I have now read "The Exorcist's Handbook" (Golem Media, 3rd edition, 2010, ISBN 978-1-937002-43-5, Amazon), by Josephine McCarthy, a book I have already touched on in these two recent posts: here [Note 1] and here [Note 2].
This author is writing from a predominantly Western Mystery Tradition background, but emphasises being able to work with a multiplicity of traditions for a range of reasons, including the excellent point that some entities/energies were created or are tied to particularly traditions, and can be best dealt with through the methods of that tradition. As an example:
"The one-size-fits-all exorcisms of the Vatican usually just bore the s**t out of demons, and the fundamentalist method of beating the victim with a baseball bat ... isn't of much more use really."
and
"If the host was a magical worker/priest/ess/new age idiot, then there is some responsibility upon them to carry the mess that they made. If they invited the deity in, then all you can do is to transfer the deity into the image. Now the host has to commit to tending the image, and bringing the deity through that image by working with it and bringing others to work with it. Usually, under these circumstances, the deity becomes so disappointed with the level of care and interaction that they literally get bored half senseless and leave."I have quite enjoyed the author's down-to-earth style of writing. Another example of that:
"If someone is a practicing magician and resorts to using magic to resolve some grievance, that tells us that the person has no emotive skills, no real power that can be used, and has the mental capacity of a Macburger."
What I have read has stimulated considerable thought, and helped me find and clear what Ms McCarthy would probably describe as "a land based parasite" (the area we live in has some historical problems, as well as some energetic disturbance from nearby services, and working on the neighbourhood generally has been part and parcel of living here).
I'm also looking forward to trying and adapting the tailored divination deck she describes for readers to make. By the time I've added in the runic and galactic heritage card (which I came across through this book, see this post) influences I also work with, and trim out the influences I don't, I think I will have a nifty little-ish personalised deck.
She gives layouts to use for divination to guide exorcism, which I will adapt for clearing purposes, and also includes an excellent chapter on health care which has an interesting layout tailored for that purpose.
In fact, if anyone is interested in tarot systems, I suspect her book "Tarot Skills for the 21st Century: Mundane and Magical Divination" would be interesting, informative, and very useful.
I'll also remind you, Dear Reader, of her free on-line training course at https://www.quareia.com/, which is how I first came across Ms McCarthy.
My final points in favour of this author and her work are these.
Firstly, she is objective and practical, with a focus on what her experience has shown her works - and also includes problems that need to be addressed, such as keeping significant others safe from this work. (I will probably edit what I have written about indirect psychic attack in response to what I have read in this book.)
Secondly, she is rigorously ethical. On a number of occasions I found myself nodding in approval (especially on not causing harm to an attacker), and as an example, consider this quote:
"The way it works with these beings is that they balance the scales and what is done to the attacker is also done to the victim."
To show how much I approve of that sentiment, consider this from my standard opening prayer that I was taught and have been using since the early 1980s (see, for instance, here):
"May this prayer, and everything that is done, thought or said by anyone present or connected to here in any way, be only for the Highest Spiritual Good. As a sign of our commitment to this request, we ask that all that we intentionally do to others be done immediately to us, so that we may know no harm is being done."
If you can, I thoroughly recommend considering buying this book (it is reasonably priced, IMO). If you can't, then start working through the Quareia course - which has sections on Tarot, incidentally.
I have some minor points of disagreement, but nothing that warrants raising here (they're more technical details than anything fundamental).
Note 1
I'm reading (amongst the multiple other books) a book titled "The Exorcist's Handbook" (Golem Media, 3rd edition, 2010, ISBN 978-1-937002-43-5, Amazon), by Josephine McCarthy, who is also responsible for this website. The book is, in effect, about working with and "removing" non-human beings that are causing problems for humans and other sentient beings; refreshingly, it doesn't take a simplistic neochristian / Hollywood attitude to this, and non-human beings are not seen as "evil" but as out-of-place, and the "exorcism" is about returning such beings to where they came from for their good, as much as the good of the human(s) they were infecting.
The book does talk about more insidious influences as well, but keeps a healthy and non-judgemental perspective. For instance:
"These beings are very dangerous, not just to individuals, but to groups and societies in general. It is not something you would tackle alone as an exorcist, but something that a focussed group would work on over a generation. The trick is to not get drawn into the agenda for good or bad—stay neutral and get a job done. The other thing I have found with some of these larger demonic beings that flow through a structure is that they are often doing an important job: aiding in the breaking down of a structure that is decaying. This is what I think the natural function of a demonic being is: to assist in an end to something corrupt."
Note 2
At some stage I'm going to be recommending "The Exorcist's Handbook" (Golem Media, 3rd edition, 2010, ISBN 978-1-937002-43-5, Amazon), by Josephine McCarthy, who is also responsible for this website. That book covers evil in a dispassionate way, and the harm that can be done by possession, psychic attack, etc (especially indirect psychic attack), albeit much of that from a Western Mystery Tradition perspective.
