Familiars

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

Familiars are most common in Western European mythology, with some scholars arguing that familiars were only present in the the traditions of the countries of England, Great Britain, Scotland and France.

Familiar And Fetch

Some have identified the familiar with the notion of the fetch or fylgia. The fetch was believed to sometimes take on the form of an animal, normally one in keeping with the person's temperament; indeed witches were believed to be capable of sending their spirit forth in animal form, often a cat, hare or hedgehog. If the fetch animal became injured the corresponding illness would often be seen also on the fetch's owner themselves, and such forms a great corpus of witch folklore. One such story involves a witch going abroad as a hare & being shot by an iron coffin nail, which immediately broke the spell, transforming the witch back to her human shape.

Familiar And Devil

The witch's familiar spirit was often believed to be bestowed by the Devil, normally at a crossroads, woodland or upon a lonely road. This familiar would aid the witch in their work as a helper and act as a guardian, and as a reward the witch should feed the familiar with a libation of their own blood. Others still fed (and indeed feed) the familiar from an extra nipple, the infamous witch's teat.

Housing The Familiar

In some traditions the Familiar is housed in a bottle, doll, gourd, skull or other such vessel. There is an interesting piece in the confessions of the St Osyth witches, wherein reference is made to an eartheware pot within which the familiar was kept, and this contained wool of the same colour as the familiar (black & white in this case); it is worth comparing this to the Spirit Trap & Spirit House. Here follows the confession of Alice Hunt's grandaughter, describing how Alice homed her two familiars (these being two colts, one black & one white, being named Jack & Robin):

"she kept [them] in a little low earthenware pot with wool, colour(ed) white & black...& that she hath seen her mother to feed them with milk."