r/Quareia

I've been trying to decide on a book to work from as a base for my daily practice. I had it narrowed down to

Modern Magic by DMC
Kabbalah Magic and the Great Work by LTC
Self Initiation into the Golden Dawn by the Cicero's

But I recently started reading the new 10th edition of Quareia and really liked the writing style and the way the work is laid out. So I purchased a copy and planned to work through it. The problem is that it doesn't teach any rituals like the LBRP or LIRP which I wanted to incorporate into my practice (hence the books I planned to choose from).

So my question is has anyone worked through Quareia while also working another system like the Golden Dawn? I know that I can just start working the LBRP on my own while following the Quareia curriculum, but I'd still like to have a lesson based practice to work the GD rituals. I plan to try and work through Quareia while also working through one of the books at a pace I'm comfortable with, but I'd like to hear if others have done this and what others think.

All,

I hope we approach this conversation with humility and deep respect for the magical training course available to all. I would like to invite discussion around why we haven't seen an adept graduate in 10 years, and if there are any goals to help people get through the program from end to end.

As I become increasingly committed as a student, I'd like to know that graduation is possible if I apply myself with focus, intent, and skill over a long period.

I can imagine that being completely self-guided comes with a high dropout rate, as most people are not very good at self-motivation. That said, after 10 years, I'd imagine that you'd probably expect at least one person to make it through.

As the course becomes clearer with the new edition (which I absolutely love), I would like to discuss why there are no graduates and what we could learn or update so that more people could successfully graduate (obviously, this is a course with no promises other than outstanding lessons/material and an opportunity for a student to pursue it anywhere, at any price).

EDIT: Per the course intro, the official expected time to complete is six to ten years:  https://www.quareia.com/about-quareia

"The course is not an academic study exercise, rather it is a course that is highly practical in its application, in conjunction with study. It is wide and deep in its subject reach, and takes between six and ten years to complete. The course does not rely on belief; rather it is rooted in knowledge and practical personal experience, thus ultimately creating a unique path for each individual." 

I deleted my earlier post but changed my mind and decided this is worth discussing. A recent post linked here from r/Magick had comments that included certain concerns and criticisms about Josephine McCarthy and the Quareia course. These include saying that she is incorrect about certain aspects of Kabbalah and insists she is correct, that she is "out of her mind", that it is a problem that nobody has fully completed the course yet, and general claims that she's crazy and not worth learning from. I feel like I've seen people have beef with her a lot but it's only ever been addressed by herself directly, and that's not really what I want here (not that I object to hearing from her on this topic, I just think she's defended herself plenty already). I'm not exactly asking for refutation even though I do think it's pretty much BS. I just think that as practicioners of this system it is important to take a moment to intentionally discuss potential problems if we're going to commit time and energy to it. Please share your thoughts!

Hello everyone,

So there is one thing I want to address regarding a recent thread that was referring to stuff posted on another sub-reddit.

As I mentioned in that same thread, the purpose of this sub-reddit is not to justify the existence of Josephine's work nor to defend her. Quareia doesn't need defenders, nor does she. This place exists primarily to help people who are interested in the course while trying to maintain some balance with its solitary practice aspect.

Please keep in mind that there will always be drama in occult circles. There are always those who disagree, those who are disgruntled ex-students, or those who simply don't like someone or object to some personal aspect or behaviour. Despite its aspirations, occult study is nevertheless an all-too human human endeavour and that brings about the whole spectrum of feelings, attitudes, and inclinations.

We have to be mindful and respect other sub-reddit communities and refrain from behaviour that might run counter to Reddit's terms of service. Our thread was reported for 'brigading' behaviour, which is when members of one community flood another one's posts with downvotes in an attempt to manipulate the thread. Now, while this is a very gray area and it is a subjective thing, it can still create very real problems for us here. Reddit admins can choose to penalize a community that is seen or perceived as engaging in this behaviour.

I'm going to ask everyone to just take a breather next time you see content or comments you don't like in another community regarding Quareia, Josephine, or whatever. React to them there and vote if you like, but please don't go linking, referencing, or mentioning that content here, as that's where we become open to accusations of 'rallying the troops' and 'sending out our mobs'.

Going forward, if you do make a post like this I'll just remove it. We really shouldn't be engaging in any kind of fanbase-like behaviour and I don't need to have Reddit's admins on my case.

Hello everyone,

My name is Mehmet, I live in Türkiye and reside in Konya. I was born Muslim and later became an atheist till I met with a Master. I practiced esoteric Islam at that point and became a Muslim again. I've come a long way through Sufism but needed to leave my community for certain reasons.

Much time has passed and through YouTube I came upon Foolish Fish's channel. He was discussing magical paths and learned about Quareia there. I've bought the book and will be starting next week.

I've recently learned about reddit sub, though I almost hate reddit, I'm interested in you guys. So I wanted to say hello. If any questions arise I'm happy to reply.

Is it just my impression or has tarot become a widespread fashion lately?

The more I work with it, and the more I see other people working with it on the internet, the more it becomes evident how "unraveling" tarot can be (beyond health and energy depletion). It's not always about an interpretation mistake on the reader, something I don't see discussed much that I've seen again and again is the oracle itself outputting misleading, inaccurate or outright destructive information.

I was reflecting about this, how tricky tarot can be if you do not step carefully. That made me think about the older serpent symbolism/power, connected to oracular power and wisdom, but also destructive to the wielder if he's imbalanced. I thought about the Hermit's staff and the serpent power in it, then I had an insight... the lantern is the key, its light balances out the darker/cthonic aspects of the serpent/staff.

I'm not claiming tarot literally works through serpent power, I honestly don't know. But it serves as a good guiding analogy to work safely with divination, treat it like a serpent, either you make it stand upright or it coils around you. And the key is your own light, self-knowledge is the antidote to self-deception.

Part of my intent with these posts is to hopefully temper the blind trust folks seem to invest in tarot, taking for granted that it always speaks the truth and serves only to illuminate you. I'm not saying it has malicious intent in any way, it's just that by the way of its (fluid) nature mixed up with human stupidity it tends to output unreliable answers, and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

In another post I talked about how my deck seems to have its own agenda, but it doesn't feel like parasitical or malicious agenda, it's just wild and slightly chaotic, it tests good judgment and forces discipline: a more thoughtful approach and deliberate word constrictions. In this way, I'm inching further to make it stand upright.

Hello everyone!

So how's it going? What's been on your minds? Share your highs and lows, your sideways and in-betweens. It's all part of the journey. 

• Unofficial Quareia Discord Server

 

The Context:

I've been studying Quareia for two months now, most of which I've focused exclusively on meditation. Only very recently (a week ago) have I started with tarot; I've never used a divination system before, so I'm still quite ignorant on this subject.

Creating this post wasn't an easy decision, as both the course and the study guide make it clear that I should find solutions to problems independently rather than asking for help. Therefore, I feel I might be making a mistake right now. But I also feel that, for this specific question, the knowledge of those with more experience than me could provide key insights for my development. I trust that time will show me if the approach that led me to post this is correct; until then, I'll consider it a potential mistake that I'm willing to make for the possible benefit I might gain from it.

----

The Issue:

I obtained a Rider Waite deck as indicated in the course; In my city there's only one esoteric shop, and I preferred to go there and buy it in person rather than order it online. I wanted to see the place with my own eyes, since I imagine this path will lead me to have to buy materials often.

The owner, a very nice woman, told me she only had one Rider Waite deck left: a slightly smaller edition than the standard one. I asked if anything else was different besides the size, and she assured me no: they were just slightly smaller cards, everything else was exactly the same.

So I bought this deck and proceeded with the keywords for the Major and Minor Arcana, guided by what the illustrations conveyed to me and by what the booklet indicated. For some cards, the keyword appeared in my mind clearly, without any opposition. Others were a bit more resistant, forcing me to carefully weigh the different meanings suggested by the booklet and the illustration so as not to choose a word that fell too heavily into one of the possible meanings, completely ignoring the others. This kept me focused for long periods on some of the more challenging cards, trying to discern the "core of their identity" among so many different meanings suggested in the booklet. These "long doubts" don't worry me, as I assume they are precisely one of the objectives of the exercise (forcing the apprentice to really dig into each card instead of assigning the first word or meaning that comes to mind.)

However, I can't help but think that with some of the cards I've ended up selecting keywords that stray too far from what the card conveys to me... in an attempt to make it fit all the meanings presented in the booklet. This has happened with a few cards (fewer than 10), but to avoid making this post too long, I'll only show the Page of Pentacles, which in my native language is called the "Sota de Oros"

https://preview.redd.it/9dm2ym86xrzg1.jpg?width=2256&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb41fb7dc56c14079f6edf1634b9570128a6b465

Translated into English, the card's divinatory meaning, according to the booklet, would be: “Application, erudition, studies, reflection. Another interpretation refers to news, messages, and the bearer of those messages. Also, government, command.”

For the reflection and erudition aspect (which coincides with what the card's illustration conveys to me), I certainly feel that the keyword I would choose represents the card. However, having to also represent the part of the card that refers to messages, messaging, government, etc., makes me feel "restricted" to a very diluted keyword, one that moves away from the "important" part of the card.

The lesson in Quareia indicates that the keyword “must work for me” but at the same time should “reflect the book's description.” But is it possible to combine erudition, messaging, and governance into a single word without diluting each of these three aspects too much?

I see 3 possible answers to this situation:

1. I still need to delve deeper into the cards, and indeed, there are keywords capable of encapsulating all their meanings in a single common theme. Keywords that I can't yet identify due to my lack of experience.

2. The booklet throws out too many words and too many meanings for some of the cards, and I simply should have ignored those that stray too far from the “central theme” since they only lead to inaccurate keywords.

3. Something completely different that hasn't occurred to me yet or that I haven't been able to interpret while reading the lessons. Something important that I'm not taking into account.

Any thoughts on this?

Even knowing that I have some Minor Arcana cards with weak keywords that I'm unable to improve, would it be wiser to jump into the first tarot exercise and let the practice itself guide me to correct them, or should I consult a different tarot text/book that can help me first replace them with more "solid" keywords? (with the risk of this throwing even more meanings into the mix, confusing me even more)

And finally: If I find a keyword that better represents one of the cards than the one I'm currently using, can I replace it at any time, without limits? Or should I respect the original keywords and give them more time?

Thank you for your perspective.

Ive been doing the apprentice course for a year 1/2 now and im still on the first module. I have a lot of trouble keeping to a schedule and I tend to get distracted (like I learned about tarot and that became a hyperfixation for like 3 months) theres a few things in the module I haven't even gotten to yet, like finding time to do the power pattern stuff or make a talisman. My jornal is pretty thick with daily meditations, visionary work, tarot, and directional ritual notes. Im comfortable feeling energy and getting more cozy with intuition, Im just kind of torn between wanting to grow and feeling like I haven't done enough. I guess I just want to know what yalls experience has been with the early corse work or if im just overthinking this.

Hello everyone!

So how's it going? What's been on your minds? Share your highs and lows, your sideways and in-betweens. It's all part of the journey. 

• Unofficial Quareia Discord Server

 

Hi!

I'm ready to create that talisman that is supposed to hide me from spirits - but I have concerns:

I happen to be using several planetary talismans I've consecrated, and that I feel are actively helping me. Some of them were created during extremely rare Astrological configurations and would take years to replace (perhaps even never in one case). So - my concern is: what effect will wearing this new protection/invisibility talisman have on them? I wouldn't want it to block their powers. I would absolutely hate it if it made them worthless permanently by making spirits inside them leave or something like that.

So... Does anyone have insight on the dynamics of how these would interact with one another? I was going to do some divination on it, but it's always good to hear from those who understand the process better than I do.

Who is the great goddess of the earth and the elohim (M1 L7)