#magistellus

[lailoken]

This is one of the most meaningful talismans I've ever created. It is a Linked Fetish to the Altar I keep in honor of my Magistellus—my soul bound Spirit Mate. He has been with me from my earliest days, though he chose to walk beside me cloaked in flesh for 13 years. He is dearest amongst my Spirit Kith, and I trust him with my very life.

I utilized a mixture of St. John's Wort, Chamomile, Arnica, and Saffron to dye silk in honor of the virtues of healing, guardianship, light, and transmutation he endows. I used two different dying methods, one which rendered a golden color directly from the botanical pigments, and another that transmuted that coloration into an Olivine Green by using Iron as a mordant. The larger sheets of silk I dyed now line his altar and wrap the central fetish of his Femur Bone that in enshrined there, respectively. However, I also dyed silken cords that were braided and strung through an Amber hagstone he was wearing when his body died, and a Vertebrae harvested from his grave a year and a day following his burial. The resulting talisman is used to commune with my Magistellus, as well as calling upon and channeling his remediative power for rites of healing and spiritual transmutation.

[lailoken]

Exhuming the Hallowed Bones of the Holy Magistellus

I wish I could talk more about this process, but suffice it to say that it was a powerfully sacred one.

[lailoken]

Famulus vs. Magistellus

Something I thought might be worth talking about here—at least for the sake of preemptive clarity, should I ever speak on the matter more—is the difference between a Famulus and a Magistellus, as they are understood within the paradigm of the Wending Way. I could try and get into the historical and etymological aspects of these terms, but that's probably a larger undertaking than I'm currently up to. Instead, I will simply explain how they are specifically understood and used within the context of the tradition I adhere to. Suffice it to say, however, that historically speaking, the terms are virtually indistinct.

The word Famulus (or Familiar Spirit) is used to describe any spirit with whom a mage has established an ongoing compact. Accordingly, a famulus can serve any number of functions—some, simple and reserved in nature, while others are more complex and personal. Examples range from things like the Alraun (a root familiar,) to things like servitors (programmed "thought-forms".) I have a couple of famuli, though only my mantic famulus is anything like a close friend and ally to me.

On the other hand, the word Magistellus (which translates literally as "Little Master") is used to describe a spirit granted to a mage directly by their Witching God(s). Magistelli are literally bound to the spirit of the mage in some way, generally following an outhbound initiation. While some might find it surprising, I am yet to be granted a Magistellus. I have been promised that, when the time is right, I will be yoked to a fitting spirit, but even after all my years of practice, that time is yet to come. And while that made me antsy at one point in time, I no longer feel hurried, and I trust in my Witching Gods to help direct me along my path in the way which will serve my highest good.

[lailoken]

“The familiar spirit, also called the puckerel, imp and nigget, can be regarded as an aspect of the 'animal-soul' or 'animal- fetch', which the Horned Master unfolds within his initiate.

If we interpret the familiar in this light it represents a manifestation of deeply buried atavisms within the sorcerer's psyche which can be projected to perform certain magical works. In some cases the familiars of a witch were held to dwell within his or her body, emerging when evoked for some specifie purpose.

The forms taken by witches' familiars open up a whole strange world of occult zoology and totemic symbolism. Most well known is the black cat which recalls both the sacered lynx of the Northern goddess Freyja and the Cat Sith or Faery Cat of Celtic lore. The pupil of the cat's eye is supposed to contract and dilate with the cycles of the moon and it's uncanny, nocturnal ways make it especially significant, both as a familiar and as a shape-shifting form of witches. Black Annis, the fearful hag of the Leicestershire hills sometimes took the shape of a cat.

The hare is another famous familiar of witches and again, a favoured guise for shape-shifting in rural English Wicce-craeft. It's lunar and fertility associations are well-known. In Lancashire, the Cunning-man always wore a hare's foot in his hat as a sign of his office.

The Somerset witch Elizabeth Styles had a familiar in the form of a black dog whom she called Robin. In Dutch Pennsylvania the practitioners of 'hexerei' were usually accompanied by an owl familiar.

Other familiar spirits in the annals of traditional witchery appear as horses, toads, rats, ferrets, ravens, weasels, blackbirds, hedgehogs and various peculiar hybrida and Otherworld theriomorphs. In regard to mouse-familiars we should remember that in Germany, witches' souls leave their bodies by the mouth in the shape of small red mouse.

Witches sometimes kept these spirit-creatures in small earthenware jars and made sacrificial offerings of drops of blood to them.

On some occasions we come across witches who were assisted by faeries and ancestral spirits. The Orkney witch Bessie Dunlop was aided by the spirit of one Thomas Reid who had fought and died at the battle of Pinkie and now dwelt with the Sidhe-folk in the world of Faerie.”

—

Call of the Horned Piper

7: ‘Familiar Spirits’

Nigel Aldcroft Jackson

[frogkunlit]

That one dude on Twitter is a hobo, Magistellus is Good, Actually, and has an onii-chan sworn to protect his friend's little sister. Also there's musing on the impending AI-run technocracy and cool set pieces. Kamachi's habit of repeating Important Plot Statements is annoying, but the emotions still ring true.

LOL. Good to know! "Onii-chan sworn to protect his friend's little sister" is a trope I am weak to.

[dianasson]

I'm really interested in the use of a familiar! I was wondering if an animal especially designated for the purpose can be used as a vessel for a familiar spirit and if so, how to go about this.

I don’t know if the process is usually so intentional. I’m still doing my research on the history of familiars so don’t quote me on this, but from what I’ve looked into so far familiars are usually given, usually by the devil or by the familiar’s own choice. They are sometimes ‘animals’, sometimes humanoid, sometimes unnaturally bestial. Sometimes they are corporeal and sometimes not. There are spells and rituals to call or discover a familiar spirit, but one doesn’t (as far as I have read) choose in what form or sense the familiar comes. I do believe you can, however, choose an inanimate object or corpse to hallow as the vessel or home for a familiar or a famulus. Hope this helped some!

[dianasson]

How is a magistellus made and how can they be used?

Hi there! It’s kind of a tricky question because magistellus can mean a few different things. Kind of like the world famulus it sort of just means the helper/assistant/or familiar of a magician or witch. The word magistellus can include either familiar spirits of any sort, created thought forms, or household spirits such as alrauns, house dolls, bees etc.Here’s a video from a member of the Coven of the Allta Cailleach about the creation of a nocturnal servitor or a thought-form magistellus. He also talks about the use of them.

Here’s a page written by Sarah Lawless on crafting an Alraun, or root magistellus.

Here’s an example of a lovely house doll based on the description given in Gemma Gary’s book Traditional Witchcraft, created here by Eye of a Druidess.

Hope this helps!