Discovering your Animal Familiar Spirit: Recon,

Revivalist and Recon-derived Approaches

.:: The Animal Familiar Spirit in Medieval and Early Modern Europe ::.
“The followers of Diana, of Perchta and Holda traverse the skies astride unspecified beasts;
during their catalepsies, the benandanti let the spirit issue from the inanimate body in the shape
of a mouse or a butterfly; the táltos assume the appearance of stallions or bulls, the werevolves
of wolves; male and female witches join the Sabbath mounted on billy goats or transformed into
cats, wolves and hares… Metamorphoses, cavalcades, ecstasies, followed by the egrees of the
soul in the shape of an animal - these are different paths to a single goal. Between animals and
souls, animals and the dead, animals and the beyond, there exists a profound connection”,
Carlo Ginzburg says in his “Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath”.
This is also very similar to what happened in “the battles which, according to the Icelandic
sagas, were fought ‘in spirit’ by the fylgia, the external soul that abandoned the body in the
shape of an invisible animal”.
So it’s possible to see the Fylgja as an ancestor of the later Animal Familiar Spirit.
.:: External, Internal, and Projected Internal Familiar Spirits ::.
Gelsomina Helen Castaldi in her “Pagan Traces in Medieval and Early Modern European Witch-
beliefs” distinguish between “External” and “Internal” Familiar Spirits. I quote:
“it is interesting to note that in witch-trials and pamphlets we often hear of witches having more
than one helping Familiar spirit, for instance in the case of Ursula Kemp:
‘The saide Thomas Rabbet saith, that his said mother Ursly Kempe alias Grey hath foure
severall spirites, the one called Tyffin, the other Tittey, the third Pygine, & the fourth Jacke: &
being asked of what colours they were, saith that Tyttey is like a little grey Cat, Tyffin is like a
white lambe, Pygine is black like a Toad, and Jacke is black like a Cat.’
“External” and “Internal” Familiars
What has been described above, fundamentally as the inner spirit of the witch in the
shape of an animal which (in some cases) the witch can turn herself into will be here
conveniently termed as “internal Familiar”. To better distinguish the “internal Familiar”
from the personal but external aiding spirit (or “Devil”), whether human or animal, the
latter will be termed instead as “external Familiar”.
In clarifying such self-coined yet not self-fabricated differentiations further, tribal comparisons
will be made. When discussing the Nanai of Siberia, Eliade noted “the Goldi clearly distinguish
between the tutelary spirit (ayami), which chooses the shaman, and the helping spirits (syven),
which are subordinate to it and are granted to the shaman by the ayami itself”. The parallel
seems perfect. The ayami could be considered as the equivalent of Tom Reid for Bessie
Dunlop, whereas the syven may be compared to “internal” Familiar spirits such as the
cat for Bridget Goldsbrough, or even Tyffin and Tittey for Ursula Kemp, who could
represent the outer animal manifestation or projection of her inner “totem”, and
divergent by comparison to the ayami, equipped with a more defined anthropomorphic
identity and not subordinate to the shaman, like the syven. However, to avoid confusion
between the “internal Familiar” as the animal which the witch can turn into and the pet-
like “internal Familiar” which the witches usually keep in a basket and feed blood,
cheese, bread and milk, we shall term the latter as “projected internal Familiar”.
It could be thus assumed that if the ayami may be compared to the “Devil” (which appears to the
witch both in animal or human form), the syven is usually the pet-like spirit the English witch
keeps in a basket, or the animal the witch turns into or rides upon when going to the Sabbath
and is nearly always animal (or semi-animal). If this is the divine “totem” of the witch,
“transforming into” it means being pervaded by it, and her/his human side being transfigured
into the divine. In the following account an ayami talked to a (Siberian) Shaman and said: “I
shall give you assistant spirits. You are to heal with their aid”. The shaman went on to say:
‘Sometimes she [the ayami] comes under the aspect of an old woman, and sometimes under
that of a wolf, so she is terrible to look at. Sometimes she comes as a winged tiger (…) She has
given me three assistants-the jarga (the panther), the doonto (the bear) and the amba (the
tiger). They come to me in my dreams, and appear whenever I summon them while shamaning.
If one of them refuses to come, the ayami makes them obey, but, they say, there are some who
do not obey even the ayami. When I am shamaning, the ayami and the assistant spirits are
possessing me; whether big or small, they penetrate me, as smoke or vapour would. When the
ayami is within me, it is she who speaks through my mouth, and she does everything herself
up.’
When analysing several pre-Christian accounts from different ancient periods and geographical
areas, there is no neat difference between the divine outside and the divine inside, and whilst
both the ayami and syvens possess the shaman (supposedly one from the inside and the other
from the outside), the syven may have been described as subordinate to the shaman because
they are subject to his/her egotistic/personal will. If we are to accept the speculative parallels
between syven and “internal/projected internal Familiar”, or “totem”, then the syven is
subordinate to the shaman like the “internal/projected internal Familiar” is to the witch. The logic
here is that however superior to her as it constitutes her inner source of supernatural power, it is
the palpable outer human “ego” who materially makes decisions and interacts with the world,
not her essence (the “internal/projected internal Familiar”). In fact both internal/projected internal
or “external Familiars” can make suggestions or even give orders, but ultimately it is up to the
witch to decide whether to obey, regardless of any possible consequences. An example may be
when Elizabeth Southerns refused to follow Tibb’s suggestion to go and help Anne Whittle and
Anne Refern to make clay pictures of Christopher, Robert and Marie Nutter. “The said Spirit
seeming to be angrie … pushed this Examinate into the ditch, and so shed the Milke which this
Examinate had in a Can or Kit”.
The “External Familiar” and the Devil
Personal “external Familiars” seem to overlap often in witch-trial accounts with the
“Devil” appearing in the shape of a man, an animal or a boy. This overlap is probably
partially due to the known fact that the generalising term of “Devil” was employed in
medieval/early modern Europe by religious authorities and subsequently by lay
authorities and ordinary people, to define any supernatural entity, spirit or deity outside
the Christian faith. Yet, a further reason for such an overlap may be that the Devil appears to
the witch in a shape of another, possibly to suit her inner preference/nature, as in the case of
Jane Wenham who “fancied” the Devil to appear in the shape of a cat. If we accept this
totemistic interpretation of Familiar spirits and non-neatly dualistic conceptions of “internal” and
“external”, such an example may confirm a shamanistic concept (of a supernatural entity that
appears in the shape of/in a shape compatible with the shaman’s totem/s or inclination) thereby
underpinning, perhaps by way of folkloric transmission, this otherwise odd early modern belief
concerning a Devil that appears to witches in different shapes according to their preference. It
may be useful at this regard to return to Eliade’s previous account of the ayami appearing to the
shaman:
‘Once I was asleep on my sick-bed, when a spirit approached me. It was a very beautiful
woman. Her figure was very slight, she was no more than half an arshin (71 cm.) tall. Her face
and attire were quite as those of one of our Gold women (…) She said: 'I am the ayami of your
ancestors, the Shamans. I taught them shamaning. Now I am going to teach you (…) I love you,
I have no husband now, you will be my husband and I shall be a wife unto you’.’
This is interestingly reminiscent of those magical women who assisted mortal men in old
folktales. In the Mabinogi, Rhiannon of the birds assisted Pwyll, the King of Dyved, thereby
saving his kingdom, his life and providing him with advice before finally marrying him, and losing
(unlike the ayami of the above account, however) part of her powers and her immortality.
Likewise, Macha, married to the King of Ulaid, died to save her husband’s life having to
demonstrate —however heavily pregnant— that she could run faster than a horse as her
husband claimed. Loves of similar magical women for mortal men occur in Greek myths also,
for instance in the tale of Theseus and Ariadne: Ariadne saved his life but in different versions of
the legend nonetheless died or was betrayed by him.
A parallel of the above may be found in later history up to the witch-trial period. One example
could be the thirteenth century legend of Thomas Rhymer and the “Queen of Elfame”. The
Queen warned Thomas that if she offered herself to him as he desired, she would become ugly
and grey, and her prediction did in fact come true as the legend goes. Thomas Rhymer chased
her on his horse, but she was always ahead of him and remained so until he courteously asked
her to stop. Here a female figure from an idyllic magical dimension (that is not ruled by force,
thus — it can be supposed— not necessarily patriarchal), clearly seems to be clarifying to the
mortal man (of the patriarchal world ruled by force) who approaches Fairyland that women there
are not won through force nor are they weaker than men. This mirrors very closely, again, the
tale of Pwyll chasing Rhiannon who was always ahead of him when he chased her through her
territories and who stopped only when he kindly asked her to, but was eventually humiliated and
betrayed when marrying him. When we reach the early modern period however, the Queen of
Faerie did not lose her powers by becoming the mistress and guide of men (e.g. Andro Man and
Tom Reid), and spirit helpers in human form did not lose any power either when helping female
witches. Therefore, the parallel with the ayami seems again to be suited. Likewise the Devil or a
male aiding spirit of the witch does not lose its magic by assisting the witch: for example as in
the aforementioned Chattox and Demdyke, Agnes Sampson; Alison Pairson, Isoble Gowdie and
Isobel Haldane, or Bessie Dunlop:
‘Elizabeth or Bessie Dunlop… accused of the using of Sorcery, Witchcraft and Incantation with
Invocation of spirits of the devil, continuing in Familiarity with them at all such times as she
thought expedient dealing with charms and abusing the people with [the] devilish craft of sorcery
forsaid by the means after specified. [She] used these [magical practices for] diverse years
bypast, specially at the times and in [the manner] following:
1. IN the first, That forasmuch as the said Elizabeth being asked by what art and knowledge she
could tell diverse persons of things they tynt [?lost] or were stolen away, or help sick persons
she answered and declared that she herself had no kind of art nor science for to do, but diverse
times, when any such persons came at her [?] to she would ask one Tom Reid, who died at
Pinkie, as he himself affirmed, who would tell her whenever she asked.
2. ITEM, She being asked what kind of man this Tom Reid was, declared he was an honest well
[quite/very] elderly man, grey bearded, and had a grey coat with Lombard sleeves of the old
fashion, a pair of grey breeches and white stockings gartered above the knee, a black bonnet
on his head, cloise behind and plain before, with silken laces drawn through the lippis [edges]
thereof and a white wand in his hand.
3. ITEM, Being asked how and in what manner of place the said Tom Reid came to her [she]
answered that it was as she was going between her own house and the yard of Monkcastle,
driving her cattle to the pasture and making heavy fair dule [sorrow] with herself, gretand
[weeping] very fast for her cow that was dead, her husband and child that were lying sick in the
land ill [famine or epidemic] and she newly risen out of child-bed. The foresaid Tom met her by
the way, hailed her and said ‘Good day, Bessie’. And she said ‘God speed you, goodman’.
‘Sancta Marie’ said he ‘Bessie, why make you such great dule and fair greting for any worldly
thing?’. She answered ‘Alas! Have I not great cause to make great dule, for our gear is
trakit[dwindled away] and my husband is on the point of death and a babe of my own will not
live and myself at a weak point. Have I not good cause then to have a fair [?faint] hart?’. But
Tom said ‘Bessie, you have angered God and asked something you should not have done, and
therefore I counsel you to mend to him, for I tell you your baby shalld die, and the sick cow,
before you come home; your two sheep will die too, but your husband shall mend and be as hail
and fair as ever he was.’ And then I was something happier for he told me that my Goodman
would mend. Then Tom Reid went away from me in through the yard of Monkcastle, and I
thought he went in at a narrow hole of the dyke nor ony [that no] earthly man could have gone
through and fwa [?so then] I was something afraid’, This was the first time that Tom and Bessie
met.’
“Projected Internal Familiar”
At times the line (defined by the above parameters) between “internal”, “projected internal” and
“external” Familiar, remains blurred, as in John Walsh’s case, where the boundary between
internal and external is less clear. Also, the animal appearance is often shared both by the
“external Familiar” and by the “projected internal Familiar”. It seems that a characteristic
possibly differentiating these two different categories of Familiars is if the naming occurs. It
emerges in fact from recurrent confessions that the naming of the spirit was believed as part of
the process of achieving “full witch status”. Whilst in the case of “external Familiars” or “Devils”
appearing to the witch in human or animal shape, the said spirits here already had a name. For
instance, in the case of Elizabeth Southern: “Wherevpon this Examinat demaunded his name?
and the Spirit answered, his name was Tibb”; or in the case of Anne Whittle: “…and the Deuill
then further commaunded this Examinate, to call him by the name of Fancie. However, we do
find slightly different accounts mentioning the act of the naming of the Familiar, which suggests
a more intimate relationship of “ownership” of the Familiar. Such accounts incidentally coincide
with what has been here described as “internal/projected internal Familiar”, therefore, showing
further parallelisms with tribal rituals concerning the naming of the totem. From this it could be
inferred that when we witness the witch’s naming of her own personal spirit, we are
witnessing an account of “projected internal Familiar”. One example could be found in
James Device’s confession claiming that the first reason of the Pendle Witches’ meeting at
Malkin Tower was “the naming of the Spirit which Alizon Deuice, now prisoner at Lancaster,
had”. However, they “did not name him, because she was not there”. Similarly, we witness the
naming of the Familiars in the previously mentioned case of Joan Cunny of Stysted (Essex,
1589); however, here it appears the Familiars were naming themselves rather than the witch
naming them, as she:
‘saith and confesseth, (…) that she learned this her knowledge in the same, of one mother
Humfrye of Maplested, who told her that she must kneele down upon her knees, and make a
Circle on the ground, and pray unto Sathan the cheefe of the Devills, the forme of which praier
that she then taught her, this examinate hath now forgotten, and that then the Spirits would
come unto her (…) so yt she would promise to give them her soule for their travaile, for
otherwise: they would doo nothing for her. Where-upon she did promise thime her soule, and
then they concluded with her so to do for her, what she would require, and gave themselves
severall names, that is to say, the one Jack, and ye other Jyll by the which names she did
always after call them. And then taking them up, she carried them home in her lap and put them
in a Box and gave them white bread and milke.’
In other descriptions that would fit into the idea of “projected internal Familiar” we do
not, however, have clear indication of the naming of the spirit, as in the example of Ursula
Kemp’s spirits, or in the case of Joan Upney of Dagenham who:
‘saith, that one Fustian Kirtle, otherwise called White-cote, a witch of Barking, came to her
house about seaven or eight yeeres agoe and gave her a thing like a Moule, and tolde her if she
ought any body any ill will, if she did bid it, it would goe clap them. She saith that Moule taryed
not above a yeere with her, but it consumed away, and then she gave her another Moule and a
Toad, which she kept a great while, and was never without some Toades since till her last going
away.’
Similar are also the cases of Cysley Sellys as well as that of the shared Imps of Ales Manfield
and Margaret Gravel, or of Ales Hunt, where even though the accounts would suggest we are
reading descriptions of “projected internal Familiars” there is no indication of the naming of such
spirits. For example in the latter case, Febey Hunt, Ales’ eight-year-old step daughter, merely
confessed that
‘she hath seen her mother to have two little thinges like horses, the one white, the other blacke:
and that they stoode in her chamber by her bed side, and saith, that shee hath seene her
mother to feede them with milke out of blacke trening dishe, and this examinat being carried
after this confession by the Constables to her fathers house, shee shewed them the place were
they stood and the borde that covered them: And this examinate chose out the dishe, out of
which they were fedde, from amogst many other dishes. She this examinat did also confesse
that her mother had charged her not to tell anything, what inate saith that her mother did send
them to Hayward of Frowicke, but to what end shee can not tell, & shee being asked howe she
knew the same, saieth, that shee hard ther mother bid them to go.’”
.:: The Animal Familiar Spirit as the Internal/Projected Internal Familiar ::.
As we saw, the witch could have many Familiar Spirits. Among them, we can find:
- The Major Spirits (in an animistic perspective, the Gods in a pagan one; for example the
King and the Queen of Elphame in British Witchcraft, or Diana, Herodias, Hellequin, Dame
Abonde, Perchta, Holda, etc. in other European Countries);
- The Household Spirit or Fairy (for example the Brownie in British Craft);
- The Fairies (Nature Spirits or the Spirits of a Place);
- The Plant Familiar (the most famous is the Mandrake);
- The Ancestors or other spirits of human or animal dead.
Last but not least, we find Animal Familiar(s).
It’s possible that, exactly like the Plant Familiar, many Animal Familiars were External Familiars,
however I’m going to focus here on the Animal Familiar Spirit intended as the
Internal/Projected Internal Familiar.
So when I’ll talk about the Animal Familiar, I’m going to talk about the part of our soul
that lives in the Underworld, and not about the spirits of some animals.

.:: How to discover the Animal Familiar Spirit in Recon TradCraft ::.
In Reconstructionist Traditional Witchcraft, we should reuse the same methods with which our
spiritual ancestors used to gain the Animal Familiar Spirit.
As we saw, the Familiar Spirit was present in both the Pagan-Animistic Witchcraft (“The
followers of Diana, of Perchta and Holda traverse the skies astride unspecified beasts” and the
Queen of Elphame gives Familiar Spirits) and in its demonization, the Satanic Witchcraft in
which the pre-Christian Spirits are replaced by the Devil (the Devil gives the Animal Familiar
Spirit to the witch during their first Sabbath).
So the proper way to reconstruct the discovery of the Animal Familiar Spirit would be:
1.) Perform the Oneiric Sabbath with dream work (see:
https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/170926906491/dreamwork-and-the-oneiric-sabbath
) or by attaining a trance state (with one of these historically attested techniques:
https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/170708590266/historically-attested-trance-
techniques-and#notes and
https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/170710270761/historically-attested-trance-
techniques-in#notes and https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/170785729256/historically-
attested-trance-techniques-in )
2.) When you’ll be in front of the Patron Major Spirit during the Oneiric Sabbath, ask to
receive the Animal Familiar and to blend with them, to merge with them.

.:: The problem with the Recon approach ::.

The problem with this approach is that it’s “too simple to be true”: not always the first animal
that the practitioner see is the part of their soul that lives in the Otherworld.
Many times this animal is just a simple spirit of an animals that was in the surroundings.
Nowadays, many people go in search of their Animal Familiar, believing they have found them
after a single attempt. Most likely, however, that animal is none other than one of the many
animal spirits living in the Otherworld. This type of research will therefore presumably make
them find the first Animal Spirit that pass in the surroundings and that has the good will
to drive this person. Instead, a different research must be carried out to find one’s own Part of
the Soul living in the Underworld that manifests itself in an animal shape.
To obtain it, to discover the real Internal Familiar, the Revivalist methods are more
useful.
The one to which I’ll refer is the one described by Robin Artisson in his article “Finding the
Familiar”. I quote from http://www.angelfire.com/wy/elfhame/familiar.html:
“It is the Great Lord of the Fields and Fens, our God, that gives the knowledge of your Familiar
spirit. There are many ways to have the great God reveal to you your Fetch-beast’s face, but I
shall impart to you one of the best I know. It will be difficult, but so is anything that has value.
Begin by preparing yourself, and by making offering and prayers to The Horned One. You must
ask him for this boon. In circlesteads, or at the base of great oaks, make invocations and leave
offerings. Share the Houzle, and make petition for what it is you desire. Keep this up for many
days.
Then withdraw yourself from the presence of people, and come to some deserted place,
particularly a forest. You must not eat for an entire day and an entire night. Then, go into twilyte
sleep, and do the crossing rite. Hallow a circlestead, invoke the presence of the Horned Master,
and sit within it. Face north-ways, and meditate on your own personal character, and your own
self. Continue this for a long while.
Then, you must enter into a great inner silence, of considerable time…not less that 2 hours. You
must achieve a great feeling of “otherness”. At this time, do not think about the purpose of this
rite…just let your feelings grow.
When you feel that the power is strong, invoke your Familiar thus:
“Fare thee forth, Cunning Puckerel
Come to me now
That there may be strength to our union
That I might increase in your power
By the power of the Old One
This must be! Ka!”
Make an offering of mead or ale at this point, by holding a cup of it up, and reciting a toast to the
Horned Master, and your fetch-beast. Drain half of the cup in one sip, and pour the rest out on
the ground in front of you.
Then, get comfortable, and begin to chant, over and over,
“Robin, Dark Master, send forth my fetch…”
And at this point become receptive, as you chant, and let the vision of the Puckerel rise in your
mind’s eye. Be cautious! The puckerel’s animal form may appear in actuality, or maybe in a
vision. But either way, be receptive with both sets of eyes. Allow the beast’s image to rise into
your awareness. Do not make it, or choose for it to. You must not deceive yourself here. Allow it
to come to you. Be passive.
When you sense it, whether or not you see it, attempt to communicate with it. You should be in
a fine state of Twilyte sleep by this point. You may have the urge to lie down and recede further
from the world. This is fine, as long as you stay aware. You may leave you body and find
yourself somewhere else…this is good, too, because in these kinds of experiences the Fetch is
often found.
Either way, try to communicate with it, and ask it for a name, or for any information that it may
have for you. From this point on, you are bound to it, and its natural species.
When the communion is complete, call it back to your inner self by saying “fetch fly back” or
some other words. It will dwell in your chest, when you need it or when you summon it. The
chest is the place sacred to them.
Say out loud “Consummatum Est!” and leave the site. Within a day, you should have a Houzle
to honor the Puckerel, in which you worship it as your Cunning Ancestor and teacher, and as
your companion, and you invite it to share in your life and power. Make many offerings to it, and
to the Red Horned One, who makes these things possible. If you ever have need of the
Familiar, and you certainly will, summon it with the Hex-Threads. It can aid in any work of
Witchery, and in fact, it will make them twenty times more powerful. Pay attention to it!”

.:: From the Recon and Revivalist approaches to the Recon-derived one ::.
Seen that we cannot change the Reconstructionist approach (otherwise, it wouldn’t be Recon
anymore) but the Revivalist one uses terms like the Houzle/Red Meal (offerings for Fairies,
according to folklore and as explained by Emma Wilby, usually required white bread and not
darker breads, so they were more a “White Meal” than a Red Meal, and there was no common
spread analogy with the blood sacrifice. In fact John Aubrey recorded that the fairies liked a
“messe of milke sopt with white bread”), the Horned God (because history says that the Devil
was a mask for other Deities, both male – such as the King of Fairies in Britain – and female –
such as Mari in Basque Country – depending on the Country, and not the survival of a single
prehistoric male Horned God) and the Twilyte Sleep which are Revivalist ideas, we can edit and
merge both the Recon and the Revivalist approaches in one single approach, a Recon-derived
approach to the discovery of the Animal Internal Familiar Spirit.
This Recon-derived approach will change the fallacious and misleading mistakes of the
Recon methods for the discovery but will not radically change the paradigm as the
Revivalist one does.
So, let’s see it!
.:: A Recon-derived approach to the Discovery of the Animal Familiar Spirit ::.
In order to meet the actual real Animal Familiar Spirit, it will be necessary to ask to your own
Patron Major Spirit, not to another External Familiar, but only to the Major Spirit.
Therefore it’s necessary to have started to do regular offerings for them since some
months (if you don’t know how to perform offerings, see:
https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/170758896566/historically-attested-offerings-for-
the-major and https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/171876985371/how-to-make-
offerings-to-the-major-spirits-ie#notes )
The path to meet your Animal Familiar is very long and in fact takes place in a period of time
ranging from 6 to 9 months. For somebody it may be even 18 months.
There are four things you have to do during this period to get to meet your Animal Familiar:
1.) Make an offering to your Patron Major Spirit at least 2 times a week, asking them to
make you meet your Animal Familiar.

2.) Always have a high level of passion in searching for your Animal Familiar, keeping the
same spasmodic desire to see it, similar to what a lover has towards their object of love.
To do this it may be useful to repeat a prayer to your Patron Major Spirit, even in a non-
ritual context, during the day, asking them to meet your own Familiar soon.
It is also possible to create a special poem for this purpose as a "prayer” and to repeat it, with
the maximum of emotion, once or twice a day.
3.) The most important thing is this: to perform a daily trance of at least 30 minutes with
the intent of meeting your Animal Familiar Spirit.
4.) Transcribe each ritual and every trance experience into your grimoire.
1.) For the first point, the offering is the one described here:
https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/170758896566/historically-attested-offerings-for-
the-major
Or, with simpler language, here:
https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/171876985371/how-to-make-offerings-to-the-major-
spirits-ie
Moreover, you can add a request, by repeating something like:
“Please, [Name of your Patron Major Spirit], make me meet my Animal Familiar! Please, [Name
of your Patron Major Spirit], make me meet my Familiar Spirit!”

2.) An example of the prayer could be:

“[Name of your Patron Major Spirit], Ancient Spirit that watch over me, you, that guide my soul
across impervious ways, assist me in my crooked path in search of my Animal, of my Familiar,
of my Immortal Soul. Call from the Underworld, sing, you that possess the chant that charms
every creature, and find, bring to me the part of my Essence that dwells in the Other Plane.
Tell them, you who can cross the Worlds, you who own the keys of the Kingdoms, that
somebody here is looking for them, that I, here, desire them! Oh, [Name], perfect among the
Great Spirits, bring to me my Familiar, half of what I am, without which I do not exist, without
which I, pale, drag myself, extinguished I survive in a life that is not fair to call such. Oh [Name],
whose eternal name echoes in eternity, bring to me here my half, my Familiar Spirit, and let me
meet them, however they is: it won’t matter if they has feathers, hairs or legs, feelers, fingers or
hooves, what they looks like I do not know but, in any case, let them be led to me, deflect me far
from illusions and bring me to them, to them alone! Please, [Name], you that are so charitable
with those who adore you, do not make me fall into deception and help me to distinguish, so
that I can embrace not an unknown spirit but the true Me that resides in the Other World.“

3.) The trance techniques will be the ones which are historically attested, such as:
- Hydromancy;
- Repetition of preyers or charms;
- Music (usually a drum);
- Dance;
- Monotonous Focus,
which are described here (part 1):
https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/170708590266/historically-attested-trance-
techniques-and#notes
and here (part 2):
https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/170710270761/historically-attested-trance-
techniques-in#notes
and here (part 3):
https://elegantshapeshifter.tumblr.com/post/172068470656/elegantshapeshifter-historically-
attested#notes
How to do the trance sessions:
Everyday, all the days, without any exception, you’ll perform the following 30 or 45-minute
trance exercise (starting from 25 minutes the first week, 30 the second one, 35 the third one and
so on up to 45).
That’s how:
1) Set the alarm and sit comfortably.
2) Calm down by taking a few deep breaths and relaxing your muscles.
3) Say aloud "I want to meet you, Animal Familiar”.
4) Concentrate on the focus of the technique you’ll choose (the water for hydromancy, the
words for the repetition, the sound for the music, the dance steps for the dance, and the
sight for the monotonous focus).
5) Stop thinking about the Familiar Spirit and to anything else except for the focus.
6) For the sight techniques, it’s not necessary to maintain the gaze too hard. Watch with a
relaxed attention.
7) If you feel like you are slipping into a more relaxed state, you feel tingling or you seem to
enter a state similar to sleep or dream without fatigue nor will to sleep, let it happen.
8) If you notice that you have moved away by immersing yourself in your thoughts, simply bring
your attention back to your focus.
9) At the end of the session, simply open your eyes and immediately transcribe everything on
the grimoire.
CAUTION:
- You must avoid forcing visions or imagining anything. You simply have to let arrive the images
that must arrive. If no image arrives, it’s all right. Even if there are more sessions that no image
arrives, it’s okay too (often, indeed, it is the anxiety that “oh Gods, the vision has to come, why
doesn’t it come?” that distracts, interrupts the relaxation and prevents the vision itself from
coming). Images must arise spontaneously in your awareness. Don’t create them by yourself,
don’t choose them. Don’t fall in self-delusion. Allow the vision to come by itself, don’t create it.
Remain passive.
- You must avoid being distracted. Never be distracted. Never. No reason allowed. The idea of
the century? It can wait. “Ah, if I did this then I would better find the Animal ”. No, you’d be
distracting anyway, exactly like you’re distracting yourself now. No reason is valid enough to
allow distraction. If you realize that you’ve been taken by the flow of thoughts, immediately turn
to your focus and try to reduce the number of distractions the next time, until arriving at the
complete absence of distractions as soon as possible. No, having distracted before, even
several times, is not a valid reason to allow other distractions during the session. If you have
banged your head twice is it a good reason to slam it the third time?
- Ignore the visions during the session. Every time you’ll see (even outside the trance sphere)
an animal, you must ignore it or observe it with detachment. Absolutely avoid paying attention to
it or to any other image during the session, but focus instead exclusively - I emphasize
*exclusively* - on your focus. All the rest of the world should not interest you. Any vision should
not interest you. Only the focus should. Nothing else. Nient’altro. Rien d'autre. Nada más.
- Only at the end of the session you’ll analyze what you saw, heard, perceived (if there will be
something seen, perceived or heard) during the session, distinguishing between your own
mental fantasies, imagination or illusions and the actual visions you received. Since it’s difficult
for the novices to understand, it is better to take everything that comes “with a grain of salt”,
since at the end there are 6, 9 or even 18 months to understand it. Usually, however, the true
visions are sudden, are more vivid than the other images, have brighter colors and are often
accompanied by emotions that are also sudden themselves. In any case, the true visions will
not necessarily be of your own Animal Familiar, indeed, initially almost never. Often they’ll be
only visions of spirits of some animals who have responded to the call from the Other World. If
among these Spirits there is also the half of your own soul which lives in the Other World, it will
be discovered only at the end of the path, with the union ritual.
- Probably your favorite animal, or the one you’ll have thought about most during the day, will
appear in your visions. It is very difficult (or rather, almost impossible) for this to be your own
Familiar. First of all, when you’ll start the trance sessions, in fact, you’ll have to stop thinking
about the Animal Familiar, you have to stop wondering who they is, stop fantasizing about or
hoping that they be who you want them to be. Often, we don’t think this at the beginning,
indeed, we are ready to say “no, I’m not going to self-delusion”, but then we fall months later,
maybe when the desire and curiosity are stronger. But even then, the Familiar will not be the
animal you want it to be. Even then to fall into this mistake will be wrong!
- Skepticism. It’s essential. You must always be skeptical and critical of what you experience,
otherwise you’ll end up with self-deception. It’s therefore advisable to analyze and know
yourself, your own experiences and conditionings in order not to be misled by them. For
example, if you’ve never told anyone, but your experience drives you to feel an immeasurable
love towards an animal, it doesn’t matter if you told it or not: it’s not that since nobody knows
then the logic is different from wishing your favorite animal to be the shape of your Familiar. The
discourse about knowing yourself arises precisely to understand if the animal that you saw is
easily connected to your experience or if only with difficulty you would connect it. In the first
case, it is better to “take with a grain of salt”.
- When you perform a trance session you don’t have to start with a willingness to confirm (or to
disavow if you don’t like, are not convinced, etc.) a previous vision. Instead, you must remain a
simple impartial witness to what is presented to your awareness. Only your own objectivity with
yourself and your own perseverance over time will lead you to truly meet your own Half in the
Other World and not simply to ally with one of the many Animal Spirits that inhabit the Kingdom
of Spirits, or even worse to get lost in your own imagination.
- Often you’ll notice that, in your daily life, animals will come closer to you, this is because the
search for your Animal Familiar harmonizes you with the animal kingdom (in fact the faces of
the animals you’ll see in trance sessions are partly unconscious illusions, but many are simply
animal spirits that have responded to the call, even if they are not the Half of your Soul in animal
form that lives in the Other World and that you seek).
However, even if animals come closer, this doesn’t mean anything: the animals that are
approaching you are absolutely *not* your Familiar. You don’t have to mistake them for it for
any reason. Whenever an animal comes closer to you, you must ignore the idea that this is
somehow related to your Familiar. This is not the Familiar. It doesn’t mean anything. Absolutely
nothing.
- Once you have transcribed the visions and every other detail on the grimoire, you must forget
them. Forget. Scordare. Oublier. Dimenticare. Olvidar. Puff! Otherwise there is the risk that
they’ll influence the subsequent sessions and that you receive the impressions of your own
mind and not those from the Other World.
- Sleep enough in order to avoid falling asleep during trance sessions.
4.) Let’s go to the step #4: the grimoire.
If you haven’t used it before, you’ll need to get one to transcribe the visions. Once noted, as I
wrote a little while ago, you have to forget them, in order to avoid creating expectations about
which animal is your Familiar basing on the visions of the previous sessions.
In this way each session will start from a tabula rasa, without the weight of previous experiences
that almost always will be misleading. It is advisable to avoid writing things like “ah I like cats,
probably my Familiar is a cat” or “I am like a bear, then my Familiar is a bear”. As written above,
it doesn’t work this way and such information is not only not relevant, but rather misleading.
What to write then? Everything else, but really everything. You must always be careful to
transcribe everything: every vision, every sensation or emotion, every perceived voice and
every intuition following each session of trance. If “strange facts” happen, note those too.
Furthermore, every intuition and sensation should be reported following the recitation of the
prayer and every signal, perception and every relevant thing at the end of the offering ritual in
which you ask your Patron Major Spirit to help you to meet your Animal Familiar. To avoid
forgetting important things when you’ll want writing details, use abbreviations and short
sentences. There is no need to write things in a way that makes sense to someone else, the
important thing is that it’s the practitioner who knows how to “decipher” what they has written.
It’s a good idea to first transcribe the main things in order not to forget them, and then to insert
as much details as possible, up to cover - as far as possible and as far as you can remember -
every single detail. For each transcription you will specify the date, the day of the week and if
possible the time and the moon phase.
- Rite of Union with your Animal Familiar Spirit
After at least 6 months of practice, it’s possible to start thinking about ritual to blend yourself, to
merge yourself, with your Animal Familiar Spirit.
How can you understand if you’re ready? After 6 months passed (that for others will be 9 or
even more), the following conditions must be met:
- it will be at least 3 months in which, although you have questioned every time - a very
important thing! - the same animal reappears (always and only *that* animal, not two or three
animals that are repeated, but always and only the same).
- this pattern will have been noticed and not controlled. That is to say, that every time you
noticed it, you noticed it only because it always reappeared in the grimoire, but you’ve never
based on this pattern trying to confirm it during the following sessions. On the contrary, after
every transcription all the visions of the previous session should have been forgotten and you
would start the next session of trance without any expectation on which animal would arrive.
At this point it’s possible to establish a day in which to perform the Union Ritual. During the Rite
of Union it’s important not to make any expectation on which animal will appear and to question
even the animal that until then has monopolized your visions. This is because even if it is
resisted more than the others, not always this animal will be the Familiar: often this last creature
represents only the signal that the last time, that of the Union, will appear the real Animal.
During this last ritual, the trance will be no more of 45 minutes but of a minimum of two hours.
Therefore, it is advisable to prepare yourself psychologically and find above all an outdoor place
(since it will be done outside the home, while all the previous exercises up to that time can be
performed even within the home) where there will be no one to disturb. If you choose a forest,
it’s advisable to avoid going with shorts or to sit down leaving skin flaps uncovered and it’s
advisable to always spray an anti-tick spray (which is usually also an anti-mosquito).
Instructions for the Ritual
1. Find an outdoor but undisturbed place to perform the ritual.
2. Arrangement: Place everything on a tablecloth on the ground.
3. Make the offerings (usually milk and bread or cakes that you’ll lay on the ground) and call
your Patron Major Spirit.
4. Ask your Patron Major Spirit to help you during your travel:
“Please [Name], assist me and guide me on the journey I am going to perform, accompany me,
oh [Name], to meet my Animal Familiar!”.
5. Trance:
Now concentrate: think that you will meet your Animal Familiar waiting for you from the Other
Side, in the Spirit World. Realize that them is already waiting for you. Be aware, before starting,
that you will have to go down. Go down where? In the Other World of course, or, as some call it,
in the Underworld. That’s where your Animal Familiar is. They is there waiting for you.
Now that you feel prepared, close the eyes with the idea to go down in the Underworld.
Seen that outside the hydromancy is very complicated, you should use a technique such as the
drumming, the monotonous focus or the repetition for this trance exercise.
Concentrate on your focus and try to feel like you are letting go, as if you’re falling behind,
without anybody that holds you, slipping and falling, falling, falling … At this point, do not think
about the purpose of the ritual, simply let the feeling of going down grows. When you feel that
this perception is strong, start singing (even in a low voice, if you prefer, but always in an
intense way), over and over again, this request (you can change it, but it must be a very short
and concise sentence):
“[Name of the Patron Major Spirit], show me my Familiar Spirit… [Name of the Patron Major
Spirit], show me my Animal Familiar…”
You’ll absolutely mantain the focus, the concentration.
Ignore anything else, any distraction, never de-concentrate. It’s two hours - at least - but you will
not have to concentrate on the outside world for any reason. If it happens - trouble for you! -
return immediately to your focus, to the repetition and the feeling of falling down.
At this point, continuing to focus, continuing the recitation of the song and following the feeling
of descent, let what must happen to happen, let the images arrive by themselves, without
creating anything. Allow the image of the Animal to born. Do not force the vision, wait for it, do
not self-deceive: be passive. Do not choose the shape of the Familiar, let it come to you. Let the
image of the Animal arise in your awareness, do not create it yourself, do not choose it yourself.
Wait until the image arrives, do not make any effort to form it. Let it be what it is, let it move as it
wants. This is a very difficult step, if not the most difficult of all: waiting for two hours you could -
exhausted - take a picture molded by your imagination, or create one unconsciously, to finish
before. For heaven’s sake, do not do it! Otherwise the whole ritual will be vain!
If the image goes away immediately and does not return, or if it is blurred, if you feel difficult to
see it, you have probably created it by yourself! If the vision breaks down, it’s probably just an
illusion. If you ask if it is your Animal Familiar and you don’t receive any answer, or if the image
replies that it’s not, remain focused, that the next vision will come soon. So, wait: you have two
hours, and if that’s not enough you can take even more time. Cheating here is not necessary,
you would only cheat yourself. You must not delude yourself, allow the vision to come to you.
Be passive.
When the image will be formed and you’ll feel that it’s real or you’ll perceive the presence of the
Spirit, try to communicate to it. Ask the Spirit mentally if they is your Animal Familiar. If you have
a feeling of any kind that they is not your Familiar, wait for another vision and repeat the request
until an affirmative answer.
When the image will tell you it’s your Familiar, try to communicate with them, and ask them for a
name or any information they may have for you. Above all, ask them for the gift they has for
you. They can give you wisdom or talk to you about your Power. In any case, bring everything
with you and write everything on the grimoire when you’ll return to This World, taking stock of
everything you have learned. Sometimes they will only mention it, and in such a case in later
sessions of trance (post-union trance sessions, then without the whole ritual, only trance
sessions) you could ask for more information about it.
6. The Union:
Ask them aloud to enter your chest. Ask them to stay with you forever. Tell them that you want
to take them forever with you. Imagine that they enter inside yourself, in your chest. Listen, feel
the Union you have formed. Now you are one and the same thing.
7. Banquet in honor to the Animal Familiar:
Now open your eyes, backing in This World and drink and eat in honor to the Animal, for you
and them, and to toast and cheer for your Union!
Say clear sentences like: “Animal Familiar, now we are united! You are always with me and I am
always with you! I eat and toast to our union, I eat and toast to you and me! Now we are one
thing and the same!”
8. Thank the Patron Major Spirit:
Now thank your Patron Major Spirit for having assisted you with their intervention, for the
months of work in which They helped you; express love for them, thank them for having
participated in the ritual and greet them. Now you can go.
If they have *not* shown to you your Animal Familiar, tell them that you’ll come back to ask,
then thank them, and finish the ritual.
If they *have* shown to you your Animal Familiar, thank them, finish the ritual, and the next day
perform another offering ritual, saying: “I give you this offering to thank you, [Name of your
Patron Major Spirit], for having allowed me to meet and to merge with my Animal Familiar
Spirit”.
Always the next day, you will make another offering to honor your Animal Familiar too, in which
you will venerate them as your wise guide and teacher, as your companion, and in which you
will invite them to take part in your life and in your life.
- The work following the Union:
From now on, you’ll do a trance session (without asking the intermediation of your Patron Major
Spirit; so you won’t ask them to help you to meet your Animal Familiar, instead you’ll say: “I
want to meet you, Animal Familiar”) to meet your Animal Familiar at least once a week. You will
also do a daily (or at least weekly) offering to them for the rest of your life.
The work with the Animal Familiar Spirit therefore does not finish with the discovery, but you
must maintain the bond with them for life. In exchange for the bond, the Familiar can guide you
to the Other World, help you in magical rituals if called and much more.