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One of the Ancient Greek methods of divination is empyromancy, or divination by observing the behavior of objects placed on a sacrificial fire. The term goes back to the Greek ἔμπυρα, “sacrifice by fire”.

According to the existing sources, this type of divination was very widely practiced in Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Greece, especially at the Oracle of Zeus in Ancient Olympia.

The site in Olympia was, according to the local legend, established by the semi-mythological seer clans of Iamids and Clytiads who took full control over the oracle in Classical times; these clans supposedly practiced empyromancy to divine the will of Zeus.

Empyromancy is categoized as a visual type of divination as it involves observation of visual signs. There is not much information on the specific order of divinatory practice of empyromancy at Olympia, though existing sources allow us to conclude that there was a sacrifice made at the sacred fire. After the sacrifice, the fire-prophet would gaze at the flames and interpret the way the fire sank, rose, or sputtered.

This divination technique was supposedly especially liked by the athletes, as Ancient Olympia was a major site of athletic games.

A similar method of empura is attested at the Oracle of Apollo Ismenios in Thebes (Hesychius), mentioned in Sophocles’ Antigone (1005-11) and Pindar’s Olympian (6.68-74 & 8.1-7), Euridipes’ Phoenissae (1225), and more.

Sources and further reading: 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

[nocturnegloam]

Saining

Sain, sian or seun charms are intended to bestow protection on an object, place or person in order to ward away evil influences and intent (especially from witches and the daoine sìth), and to ensure the health and prosperity of the person or household, or else the richness of the crops or catch. [x]

An old Hogmanay (New Year’s) custom in the Highlands of Scotland, which has survived to a small extent and seen some degree of revival, is to celebrate Hogmanay with the saining of the household and livestock. Early on New Year’s morning, householders drink and then sprinkle ‘magic water’ from ‘a dead and living ford’ around the house (a ‘dead and living ford’ refers to a river ford that is routinely crossed by both the living and the dead). After the sprinkling of the water in every room, on the beds and all the inhabitants, the house is sealed up tight and branches of juniper are set on fire and carried throughout the house and byre. The juniper smoke is allowed to thoroughly fumigate the buildings until it causes sneezing and coughing among the inhabitants. Then all the doors and windows are flung open to let in the cold, fresh air of the new year. The woman of the house then administers ‘a restorative’ from the whisky bottle, and the household sits down to its New Year breakfast.[6] Saining with juniper was also used in healing rites, where the evil eye was suspected to be the cause of the illness, but it apparently fell out of use by the end of the nineteenth century after a young girl with respiratory problems suffocated due to the amount of smoke that filled the house [x]

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Do you have any advice for people trying to syncretize or reconcile? I'm feeling an interest in ceremonial magick and tradcraft and I think I would like to attempt to see what works in both of them.

Ceremonial magick and tradcraft work extremely well together if you explore the grimoire tradition vein of ceremonial magick rather than the lodge traditions (ie Golden Dawn, Thelema etc). In particular the Verum family of grimoires has had a massive impact of European witchcraft and to a somewhat lesser extent ATRs (especially those in ex-French colonies). I’m not really sure what particular strain of tradcraft you practice but I’d recommend picking up a copy of Secrets of Solomon, Grimoire Verum, and a few of the folk magick based grimoires like Salomonic Magical Arts, The Book of St. Cyprian: The Sorcerer’s Treasure, A Cunningman’s Grimoire, or Discoverie of Witchcraft. I’d also really recommend diving into some of the academic works on witchcraft in the early modern period because not only do these give an excellent view of how witchcraft was viewed and practiced, they also do a better job of explaining the interplay between clerical magick and folk magick. Which books you should read are heavily dependent on the area you’re interested in but googling “witchcraft in early modern [country/location]” should turn up a lot of sources. Palgrave and Cambridge Press in particular have some really great books on early modern magick. I’m personally partial to “Witchcraft narratives in Germany: Rothenburg, 1561-1652“, “Agents of Witchcraft in Early Modern Italy and Denmark”, “Grimoires: A History of Magic Books“, “Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the 15th Century”, and of course “The Visions of Isobel Gowdie” and “Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits”.

If you’re looking for a more modern fusion of ceremonial magick (including lodge magick) and traditional witchcraft, your best bet is Cultus Sabbati and Andrew Chumbley’s works, in particular The Dragon Book of Essex and One: The Grimoire of the Golden Toad. 

-Mod C

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an estimated 2,100-year-old rare marble statue of Kybele, the mother goddess of Anatolia, unearthed during excavations in northern Ordu province located on the Black Sea coast.

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Martha Nussbaum, introduction to C. K. William’s The Bacchae of Euripides

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“[The snake] symbolizes something unconscious; it is the instinctive movement or tendency; it shows the way to the hidden treasure, or it guards the treasure […] The snake has a fascinating appeal, a peculiar attraction through fear. Some people are fascinated by this fear. Things that are awe-inspiring and dangerous have an extraordinary attraction […] The serpent shows the way to hidden things…which leads man to go beyond the point of safety, and beyond the limits of consciousness.”

— Carl Jung, 1925 Seminar

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The working staves of a modern Pellar, including, from left to right:

• A Hazel trident—or Lathe—used for ceremonial empowerment and invocation,

• A vine-twisted Rowan cane—or Wicken Rod—used in feats of Faerie Physic,

• A black Elder and Poppy Root scepter—or Voyaging Hand—used in rites of chthonic magic and journeying,

• & A purple Elder Egg Wand—or Ovum Rod—used in acts of acute healing.

• At the bottom-forefront is a 'Keppen Wand'—or Kippen—fashioned from the same Hazel tree as the Lathe, utilized as a discreet and portable link to the ceremonial staff.

[nocturnegloam]

Is there a word in hellenismos or roman recon to end prayers? I feel really weird saying amen (which I’m trying really hard to get out of my vocab) or just saying okay bye then lmao 😂 I can’t seem to find anything anywhere 🤔

[nocturnegloam]

There might come a time when you don’t perceive your Gods as much as you used to, and start feeling like they cut themselves from you. You might start to question your faith, asking yourself whether it was well-founded to begin with. You may even think that it’s a sign for you to stop believing in your deities. Such thoughts are normal and perfectly healthy, as they can help chase away dogmatism in certain situations. However, the fact that you don’t feel your deities doesn’t mean you have to stop believing in them. Your faith stems from your personal experiences and it is as much a logical decision as your values. You are free to choose to trust in your deities, even when their presence is invisible. One way or another, they will come back into your life naturally.

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Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images; C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections; David M. Odorisio, Of Gods and Stones: Alchemy, Jung, and the Dark Night of St. John of the Cross

[nocturnegloam]

The Witch at Midsummer

This post is the fourth in a series of posts exploring and celebrating witch archetypes at the eight seasonal festivals.

The festival of Midsummer celebrates the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. It has long had an association with the world of Faerie in the British Isles. The origin of the connection between the world of Faerie and the Midsummer holiday is unclear. At its core, Midsummer is a liminal day, though it may not seem like one upon first glance. Unlike Halloween, which falls between summer and winter, and May Day, which falls between winter and summer, Midsummer marks the end of spring and beginning of the summer season. It is a time of shifting priorities. In England, Ireland, and Wales, it was one of the four quarter days marking the times when accounts had to be settled. It marked the shift between the planting season and the summer harvest. On one side of Midsummer is the spring season and lightness, on the other, the shift toward the harvest and a time of increased darkness. Because Midsummer is the summer solstice, the longest day, every day after it must be progressively darker until the winter solstice in mid-December. 

In the old system of belief, the fairies and witches and other spirits enjoyed darkness. The festivals of Halloween and Christmas were times of darkness and were considered to be days when wild spirits would cause mischief. May Day, sometimes called Walpurgisnacht, was another one of their feast days. Some believe it would have been a kind of last hurrah for these beings before the light and cheerful summer months. Midsummer marks a time when periods of darkness begin to increase and this would have been a celebratory occasion. As Puck states in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, fairies travel “…By the triple Hecate’s team,/From the presence of the sun/Following darkness like a dream…”

The witch has, historically, been connected with the realm of Faerie. For this festival, let us discuss the witch as a fairy-being and the witch as a shaman. As Gemma Gary notes in her book The Devil’s Dozen, the connection between the fairies, the Devil, and the witch herself was not always made clear in old folklore. The witch, who has undergone the process of initiation, is closer to the realm of the fairies, closer to the Other World, than other living beings. The initiation of a witch is a death-and-rebirth style initiation. These kinds of initiations are found throughout the world in various cultures. For the witch, a physical initiation by other witches may occur, if she chooses to seek out other witches and join a coven. This ritual may involve blindfolds, the binding of the arms or legs with cords, and a ritual threat of some variety. The removal of the cords and the blindfold mark a rebirth. On the spiritual plane, the witch always experiences an initiation by the spirits, whether she seeks out other witches or not.

This means a sort of spiritual death and rebirth. Many witches report that when they begin to practice witchcraft, their lives fall apart in a very real, very physical way, only to be pulled back together in a more elegant, witchier order. The spirits break apart the spirit of the witch and stitch it back together. The initiated witch may live on our plane, but she has one foot permanently in the land beyond the veil.

It is worth noting here that many superstitions state that individuals who have near-death experiences may gain the ability to peer into the Other World. In England, it was once held that babies born with a caul have the ability to see ghosts or become witches. The baby, being born with a veil of amniotic sac, is not born fully into this world and is marked by the presence of that which came before.

The Irish fairy doctors, according to WB Yeats, were individuals that may have been especially loved by the fairies. In his book Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, Yeats claims that, “the most celebrated fairy doctors are sometimes people the fairies loved and carried away, and kept with them for seven years; not that those the fairies’ love are always carried off–they may merely grow silent and strange, and take to lonely wanderings in the ‘gentle’ places.” This is, in a way, an initiation by the spirits - the fairies - who forever mark the practitioner as being “other.” It is worth mentioning here that the Irish made a great distinction between the witch and the fairy doctor, the former practicing baneful magic and the latter practicing healing magic primarily. Considering the subject at hand, it did feel significant to mention this intriguing piece of folklore.

Because she has been taken by the spirits and belongs, at least in part, in the land of the spirits, the magical practitioner (whether she identifies as a witch or a fairy doctor) is able to communicate with spirits and even to cross the border between our world and their world. Here we may discuss the hedge witch.

The phrase “hedge witchery” is used to describe a variety of different practices, but at her core, the hedge witch is one who jumps “over the hedge.” That is, she travels between this world and the Other World. This may be done with the use of aids, especially herbal ones. She is, after all, a hedge witch. She may utilize flying ointments, which are worthy of a write-up all their own. Flying ointments are ointments, usually made with a base of beeswax or lard, that contain plant matter of an entheogenic nature. The word entheogenic denotes plants that are hallucinogenic, but are primarily used for spiritual pursuits. To the witch, this often means the plants of the Solanaceae family and the genus Artemisia - belladonna, henbane, mandrake, datura, wormwood, and mugwort. Flying ointments may contain balm of Gilead, cannabis, and other plant matters. The historical witch may have had other methods to induce a trance state. She may have used body movements - dancing, running, shaking. She may have used drumming and rhythmic noises, as well.

The hedge witch essentially practices the art of astral projection, sometimes called flying or travelling. Though there is some debate in the community as to whether these phrases refer to different practices, these terms are all quite similar in nature. If one masters the art of astral projection, the ability to fly (with or without entheogenic aids) is certainly within one’s wheelhouse. 

Why does the hedge witch fly over the hedge? Surely she engages in more than supernatural tourism. She is a kind of shaman, as is the fairy doctor and the historical witch (who predates the term “hedge witch”). By communing with the spirits, these practitioners used spiritual means to affect the physical world. A witch who can cross the boundary between our physical world and the Other World can communicate with the spirits or fairies on the other side. She can work with these spirits to change the everyday, waking world. This is the great benefit of working with fairies. We are (mostly) corporeal. They are not. They possess a strange and dangerous magic all their own.

Of course, working with fairies is not without its hazards. They can be capricious and live by rules that are incomprehensible to humans (though I must add that surely the rules of our society are nonsensical to them, as well). The classic rules of the land of Faerie do apply here - do not take their food, do not dance in their circles, do not make impossible promises, and never, ever say “thank you” to a fairy. If one can master these Wonderland rules, working with the Fae can be highly beneficial.

The Fae are excellent teachers of the magical arte. They can heal the sick and can do great harm to one’s enemies. When they are angered, they can be merciless, spreading disease and destruction. They can bless those they love with generous gifts, including money. They can perform chores and small tasks and can lend their hands to spells, if they feel like it.

In some systems of belief, all witches essentially work with the Fae. Some believe the Devil to be a Fairy King. Some believe the fairies to be fallen angels or the ancestors. Anyone working with these entities would, by this logic, be working with the Fae by extension. On Midsummer Night, let us remember that the door to the Other World is always open. We have the power to access it and see what lies beyond, if only we dare look.

[nocturnegloam]

Are You Overcomplicating Things?

We all do it. Here are some common pitfalls we run into when practicing witchcraft (and how to stop making things more difficult for ourselves!)

No Standards for Signs

"I saw a ____. Could that be a sign?" Nobody knows for sure, we weren't there and we're not you. Even if you've asked for a sign and are waiting for a response, now you're spending brainpower trying to assess every little thing around you. Smooth out the process by asking for specific signs so you know what you're looking for. Color + Noun, such as "a green feather" tends to work well. If you're not expecting a sign about a specific thing, let the Universe know what your standards are. "I will read things as a sign only if ____."

Too Many Spell Factors

More spell factors, generally, helps hone and amplify a spell. You can also go overboard. If you're exhausting yourself trying to find the exact moment the astrological hour, moon phase, and relevant constellations all line up with you having specific rare ingredients, memorizing a chant in another language, blah blah blah, you usually don't need to go that hard. Just pick two or three you can reasonably achieve and do what you need to do.

Being Lost in the Research

"I'm not ready to cast this spell until I ____." Research and prepping yourself properly are important, but it takes years to become a true ""expert."" At some point, we need to be confident in ourselves and actually take action. You're ready. It's fine.

Waiting for the Perfect Moment

Part of this can be astrological (see Spell Factors) but it's also just life. There's never a perfect moment to do anything... the Universe doesn't put those moments on a platter for us. Waiting for the exact perfect time can become an excuse to stall very easily! To quote Shia LaBeouf, "JUST DO IT!!!"

Needing a Second Opinion... on Everything

Second opinions aren't always bad; they can be very useful! But you don't need external validation for every move or interpretation you make. Remember that your craft is your own, not theirs. You have a good head on your shoulders! If you're still feeling unsure, write it down somewhere and come back to it later to see how you feel.

Overprotection

Wards, shields, and circles oh my! On top of that, there are protection methods galore with amulets, house charms, guardian spirits, reciting scripture, hand motions, and more. These are largely preventative measures that aren't under constant attack unless you are Up To Some Shit. No need to feel scared or vulnerable for not having every single one, just like you don't need to guard your house with triple locks, motion sensors, high-tech camera feeds, an electric fence, a guard dog, and a moat.

Materialism

There are so many beautiful tools out there. I do think liking the way our craft looks, to a point, is helpful because it gets you in the mindset. You can easily work with whatever you have around you, though. It's easy to fall into the trap of feeling like we need some specific ritual item that we've been doing just fine without before. Or that a functioning tool works okay, but it would be even better to shell out for the fancy one. Or that we have to have a statue of our deities. It's not necessary and it hurts your wallet, too.

Forgetting the Mundane

Not everything requires magical solutions. You don't need to perform a banishing spell when blocking their social media will have the same effect. Being firm about boundaries and telling someone directly their actions bother you (and tell them to stop) can usually prevent the need for a binding spell. The best clear-the-air/resolve conflict spell is an honest conversation. Figuring out if someone likes you romantically can be a question for the cards, or you can just ask them. (Yes, that's super nerve-wracking. You can do it, I promise.)

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A devotee is a small piece of a deity’s influence on earth. You are their agent, their image, their model and their example to the world. Doesn’t it make sense that they’d want their followers to be the happiest and healthiest people they can be? Elevating yourself through self care and self love is one of the purest acts of devotion that exists. 

[nocturnegloam]

Closed Traditions Aren't a Monolith.

Not everything is restricted in the same way.

We're not all restricted for the same reason.

Some are closed to protect their traditions from being erased.

Some are closed because the traditions just don't make sense when taken out of context.

Some are closed because they require high-level understanding the average person just won't have.

Some are tied to a specific culture or ethnicity. Others aren't.

Sometimes you just need to be initiated properly.

Sometimes you need to be part of a specific group AND be initiated.

Sometimes there is NO way to join if you're not already in it.

Sometimes being "born into it" doesn't have an easy definition.

Sometimes you need to deassimilate first. Sometimes you can jump right in.

Our boundaries, traditions, and philosophies are ALL unique.

There is no way to learn the rules about all closed practices at once because we are NOT all the same.

[nocturnegloam]

Thirteen Arts of Witchcraft

Abjuration - The ability to ward, shield, and forbid.

Compulsion- The ability to impose one's will on another

Conjuration - The ability to summon object, people, and spirits.

Divination - The ability to read signs, omens, cards, lots, etc.

Enchantment - The ability to bestow magical effects on a person, place, or thing.

Evocation - The ability to call forth and bind spirits or entities.

Glamour - The ability to alter the perceptions of others.

Invocation - The ability to claim a spirits power for oneself.

Healing - The ability to restore health or integrity to a person, place, or thing.

Hexcraft - The ability to bend luck for good or ill.

Shining Tongue - The ability to alter the world through words alone.

Spirit-Flight - The ability to fly, walk, move, and shapeshift without the physical body.

Weather Work - The ability to manipulate the weather and natural forces.

[nocturnegloam]

A much more experienced friend and I had a conversation yesterday about magic and the nature of sensing it.

This is someone who magically speaking, I consider to be a human battery. Still, she said even she sometimes has doubts about her own work. Yet I, the barely-above-witchling level practitioner, had power in my little oils and powders that she could sense, objects that I’ve always worried felt dead when I touched them.

Basically, it’s way easier to sense other people’s energies than it is to sense your own. It’s like tasting air; you’re constantly surrounded by your own energy all the time, so that’s just what feeling “normal” is like for you. It’s a lot easier to recognize a foreign energy in something.

What I took from it is, if you can sense what other people are doing but don’t feel like you can do things yourself, it’s likely NOT because you’re weak. In fact, you might have more power than you thought you did, but just are so used to your own energy that it just doesn’t feel like anything. It’s a discernment problem that is very common, not a marker of your ability!

I just felt like that was important enough to share.

[nocturnegloam]

The Witch’s Familiar

Familiars are another complex side of witchcraft that has been grasped at by many since ancient times. Often times, the stereotype of a witch also includes an animal servant of some kind, like a cat, crow, toad, etc. Though these animals are often associated with witches due to a various amount of reasons, including shapeshifting and illusions, it is not the animal directly which the witch took interest in. It was the spirit housed in the animal. This spirit we known now as a Familiar.  Familiars in folklore serve two major roles, with an a varying amount of other roles as well. Those two important roles are guiding the witch in their journey and acting as a faithful servant to the witch. It is a companion to their witch-partner. Other roles it serves as is a means of protection to its mate, a watchful set of eyes, an aid in magic, and an assistant in flight/travel.  One of the common misconceptions about familiars is what they actually are. Many believe them to be a magical animal. They believe them to be an animal graced with the task of helping a witch. However, the original lore on familiars contradicts this. A familiar is not an animal, rather a spirit. Most often in European folklore, it was a demon in the shape of an animal.  That particular piece of lore may be taken in two ways.  The first is that the familiars appears to be an animal even while in spirit form. This is what I most often find to be true. The animal that the familiar appears as often reflects the witch it has chosen. Some familiars even change their animal form from time to time, which can become rather confusing.  The other way to look at that is that the spirit is possessing a physical animal and using it as a living spirit house. This too is known to happen. Any instances of physical familiars is explained by this.  In addition, familiars don’t just come as animals. Plants have been known to serve as familiars and servants to witches as well. This is shown in the creation of the Alraun, which is a ritual that goes all the way back to old Germany. It is a specially treated root in the form of a human. The spirit inside the root will act as a familiar to the witch who treated it. Often times, many witches prefer to use mandrake roots for this purpose, but there are many options for this. Dandelion roots are excellent for this purpose, as are many kinds of tree roots. I was once in possession of an alraun made from an Eastern Hemlock root. Alrauns, however, are not the only way of keeping a plant familiar.  Familiars may also be spirits of the dead who have come to serve and aid the witch. Often times in stories of medicine people and shamanic workers, this is the spirit of a dead shaman who has passed their power down to the newly initiated shaman. This too appears in tales of witches, as their ancestors pass down their flame and serve them in death. Spirits of the Mighty Dead may decide to bond to a single living witch and serve and guide them.  The other kind of familiar is the faery familiar. This kind is often mentioned by witches in areas where fairy faiths were once practiced. One account tells of the Devil kissing the witch and injecting something into her mouth, and when she spit, a fairy came out. These familiars have also accumulated the reputation of being lovers (very befitting of the fair folk). Instead of being simply fed with blood, they were fed by another method (a fairly obvious reference, if you catch my drift).  Though the actual nature of the familiar is dubious, it appears in many forms; sometimes animal, sometimes plant, sometimes human, sometimes faery, and sometimes in folklore, demonic form. Familiars to outside eyes can appear to be quite horrific things. This ties in with it being known as a demon appearing in the likeness of something natural, or actually physically possessing something/someone.  The familiar does not only appear in European folklore. In Africa, witches are said to have servants of Jackals, Hyenas, and Hamerkops. In the Americas, witches were said to often have servants of (and shape-shift into) foxes, owls, hawks, lizards, and toads. Of course, in Europe comes the classic witch animals, like the cat, dog, crow, toad, snake, hare, boar, deer, etc.  The familiar is both a part of the witch and not. It is a spirit which is separate, but when it bonds with a witch, it has found its mate that it will likely serve beyond death. It becomes a part of the witch. Familiars can, however, be passed from witch to witch upon death or renouncing of power. There are stories of witches passing their familiars down from family member to family member.  While familiars are faithful to their masters, they must choose who their original master is. They cannot be picked out by the witch.  Familiars are not to be considered the same as servitors. Unlike the servitor, they cannot be created or deconstructed. They are given to the witch at specific points in their journey. I’ve found that they come when first truly beginning your journey. Sometimes that means when latent skills awaken, sometimes it means when one dedicates themselves to the Crooked Way. Sometimes it’s not until after the Spirit Death (which can be a long time). How do they come?  Lore gives us three ways. One is during a time of crisis. One is during a normal moment of mundane task. The last is being passed down by another witch or a spirit. Often times, this spirit is whatever deity the witch has a close relationship with. For most traditional witches, this is the Man in Black.  Not all familiars are so forthcoming, though. Some want to be found before they come to their witch. The witch has to search them out. To find the familiar is to find a connection to the Other, the spirit world, and the wilderness. You have to go to a place that embodies all three of those things. Then you have to make a call to it. It can be an incantation, a song, a spell, or some other noise. Then you watch and wait. You’ll know it when it appears.  Some also advise that you cross the hedge to find yours. I say why not both? Go to a wild place that is undisturbed by machinery or man’s hand. Stand in a river’s ford. Sit by or in a hole in a tree. Lay on a great stone. Then cross the hedge into the spirit world. Call for it there.  Assuming that the familiar appears as an animal, it won’t always be the animal you’ll necessarily want. Not everyone can have crows, wolves, toads, cats, etc. If everyone did, we would all be the same. Remember how I said that familiars reflect us as witches? Don’t be upset if yours happens to be a robin or a rat. The animal or plant to come teaches a lot about who you are as a witch. There isn’t a ‘better’ familiar to get. The one you get is the best fit for you, even if you might not think so in the beginning. I know one witch who hated spiders until they got their familiar. Can you imagine how that meeting went? They might appear in person, in a dream, in a vision flash, or some other method. Sometimes they leave physical signs, sometimes not. It can get confusing at times, but if you’re unsure, divination usually helps.  The first familiar you acquire is the one that sits at the core of who you are as a witch. It is your fetch-mate. It is the one who will guide you through your trials, teach you witch knowledge, and be a faithful servant after you’ve learned. As you progress on your journey, you may acquire more familiars. They too will teach you important lessons and stick around to attend to you. 

Working with the familiar spirit is one of the more intimate moments as a witch. The bond shared between a familiar spirit and its witch mate is often extremely close. So close, in fact, that until a spirit house is found, familiars will often reside inside of their witch. Folk tales tell of witches utilizing their familiars by spitting them up out of their mouths. Images of witches throwing up crows, hares, and owls were common in European folk lore.  Familiars can be used to spy, plant spells, fly, aid in magic, and many other witch affairs. Witches in folklore learned how to watch through their familiars eyes to spy on people. They also had them carry hexes, charms, and spells to those they wished. When traveling to spirit worlds or Elphame, witches would ride on the backs of their familiars. Witches riding wolves, birds, hares, and many other creatures have appeared in old drawings and images for a long time. The familiars also acted as guardians to their witches, protecting them in times of peril. All of these uses carry into modern times and what witches use their familiars for now.  Familiars are befuddling little beasts, but they cannot be separated from witch lore. Even the mere myth of them plays an intrinsic role in the lore and history of witches.The companionship of familiar spirits and witches holds true in modern times. Nurturing that connection often helps the witch exponentially.