Working with Familiars in Witchcraft
What is a Familiar?
A Familiar is any spirit of the servitor subcategory who agrees to assist you. Higher beings such as dragons, demons, angels, deities, etc. obviously won’t become a Familiar since they aren’t willing to act as servants. The majority of servitor spirits come from Hell, where they serve under demons as their butlers. These infernal entities are often imps or shadowy beings (not the “shadow people”, which are Khaibits). These are the most common Familiar spirits since they are generally easy to gain (if a contract is made with a supervising demon), although anyone who works closely with the demons will have an even easier chance at getting a Familiar.
However, if you are living near nature, you may have a chance to gain an elemental spirit as a Familiar. There are many types of elementals, including salamanders (fire), sylphs (air), plant spirits, and undines (water). These elementals will become a Familiar only if they agree to it, and as long as you stay living around nature (since elementals can’t live in cities). If you do live in a nature-filled area, you will have to venture into whichever place feels right and contact an elemental type of your choosing. If you choose a plant spirit, you must keep its plant body with you and keep it alive. When the plant eventually dies, you will have to seek another since the spirit will depart and reunite with Gaia. If you choose a water elemental, they will stay with you only if you have a large basin of water in your home for them to live in.
A rare exception to the two above options is if a deity loves you a lot and sees you as worthy in your progress of magick. If this happens, the deity will grant you a familiar spirit that is connected to them (for example, Horus may grant a hawk Familiar). But again, this is very rare to occur, making the two above options the most likely choices.
Despite common misconceptions that arose in modern times, a Familiar cannot be an ordinary pet. This is because the pet is simply an animal and has neither connection to magick or even an understanding of what magick is. Thus, they cannot do anything as a Familiar. If one wishes to have a physical Familiar, however, they would have to do a ritual that the old witches performed. This was to take a Familiar spirit they had, and with their consent, have them embody a physical animal. Although this method is no longer advisable due to potential risks that I will mention later.
How to acquire a Familiar:
In the vast majority of cases, a Familiar is only gained through making a contract. As stated before, this is usually with demons, but can also be done with elementals who agree to assist you. Though be warned, if you attempt to force any spirit into this as a slave, whichever higher being that looks after them will find out and act in wrath.
As for contracts, 9/10 of these are going to be life-binding since Familiars are a life-long commitment. Due to this, think very carefully on whether you are taking this seriously, if magick is something you wish to devote your whole life to, and if you are fully accepting of the Familiar in question. Once bound, you are obligated to treat your Familiar with respect and they to you. Because of the life-long partnership, Familiars can sometimes be passed on to your descendants if they become witches as well.
In very rare circumstances, a deity may grant you a favour if you are deemed as worthy and will send you a Familiar of their own. But in the majority of times, Familiars are gained through pacts with demons since they are the easiest and most likely ones to acquire. Make sure that you make a pact with a demon who is trustworthy for you, and one who you have spoken with before. Additionally, make absolute certain that it is truly a demon you are signing a contract with and not a tar spirit disguising itself as one, since this will lead to trouble.
How to work with a Familiar:
If you wish for your Familiar to act mainly as an advisor for your magick or on other needs (such as advice), it needs to remain in spirit-form, not embodied. In the past however, witches would sometimes have their Familiars embody animals so they could do things such as guard them, deliver messages, retrieve important things, spy on enemies, etc. Depending on how powerful the Familiar was, they were still able to project out of the animal body; but less-powerful ones couldn’t and also weren’t able to act as advisors due to this.
So nowadays, it is far better to use Familiars strictly as spirits. This is also because if you are inexperienced in witchcraft, you will likely contact a spirit that is not truly a servitor but rather something malevolent. These are usually tar spirits, which often prey upon the unsuspecting. If you contact something like this unknowingly and have it embody an animal, the animal would then be possessed and become highly aggressive. So please only work with unembodied Familiars, as this will leave out that potential risk and they are also able to help far better in magick.