Exorcism is a topic that immediately leads into a fog of sensational and paranoid religious expressions, in which any direction or clear vision is quickly lost. Josephine McCarthy slices through this fog with a brilliant sword of a book. While McCarthy is conversant with scholarship on the topic, and knowledgeable regarding many religious, esoteric, and other spiritual traditions, it is her hard-won experience as an exorcist which animates her writing. With good humor and common sense, all sensationalism is brushed aside, so that the student exorcist can get down to work. This is very much a “how to” guide, in which decades of experience are shared far more openly than in any other treatment of the subject I have encountered.
McCarthy speaks to spiritual workers who may be called to exorcism as a major component of their vocation, for a period of time or for life. Her guidance will also inform priests, priestesses, ministers, and workers of many traditions who may encounter a need for exorcism more than occasionally, or who simply seek to understand these phenomena. The most compelling part of the book concerns the spiritual preparation of the exorcist. Much of McCarthy’s guidance on this preparation could apply to any spiritual worker, exorcist or otherwise. She captures the very essence of spiritual initiation and the unconditional offering of oneself in service. Any remotely introspective reader is likely to swallow hard before some of the proposed visionary work. Yet it is the willingness to step forward, placing oneself and one’s fate in the hands of Divinity, that sets one on a path of true spiritual service.
True wisdom challenges us and remakes us, and this is a wise book.
John Plummer, Ph.D.