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| Familiar Spirits: A Practical Guide for Witches & Magicians | 
| Author: Donald Tyson
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.50
You Save: $6.45 (43%)
New (23) from $8.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 643872
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0738704210
Dewey Decimal Number: 133.43
EAN: 9780738704210
ASIN: 0738704210
Publication Date: January 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 11 | | NEXT » |
 Interesting info March 20, 2008
I really like the ideas and concepts he puts forth in this book. My only complaint is the "power glyphs" he writes on. I recommend creating your own system of glyphs for use. Maybe basing your glyphs on the ideas he presents in the book. Pick up "Stealing the Fire from Heaven" for a nice compliment to this book.
 Easy to put to work August 25, 2007
Although creating a familiar and giving it the proper energy and honor can be more work than the average witch is used to, the method presented in this book can be quite rewarding ... I gathered a wealth of new knowledge from this book. THis author presents a method I haven't read before ... Good if you really would like to get serious and begin creating familiar spirits!
Much Love & Many Blessings,
Thorn Nightwind
A great starting point on spirit evocation August 1, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I like "Familiar Spirits" because it is easy for the practioner with minimal experience in this field to read and comprehend. The book is not full of complex formulae and theory to baffle the novice. The power sigils described in the book correspond to the English alphabet, so no knowledge of Hebrew, numerology or magic squares is required to use them.
The author well explains the common types of spirits humans may come across, whether they are aware of it or not. However, Tyson is very opinionated and doesn't always give adequate justification for why he feels or thinks a certain way. For example, he doesn't believe ghosts are actually the spirits of dead people but spirits who choose to imitate them. He also cautions people to avoid the color black because of its associations to evil in traditional magic. However, Tyson later contradicts himself by stating that the room where the evocation ritual takes place should be devoid of all light except for the altar candles. Tyson also tends to leave out details. For example, he states that the practitioner should face south during the evocation but fails to explain the significance of this direction, as it has nothing to do with the elemental composition of the spirit or its purpose. When Tyson teaches how to choose a magnetic attractor for the spirit vessel, he cites basic correspondences for elementals, but fails to explain how to choose an attractor for a spirit that may have a mix of elements (e.g. 30% earth -30% water - 20% air - 20% fire). However, he covers himself by stating that decisions made in the process of creating a familiar should be based on one's intuition, as well as traditional correspondences.
Another issue I had with the book is that the majority of spirits described in the examples appear to be more servitors than companion spirits, aka familiars. However the evocation ritual calls for extensive preparations: a well-made shrine, spirit vessel, key, daily offerings etc. Why go through so much trouble for a servitor, who may only have one task to perform? Because of the extensive work involved, Tyson fails to include how to set an 'expiration date' for the servitor. Instead, he explains, that to banish a spirit, all items associated with the spirit to be destroyed. I think a simpler method of creating a servitor should have been included in this book.
As others have said in the commentaries, this is a good introduction to interacting with spirits but it is inadvisable to rely on this book as a sole source of information on the subject.
Excellent for beginner chaos magicians July 10, 2006
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is great and it presents a very well thought-out system to create an egregore, as it is referred to by chaos magicians. That is, a spirit that is independent of the magician, formed of the elements. Traditionally, egregore's are spirits that are created by a group of people, but I don't believe that is the only way to do this, as this book shows a simple method to do this without a group or coven or lodge to help you create one.
As everyone else has stated, the author presents his theories as fact, but I believe he did this for a very good reason. As most other Llewellyn books, this book is presented in an easy to understand manner that is aimed at the complete novice. So, with that in mind, I can understand why Tyson felt the need to write things like "everything that you see around you is an illusion that your mind creates, so it's not that hard for a familiar spirit to insert an image of itself into your mind so that you can see it". I'm not sure exactly how Tyson phrased that, but that's something he mentions in the book a few times. For a complete beginner, that is an important thing to read, whether it's true or not. As a Chaote myself, I tend to believe that. Our motto is "Nothing is real, everything is permitted". For a complete beginner, this may actually make the process of opening astral senses much easier and to better percieve their familiar/egregore spirit ally, than to fill their head with a bunch of (in my opinion) useless theory. I remember when I first started with magick I would have plenty of success initially, until I started trying to figure out exactly HOW magick works. That put a real road block in my way that I'm still working through.
Anyway, the method in this book to commune with your familiar can also be used with any other spirit, like angels, demons, etc. Hell, you could even use that method to have a conversation with a comic book character. It's basically a simpler method for EVOCATION to the astral plane, instead of using a black mirror. It's effective and it works. That said, I don't recommend trying to commune with demons unless you know enough about them to know how to protect yourself. For most practitioners, the LBRP and BRH are great, and those rituals can be adapted for any faith, not just Judeo-Christian. Despite the great things most people say about Goetics, some of them really are bad spirits. I agree that they're not all bad, but how can a novice tell WHICH ONE is not? For beginners, stick to establishing a good relationship with a familiar spirit, and after practicing for at least a year, go ahead and try a Goetic, if that's what you really feel you need to do, and have your familiar present at all communions with any other spirit you work with.
To commune with another spirit other than one you've created from this book, like say the Archangel Raphael, you'd use one of his most well known sigils (instead of drawing a new one using the power glyph system), draw a portrait of him as he is decribed in any online website you can find about angels, and you'd use a Vessel for Air, as he rules over the East, and elemental Air. You could very easily establish a solid relationship with any spirit like this using the method explained in the book, and astral senses will come eventually, and you can then have some very interesting experiences with that spirit. Good luck everyone.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
interesting take on the subject December 12, 2005
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I must admit, I really didn't know much on this subject before I read this book. I also held a lot of the public notions that are discussed in the beginning of the book. I found Donald Tyson's perspective to be a profound new way to look at several topics. I may not agree with all of it, and sometimes felt he was going a little off the deep end for me, but still a truly fascinating read.
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