Glossary

Familiar

In the old trial records a spirit in animal shape that served a witch. Today often a loved pet.

A familiar, or familiar spirit, was in the belief of early modern England and Scotland a spirit that served a witch. It was said to appear as a small animal, a cat, a dog, a toad, a mouse or a bird, to carry out her wishes and to be fed by her in return.

The idea is almost unknown in the trials of the Continent and typical of the English ones. In the first large English witch trial, at Chelmsford in 1566, the accused spoke of a cat named Sathan. The witch finders of the 1640s recorded names such as Vinegar Tom and Pyewacket. The belief did real harm. An old woman who talked to her cat fitted the picture, and the accused were stripped and searched for a mole or wart, the "witch's mark", at which the spirit was supposed to suck. No such spirit ever existed; the confessions came from fear, sleeplessness and leading questions.

Modern witches have taken the word back and made it gentle. Many call an animal they feel especially close to their familiar: the cat that sits beside every ritual, the dog on every walk in the woods.

Such an animal remains an animal. It has no task in a working and does not have to stay for one. Keep candles, incense, essential oils, salt and most herbs out of its reach; many things on a witch's altar are harmful to cats and dogs.

Related: the European witch hunts, the Pendle witches.