Magic of the Northgate

So much has changed since I encountered The Magic of the North Gate by Josephine McCarthy. This book came to me at a difficult time in my magical life, a time when I was questioning everything about the path. It didn't answer all of the questions I had inside of me but it did act as a catalyst and reignited a long held desire to be of service to the Land, and gave me a bunch of tools to do so. There are so many books, classes and courses out there in the world of occultism and magic whose main aim seems to be personal development and the acquisition of material things. This is totally different. There is no narcissistic navel gazing in these pages or polishing of the magical mirror to glamorize your self image. You won't find sorcerous techniques or any drawings of sigils optimized to add a net gain to your stock market account. Rather, it is a detailed investigation on the Land, the Living, and the Living Dead.There is no beating around the bush here, rather Josephine gets straight to work and discusses the practical and visionary means of working the magic of the North Gate. The language she uses is straight forward, and filled with humor and wit, traits altogether lacking in most magical texts. It does not attempt to wrap itself up in displays of verbal prowess. For the new initiate or seeker this means they are able to spend less time trying to work out just what the heck the author means and spend more time testing and applying these techniques to their own practice. Don't get me wrong, I love cunning word play, but all too often it is used to mask a lack of substance, or to add filler to what should have been a long essay instead of a book. Furthermore, Josephine is a wonderful writer anyways. Her voice is authentic, rooted in experience, and unafraid to lance the many tumors growing on the sacred cows of occult tradition.Now... on to the content of the book! I look at it through the subjective lens of my own relationship with this material and the experiences resulting from that interaction.WORKING WITH THE MAGICAL ELEMENTSI had begun 2013 with the idea and intention of working with the Four Elements during each of the Four Seasons that they correspond to; Earth in Winter, Air in Spring, Fire in Summer, and now Water this Autumn. And I had steadily been posting some of my experiences on my blog. Up until I started working with the material in the book. Within was laid out a powerful method of initiation into the mysteries of the four directions and elements for those who wish to take it. Yet when I first started applying those visionary methods I wasn't thinking of it as a path of initiation -and Josephine doesn't lay it out as such. It has just been what is now unfolding in a natural rhythm from the work of going in vision into the Four Elemental/Directional Temples. These inner events started to change me in ways I'm still grappling with. One of those ways is how much or little to share in public.Josephine quotes a teacher she had in her introduction: "You can only really master the skills of one direction in a lifetime." Yet for the person who dares to walk into the gate of the East, South, West and North (not necessarily in that order) a literal initiation will occur. That shouldn't be surprising to the working occultist. In the course of our years we go through many initiations; some may happen in a lodge, coven, or druid grove but most of them happen from experience in the inner worlds. And having had these visionary encounters with various contacts in the four elemental directions I find my body is changing from these "initiations" and the way I need to live in my home is changing. Adjusting to these changes can be a bumpy process. Luckily the Body and the Home are dealt with in Chapter 1 and 2 of the book, so after skipping ahead and getting fried a bit by the elemental journeys presented in chapter 6, I was able to go back to the beginning to learn how to cope with the inevitable results.AT HOME, IN YOUR BODYVisionary magic stretches the practitoner out, literally into other worlds and other times. The impact this has on the body should not be underestimated. If mediation comes naturally to you, as it does to me, loads of energy might be pushed through you because of this work and that can leave you feeling zapped. So it is important, right up front, to have some tools for coping with those effects. The deeper down the rabbit hole you go, the more important it becomes to be able to balance the dynamics of power that the body becomes a mediator of. Josephine equates the shift of a magician from working with smaller amounts of power to larger as that of an amateur athlete who has just made the cut to go pro. As you get rolling, expect changes in diet, sleep patterns, and a myriad other issues. This chapter sets you up so you know what to expect and can take some preventive measures to keep yourself out of the hospital.The second chapter goes into extensive detail about living magically in your home. The practicality of having a dedicated working space isn't within in everyone's reach, and depending on what it is you are trying to achieve, isn't always necessary. It's the difference between commuting to work or working from home. When you are properly "plugged in" you shouldn't need a shop full of fancy accoutrements to display to guests. Still, objects and tools will have a way of flowing to you. There will probably be shrines to various deities or powers at some point in your magical career. And if you don't want them all at war with each other, much like human people and families sharing a space, you're going to have to find ways to accommodate each other.If you're doing regular work, you might also from time to time, draw the attention of things you really don't want hanging around. Parasites, little nasties, and other buggers of the astral plane. But hopefully you've gotten to the point where you don't need to go banishment crazy. The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram can be an effective tool, but it has gotten to be the be-all-end-all in many of the 101 books out there. I wonder now how much my indiscriminate use of the LBRP as a daily ritual banished many good things from my life? Household protection that doesn't blast out all the friendly non-physical beings around is the way to go, and that is covered here, alongside general balancing of the home, and having your ancestors, fairies, dead relatives, and other folks around to sip on a pot of coffee with me.With the basics covered I'm now more aware of what I might expect -and what to do- when a sudden power surge runs through my body after a working, or if things start going bump in the night around the house. Now I can really get to work.MAGIC OF THE LANDThe next three chapters go into extensive detail about working magically with the Land, which makes this a book that will be just as much at home on the shelf of a Witch, or Druid, as it would with the Ceremonial Magician (who really does need to get out of the Lodge more often and go do some work in the woods or at the river, besides all that time indoors can make you look pasty).So much wisdom is condensed into these three chapters that even the most enterprising and tireless magician could unpack the material here and continue to work with it, all the while discovering more, for well over a decade. From the simplest of beginnings on researching your Land, the people and legends and stories connected to it, to checking in with the beings who dwell in the trees, fields, hills and creeks. To turning on the inner guidance system that will draw you to that park or patch of land you hadn't known about before, but turns out to be a hotspot, places of ingress or egress patiently waiting for a human to stumble upon and get to work. Here are insights about working with the weather, with the tides of life and death. Ways to nurture the Land are included from the simple but endlessly profound act of gardening -and how the small acts of a contacted magician working in her garden can ripple out to the surrounding country. Both short and long term construction of magical working spaces -on the inner plane of the Land- are covered in detail. Working with Faeries, Deities, and Ancestors and the various shrines and structures corresponding to them are also what you will find, sitting comfortably alongside stories from Josephine's own experience, all entertaining and instructive.Look at the Land around you. It's crying out for a worker to help in the many ways it needs. These three chapters, and the instructions you get from your the Land you live on, will have you breaking a wonderful sweat.CONTAINERS OF POWERBeyond these chapters there is so much more that I've got the chops to feel comfortable working with. Yet there may come a time when it is needful that I do, and here is a reliable guide to the Qliphoth. In some circles of magic it has become very fashionable to work with the Qliphoth. There are many reasons one might do so. Unfortunately, proving how dark and edgy you are isn't one of them. Josephine cuts away the chaff on a subject that is often needlessly confused. This is a clear exposition on how to do this work. Now there is no need to try and make your way through the maze Kenneth Grant has left so many people in.MAKING FRIENDS WITH DEATHThe ways a person can be called to work in death, with death, and for the dead are many and various. On the one hand it can be the service of ushering those who have lingered on to the other side of the river, helping them board the ferry and get along with their journey. Or some bones may find their way to you and they may have a reason to be with you and for you to work with them. Sometimes a family member may return for a visit, pop in to a dream to give you some information you and your family may need, or just to let you know what they are up to on the other side. And for the mage, there is the long work of preparing for your own death. In doing so, you'll probably be in a position at some point to help others when they are dying by assisting them in vision as they cross over. In the West our relationship with death is very unbalanced and perverted. I see this manifesting in the collective as a current obsession with zombies and vampires. These obsessions say a lot about our lack of a healthy relationship to death. This chapter packs a big punch and goes a long way towards healing that rift in the Western psyche.THREADS OF LIFE, DEATH, AND FATEI've long had a relationship to Spiders and their connection to the various Weaver Goddesses. This is a domain of such powerful magic, that though I haven't worked with in the depth represented here, caused me to say "whoa" and take a step back. Fate is not something to take lightly in your hands. Your own or another beings. In some cases it may be appropriate. The final chapter is all about weaving power into form, learning to work with the Fates, to be able to patch places where the fabric has become frayed, to mend, stitch and alter the material in ways that are of service to the larger patterns being played out in life and in the Land.The Foreword to the work is by Frater Acher, a wise German magician who has also now posted a number of free e-books on his website. In the foreword he writes about the need to move beyond the idea that attaining the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Gurdian Angel is the be all and end all of magic. As someone with a Thelemic background I agree with my whole heart. This ideas has become so prevalent in Western occultism since Crowley made a mountain out of it, that it can be a huge stumbling block for younger magicians. It is such a daunting task, you might give up on all the other useful things in need of doing. There are so many areas of magic that are in need of repair, in need of dedicated work and experimentation, that perhaps if we set aside for a time our own ideas about personal attainment, we may attain something else for all the beings around us.Here is a book to keep you busy and put you to work for years ahead. It has layers and layers of meaning and learning to be extracted from it as you begin the process of working with the material. Have you heard the call of the Land? Mother Earth is in need of some folks who are willing to get their hands into the dirt and start working.

Magic of the North Gate is an intriguing book for those like me who have studied McCarthy's previous works and might have expected another in the same vein. An inviting departure from her involvement in more temple-oriented magic, this book reflects a change of lifestyle as well for its author, a teacher, ritual magician and Hermeticist who now resides in Dartmoor National Park in the southwest of the U.K. -- somewhat like a Golden Dawn mage taking up residence in Yellowstone or Yosemite. It remains characteristically humble, wise, unexpectedly funny, and profound -- qualities too often lacking in books on magic. Add to these its emphasis on being of service to the land, and it is altogether a valuable resource.Throughout the book's nine chapters, McCarthy recounts her rich experiences over the years of working with land spirits and nature magic. A resident for a time in the western U.S., she passes along many helpful observations in her stories and suggestions applicable both for the typically more settled inner and outer terrain of the United Kingdom, and the wilder landscapes of North America. To put it another way, her book is often a prompt to meditate, reflect and then adapt her many ideas to the reader's own landscape, circumstances, abilities and experience. No recipe book, this.Nevertheless, along the way you will discover that you've gained valuable insights on how to approach gardening and building outdoor shrines, advice on honoring the fairies and welcoming local deities, or strategies to deal with approaching storms and "death alleys" on infamous stretches of highways. She discusses ways of honoring old bones you may unearth, effecting a "deity transfer" to a statue, and interacting with Native American peoples, sanctuaries and spirits who will respect your heritage and ancestors if you own them outright, in keeping with how you respect theirs. The eighth chapter, "The Dead, the Living and the Living Dead," offers much material for exploration and contemplation. As McCarthy observes, "A major skill to learn in life that has major bearing on the death of a magician is discipline of controlling wants and needs ... it is a major tool" in making the transition through death (230).The final chapter, "Weaving Power into Form," likewise provides ample material to explore in one's own practice. McCarthy's Hermeticist training and experience re-emerge, particularly in her emphases and terminology in later chapters, to good effect, since she has contextualized what she says there by establishing a foundation in preceding chapters for her particular flavor of earth magic. Her insights into ways of working with the energies of the temples of the directions and elements are also helpful.McCarthy's writing style is both conversational and reflective. Her book reads in part like a journal and follows its own organic and occasionally circular order, though her nine chapters do deliver what their titles promise. Often, though not always, the points she makes are less a "how-to" -- though she offers much advice clearly grounded in experience -- than a "what-happens-when." To give just a few for-instances across the chapters, here are some excerpts:"Magic in its depth creates boundaries of energetic opposition and tension. This is part and parcel of how power works -- it also protects the integrity of the inner worlds as well as beefing up the magician ... It can also act as an idiot filter ..." (17-18)."If I had known about [the impact on the physical body] beforehand, I would still have explored, but would have looked after my body better and would have made a point of reaching for inner contacts to help teach me about how to handle my body through this work. Hence this part of the chapter" (39)."Land spirits don't do 'sorry'; if you break a promise then the deal is off" (130)."You may notice that your home or building does not appear upon the land, which is normal if it is a modern building. Buildings, unless they are consecrated spaces or temples, tend to take hundreds of years to fully appear in the inner landscape of the land" (133).I will return to this book to re-consider and annotate the portions I've highlighted and queried in a different way than I will her other books, The Work of the Hierophant, and the Magical Knowledge trilogy (Foundations, The Initiate, and Adepts). The latter texts help fill in gaps in my more intellectual understanding of kinds of work I will very likely not pursue in this life, though there, too, McCarthy's earned wisdom transfers to other kinds of practice. But Magic of the North Gate is a more immediate companion and touchstone for what I am exploring already, in my own way, on my handful of acres on the New England hilltop where I live and anywhere else I set foot.

Con Josephine McCarthy me pasa que no leo más que críticas maravillosas y yo no acabo de pillarle la onda. No me parece tan buena ni me parece tan innovadora en ninguno de sus libros. Es sencillamente, otra más del panorama, que no aporta nada nuevo.

The 'North Gate’ is a book as daring in its approach, dense in its content and demanding in its techniques as a line of metal hooks in a steep rock face. Simply reading it will amaze you about what real everyday, practical magic can do to yourself as well as the world around you. Just like a steep rock when faced from down below this book will also scare you - about the sheer amount of work that lies ahead of you and about how insufficient your own foundations suddenly might seem.The ‘North Gate’, however, needs you to climb, it needs you to just start out. It really is written as a companion book for your own explorative practice. While it lays out a specific line of hooks to tackle this mountain of work - reflected in the flow of its chapters - it will hint at many alternative routes, allow you to divert from it wherever you wish to and return to it as you like. The book is meant to be a guiding voice of reason while you are doing the actual work. Just like Josephine McCarthy's Magical Knowledge series, it is not meant to be a solid read cover to cover before you put on your wellies and walk out into the open...In working this way the ‘North Gate’ treats you like an adult - an adult who wants to see the world through the magician’s child eyes again, yet aims to handle it with the care and capabilities of a grown up who takes responsibility for each action they take.

"Magic of the North gate" is in my opinion Josephine McCarthy's best book yet. It describes the magical world starting with ones body and arching out into wider and wider realms, the home, the environment etc. It shows how one, as a magician, can step out of the training circles and lodge-rooms and work with the vibrant magical world which is out there, interacting with its powers, principalities and currents. Perhaps more importantly it shows you the impact this type of work will have on your body as you work with these powers and show you how to avoid blowing yourself up.This really is a book which magicians have been needing for a long time. Here we won't see the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram or Middle Pillar repeated (as practically every other book does). Instead we see how a world-class magician has lived and worked for many years and is sharing the knowledge learned from hard experience. I really feel that from such a respected magician it is important to pay attention to this sort of material since in many ways this much of this has never really been disseminated before, making it one of the final genuine mysteries which needed to be revealed.The book is broken into the following chapters each of which focus on a different magical realm.The first chapter "The body and magic" is in my view the most important chapter within the book. As far as I know all this information is new and has hardly been discussed in print before, which is odd since this chapter directly relates to the effects magical work has upon our bodies. This is vital, keeps us healthy and stops us going bonkers. There can really be no shortcuts where our very well-being and health are concerned and speaking for myself I have learned a lot on how magic and the endocrine system relate, how magicians experience heightened sensitivity and how we can manage these effects in our work.The book then expands the premise from magically looking at our bodies to looking at our homes and temple spaces in "Living Magically - Home and Temple". This chapter discusses how as we develop, we cease going to a space to practice, but rather learn to be there all the time. The book then discusses how to magically protect a home, work with a house deity and how to deal with intruding entities.The next three chapters "Magic and the land" then discuss various features of the natural world around us, starting with the powers in the environment and many of the different entities such as fairies and elementals that it is possible to encounter when we go there. This includes mentioning how important it is to understand local features such as rivers, folklore and geology. This section then goes on to discuss how weather and different types of tidal forces (not just the oceans) can affect things both personally and on a larger scale.The next chapter then discusses the tamed wilderness, garden and groves. Here we read how to directly and magically work with the land and the local flora, how to tap into power zones and how to build structures which are intended to be more persistent and long lasting.The third and final chapter in this section then discusses shines, local spirits and bringing these into ones working spaces and literally making friends. This chapter is important since it clearly moves away from any grimoiric nonsense regarding binding such entities but clearly respects their existence and space and teaches us to intelligently work with such entities.We then move on to "working with the magical elements" which will probably be the most familiar to many magicians since it starts by discussing the magical elements. However even this chapter is important and tempered with Josephine's knowledge and experience. Here we are not taught to slavishly always associate East with air etc but rather look around us and fit our personal elemental model onto our local surroundings, to really feel and interact with this power rather than just look at it in an intellectual but ultimately barren way. Within this chapter there are important implications of working with each element so we learn about seething in the South, the connexions between the north and the underworld and the impact of combining elements.The next chapter "Divine Power and its containers" launches us out further. As noted above, this book is very much structured so that starting with our selves, our bodies we step out into the home, the environment and now to a wider circle of power, that realm dominated by deity and the primal forces of creation. This section also covers related artefacts such as the qlippoth and how to work with them as parts of creation.The final realm discussed is that of "The dead, the living and the living dead". Here we can learn much more about working with the dead and the pathway taken by people as they pass from the living to the dead realms. Here we also touch upon hauntings, sleepers aka the ancient dead and also burial sites.Finally, the last chapter "Weaving power into form" takes all this and forms the crowning summit of this book. We learn about fate and how to work with it, how in fact to perceive and interact with the underpinning patterns of creation as a worker.This book is destined to become an important classic and will launch a new generation of magicians out into the world. The book has a number of visions throughout and a lot of technique is described within its pages, all written in Josephine's readable and unpretentious style. Absolutely a brilliant read and a book I'll be keeping close to since I'll have a lot to learn and practice from it for many years to come. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

This is a really serious book and designed mainly for practitioners of the art. I have thousands of books written by hundreds of authors regarding this subject but this is definitely my favourite book. Truly wonderful

Very interesting and unusual slant by a practicing and highly experienced expert on the subject of Magic. I am a wiccan and not a trained Magician but all of McCarthys books strike an inner chord and her style is refreshing and down to earth. Her advice is wise and should you wish to follow a similar path pay attention to what she says!!!