I have been a practitioner of magick for over 15 years and in that time I have found a real affinity for working with the spirits of the natural and other world. In that I mean those spirits that are inherent in the world around and also apart from us, from simple elementals to faerie nobles. Now I'm not saying that I have always been a whiz at this or that I am an expert but with that said. Experience I think speaks to its self............
So lets talk about it shall we hehehe.
The spirit familiar by its definition (which you can easily find online) is a spirit that works to aid or complete tasks that are set by the witch (magickal practitioner). A spirit familiar is denoted by the fact that it is exactly that..........a spirit. It may appear in many forms, most often it will be that of an animal but it can also be more sinister of benevolent looking depending on the spirit or the person with whom it has its relationship.
Witches particularly were thought to commune with their familiars and gain their aid through bargains with demons or the devil himself, however..........I myself know that this is certainly not your only choice in contacting a familiar haha. The spirits of the elemental plane for example can make amazing and perfectly helpful spiritual familiars. The key of course to all of this is the word FAMILIAR!!!! Now if you look at entities like guardian spirits, ancestors, or spirit guides its important to note their familiarity with us, for our ancestors it is our shared bond of blood or society that bridges the gap and makes us familiar with them. If you look at spirit guides or guardian spirits it is the bonds of guardianship or contractual/magickal agreements that bridges the gap of familiarity.
However for a bog standard familiar spirit like again an elemental or the faerie who visits me frequently during meditations (often to my own frustrations as he seldom arrives for any other reason than to scold me although, we have had the occasional dance on the grass) the familiarity and relationship must be created and worked on. You wont be able to have automatic access to any familiar you choose, it takes work and effort! Work and effort that yields reward based on the amount of effort and work that you put in to the relationship.
For example in my astral grove (a place that I visit and maintain in meditation frequently) a boar spirit visits and guides me during meditations and journeys through the astral. He has been my animal spirit familiar for a long time and I have created a relationship with him that I nurture every time I visit my grove. He however stays in my astral workings and rarely if ever works with me on the physical realm. This is because I have not created a conduit or portal for him to work through..............So yes I said conduit!
So putting it bluntly a spirit familiar needs a place to live, whether that be a piece of magickal jewellery, special shrine, or an animal skull. From this conduit/portal it will work with you and you can develop a relationship wit it. The conduit/portal should be what you use to build your relationship, it will be where or what you make your libations (offerings) to and you will use it to instruct your familiar. For example in the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft and Magick there is a toad called Fred which was a spirit familiar for a witch in the 1920s. Fred resided in the body of this toad and was much like my boar, an animal spirit and familiar of that witch who worked with him (I say him.....but familiars choose odd names and there is no guarantee Fred was a bloke).
The idea over all is that spirit comes to the totem, shrine, or amulet you have made in to a conduit to be communed and worked with, but is then free to move about and complete the task that it has been asked to. For example a dried toad may be kept to hold the spirit (called Fred for example) and in times of action the spirit is invoked to go about its masters bidding and complete its given task. Returning to the dried remains when its task is complete. Working with a spirit familiar is not for the light hearted or the inexperienced.
This magick which has very deep roots in folk lore, and folk magick is full of room for experimentation and of course error. but bear in mind when I say error, I mean to advise that with all the best intentions this sort of magick yields very varied results. Its power is certain and effective and when applied properly you can gain allies in every world out there. But be warned that all spirits have a personality just like you and me so you can never escape the reality that............... Even spirits can be arseholes and wont always do as they are asked.
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