One of my favorite teachers for Magic in Tarot is Josephine McCarthy. I’ve learned so much from her free Quareia course of magical training and its Magicians Deck as well as from her other books, plus her recent deck Mystagogus (which works beautifully with my new Old Gods Tarot). I especially want to express my appreciation for her book Tarot Skills for the 21st Century: Mundane and Magical Divination; I turn to this book more than almost any other for its abundance of resonant layouts (a few of which have become standards for me) as well as its unique insights. There aren’t many resources that I’ve found helpful for using Tarot the way I do in magical/spiritiual readings to uncover other-realm patterns and Beings; Josephine’s book has been fantastic (along with her book Magic of the North Gate: Powers of the Land, the Stones and the Ancient Ones).
Josephine has also been a repeated guest on the Glitch Bottle podcast and YouTube channel (one of my favorites where, as the host puts it, they “Uncork the Uncommon in magic, mysticism and the generally misunderstood”). With the release of her Tarot book, Josephine talked on “Tarot, Tides & the Grindstone” that I found absolutely wonderful (as are all her talks with the host Alexander).
As I’m someone who has always tended to be polite, reserved and nonconfrontational, I’ll admit Josephine can seem rough-around-the-edges to me, with extremely strong opinions (as well as a hearty F-word vocabulary), yet I wholeheartedly admire her blunt confidence in sharing her path and I’m deeply grateful to her for doing so. And, while she doesn’t hesitate to be assertive, even seem arrogant at times with a tough-love, no-nonsense vigor, she also has a warm self-deprecating and humorous side that can soften her stated approaches to living a magical life. I certainly don’t always agree with her, especially when my own beliefs, experiences, and sense of the Unseen, magical, or the Sacred diverge from hers, but that’s totally fine. My goodness, even though she and I are of a similar age/era, we’ve lived dramatically contrasting lives so it’s natural our relationships with the Unseen would be varied. There are very few of us, I think, who adhere to someone else’s views entirely; we receive in gratitude what feels appropriate to our path and leave the rest.
So, if you’re seeking a new or unique window into magic in the tarot, I highly recommend Josephine’s materials.
Barefoot On The Gaia Path 