The Witch's Familiar: Spiritual Partnerships for Successful Magic
By Raven Grimassi
Llewellyn, 2003 ISBN 0738703397
$19.95

The cover text on this book promotes it as "your complete guide to finding and working with a Familiar." Like many other books being released into today's market, it falls short of the hyperbole.

Upon reading this book, I felt dissatisfied. This text collects random pieces of information regarding the use of familiar spirits into one place, but introduces nothing new. An original ritual or two created by Grimassi rounds out a patchy collection of information assembled into a one-dimensional how-to manual.

For a reader who knows absolutely nothing about the concept of a familiar, this book might be of some use. A quick look at historical mentions of familiars, a few lists of correspondences, a selection of common animal and bird familiars. The formal use of sigils and seals are outlined to accomplish the summoning and binding of a familiar animal or spirit. However, a reader hoping to find some sort of modern spiritual work with a familiar will be disappointed. This book is a definite step-by-step non-religious guide to working with the familiar spirit in a purely magical context.

Like so many other books on the market, The Witch's Familiar feels like a shorter work published before it was complete. Most of this information can be found elsewhere. In this text, Grimassi promises a product that utterly fails to live up to its potential.

(c) 2004 A. Murphy-Hiscock. Originally published in Wyntergreene, Ostara (March) 2004.