Quareia—The Adept

Module V—Advanced Magic

Lesson 5: Working the Gates

by Josephine McCarthy
 Quareia

Welcome

Welcome to this lesson of the Quareia curriculum.

The Quareia takes a magical apprentice from the beginning of magic to the level
of adeptship and beyond. The course has no superfluous text; there is no
dressing, no padding—everything is in its place and everything within the
course has a good reason to be there.

For more information and all course modules please visit

www.quareia.com

So remember—in order for this course to work, it is wise to work with the
lessons in sequence. If you don’t, it won’t work.

Yours,
 Quareia—The Adept
Module V—Advanced Magic

Lesson 5: Working the Gates

Throughout most of this course, you have worked on a ritual pattern

where you face south, and the east–west axis is the formation and decon-
struction flow of power. This pattern is one of construction: it first builds
the magical pattern within the person, then in the work space, and finally
it builds the Inner Temple.

This foundation pattern is the anchor and launching board from

which all the magic can flow. It creates a solid floor on top of which
the magician can layer other patterns, knowing that the floor will hold
the power and patterns of subsequent magical acts.

One of the issues with more modern magical training—the last hundred
years or so—is that magicians never get past the stage of building the
floor. So they become fixed within the foundation pattern and never
launch beyond it: they become fundamentalist and fixed in their thinking.
Or they never have a foundation pattern and instead work unanchored
and inherently unbalanced patterns. This unbalances the magician as
well as the magic.

Not all training uses the south-orientated foundation; some use an

easterly one, which is probably the most common. Nevertheless, in
very many cases, the adept never learns beyond the foundation. This
creates perpetual ‘elementary students,’, which limits and stifles the
development of magic in general.
 Quareia—The Adept: Module v, Lesson 5

Now you have come to a phase where the foundation is strong, the
Inner Temple is structured and in place, and the time has come to develop
work using other patterns that sit on top of the foundation pattern.
This work should not be occasional; such shifts need to be worked with
repeatedly for a strong new pattern to form that can be switched on
efficiently and worked with.

In this lesson we will look at some different patterns that can an adept
can work within. One will resonate more with you than the others, and
that is the one to focus on practically; but you need to learn all them so
that the knowledge embeds in you in case you ever need it. You will also
learn the various issues with each pattern, and why they exist.

We will start with the east–west axis as you have worked with it a little
in the past, and it is the most common one used in magic.

Remember, this work is something different from switching orien-

tation or direction for a single working while staying within the foundation
pattern. These patterns, though superficially similar, are very different
and need repeated work to form.

For each pattern we will look at its power flows, its base power
expression, how it is worked in magic, and where it appears. We will
also look at the positive and negative results of working these various
patterns, and why an adept would work them repeatedly.

Though you could well deploy one of these as a one-off working—as

you have indeed already done—properly locking one of them in through
repetition makes for a very different animal.

Remember, each of these patterns are inherently unbalanced in one

way or another. When you work with all seven directions, the pattern
balances itself out through the fulcrum. East to west, north to south,
above, and below all pass through the fulcrum and have equal, opposing
powers that balance each other out. It is very hard to make a major
mistake with it, which is why the ‘seven’ and ‘four’ crop up so much
in historical magic.

As soon as you step away from that pattern you get inherent imbal-
ances in one form or another. Yet if an inherently imbalanced pattern sits
on top of the balanced foundation it can be useful because of its inherent
imbalance—if deployed properly.

If such a pattern is deployed in ignorance then it can magnify imbalance

within the magician. This is the cause of many of the other-people’s-
messes that adepts have to clean up. But sometimes one imbalance

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 Quareia—The Adept: Module v, Lesson 5

can be used to counter another, and as we are inherently imbalanced

beings, some of our expressions of power can only be deployed through
imbalance: like treats like.

You start to see how difficult this can become, which is why it is adept
magic.

We will look at both sides—useful and unnecessarily destructive—of

each pattern, so that you fully understand them.

East–west axis

This is sort of a balanced pattern, but it has no anchor, no defined flow

of time, and no undivided deity power gate. It also has no direct Divine
input or anchor, and as it ignores the fulcrum it can become a bit like
trying to grab water. However it is a common pattern used in magic and
therefore deserves a close look.

Used as a layer atop a foundational seven-pattern, this focuses a

specific line of action and power and dispenses it in a very particular
way. Used without a foundation pattern, though, it can quickly become
a narrow, corrupted pattern that unleashes power: think hurricane.

So let’s look at this in detail.

When it sits on a balanced foundational seven-pattern it focuses

the power of the east purely through utterance and the Limiter, and
dispenses it to the world in the west. Being pure output and receiving, it
forms the basis of the deeper practice of Tantra.

A passive, already-established presence of the foundation pattern,

with its other powers and dynamics in its directions, will temper the
mediation of power from the east/magician to the receiving vessel (the
human or humans). But if the east–west pattern atop the foundation
becomes overused and too strong, it can eventually drown out the other
directional powers and instead becomes a flow of narrow, focused power
that forces itself on the vessel—a sort of magical rape.

The longer, more powerfully, and more intensely the outputting

power is built in the east, the more twisted it can become as it passes
through the magician. To understand why, you have to look at how
power affects a magician’s mental and spiritual health. Unfiltered and
unbalanced east power turns the Limiter dynamic into the oppressor,

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while also filling the magician with an overwhelming sense of power and
righteousness: they become the sword that slays, and the words that utter
the death sentence.

The Catholic church, which has excised much of it’s foundation’s

‘below’ aspect as well as its sense of north as the past, natural storage,
and death, has become an east–west axis fuelled by the south, and not
anchored or tempered by the past, the Underworld, or the female power.
One result of this was the Inquisition: a limiter power that was over-
focused and out of control.

In purely magical and non-religious terms, the east manifests strongly

through the mind and intellect and the west through sexuality and repro-
duction. When these come together in an unbalanced way, with a strong
magical power that is unbalanced and ungrounded, things can get pretty
nasty and messy.

Some magical groups use this pattern without realising its origins,
which are Abrahamic; and though its magic works, it also introduces
power dynamics that trigger ‘alpha’ and ‘beta,’ leader and flock, active
and passive, and so forth.

We can see this problematic dynamic playing out daily in magical

and pagan groups. Such groups sometimes attempt to remedy their
symptoms with psychology or hierarchy, whereas in fact their problems
stem simply from this pattern being overused or not set on a stable
foundation.

But when this pattern does sit on a strong, well-tuned foundation, it

can be powerful and effective, particularly when the target of the magic
is a large group of people or a population. It can also be used to work
directly on an ocean.

The focused power of the east can be used to raise and dispense the
whirlwind, the pure angelic force of air that fuels the utterance in a way
that dispenses outwards in the physical world to ‘those who can hear.’

It can be worked with in the Inner Temple ritual by facing west in

front of the air gap, with the west doors open. You have already started
to do this, but such use has to be within the nature of Divine rebalance,
otherwise the ‘fuse box’ of the Inner Temple will trigger and you will get
locked out.

In a magical ritual space setting, or outside in nature, working from

the east and dispensing to the west with no other directional connections
will focus the power like a bullet until it crosses the western threshold.

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There it pans out across the intended recipients/water environment.

This pattern basically works with east and air. Can you not work
with the dawn of the sun in the east with this pattern? You can, but it
is not very effective. Some magical groups do focus on the dawn, seeing
it poetically as the power that dawns a new cycle or age. However, as
the sun’s cycle is twenty-four hours, if the pattern is pure east–west then
there is no space in it for a longer flow of time, so it falls back on the day
cycle. Such use is poetic and psychological rather than magical, and often
a misinterpretation of solar working, which does indeed work powerfully
in the seven-pattern, but weakly in the two-pattern.

When thinking of using the east–west pattern, particularly with

utterance, you should now realise how badly it can go wrong. What you
utter, and why, is important; and you must get it just right. Choose your
words carefully, if you are working with words. What passes your lips
can create or destroy in adept magic.

This east–west axis can also be used to cast the power of a sword into
the world. You have worked with this in vision. It can also be used to
utter a sword in action and awakening in the world: first it is cast into the
world, then called on to defend something. If the power within the actual
sword is conducive with the powers that flow from the east, then it can be
triggered to powerful effect. If not, it will be only partially triggered and
will act weakly; or it may be triggered, unknowingly, into unbalanced
action.

Always remember, “if you break it you own it!” Your energy can be
sucked on so the natural balancing dynamic can do its thing.

A longer-term use of the east–west axis is to mediate and externalise

knowledge in the form of writing, words, teaching, and oration. Again,
when working in such a tight alignment, you can quickly become funda-
mentalist. Your mind can become so focused that your thinking patterns
start to become narrow and limited, which is the expression of the power
of limitation that goes with the east.

The way to avoid that is to spot it the moment it starts. Any indication
whatsoever in your everyday life of obsessive or compulsive behaviour—
even the slightest tendency towards it—or people mentioning that you
are becoming narrow-minded, is an indication that the power is leaving
a residue within you.

This is why it is good, if you are a working adept, to have brother

and sister adepts who can work as mirrors for you, and are willing to say

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when they see you step out of balance. This does not need to be a working
group, as modern technology lets adepts keep in regular touch with each
other from opposite ends of the planet. This is one of the reasons for
having an extended magical family such as the Quareia Fellows: we can
keep an eye on each other and be there in time of need.

You can remedy such imbalance, if you need to continue the work, by
taking days off to work the full seven-pattern, the adept power pattern,
and so forth. But if you include those dynamics in the east–west axis
every day while working that axis power for a reason, you will lose that
focused stream of specific power: it becomes a juggling act.

For obvious reasons I cannot outline the step-by-step actions of such

work, but by now you should be able to figure them out. Just remember to
have nothing else but these two directions in your work and mind: blank
out all other powers and directions. If you are moving into a length of
time of writing or teaching, or service work that requires the release of a
powerful Limiter, or a message needs spreading far and wide, then this
axis dynamic is one that can be powerfully deployed long-term through
repeated ritual and utterance.

If you are working this pattern and you think you have a good reason
to do so, but in fact it is dangerous and counter productive, then the inner
contacts around you, and your own trained inner senses, will set all the
alarm bells ringing. So remember the apprentice advice—pay attention!

West–north axis

Working exclusively with the west–north axis is about composting,

restriction, and death. The same rules apply regarding imbalance, and
so forth, as with the east–west axis, only you are working with a different
power.

The west gathers something and breaks it down, then the north
restricts it and finally puts it to sleep. In previous rituals when working
with these directions for composting and restriction, you were taught to
use the centre as a fulcrum and dispenser. This automatically brought
the power of the scales into action to keep the two powers balanced.

When you work with the west and north exclusively, without the
fulcrum or any other balancing direction, you get a straight highway to
the Abyss. This can be a very useful pattern if you are developing into a

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magical exorcist or are working the death and restriction thresholds in a

long-term round of work.

Triggering the west by facing the direction and working that way
brings to the threshold the powers of the scales, the gates, the storm
and weather patterns that form in the oceans, and the pure power of
west as the vessel/container. If you work with your back to the west,
standing on the western threshold, then you become the bridge for those
powers which subsequently flow through you and into whatever you are
working on.

The west threshes; it destroys the presentation of something and

extracts what is precious from within something. The rest is then cast
to the north to be permanently locked down. If you think carefully about
this process, you will see why the Rosicrucian and alchemical magical
root patterns worked a lot with east–west. The west power is the more
powerful of those two when triggered in those magical patterns. It is
the direction of death in life, and the transformation of base things into
gold. However, sensibly, the Rosicrucian pattern worked with all seven
directions.

The north is total restriction, the sealing of something in the Abyss,

or the sending of something to its ancestors for safekeeping.

Look back to your last lesson, when we looked at the work of Dürer
and his magical engraving. If you look at the building and the direc-
tions, then you will see east, south, and west all magically depicted; but
the north was totally unseen. However, Dürer’s solid is a pretty good
depiction, with its distorted cube and shadow of a skull, of the power of
the Abyss: everything finished gets crushed out of shape, and bones are
trapped in stone—remember the Underworld Library? If you need an
image for the pure power of the north, then Dürer’s solid is a good one.

So working the west/north as a straight pathway with nothing else

gathers something, threshes it, then encases it: this is a powerful tool
indeed, and one with to be handled wisely. As always with adept
magic, if you overstep a boundary in the rules of balance then the inner
powers and contacts will back off. But as an adept you can still keep
the power flowing, and if you do so without heeding the warning of the
inner contacts and your inner senses then that threshing and constriction
power will start to manifest itself through your body and mind.

This can appear as feeling bound up: your body slows down, your
gut blocks up, you cannot think, and every magical act becomes a major
struggle. If you are working this axis over a period of time for some

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reason, and you get unusually constipated and brain-dead, then you have
overstepped and need to back off.

In terms of service work, this pattern can be used when something is

very out of balance and has overgrown to the point of destroying every-
thing around it, and the scales don’t seem to be engaging to deal with
it. A terribly corrupt, vicious government who through its actions is
destroying everything around it would be a good example of a job-in-
waiting. But be very careful to ensure that your perceptions of what is
happening are accurate: many an adept has become unstuck through
enacting powerful magic against a government they perceived as overdue
for a threshing simply because they did not like their policies.

This is why the usual approach to such work is balancing and focusing
the scales. You have already done this in various ways to help rebalance
official corruption. But if a dangerously out-of-balance group of leaders
arises who start culling their populations or tearing the land apart to the
point of absolute destruction, then after much looking, checking, and
consideration, the west–north axis would be a mechanism that an adept
might deploy.

First, when such work triggers the threshing process by action of the
west, the imbalanced group starts getting caught out in their corrup-
tions and lies. Then things are stripped away from them, which further
exposes them and disempowers them, and then they are finally ‘locked
up.’

The same pattern can be used for much smaller jobs, and can work
simply to ‘weed the garden.’ Straightaway you can see the ethical and
energetic implications of such a power pattern, but your training and
inner contact should serve as a guide and a limiter.

If you overstep a boundary or dive into such work out of mental

imbalance, ignorance, stupidity, or hostility, then you will be the first
thing to be threshed and locked down. This is why you spent so much
time as an apprentice and an initiate working with the scales, learning to
prune and thresh within your own life, and working with and passing
through the gates of the Underworld and stars etc. Those processes strip
you and reform you, and if you approached them diligently then there
will be little, if anything, within you that needs threshing.

That makes you a clear doorway for this power to flow through, as
it has little, if any, work to do on you. And this is one of the secrets of
magical training: you are cleaned, cleared, and polished through your
training to make you a stable vessel, a clear threshold—essentially you

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have got your shit together.

As long as you live in as balanced a way as possible in your lifestyle

and how you act, then your clearness will keep its integrity, and this
allows you to operate with these potentially dangerous dynamics. This
is why so much of the older magical training has repeated and often
nagging lectures about how you live, how you act and so forth: the prepa-
ration for working these tight line ups of power.

East–south–west axis

The east–south–west axis should be very familiar by now. It is one of the

triangular patterns deployed so often in magic. It is growth, future, and
composting; or growth, future, and ‘the people,’ depending on how you
use it. The Catholic church works with this pattern, with the west as the
vessel, i.e. the flock of Christ.

As we discussed earlier, this pattern has no anchor, restriction, or

death, it being a pattern of rebirth and ascent, the core principle of
the Christian system. This, as we saw, can lead to imbalance, and the
solar aspect in the south can overfuel the east–west stream if you are not
careful.

However, magically, this pattern can be engaged and worked with

over a period of time when a great deal of destruction has severely
restricted or wiped out an area, its population, and so forth. This pattern
triggers the Phoenix out of the ashes of destruction, and places all the
power into birth, peak, and the distribution of its creative energy. Used
repeatedly in such circumstances, it triggers renewal and regeneration.

Used when there is no real need for such a pattern, it triggers

overgrowth, overpopulation, and too much heat. In the magician, unnec-
essary long-term work with such a pattern can trigger diseases of overgrowth
such as cancer, or diseases of ‘too much heat’ like inflammation. Sometimes
even necessary long-term work with this pattern can still cause overgrowth
in the magician if they themselves were fairly balanced, even if their
surroundings need regeneration and accelerated growth.

Such a situation can result in the magician sacrificing their life or

health for the good of the many. Usually such a sacrifice is uncalled for,
as there are other ways of triggering regeneration, but there have been
rare times in history when an adept or magical mystic has had to step in
to trigger the regeneration, knowing that it will eventually kill them.

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However, if the magician has worked with and been immersed for
decades in destruction, Underworld, and harvesting, then switching to
the accelerated regeneration pattern should not harm them in the same
way: as they are already in deficit, triggering fast regeneration will also
regenerate their body.

In the wider pattern of fate, sometimes a magical adept is kept in

a holding pattern of destruction for a long time, sometimes decades,
putting them badly in deficit. No matter what they do to remedy this
immersion, it still continues in their magical work, their life, and their
bodies. Then suddenly things switch around and they are catapulted into
a powerful, fast-moving stream of regenerative patterns. This is where
fate has lined them up to work on the devastation in the future, and the
need is far greater than the individual. I have seen this more than once
in the lives of working adepts.

And this should remind you of past discussions we have had regarding
fate patterns and magical interference. Sometimes destruction is there for
a very good reason, no matter how prolonged, and the adept is told by
the inner contacts to suck it up and stop whining, as fate is doing a job
and the magician must not interfere unless asked to.

North–cross-quarters–south

This pattern works like a runway, and is one of several triangular ones
that Renaissance magicians worked with. Unlike the tight axis of two
powers, this pattern has one main power and two ‘arms’ of a subdivided
power that act as a runway or gate.

The north is the point of the triangle and a beacon for something to rise
from the depths: the direction where all the work is done. It calls and draws
something from deep slumber, bringing it to the threshold of the south.
The opposite line, the base of the triangle, is the threshold of the south,
and gives access to the renewal and future of something if the threshold is
open. Closed, this becomes a barrier, holding something in waiting for
future release into the south.

Whereas the Phoenix power brings an overall regeneration, this triangle

pattern brings life and future to something specific that has risen out of the
Underworld. Now you should see why the Renaissance magicians liked it
so much. It is one of the keys to Osiris work, and it can also bring back
up to the surface knowledge and wisdom that has slept in the depths.

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As a pattern it is a bit more stable than a lot of other ones, as the base
of the triangle acts as a balance: the one becomes two, the past becomes
future, the dead are risen. . . the two opposing conditions balance each
other out.

The problems with this pattern stem not so much from the lack
of fulcrum etc., but from what a magician might bring to the surface.
Usually the problems happen with unwise magicians who want to bring
back something unhealthy and release it in the future, or who are too
inexperienced to have the inner capacity to fully trigger the pattern.

A well-trained magician, like a Quareia magician, has inner patterns,

contacts, and so forth to act as guides, limiters, etc. and the strong
foundations of their work supply the necessary power. Without all this,
this pattern devolves down to an external ritual not plugged in, and
therefore with little, if any, effect.

The Rosicrucians used this pattern a lot—and again if you look back
to Dürer’s engraving then you will spot the pattern. They worked to
bring ancient knowledge and wisdom back to the surface to release it
into the future. Remember the vault of CR and his body resting with
the books and tools? That is a hidden description of working with this
pattern to bridge hidden and old knowledge to the future in a clean,
uncontaminated way. And, as a deeper layer, it is about bringing the
old consciousness, in the form of CR/Osiris back to the surface in resur-
rection.

You can experiment with this pattern without fear of going too far
wrong: it is a clear pattern that has not been overly corrupted, and it
does not have tight, intense flows of raw power. The pattern is used a lot
in long-term magical service where an adept is continuously bridging
the best harvest of the old, the gold of the ancients, out of the depths
and into the future so that it survives, evolves again, and informs future
generations.

Working out some power dynamics

Now that you have looked at a few different patterns, I want you to
draw on what you know and have learned, and work out what power
dynamics, problems, and benefits would come from using the following
ritual combinations:

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South–cross-quarters in the north note that these triangle patterns can

work both ways: think about that.

East–south

North–east

Centre only

South–north

Think in terms of deity powers, elemental powers, angelic powers,

time flows, no anchoring, no ‘above’, how and why they would be
applied, issues, and what would be the potential symptoms of unbalance
in the magician from unnecessary use or overuse. Write up your findings
and theories and keep them in a file, either handwritten or on computer,
for submission if you are working with a mentor.

Experimenting with a pattern

Experimentation is the only way to learn. Choose a pattern and use it for
a length of time, a couple weeks or longer if needed. Build the pattern
ritually, then use it regularly instead of your usual ritual power pattern,
while doing any tuning work or any regular magical work.

You can either stay with just using it for tuning, focus, and general
magic, or you can undertake to use it for a specific reason which you work
on repeatedly. In that case, choose a combination that fits as closely as
possible with whatever you are trying to achieve. Pay attention, and back
off as soon as you begin to feel the imbalance feeding into your pattern.

The reasons for doing such a task are to give you direct experience
of how power changes when you change the pattern, and to teach you
how these different alignments function, what sort of shifts they cause,
and most importantly how to recognise them, particularly when they are
becoming unhealthy.

As an adept, most of your true learning will come from direct experience.
This means practical work, making mistakes, and learning what things
feel like is how you develop. Once you have had a direct experience of
an unbalanced pattern starting to affect you, then you will recognise the
feeling in any other magical work. It will teach your body and mind what
different frequencies of focused power feel like.

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Once you have a sense of that feeling—which is pretty much individual

to each magician—then you will recognise it when you walk into a bad
situation as an exorcist, as a healer, in construction, and so forth, and your
first impression of a power situation will give you guidance. But first you
need to know what these problems feel like.

For some magicians the warning manifests bodily, for some it affects
their mind, and for others it affects their life, home, or surroundings.
Usually each person has their own unique warning system—you need
to learn yours.

Once you have learned it, look again at these different flows of power
by working specific combinations of thresholds and gates. Learn about
them, then apply your findings as needed in your magical working life.
Your warning system, along with your inner contacts and divination, will
be your guides; and you will slowly develop your own way of working
in different combinations for different reasons.

If you have a particularly bad reaction to working a set axis after a

few sessions then break up the pattern by reengaging the seven-pattern,
then the adept power pattern. Anchor yourself properly by working in
vision with the Stone in the Cave; then when you meditate, be in the Inner
Temple. In between, go into the Inner Temple and circle, and keep part of
yourself there for a few days. A week or so of this will let the old pattern
break up and die back.

Seals

Look again at your conclusions from your work experimenting with

power dynamics, and think about how you would work with an axis
combination ritually. Then make a seal to lock in the ritual and keep it
going. Each combination expresses in very different ways with different
powers. What powers would you draw in the making of a particular seal,
and why? How would you express those powers in an image that could
become the seal?

Think about what planetary powers you would engage with, when
working with an axis combination, and how and where you would place
them on the seal. Think about what shape you would deploy to contain
the seal’s power: a circle to enclose it? A triangle? A square? Lines?

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Draw out the seal and write up your reasoning as to what you have
put on it and why. Scan or photograph it for the mentor or your own
records, then destroy the original by burning it.

An optional task

In your training you have been exposed to different types of magic and
magical expressions. Do an image search to look at seals, paintings,
codes, and so forth. See whether you can spot any odd combinations that
the magician was working with. If you do spot one of these unbalanced
combinations then look at their work. Was it deliberate, because they
were trying to achieve something particular, or did they do it unknow-
ingly? If it was the latter then it will show through their subsequent work
or life story.

Looking at the root of people’s successes and failures is a good way

to learn. Do not judge, as we all screw up; and sometimes what can
appear on the surface to be a screw up is in fact intentional, and done for
some good reason. But rather than looking at the results of the imbalance
when you are trying to identify what is causing a problem, see if you can
spot the primary source of the imbalance. That usually shows up in their
magical seals or working methodology.

Doing this will put you in good stead for future work when you have
to identify the reason for a magical mess and clean it up. You can’t sort
out an issue for someone if you don’t know its root cause.

If you choose to do this task, as always take notes, and save images
and so forth, as they will be handy future references.

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Quareia

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© Josephine McCarthy 2016
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