For those looking for an example of a ritual to gain a familiar spirit that is not a long drawn-out procedure like in the Ars Goetia or Grimorium Verum, here is one from a Secreti that was supposedly written by Heinrich Agrippa (text dates to circa 17th century), in which any spirit is conjured and made into a familiar. As will be noted, one can "simulate" the full procedure onto paper, as if one did it with a child, which indicates the flexibility of folk magical practices. Further it should be noted that the familiar is accurately treated as a spirit servant here, rather than just a pet.
To Make Any Spirit Familiar
"Burn some olive tree root as you would charcoal and grind it into a very fine powder and mix with some very old olive oil, which should already have thickened with time and rendered into a balm like substance. Make a thick black coloured paste out of this balm, similar to printers ink and spread it in the shape of a square onto the palm of the left hand of a virgin child or a pregnant woman. Then with a stylus or a new pen, write the word 'East' on the Mount of Mercury, making a little circle around it. Then write the word 'South' on the Mount of the Moon, which you should also enclose with a circle in a similar way. On the Mount of Venus, write 'West' and on the Mount of Jupiter, write 'North,' drawing a circle round each of them.
Then with a lit candle made of blessed wax, call and conjure any Spirit that you wish and he should appear to the person whose hand has been prepared in this way and she should see everything in her hand. By repeating this ritual often, you should also gradually see the same thing on the hand of this person, although you yourself may not be innocent. She should now be able to write on her hand but immediately afterwards, you should scrape off all the coloured paste that has been smeared on her hand, including the circles as well as all the writing and place them onto a piece of virgin parchment in the shape of a circle. Or you could even apply a layer of veneer on the hand, so it looks like it had been prepared.
You should then be able to call the Spirits onto this paper, who should respond to you readily, and the virgin girl should be able to hear them by putting the paper to her ear. Then gradually, with some skill and being attentive, you, too, should be able to hear the Spirits and you should be able to hear them at any hour and without candles, day or night and obtain from them, whatever you want."
("Secrets Taken From Agrippa" as found in "A Collection of Magical Secrets" by Skinner and Rankine)
Franklin
