I did a bit of work with king Piamon tonight. Something was calling me to my new outdoor ritual space since this morning, so I brought supplies with me and right after work off I went. Among other things he said he was leaving one of his familiars with me To work on steps to enable empowerment. I’m not sure yet about the longer term picture but for now this spirit is to serve as my own demon familair. Now of course I’m very honoured and grateful to be given one but admittedly I’m not entirely sure what to do with him. How should I work with him?
Do you have a name and a sigil? Those, and a physical base for him are things I would sort first. If a physical base isn’t possible, then a direction in which you summon him might be useful. The familiar should be able to help with these.
I do have a name for him already, but no sigil yet. I need to either ask for or make one for him I suppose.
Congrats Blazewind!
And Lady Eva, as a physical base did you mean like a statue or vessel in which to contain the familiar until needed?
I like to give them those, and it doesn;t have to be elaborate - maybe their seal drawn on a large pretty pebble, or piece of slate or marble, then varnished, I usually choose by intuition. One has a lantern he lives in with the drawn seal behind it.
Interesting, I have never used a vessel for containment. I just let mine roam free and call them when I need them and sometimes, if I am in need, they will come to my aid without me having to ask. But I always viewed familiars as more like friends that have free will and not something that needs to be contained or reminded that its my familiar by binding it to my home or my jewelry. Never has been a problem for me, they stick close by my side at all times.
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It’s not containment! 
It’s their home, their place of reference so to speak on this plane - it’s also something to do with ideas about using a physical base in evocation, to grant that being a first-stage physical presence in (and therefore effect upon) this world.
Honestly I just kind of picked this up as a kid and then transported it through to my current practices, so I’m NOT saying “this is right or the only way” but it’s something I like to give my guys, be they familiars granted by a spirit or just spirits in general. Plays havoc with my decor sometimes though! lol!!
Play it by intuition, that’s what I did.
I wasn’t suggesting your methods were wrong Lady Eva, just that I had never done that personally which is why I asked you to clarify if that’s what you meant by using a base.
I had honestly only heard of containing spirits if using a lesser spirit for magickal needs, possibly a spirit that tends to flee when it thinks you are done with it (stubborn spirits) or one that needs to be kept close by until a particular working is done.
I didn’t take it that way - just kinda clarifying that just because I do something and it works, it’s not the only way - if that makes sense!
In the core shamanic modern method, giving a spirit a “home” in a pebble, or even plant or other vessel, is also an established thing, and various kinds of vessels and dwellings for spirits date back into, ooh, long ago.
I had honestly only heard of containing spirits if using a lesser spirit for magickal needs, possibly a spirit that tends to flee when it thinks you are done with it (stubborn spirits) or one that needs to be kept close by until a particular working is done.
There’s some theory across various threads in here, one of them E.A.'s which I linked to in a recent Monday Post and others spread round the archives, that giving a spirit a physical manifestation base that’s in transformation, such as burning incense during an evocation, provides an alchemical boost to the evo.
This could be because, as the substance changes from physical into non-physical (from solid matter to heat, light, even the less concrete scents and sacrificial energies) it allows the spirits to reverse that, and makes their non-physical intention become solid and materialised. This is pretty basic stuff but please bear with me!
I came from the background of drawing or sculpting the spirits I saw, and also some of the gods I found in history books, so I was also acquianted with the use of static images.
Recently I’ve been researching the correlation between known phenomena in physics, and their parallels in magick, beginning with the use of crystals, like quartz, in magick - it’s common to “program” quartz and I’ve done it myself, with some success.
Quartz isn’t itself a conductor of electricity, unlike silver and copper, but it has a piezoelectric quality:
“Quartz crystals have piezoelectric properties, meaning that they are capable of changing a mechanical force into electricity, or an electric current into a mechanical force. A slice, or wafer, of quartz crystal will generate an electric current when it is subjected to pressure. Conversely, a wafer connected in an alternating electric circuit will expand and contract, or oscillate, at a fixed frequency. This frequency depends on the thickness of the wafer. Thin wafers oscillate at higher frequencies than thick ones.”
So, quartz is a two-way gateway between different kinds of power.
It’s my working theory (these are always up for revision and evolution) that this quality is what makes quartz, especially, such a rad tool to program - in the “as above, so below” thing it’s already by its very nature designed as an interface between two states, and - shit I’m meandering a bit off-topic - anyway my theory is that giving spirits a physical vessel they don’t just “own” (like an offering) but actually permeate, permits them to permeate the physical realm more effectively.
/rambly, mildly off-topic post - soz! :o)
I tried to work with him a bit last night, after calling him by the name I was given for him. The familiar spirit’s energy was completely obvious within seconds of calling, but I have no experience at all with energies anything like this. I would tend to describe it as purely chaotic. The only mental image I got were of weaponry and constantly flashing and sparking lights, in dark colors, along with a sense of a constant drive to destroy, to incite conflict, to disrupt anything otherwise orderly. The first thought that comes to mind, (though I have only come across small bits of information of such a thing and have no personal experience) is that I was sent a spirit of chaos. The idea of a small and too energetic child also came to mind, in that there’s that obvious need to give him something to do or he’ll just run around aimlessly until something gets broken, someone bothered, or worse. Though I once had my own self doubt about doing so, I started right out working with high ranking spirits, and gained a bit of confidence with it. I’m almost convinced that this “lesser” spirit, is going to be the hardest one to work with so far.
I do like the idea of creating a physical base. I agree with Lady Eva, that it’s not actually constant of an entity. More like offering it use of a guesthouse. As long as a spirit is free to come and go from their “home” as they wish, in the same way we not lock a guest inside when they visit, it makes sense to have a way to ground themselves to this plane enough to act upon it.