Maja D’Aoust - 16 July

This work is dedicated to and inspired by conversations with my familiar guardian spirit; Dr. Kelvin DeWolfe; Baza Novic for inspiration and research assistance; Jon Graham for his support and art; Myla Owl for her Magic; and Brooke Schooles for her help in assembly of the manuscript.

FAMILIARS IN
WITCHCRAFT

In Familiars in Witchcraft, Maja DAoust brings together a vast wealth of lore, history, and incredibly useful insights with such readability and grace. In a subject cloaked in mystery, the author reveals her life experience and devoted education in what should be considered essential reading for the serious occultist and seeker alike.

GABRIEL DEAN ROBERTS, AUTHOR OF THE QUEST FOR GNOSIS

Maja DAoust has a unique talent for taking esoteric subjects and presenting them in a way that is lucid and insightful to the contemporary mind. Familiars in Witchcraft is useful to both scholars of the occult and the un-familiar.

BRIAN MCGREEVY, AUTHOR OF HEMLOCK GROVE

Maja DAoust writes from the depth of her personal experience and never offers simple opinions or conjecture on her subject matter. Instead, what she gives us is background and evidence. Maja is not only a visionary practitioner but also a scholar with an oracles ability to draw out whats important. The magic of Familiars in Witchcraft, and all of Majas writing, is the way she pulls knowledge from the vast well of history and presents it to us in a clear, modern, conversational tone. After years of public lecturing, Maja is able to present ideas that can often seem arcane or impenetrable in a way that seems almost effortless. Her work serves as a bridge for lost or ancient wisdom, making it useful and accessible for the reader today.

RON REG JR., AUTHOR OF THE CARTOON UTOPIA

The Witchs Familiar

Same seeks same; we search out the familiar.

JILL ALEXANDER ESSBAUM,HAUSFRAU

O ne of the most romantic notions of the poets is the idea of a soul mate. Finding someone in this world who understands us implicitly and will love us forever and ever no matter what is a comforting sentiment. On an inherent soul level that kind of love is something everyone has longed for at some point, mostly when we are feeling isolated and alien, unloved and unwanted.

The soul mate has captured the imagination of countless individuals who pine and long for a relationship of this deep nature at some point during their life. The first to coin this term was the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a letter in 1822: In order not to be miserable, you must have a Soul-mate as well as a House or a Yoke-mate. Here he meant that if all our relations are only mundane we will not be fulfilled to our potential. The soul mate is generally thought to be something deeply connected to you through some magical, fated string of providence in the woven blanket of time and space. When most people think of a soul mate, they think of a person, and more specifically a lover or romantic partner. But what many people feel uncomfortable recognizing is that almost every primitive culture has stories of animal and plant soul mates, or nonhuman spiritual soul mates and counterparts as well as soul mates who are spirits of the dead. These are most widely known as familiar spirits. The soul mate has taken a multitude of forms in ancient versions of this entity and wasnt nearly as restrictive as our modern conceptions. Many tales of the saints address their forming a special soul mate relationship with a mountain, tree, or even a flower. Some Buddhist scholars have put forth that Siddhartha Buddha formed a spiritual link with the Bodhi Tree he sat under to claim his enlightenment. Some researchers feel it was the tree that instructed him on how to attain his Buddhahood, like a kind of assistant or mentor. The ancient religion of the Celtic Druids held similar beliefs, that trees could educate, inspire, and love humans, and many Native American tribes claim trees as their ancestors, listing them in their family lineages.

The concept of a special bond with an animal or natural thing symbolizes a bond with the world beyond humanity. Cities and geographical features, such as hills and rivers, are said to have familiar spirits, as well as stars and other celestial bodies. Many ancient cultures taught that through the unification of consciousness with animals or other living things in nature, humans enable their consciousness to unite with a larger living forcethat of nature itself. When our consciousness unites with this force and we begin to identify with things other than human, our concept of what we are can powerfully grow out of our ego limitations. Imagine if a soul mate who loved you unconditionally could be something other than human. The amazing scientist Nikola Tesla, who never married, claimed that his soul mate was a pigeon whom he fed every day in the park. He loved the bird dearly. A soul mate can also be a spirit or supernatural being, and by relating to and identifying with such a familiar, we can widen our horizons, go beyond our limitations. A type of relationship between human beings and either animal, nature, or supernatural spirits is mentioned at some point in all ancient cultures and is not particular to witches. That this captivating concept of a soul mate, or a higher spirit level of relating, extends so deeply into humanity suggests that it is either a real phenomenon or simply an inherent need within us seeking expression.

What exactly is a familiar spirit, and why is it called familiar?

Witch with familiars
Original art by Maja DAoust

It is helpful to examine the etymology of the word familiar. This word comes from the Latin famulus, which is also where we get the word family. The word famulus means servant, or more specifically a female servant who leads a household through her indentured devotion. This definition of family takes on new meaning when we look at the traditional role of the female housewife as bound to her duty. Similar in meaning to the word famulus, the word doula also means female servant, or literally slave, and describes a woman who acts as an assistant or servant to the woman giving birth in the family. Both words have a connotation of devotional servitude, and it is here that we gain insight into the role of the familiar spirit, which is to serve or provide a service to its bonded human. The familiar acts almost like a spiritual midwife for its human counterpart.

The familiar then is a kind of servant to the person with whom it is connected. It is hard not to recognize the hierarchical implications of this idea. The familiar seems more like Dobby the house elf from Harry Potter under this definition. The concept of humans having servants or being assisted by other beings, spirits, and creatures of the Earth is an old one, found in myths and scriptures.