Familiar

Familiar (Lat., 'servant'), a supernatural being in attendance upon a magician, wizard, or other professor of the black art. The belief in spirits as especial patrons or guardians of individuals is very ancient, and is still widely spread among more than savage races. The guardian angel is indeed an integral part of his faith to many a Christian, as much as the torngak to the Eskimo, or the genius natalis to the ancient Roman. The genial and sportive guardian spirit of the household is also a venerable belief, and we find in Leviticus (xix. 31) a warning against familiar demons who give occult knowledge. During the middle ages the belief in 'enchanted rings' containing familiar spirits was widely diffused throughout Europe, the magicians of Salamanca and Toledo being especially famous for their skill in thus subjugating and imprisoning demons. The notion of familiar spirits is one perfectly natural to the Persians and Hindus, and Aladdin's 'slave of the lamp' is an example in point. A favourite form assumed by the familiar spirit in western Europe was that of a black dog. Such was the case with the famous Cornelius Agrippa, who was always accompanied by a devil in the shape of a black dog. When he saw that his death was at hand, according to Paulus Jovius, he took from the dog's neck a collar inscribed with magic symbols, and let him go with the words: Abi, perdita Bestia quæ me totum perdidisti. Butler, in his Hudibras, gives the dog the respectable office of tutor to the sage, and Wierus, the pupil of Agrippa, assures us that the animal was no cacodæmon but a natural pet. At least there is no doubt about the black dog in Goethe's Faust and his association with Mephistopheles, and there is good tradition that Simon Magus also had a familiar in the same form. See DEMONOLOGY and WITCHCRAFT.