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.

A comprehensive exploration of familiars and their many forms and powers • Explores witch’s familiars in folklore, shamanic, and magical traditions around the world, including Africa, India, Scandinavia, ancient Greece, and China • Explains how familiars are related to shamanic power animals and how the witch draws on her personal sexual energy to give this creature its power • Examines the familiar in alchemical, Hermetic, and Egyptian magical literature, including instructions for procuring a supernatural assistant Exploring the history and creation of a “witch’s familiar,” also known as a spirit double or guardian spirit, Maja D’Aoust shows how there is much more to these supernatural servant spirits and guardians than meets the eye. She reveals how witches are not the only ones to lay claim to this magician’s “assistant” and examines how the many forms of witch’s familiars are well known in folklore throughout Europe and America as well as in shamanic and magical traditions around the world, including Africa, India, and China. The author explains how familiars are connected with shapeshifting and how the classic familiars of medieval witchcraft tradition are related to the power animals and allies of shamanic practices worldwide, including animal guardian spirits of Native American traditions and the daimons of the ancient Greeks and Romans. She examines the fetch spirit, also known as the fylgia in Scandinavian tradition, and how the witch or sorcerer draws on their personal sexual energy to give this creature its power to magnetize and attract what it was sent to retrieve. She looks at incubus, succubus, doubles, doppelgangers, and soul mates, showing how familiars can also adopt human forms and sometimes form romantic or erotic attachments with the witch or shaman. Reviewing alchemical, Hermetic, and Egyptian magical literature, including the nearly forgotten alchemical works of Anna Kingsford, D’Aoust explores their instructions for procuring the attention of a supernatural assistant as well as an extensive description of the alchemical wedding and how this ritual joins the magician and familiar spirit into a single unified consciousness. Exploring fairy familiars, she reveals how a practitioner can establish a “marriage” with a totemic plant or tree spirit, who, in return, would offer teachings about its medicinal and visionary powers. Delving deeply into the intimate relations of humanity with the spirit world, D’Aoust shows how forming connections with living forces other than human enables us to move beyond the ego, expand our magical abilities, as well as evolve our conscious awareness.