If you follow any large witchcraft groups on social media, you’ve probably seen a pic of an adorable puppy or kitten with some version of: “Here’s my new familiar! I just picked him up from the animal shelter today and I’m looking for some witchy names!”
Sorry to burst your cauldron bubble, but (almost certainly) your new furry, finned, or feathered friend is not a familiar. It’s a pet.
What is a Witch’s Familiar?
Traditionally, familiars have been described as type of demon in animal form – appearing either as ordinary animals or unusual beasts. They can assume any form, but are frequently depicted in historical texts as cats, dogs, toads, reptiles, or insects. Alternately, they can be “monsters” that are weird, fantastical mash-ups of various creatures.
What do Witches’ Familiars Do?
Witches employ familiars in the practice of witchcraft. The role of the familiar is to serve – and even protect – their witch and assist in spellcasting and other magic workings. We can imagine that the familiar’s day-to-day might include fetching ingredients for spells, acting as a lookout, or spying on others for information. Whatever the witch uses the familiar for, it’s a symbiotic relationship – rather than a pet/master situation – as we’ll see in the Care and Feeding of Familiars section below. Lore tells us that working with a familiar came with a price… it’s a gift with strings attached.
How to Get a Familiar
Though adopting a homeless pet from an animal shelter is admirable, it’s not how a witch would go about getting a familiar. Traditional lore says that a familiar is often “gifted” to a witch by another witch or by the devil himself.
There are accounts of familiars being ritually presented by the devil or being passed down from one generation to the next. Other stories have the familiar just “appearing” to a witch in a time of need. Of course, any witch worth her salt would assume there’s a catch when a magical being manifests from the ether. For one, there’s the upkeep…
The Care and Feeding of Familiars
Just like you won’t find your familiar at the animal shelter, you won’t find its food at the pet store. Kibble just won’t do for these little demons. They’re out for blood… yours.
Witches were believed to feed their familiars by allowing the creatures to suck blood from the witch’s finger or the infamous “witch’s teat.” The teat could be any nipple-like bump anywhere on the witch’s body – including moles or warts.
Sounds pretty convenient, right? Not so fast. The mythology that sprung up around the witch’s teat also armed witch hunters during the witch trials. A women accused of witchcraft was often stripped naked while a group of expert inquisitors (men) examined every inch of her body for “devil’s marks” that would cement her “guilt.”
The lore surrounding witches, familiars, and their odd feeding habits very likely grew in direct relation to the witch trials (i.e. finding a way to convict and persecute accused witches). Pointing to a mole on a person’s body and claiming that its purpose was to suckle that witch’s household demon made the inquisitors’ job much easier.
Not only were accused witches believed to feed blood to their familiars from these specialized nipples, the witch hunters believed that the devil also enjoyed a sip when he’d visit in the night for intercourse with his servant. The offspring that resulted from these demonic trysts would also drink blood from the teat.
Familiar or Pet? When a Cat is Just a Cat
My primary goal here is to explain the difference between the familiars of traditional lore and a domesticated pet. Its writing was prompted by some fellow witches expressing their frustration over the confusion. It’s intended to be a high-level view of the legend and by no means exhaustive… I mean, we didn’t even talk about imps and fairies!
So, just to be clear, your store-bought pet – no matter how aesthetically “witchy” it may be – is not a familiar. It doesn’t make you a bad person if you didn’t have enough information before now to understand the difference. Just know that if you bought a black kitten as an accessory for some dress-up version of witchcraft, and insist on calling it a familiar, you’re going to get some pushback from practitioners and historians.
References: traditional texts, encyclopedia entries, and the wiki. Thanks to the British Library archive for digitizing Witchcraft pamphlet: A Rehearsal both Strange and True, 1579
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I have been sensing a black fuzzy cat walking up my bed to get cuddles, but when I open my eyes and look at it, there’s nothing there. I am trying to figure out if this is a familiar? And if so, is it mine or someone else’s sent to spy on me?
Maybe you have psychotic symptoms. /not negative, trying to be helpful.
I also sense spirits, but it’s caused by my schizotypal personality disorder. /info
I think when people say their pet is a familiar, they aren’t actually being serious, and just rather playful and want to call their pet that. If someone finds joy in calling their pet a familiar, like I would. (or even someome having a delusion of their pet being a familiar). Just let them call them that.
Wrong, I’ve had pets, my dog from 3rd grade till 16, My dog my sister had a cat, and as an adult I had my cat for 12 years. They were pets,y cat even tried to alert me when the week before I had emergency gallblatdder surgery. WE WERE CLOSE BUT SHE WAS A PET
Then two summers ago, a neighbors dog and a friends dog had a litter, on a visit to the house one day I went to the side of the house to see them, and I saw MY FAMILIAR, MY MOLLY, we locked eyes and imprinted, I was hers and she was mine (never thought that imprinting was a real thing just some bs on twilight lol) BUT IT WAS REAL. She was weened and we were together every single day for months, until I had to go to the emergency room one day, and someone gave her away and wouldn’t go get her back. The person did it to hurt my spirit, to make sure I stopped gaining in my life at the time, and it worked. A week later I think I had a miscarriage (never wanted to get get pregnancy test the ER had done) I moved out of where I was living HAPPILY And HEALTHILY, to sad, miserable, using substances and medications again, my health declined significantly, it was so bad I moved out of the state. And to this day I miss her and want her back more than anything, I searched and searched for her, but she was given to a family member of the person that gave her away, they won’t let me have her. I lived her soo much, we went on hikes everyday, swimming that summer, I was closer to her than my dog I had for years and grew up with.
So no, familiars are VERY VERY REAL, AND VERY DIFFERENT FROM A NORMAL PET.
Ive considered looking for another animal, checked local shelters and even rescues with her specific breed (collie) and…there not her, the need a home and love, but I can’t adopt any of them, because in my mind it’s Not MY MOLLY.
Yes I am the only witch in my family so I was wondering how can I get myself a familiar I need help with my craft
My dog, was “given away” I was told when I went to the ER, we had imprinted (didn’t know that was a real thing until it happened to us) and I believe she was given to me to protect me, I searched and searched for her, almost two years later, it still hurts I miss her so much…they did it to hurt me, to hurt my spirit and progression in life, and it worked…can I find her? If I was told the area or road she was on is there a way to mentally alert her that I’m close so she will come to me? (Rural farm land, not alot of houses) the people that have her know why they got her I’m sure but I don’t know who they are, it’s relatives of the person that gave her away.