Familiar

[2] When they served witches, they were often thought to be malevolent, but when working for cunning folk, they were often considered benevolent (although there was some ambiguity in both cases).

These contemporary practitioners use pets or wildlife, or believe that invisible versions of familiars act as magical aides.

The historian Emma Wilby noted how the accounts of such familiars were striking for their "ordinariness" and "naturalism", despite the fact that they were dealing with supernatural entities.

[9] Familiar spirits were most commonly small animals, such as cats, rats, dogs, ferrets, birds, frogs, toads, and hares.

Familiar spirits were usually kept in pots or baskets lined with sheep's wool and fed a variety of things including, milk, bread, meat, and blood.

[12] An agathion is a familiar spirit which appears in the shape of a human or an animal, or even within a talisman, bottle, or magic ring.

In the British accounts from the early modern period at least, there were three main types of encounter narrative related to how a witch or cunning person first met their familiar.

Various examples for this are attested in the sources of the time, for instance, Joan Prentice from Essex, England, gave an account when she was interrogated for witchcraft in 1589 claiming that she was "alone in her chamber, and sitting upon a low stool preparing herself to bedward" when her familiar first appeared to her, while the Cornish cunning-woman Anne Jeffries related in 1645 that hers first appeared to her when she was "knitting in an arbour in our garden".

For instance, the alleged witch Margaret Ley from Liverpool claimed, in 1667, that she had been given her familiar spirit by her mother when she died, while the Leicestershire cunning-woman Joan Willimot related, in 1618, that a mysterious figure whom she only referred to as her "master", "willed her to open her mouth and he would blow into her a fairy which should do her good.

"[15] In a number of accounts, the cunning person or witch was experiencing difficulty prior to the appearance of the familiar, who offered to aid them.

As historian Emma Wilby noted, "their problems... were primarily rooted in the struggle for physical survival—the lack of food or money, bereavement, sickness, loss of livelihood and so on", and the familiar offered them a way out of this by giving them magical powers.

The length of time that the witch or cunning person worked with their familiar spirit varied between a few weeks through to a number of decades.

[18] It was also believed that familiars "helped diagnose illnesses and the sources of bewitchment and were used for divining and finding lost objects and treasures.

In these areas, three categories of familiars are believed to exist:[20] During the English Civil War, the Royalist general Prince Rupert was in the habit of taking his large poodle dog named Boy into battle with him.

The Essex trial of Agnes Sampson of Nether Keith, East Lothian, Scotland, in 1590, presents prosecution testimony regarding a divinatory familiar.

[22] The English court cases reflect a strong relationship between State's accusations of witchcraft against those who practiced ancient indigenous traditions, including the familiar animal or spirit.

[23] "During the Salem witch trials, there is little account of the practice of animal familiars, although one man was charged with encouraging a dog to attack by way of magical means.

The mark was most commonly an extra teat found somewhere on the body and was suspected to be used to suckle the familiar spirits.