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Familiar Spirits: A Practical Guide for Witches & Magicians

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Donald Tyson's newest book, Familiar Spirits, is definitely worth the price. As always, Tyson's historical presentation is very good; he cites relevant examples of human-spirit interaction from various cultures, ranging from medieval and early modern Europe to Siberian shamanism. Attention is also paid to important historical magical theories not often credited in modern works, such as a brief overview of Franz Mesmer's theories of occult magnetism which are at the root of much modern occult material. Little is done in the way of footnoting, however; traditional sources, modern theories and the author's own original ideas are often presented identically in a no-nonsense "it is so" tone, making it difficult for the cautious reader to gauge the historical strength of a given claim or statement. While some techniques are cited from other authors within the text, many controversial ideas or thorny philosophical issues are ignored, downplayed or glossed over completely.

The system set forth for contacting spirits in this book is rather complex. Tyson has devised a set of "power glyphs", each of which represents an archetypal force and each of which is assigned a letter of the alphabet. These glyphs are then used as a substitute alphabet in the process itself, which combines the abstraction and sigilization techniques from Austin Spare's work with the telesmatic system employed by the Golden Dawn. The resulting combination, while possibly powerful, seems a bit tedious for the beginning student - little is left to the intuitive faculties among the forest of attributions, symbols, and forces. While it is originally stated and occasionally reinforced within the text that the focus of this work is only on conjuring elementals, there is little elemental focus in the rituals given; references to other types of spirits (planetary, nature, angelic, demonic) are made but never explained, and the spirits that are called by the system given later in the book don't seem to correspond in any clear way with the elemental forces.

Where Tyson truly shines is in the practical advice for dealing with conjured spirits. His instructions are clear, concise, and eminently workable - all critical aspects of the process are laid out in unambiguous terms. He strikes an excellent middle ground between the unquestioning credulity of 19th century spiritualism and the traditionally adversarial interactions common in early Modern ritual texts. A strong emphasis is placed on interacting with any spirit as you would another person. Separate sections discuss building trust, what tasks spirit servitors can (and can't) be asked to do, and so forth. This material has not been presented before in such an accessible fashion, and is long overdue.

There are a number of problems with this work, many of which could have been eliminated with proper copyediting. The book itself is not internally consistent - there is a disjointedness to it that makes it seem that Familiar Spirits began life as one book and got converted to another midstream. As previously noted, the focus in the introductory chapter is on elemental spirits, but there is little focus in the text itself on elementals; instead, all sorts of general "spirits" are discussed with no mention of spirit types or classification schemas, a staple of Western occult lore for centuries. Other contradictions abound. Tyson argues in several places that all negative human behaviors can be blamed on afflicting spirits; he also argues that problems between humans and spirits are rare. Tyson also claims that all spirits tend to lie - his support cited for this statement is that the Enochian angels often lied to Dee and Kelley in their predictions; if the Enochian angels can't be trusted, argues Tyson, what spirits can? The flaws in such logic are easily apparent. Short shrift is given to the spirits of the dead, as Tyson pronounces that all spirits of dead people are really nonhuman spirits who have assumed the persona of that particular dead person in order to deceive and interact with the living. No citation is given as a source for this extraordinary claim; it is up to the reader to realize that this is Tyson's own theory instead of standard practice. Such problematic statements litter the text, all without citation, making it somewhat difficult for the uninformed novice to know which information is the result of tradition and which is the author's own theory.

In all, this book is highly useful to the student and experienced magician alike, but should not be treated as the only source for information on human-spirit interaction.

All in all, this was a very good book, and I've found it to be quite useful, and have had good success with it. However, there are a lot of things that Tyson presents as fact, such as spirits lie, demons are debasing evil creatures, etc., that are nothing more than his own opinion and are not necessarily true.

The simple fact is there are honest spirits, and there are those who aren't. But, Tyson makes a good point when he says that a spirit's advice should be taken with a grain of salt until you know the spirit is trustworthy, just as you would with a human you just met. You wouldn't want to sell all your worldy belongings, invest the money in the stock market on a long shot, and subsequently lose everything because you took the advice of a someone whom you didn't know well.

While it is very true that there are negative spirits out there, Demons tend to be stereotyped into that negative category unjustly. In the ancient world, all spirits were called Demons, and were not evil. It is due to Judeo-Christian influence that the term "demon" has become synonomous with "evil". It has even been my experience with the Demons listed in the Goetia that they are very friendly, honest, and pleasant individuals, willing and eager to help. Of course, I don't use the traditional Solomonic method of Summoning, so I treat them with the utmost respect and as equals and allies, not merely debased servants, as do traditional Goetic magicians.

In addition, one comment I took personal offense to was that Tyson says you have to debase and degrade yourself and become demonic to work with Demonic entities and this is ABSOLUTELY not true. Once again, I work with them all the time, and I have neither debased or degraded myself to do so, and I am certainly not demonic in nature.

Tyson also says that ghosts are not really spirits of the dead, but spirits who have assumed the personality of a dead loved one -- another point I disagree with.

Overall, my main problem was that Tyson often presents his own theories and ideas as occult truths, when they are not, and the reader is left to attempt to discern for themselves what is fact and what is opinion.

On the good side of things, his system is very well thought out, and can be easily adopted by a beginner. The Power Glyphs are quite excellent, and the nightly ritual he lays out is simple, if a bit time consuming. However, as with any magick, it can be adapted to any style of magickal practice with a bit of tweaking. The important thing is, his system works, and given a bit of dedication on the part of the practitioner, produces excellent familiars.

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.

A practical guide to servitor creation- using 'power glyphs'- sigils to you and me:) Personally i found the 'power glyphs' presented weren't completely to my taste- so be prepared to be creative:)Where this book sometimes repeats information stated elsewhere it makes up for this with many interesting bits of information on spirits through the ages and within different traditions. A good addition to any practical magickians library

A very highly recommended addition to any personal or professional Metaphysical Studies collection, Familiar Spirits: A Practical Guide For Witches & Magicians introduces the reader to Donald Tyson's revolutionary system of power glyphs and sigil-making for summoning, controlling, and dismissing magical assistants. Even the most novice witch, warlock or magician can now seek to utilize familiar spirits in their conjuring and occult activities with Tyson's help. Readers are also provided a history of the use of familiar spirits and, critically important, shows how to protect ourselves from ill-intentioned spirits. Aspiring practitioners can experience a fair degree of confidence in following the instructions laid out in the pages of Familiar Spirit because of Donald Tyson's long history, experience, and skill level in this difficult work of spirit summoning -- and it should also be noted that Tyson has authored a great many respected volumes on Western occultism, is the creator of rune dice, and has even assisted the U.S. Department of Defense in decoding rune symbols.

I purchased this book based on the previous reviews. I admit now that it is NOT a good way to decide to purchase a magic book. The book presents too many assertions that the reader should take at face value. He does not encourage the reader to see if his assertions are true for themselves. I very much liked the idea of power glyphs as they are easy to combine into sigils to create one's own familiars. However, that is about as useful as I found the book. I found the writing to be disjointed and it failed to keep my interest. This book could do with less dogmatism and better editing.

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.

this book struck my interest because it is a system that tyson invented himself with help of texts by cornelius agrippa and other famed and trusted occultists. i had a simliar idea and was ecstatic to see someone else had not only realized that there was a need for such a thing but did an excellent job with it. nothing in this book is absurd, he doesnt require you to go out and travel the world for rare occult ingredients, it is all about you and your power and what you need help with. it is very detailed on how to summon your own personal familiar and makes a alot of sense out of a subject that seems absurd to most. it is very well done, very easy to comprehend and is very useful, you can basically get started right away, if you are somewhat of a magickal practitioner already that is. it also goes into depth about familars throughout history and the different types. i don't realy recomend it for beginners but more for those who feel they have perhaps hit a magickal plateau. a great way to increase your skills in a whole new way, and no complicated rituals to interfere with the tradition you already practice. everything is very easy to work into your magickal path and can only strengthen it. worth the money for the historical information alone.

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

Had lots of good info, but it made a simple thing complicated. I read the chapter on sigils twice before finally giving up in frustration. It had the usual Wiccan flavor to it,(which always makes things more work and trouble) that seems to be getting more and more difficult to find books without it.