A powerful witch, Piotr Russell has resigned himself to loneliness, because ordinary humans can

Alison Lurie, one of America's greatest novelists, has written a loving memoir of world-famous poet James Merrill and his longtime partner David Jackson. Drawing on her forty-year friendship with Merrill and Jackson, Lurie reveals the couple's deep involvement with ghosts, gods, and spirits, with whom they communicated through a Ouija board. Among the results of their intense twenty-year preoccupation with the occult is the brilliant book-length poem "The Changing Light at Sandover", which Merrill called his "chronicles of love and loss." Recalling Merrill and Jackson's life together in New York, Athens, and Key West, Familiar Spirits is a poignant memoir infused with great affection and generous amounts of Lurie's signature wit.

For centuries, familiars have assumed many forms-the heavenly lover of the shaman, the wise imp of the witch, and the elemental companion of the theurgist. But the time-honored practice of summoning a magical assistant has been mostly forsaken due to the false perception that it is both difficult and dangerous. Now, renowned occultist Donald Tyson shares his revolutionary system for safely and successfully summoning, directing, and dismissing a familiar. Accessible to dedicated beginners, these techniques do not require expertise in formal ritual, astrology, or the Kabalah. Revealed here for the first time is Tyson's unique system for generating spirit sigils based on a set of symbols called Power Glyphs. Familiars summoned by this method become valuable assistants who will do everything in their power to fulfill your goals.

'By the time it was over I was so thoroughly violated that I needed to scrub my brain with steel wool' Tor.com In Award-winning author Lisa Tuttle's first solo novel Sarah is looking for a fresh start and a home of her own, but something is waiting for her in the night . . . When Sarah breaks up with the partner she has shared her home with for the last year, she is determined to make a new start. The house she finds, nestled in the woods just back from the road, seems like the perfect place to do that. Almost from the moment she looks at it, Sarah knows that it should belong to her. But this house has invisible eyes that watch Sarah from the darkness. For the previous owner, Valerie, is keeping a secret: one that involves the house, a ritual . . . and a spirit called back from the grave. 'She brings to the literature a subtlety and power, which, sometimes shading into horror, is a quite distinctive voice demanding to be heard . . . exceptional, very female, art' Independent on Sunday

Two human personalities can form a relationship, and, through communication and communion, that relationship can be enhanced. Likewise, a person can form and develop a close relationship with an evil spirit, whether for knowledge or gain. When a person forms a relationship with an evil spirit, he then has a familiar spirit. Familiar spirits are counterfeits of the Holy Spirit's work. Anyone who has fellowship with God, and who is led by the Holy Spirit, does not need a familiar spirit, for God provides him with all that he needs. As with anything occult, involvement with familiar spirits creates spiritual defilement: "Regard not them that have familiar spirits...to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God." Lev. 19:31

Using examples from the Bible, describes the familiar spirits that can cause hindrances and damaging activities in everyday life and explains how to use a belief in God and the power of prayer to overcome them.

Once a year, the town of Ravenscroft celebrates the winter solstice by watching the Oak King symbolically slay the Holly King to ensure the death of winter. To most people, it's a pagan ritual that has lost all meaning in the modern world, harmless fun during the week of Christmas. To the coven who founded the town, it's a magic so important they entrusted it to the two strongest witches in generations.Will Battle and Chester Sibley are opposites in every way, or so Ravenscroft residents insist. Quiet, polite Will is the town's beloved adopted son, popular and admired. Defiant, outspoken Chester is disliked and avoided despite being a direct descendant of the town's founders. It's no wonder Will is the embodiment of spring and life as the Oak King and Chester was given the cold, dark Season of Holly. No one in town seems to realize their nice, well-mannered Oak King has iron at his core and their fearsome Holly King only wants to make people happy. Perhaps that's also why not even the other witches suspect that Chester has been in love with Will for almost his entire life.That's how Chester wants it. He might dream of Will, but he's learned to keep his dreams to himself. The trouble is Will. For all that he smiles and nods, Will has started quietly rebelling against both the town and the coven. With only days until the winter solstice, he issues Chester a challenge--to finally ask for what he wants. If Chester tells the truth, he risks losing Will and upsetting the ritual that has made the town prosperous. But there is more between them than magic, no matter how powerful or ancient, and Chester would do anything for Will, even, just maybe, coming in from the cold.