Autoren-Bilder

Josephine McCarthy

Autor von The Exorcist's Handbook

34 Werke 335 Mitglieder 2 Rezensionen

Werke von Josephine McCarthy

The Exorcist's Handbook (2010) 36 Exemplare
Quareia - The Apprentice (2017) 25 Exemplare
The Work of the Hierophant (2010) 22 Exemplare
Magic of the Northgate (2013) 20 Exemplare
Quareia - The Adept (2017) 14 Exemplare
The Magical Knowledge Trilogy (2020) 14 Exemplare
Quareia - The Initiate (2017) 11 Exemplare

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Wissenswertes

Rechtmäßiger Name
Josephine Dunne
Andere Namen
Josephine McCarthy
Geburtstag
1962
Geschlecht
female
Nationalität
UK
Geburtsort
Bradford, Yorkshire, England, UK
Wohnorte
Devon, England, UK
Berufe
Writer
Beziehungen
Stuart Littlejohn
Organisationen
Quareia
Kurzbiographie
I have been teaching and writing on occult/ Western Mystery themes in the USA and UK for the last twenty five years, and involved as a practitioner in magic/occultism for 35 years. I have authored over 27 books on the subject of Esoteric/Western Mysteries, and provide a free online long term magical training course that takes the aspiring magician from apprentice to adept: Quareia.

I was birthed out of the magical city of Bradford, in West Yorkshire UK in 1962, a place complete with its ritual lodges, Theosophical Society, Golden Dawn Temple, and the then thriving multi cultural community of artists, musicians, writers and thinkers.

I moved to the USA in 1997 and began writing on magical themes in 1999. I spent eleven years teaching and lecturing on western esoteric subject matter in various locations around the USA, and returned back to the UK in 2008.

In 2011 I crossed paths with Frater Acher, the German adept and magical writer, and in 2014 we started a joint project of developing a free online magical training course. I began writing the training modules, which became the Quareia Magical Training School.

I now live back in the UK with my husband, magical artist Stuart Littlejohn, in the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, and spend my time mentoring students, and developing resources for Quareia.

Mitglieder

Rezensionen

I really, really wanted to like this book. I've read some of McCarthy's magical training books, and she's an expert, but this novel chases its own tail and falls apart.

As the cover art and the Introduction make clear, the "scabbard" in the book is a woman (more than one actually), in which a magical sword is sheathed. That in itself is a grim concept, but one I was willing to take on trust.

My comments below explain why I didn't like the book, which is impossible to do without some spoilers.


The first problem is that the passivity implied in being a sheath is demonstrated by the three female protagonists. Each of them has a great deal of power locked away inside herself that she is unaware of until a knowledgable and skilled male practitioner helps her to connect with it. Each of the three spends a great deal of time being confused and distressed, and then doing what she's been told to by a male. Unfortunately, coming into her power doesn't actually give her meaningful agency. Even worse, from the perspective of the plot, it doesn't advance the story at all.

The second, even larger problem is that the book sets up a huge struggle between good and evil, with lives and nations at stake, but the resolution is all done via hypnotic regression, during which the evil remains held at bay. Our third passive heroine revisits multiple past lives, very little of which shed light on the conflict, until she finally emerges into the. . . . Presence of Deity? She makes a choice, and the centuries of conflict are over. Poof!

Even the final scene of sheathing the magic sword somewhere besides a woman's body has no emotional impact because we don't get to see any of the results. Even worse, I can't remember how she comes into possession of the lost magical relics. We also don't get to see what happens to the many representatives of the enemy.


On the plus side: even though the plot ultimately fails to be satisfying, McCarthy's writing of individual scenes is vivid, and her descriptions of magical workings (particularly in the first section), are fascinating.
… (mehr)
1 abstimmen
Gekennzeichnet
jsabrina | Jul 13, 2021 |
"Not reviewing" I said, quietly. "Not reviewing," I said, firmly. "NOT reviewing!" I pleaded piteously. Maybe I should have looked at the cards?

Anyway, I'm NOT REVIEWING, but I will say a couple things. First, really, really nice to see someone come right out and say reversals are unnecessary. (Because reversals are only something that happens if you are deliberately introducing them unless you're shuffling via smoosh.) Also love the emphasis on deriving meaning from card positions in spreads. (Only one of her spreads really interested me, but that's not deeply surprising since my tarot dabbling is for purposes of interior examination and hers is firmly focused on actual divination and magic. Different strokes for different strokes; that's not the source of the low rating.) Overall, the actual tarot portion of the book is probably very useful and I really should bump up the rating just for that.

Should, but won't. How can I say this politely? I have trouble with a lack of wisdom. My own probably. But you can't explain to me how to drive better and at the same time give me the impression (however slight, and perhaps unwarranted!) that you think we are all the captains of our own fate. I won't want to learn to drive from you after that. Also, if all esoteric writers can just avoid discussing Covid at all for any reason in their books going forward, that would be great. I don't really enjoy the wrath, and apparently even very slight missteps on this subject are going to be bringing it right on. Unfair, but there it is.
… (mehr)
 
Gekennzeichnet
amyotheramy | May 11, 2021 |

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Statistikseite

Werke
34
Mitglieder
335
Beliebtheit
#71,019
Bewertung
½ 4.4
Rezensionen
2
ISBNs
54

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