, Tea, God.

Note: I am experimenting with using a Rubik's cube as a memory palace because it has 26 little cubes and I'm also utilizing an imaginary cube in the very center giving me 27 little cubes.

You might think that I only need 26 Loci because the shadow technique splits the 52 in half (in my Black Shadow method I'm using major suits versus minor suits). However I need to basically waste the very first position as a rule breaker so that I can always know that the other 26 locations that the first card in each of those locations will always be a major suit (this means the current card with a major suit will immediately trigger mentally moving to the next Loci and then storing that current card immediately as the first card of that Loci). I believe Lance Tschirhart and others use the trigger as the last card within each location. I prefer not to use that method. I like knowing that the first card in each Loci is a major suit and that any other cards in that Loci are minor suits.

Further below is the complete mnemonic stories for all 27 Loci (52 cards) for the DSHoCk Harding stack.

DSHoCk Harding stack:
10d, 7s, 4h, Ac, Jc, 6d, 7d, 9h, 6c, Ad, Jd, 8s, 5h,
2c, Qc, 3s, Ks, 10h, 7c, 2d, Qd, 9s, 6h, 3c, Kc, 4s, Ah, Jh, 8c, 3d, Kd, 10s, 7h, 4c, 8d, 5s, 2h, Qh, 9c, 4d, As, Js, 8h, 5c, 9d, 6s, 3h, Kh, 10c, 5d, 2s, Qs

DSHoCk Harding Black Shadow sequential memorization (all 52 cards using a memory palace with 27 loci):
Loci#:
1. Ten of diamonds,
2. Black Heaven,
3. Door, Black Sun, Black Jack, Stick, Heaven
4. Wine, Black Stick, Sun, Jack,
5. Black Gate,
6. Hive, Black Shoe, Black Queen,
7. Black Tree,
8. Black King,
9. Hen, Black Heaven, Shoe, Queen,
10. Black Wine,
11. Stick, Black Tree, Black King,
12. Black Door,
13. Sun,
14. Jack, Black Gate, Tree, Gate,
15. Black Hen,
16. Heaven, Black Door, Gate,
17. Black Hive,
18. Shoe,
19. Queen, Black Wine, Door,
20. Black Sun,
21. Black Jack,
22. Gate, Black Hive, Wine,
23. Black Stick,
24. Tree,
25. King, Black Hen, Hive
26. Black Shoe,
27. Black Queen
Note that loci 2 thru 27 the first card within the loci will be a major suit (spades or hearts) whereas any other cards after the first card within the loci will be minor suit cards.

Loci number one is an outlier because it will have a minor suit card by itself (the 10 of Diamonds).

Note that a Rubik's cube makes a perfect memory palace for the Black Shadow method because it has 26 little cubes and we can think of an imaginary center cube making up 27 loci. I think the easiest way is to start at the top going across mentally numbering them has Loci 1, 2, 3 then the next row down being Loci 4, 5, 6 then the last row at the bottom being Loci 7, 8, 9.

Then proceeding across the Rubik's cube at the top the next Loci 10, 11, 12 then going down Loci 13, 14, 15 (note that loci 14 is an imaginary little cube in the middle of the Rubik's cube block). Still proceeding down we have Loci 16, 17, 18.

Back up to the top of the Rubik's cube the last row on the top is Loci 19, 20, 21. Then going down and across we have Loci 22, 23, 24. Then finally at the back bottom we have Loci 25, 26, 27.

The very first Loci imagine the ten of Diamonds but from then on we use mnemonic stories from the Harding Black Shadow to place them in the different Loci.

Reminder: The Loci are NOT the position numbers of the cards, they are placeholders for one or more cards to use a little mnemonic story to know the sequence of what card comes next.

Loci:
2. Has black clouds (think of heaven as clouds).
3. Has solar eclipse (Black Sun) with a black jack standing beside it with a red stick pointing to red clouds.
4. Has red wine glass with a black stick coming out the side and sticking into a red sun that has a red face jack.
5. Simply has a black gate
6. Red Hive with a black shoe sticking out of it and a black queens foot inside the shoe.
7. Simply a black tree
8. Simply a black king
9. A red hen looking up at a black cloud that is raining down a red shoe that has a red queen foot inside the shoe.
10. Simply a black glass of wine
11. A red arrow sticking into a black tree that has a black king taking a nap underneath.
12. Simply a black door
13. Simply a red sun
14. A blackjack holding a black gate open to the red apple tree (Adam and Eve) and on the other side a red hot gate.
15. Simply a black hen
16. Red clouds with a black door opening to a red gate (kind of like Twilight Zone door).
17. Simply a black hive
18. Simply a red shoe
19. A red queen throwing a black wine glass out a red door.
20. Simply a solar eclipse
21. Simply a black Jack
22. Red gate opens to black hive sitting on red wine glass
23. Simply a black stick
24. Simply a red tree
25. A red king holding a black hen on top of a red hive
26. Simply a black shoe
27. Simply a black queen

Oops, correction to the mnemonic story for loci 3: it should start with a "Red Door".

"3. Has a red door that opens to a solar eclipse (Black Sun) with a black jack standing beside it with a red stick pointing to red clouds."

Loci 14 has 2 errors. It should have been:
14. A RED Jack holding a black gate open to the red apple tree (Adam and Eve) and on the other side a red KING.

I'm finding that the mnemonic image of a "gate" and a "door" are similar (they both open up). Therefore instead of "gate" I want to use "snowman" because it also looks like the number eight.

I'm also finding that "Sun" and "clouds" can be mentally stepping on each other's toes. Therefore I want to use a "unicorn" instead of "sun". Note that "uni" indicates 1 which indicates ace.

Black Shadow Unicorn System (Each card value has a name):
Ace=Unicorn
2=Shoe
3=Tree
4=Door
5=Hive
6=Stick
7=Heaven
8=Snowman
9=Wine
10=Hen
J=Jack
Q=Queen
K=King

Black Shadow Unicorn mnemonics for the DSHoCk Harding system:

Loci:
1. Ten of Diamonds
2. Has black clouds (think of heaven as clouds).
3. Has a red door that opens to a black unicorn butting a black jack who has a red stick pointing into red clouds.
4. Has red wine glass with a black stick coming out the side and sticking into a red unicorn that has a red face jack.
5. Simply has a black Snowman
6. Red Hive with a black shoe sticking out of it and a black queens foot inside it.
7. Simply a black tree
8. Simply a black king
9. A red hen looking up at a black cloud that is raining down a red shoe that has a red queen foot inside it.
10. Simply a black glass of wine
11. A red arrow sticking into a black tree that has a black king taking a nap underneath.
12. Simply a black door
13. Simply a red unicorn
14. A red Jack pushing a black snowman to the red apple tree (Adam and Eve) and on the other side a red King
15. Simply a black hen
16. Red clouds with a black door opening to a red snowman.
17. Simply a black hive
18. Simply a red shoe
19. A red queen throwing a black wine glass out a red door.
20. Simply a black unicorn
21. Simply a black Jack
22. Red Snowman on a black hive which is on a red wine glass
23. Simply a black stick
24. Simply a red tree
25. A red king holding a black hen on top of a red hive
26. Simply a black shoe
27. Simply a black queen

I have mentally double-checked this new unicorn version and all appears to be correct.

As mentioned further above in this post I am mentally using a Rubik's cube to place each of these mnemonic stories on one of the little squares (including the internal invisible square number 14).
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