Gary Charles Erbe (April 12, 1951 – March 10, 2019), known as Raven Grimassi, was an American author of over 20 books, including topics on Wicca, Stregheria, witchcraft and neo-paganism.

His father was Herbert Erbe Jr. (1922–2004), who was of German and Scots heritage,[1] and who served as a sergeant in the United States Army in World War II.

[3] Grimassi wrote that his maternal grandfather was part of a tradition of Italian witches who were associated with the Carbonari revolutionary movement in the early 19th century, then joined the Masons or other secret societies as a cover for their meetings.

In 1994, the new age publisher Llewellyn Publications accepted his manuscript for Ways of the Strega, which was reprinted the following year as Italian Witchcraft: The Old Religion of Southern Europe.

From information he revealed during our interview, I can say with reasonable certainty that I believe him to have been initiated into a domestic tradition of folk magic and healing such as I describe in my article.

[6] After studying psychology in college, he worked for a few years for San Diego County Mental Health Services inside a secure psychiatric facility.

From 1998, they operated a magick shop in Escondido called Raven's Loft, closing the physical store in 2002 to run it as a website.

[9] The couple moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 2009,[10] but suffered a lightning strike in June 2017 which burned down their home and destroyed their business assets.