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Bookviews Book Reviews |
The Witches Familiar – .
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Raven Grimassi explores the
Witches Familiar; how the familiar
has been viewed in the past both in myth and
history. He then gives instruction in
what familiars are, how to work with them
and use them. Mr. Grimassi presents us
with his perception of the three types of Familiars: the physical kind, the astral kind and the
spiritual kind. He teaches you how to
find your familiar and even how to find a name
for that familiar. He then shows how to use your familiar
in your craft, how to bind your familiar, how
to control and command
your familiar and how to eventually release
the familiar. The book contains sigals and rituals
for the binding and spell working aspects of having a familiar. Mr. Grimassi
discusses the various types of spell working you can use with a familiar. He also discusses bonding with your familiar. The table of contents is quite in depth and makes
up for the skimpy index. There are four appendixes on keyword
associations, classic familiars, names
of familiars (which includes Pyewackett, how
predictable), and the Witches Alphabet.
The book also has a bibliography. While the book may reflect
what may have once been considered the role of
the familiar in the craft, I personally
believe the role of the familiar has evolved
beyond ‘step and fetch it’ that this book presents. Today’s craft person keeps their physical familiars
as companions rather than tools, and as Mr.
Grimassi even points out at one point, today
we see the role of the familiars we have as more
cooperative guardians and guides than something
that we need to bind and command. Some of us
do not see a need to bind something that has
come to us freely and is just as free to leave
once the lesson is learned. I think this book is an overkill of myth,
old magic and some
very elaborate designs and devices that are not really necessary in today’s
craft. I think Mr. Grimassi
is stretching here to present a relationship as elaborate and complex,
when most of us know and enjoy a relationship
that is very simple and elegant without the
need of all the trappings Mr. Grimassi wants
us to go through. Sometimes things are so simple, and yet there is always someone who wants us to believe it is so complex and involved. |