Greetings,
I'm curious if anyone would be kind enough to share their thoughts and/or experiences with Josephine McCarthy's Quareia course books. I've looked over the contents of the various level textbooks and am intrigued by the idea of a well-structured academic-style course related to Western Occultism in study and practice. The price point is another draw as it is somewhat rare to find this kind of material being put out freely!
Many Thanks,
G. Ephraim
I haven't taken it but I am curious myself. I am a fan of Fratar Acher and the two of them seem to get along together famously. He is very much an advocate of her courses. I find her choice of labeling interesting. It is clearly masonically inspired even though Acher, is wary himself of large systems in general. Although his apprehension is exaggerated I would say in his interpretation of the text which is a basis for his book, Rosicrucian Magic.
I want to be clear though just in case what I just said was not obvious and what was meant: I am not in any way saying that her course is based on any kind of large structure or Masonic teaching but rather the name itself is reference to doing the work in the quarries. There are other things they have said which give a nod to Masonic language. I'll over to my knowledge there is absolutely nothing within the course that is Masonic teaching. What I do know, is what she has said on Glitch bottle and elsewhere, as well as what is on the site for the program itself. I do know that the course includes Spirit travel and out-of-body work which she talks about end of the techniques used because they influenced their perceptive barrier between worlds, her courses are not advisable for those who are suffering from certain mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. These are her words and policies, not my opinion though I do certainly understand the situation and do not disagree with her. It is a double-edged sword because in many cultures of a certain vintage, the medicine people were the only people that there was afflicted with such illnesses had to turn to. You didn't have modern medicine and many are these inflicted individuals would study with the medicine people and become medicine people themselves as it was their best hope for navigating their affliction and living a functional life. Yet certainly not all teachers are comfortable teaching somebody with such an affliction and for good reasons. Even if you were to take someone of that predisposition as a medicine apprentice, you would do well too avoid certain practices or certainly not rely on them.
On that matter I can agree with her though I wouldn't say that I agree with her on every point she makes concerning me subtle bodies and how things really are in their spiritual nature of things. We might have slightly different conclusions regarding certain spiritual phenomena and experiences. However I would also say that her and I have much in common and I can understand why Frater Achar is so fond of her. Hers is a world full of spirits and spirit relationships and she would find herself right at home in the paracelsian paradigm that informs much of the frater's work. To this I would say while her and I might disagree on details we agree in the overall ecology of the spirit work. I do not know to what degree she draws on Paracelsus, a he does, that would be shocked to find out that she is unfamiliar with his work in such regard.
I've been meaning to see if I can find any materials from the course that may give me a glimpse of what it is about, but that will have to wait until after a few of the upcoming internet apprentice degrees that I have to study for.
