Crescent Shadows On-Line Newsletter of the Hudson Valley Pagan Network, Inc.

Almost everyone is acquainted with the concept of the familiar as a magickal accomplice of the witch.  Popular culture usually casts a negative spin on this picture, often making the familiar seem semi-demonic.  In the broadest sense, we see the familiar as a helping animal to the magickal practitioner.

Familiars may be live companion animals, such as the traditional cat.  Dogs, birds, reptiles and other pets may also be considered as familiars.  There are two characteristics which distinguish the animal as a familiar rather than a pet.  One is a strong psychic bond to the magickal practitioner, and the other is that the animal acts as more than a mere companion in a rite, but instead as an actual participant.

The familiar may also be called upon in the “spirit” sense.  In this case we are not talking about a live, present animal, but the essence of an animal’s spirit or nature.  Timothy Roderick, author of The Once Unknown Familiar, breaks this type of familiar into two sub-sets, the “familiar self” and “familiar teachers”.

The familiar self is seen as the animal representation of one’s own traits and abilities, magickal and mundane.  A mirror held up to the deeper self.  The familiar self is discovered through vision quest, dream work, meditation and reflection.

The second category of spirit familiars, the familiar teacher, is an animal spirit that guides one through specific life problems or circumstances.  One may call upon the salmon to teach lessons of persistence, the badger to teach lessons about work, or the hare to teach lessons about trickster energies.

dca

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Last Updated: January 30, 2002
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