Familiars in the Work Place: Part 1

The Modern Naked Professional Woman who has a career, a commute, a family and a home to hold together does not do it without some kind of divine or demonical “intervention”.

As people so often like to say to us – “How do we do it all?”

Witchcraft and liberal amounts of liquor (and by doing none of it well).

We don’t get to be where we are without some cunning and magical tendencies - thus opening the door to all naked professionals as qualifying for a “familiar”.

 For those of you who may not remember this term, a familiar is most simply defined as:

"A demon supposedly attending a witch, often said to assume the form of an animal.”

In the days of widespread persecution of witches, every witch was believed to have a familiar – if you know yourself to be a witch then you likely have a familiar - whether you know it or not.

Though often in animal form, familiars also come in human form.

• Do you have a special animal in your life that might be your familiar?
• Do you have a person in your life who might be your familiar?

At the end of an intense business trip in Toronto last week, I bade good-bye to my young associate (who was returning to Ottawa a few days before me) and said without thinking, “It feels funny you leaving and me staying behind, we are so ‘familiar’ that time spent apart seems odd”. Shortly after his departure, while enjoying a breakfast of tea, banana and peanut butter in the hotel dining lounge I was struck by an blinding flash of the obvious… it is not just that we are ‘familiar’, rather that this colleague ‘is my familiar’ – in the traditional sense of the word.

A more useful definition:

“In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, "familiars" were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic.[1] According to the records of the time, they would appear in numerous guises, often as an animal, but also at times as a human or humanoid figure, and were described as "clearly defined, three-dimensional… forms, vivid with colour and animated with movement and sound" by those alleging to have come into contact with them.

When they served witches, they were often thought to be malevolent, while when working for cunning-folk they were often thought of as benevolent (although there was some ambiguity in both cases). The former were often categorised as demons, while the latter were more commonly thought of and described as fairies. The main purpose of familiars is to serve the witch or young witch, providing protection for him/her as they come into their new powers.[3]”

As mentioned in previous blogs, at 46, I feel I am only now coming into my powers (certainly at 46 things are changing….).

As I gave it more thought I realized that my colleague, of whom I have been powerfully fond since hiring, is indeed my “familiar” as is illustrated by the following incontrovertible evidence:

·         He “appears in human form – three-dimensional, vivid in colour and animated with both movement and sound”.

·         He does my bidding.

·         He spends inordinate amounts of time with me (40 hours per week).

·         He protects me from potential harm (largely of my own doing, but also from outside sources in general).

·         He perpetuates my evil/magic/cunning, by means of the written word and via oral means, with clients and my staff when I am not physically present.

·         In his guise as a young and highly academic sycophant, he is able to spy or wreak havoc for his witch (me) without being easily detected.

·         People think of us as a “pair”.

Taking this blinding flash of the obvious further required considering the “demon” that my familiar would be representing…

My personal relationships with demons being non-existent and my knowledge of demonology being scant, I was impelled to spend a good 15 minutes reading glossaries of demons on the Inter-Weeb in order to identify three potential demon sources (with whom I have an affinity) who may have delivered my familiar to me:

·         Cresil – The demon of slovenliness and impurity.

·         Jahi – Persian female demon. She specializes in debauchery.

·         Kobal – Patron of comedians and the Entertainment Director of Hell.

At this time, the jury remains out on which is the source of my familiar.

When I have more concrete evidence I will of course share with my delightful readers.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of the blog post in which I will help my readers in identifying their own familiars - for good or for evil.