The Mystagogus was a priest in the classical world who prepared people for initiation into the Greater Mysteries. The deck and book are magically designed and created to act as a guide, advisor, and source  of divination to someone who is walking a magical path alone – in a world that is increasingly difficult, we all need someone or something to turn to when we have exhausted our own intuitions, or don’t know which way to turn.

Mystagogus deck review - by Foolish Fish

Review of the Mystagogus deck by Dr Z - Tarot Shrink

listen to a podcast with Josephine about the deck and its creation process

The Mystagogus Deck is designed around a magical pattern of evolution and has embedded within it the stages of development that are inherent to any magical path that seeks greater union with the deeper self and with the hidden inner worlds that flow through and around the physical world. The images were all hand painted on 30 x 20inch stretched canvas with acrylic paint by Josephine McCarthy. She started painting the deck in early 2020 and they were done over two years of successive lockdowns during the pandemic.

 The purpose of the Mystagogus deck is to strip all the unnecessary baggage that often goes along with divination cards that are connected to the magical path of the mysteries. Each is an individual power in its own right, so there is no colour code, no elemental code, no realm code... it is as nature is, itself.

 Mystagogus offers a clear concise voice of divination without obscure unnecessary glamour or dressing – it is a no nonsense voice of power that cuts to the heart of divination and doesn’t pull any punches. It is layered so that both mundane and magical voices can flow through it – sometimes we need to speak to a deep inner contact, and sometimes we need to find our missing cat. Mystagogus is designed with both in mind, as they are all part of the weave of fate.

 Each image is a power, dynamic, place or action that the magician bumps up against on their magical journey through life.

 There are 78 cards in the deck, but it is not based upon the tarot system. The cards have no borders or words/symbols printed on them - the are each pure windows for the power that flows through them.

About the book

Mystagogus the Deck Book is more than a simple ‘card meaning reference book’ – it holds within it different layers of magical and mystical learning, along with tips and hints embedded within some of the card meanings that guide a lone magician, for example when they hit bumps in the road or face difficult spirits. 

The book is designed so that it is useful independently of the deck as a magical guide and advisor on the steps of the magical path; each card is a magical process the magician goes through and as such its meaning can help a developing magician recognise where the various processes of the magical path are engaging with their everyday or magical life.

The deck book is also littered with highly relevant references, quotes and information from various religions, philosophy, and science as a way of broadening out the understanding of the magical mind, while also occasionally giving the reader a peek into ancient and classical dynamics in magic in subtle understated ways.

Deck and book specs

Cards – 78 cards + 1 author signature card. Cards are 89x127mm with radius corners, printed on 350gsm gamesboard with a protective coating applied. Presented in a two piece rigid box fully printed.

 Books: Print on demand (Ingram) 258 pages

The book contains a directory of images, a meaning section: extended two or three pages for each card with an illustration, a layout chapter, a ‘cards magic and music’ outline with a discography, and a bibliography.

 Hardback with digital cloth cover with dust jacket, printed on 70lb paper with premium quality inks. Book size 6.140" x 9.210". Full colour illustrations of each card. ISBN 978-1-911134-71-8

 Paperback with Duplex cover (printed inside cover as well as outside) 258 pages printed on 70lb paper with regular inks. Book size 6.140" x 9.210".  Full colour illustrations of each card. ISBN 978-1-911134-72-5

 Both book covers inside hold the image of the dark goddess who is the guardian of the book, an image which emerged out of the process of digitising the art for the box cover…. Wrong buttons were pressed by accident and this powerful goddess appeared on the screen out of the chaos.

She was very insistent that she be involved somehow on the book cover.  So, with the hardback book she is on the inside flaps, and with the paperback, she is in full glory on the inside covers of both front and back of the book.

The book is available on most internet book retailers including Amazon worldwide and is available in hardback, paperback and kindle.

click the button to find my blog where I talk about the process of creating the deck

About the creator

Josephine McCarthy is one of the world’s leading adepts and is the author of over thirty books on magical practice and training. She is the author and director of Quareia, a comprehensive and in-depth magical training course which is available free online. www.quareia.com

Josephine has been practicing magic since the 1970's and has been teaching since the early 1990's with students all around the world. Her works on magical exorcism, magical health maintenance, magical technique and training, nature magic, and the magical narratives of Egyptian Funerary texts have quickly become classics.

She is untrained as an artist and developed her own methods through experimentation and frequent failure. The deck paintings were approached as magically ‘contacted’ paintings, where the magician tunes into a specific power or spirit, and allows that power/spirit to flow through them and into the painting. The image creation becomes a collaboration between artist and spirit, with the spirit leading and the artist following. This allows the full power of a spirit or power to use the image as a window into the physical world – an ancient method of sacred art that was employed in Egyptian funerary paintings and in early Christian icons.