familiars and summoning.

[Arcane Artifice]

I've been curious for a while now as to how a familiar is acquired, though i can't say if I have a familiar, I know that I have a guardian spirit. Does this make it a familiar? From what I can tell in the previous familiars thread, a familiar can be something living, does this mean something created, summoned, or spiritual cannot be a familiar?

As for the summoning process, I've always called forth my guardian spirit through his name, obviously this can't be applied to anything living or with physical structure, especially at distances, but is it possible to give a physical familiar an ethereal body to summon?

[Countess]

Traditionally a familiar is a living being that assists you in magic. In the old days it was believed the familiar of a witch was a demon/spirit in corporeal (physical) form. Today it is usually a pet that assists in raising energy for spell work. For me I have a few familiars 2 snakes & 1 cat. They aren't my only pets but they are the ones that always showed an intrest in when I was doing magic so I started including them.

As for summoning, it depends on what you are summoning. A guardian spirit is with you at all times so simply saying the name will work just fine. When it comes to other spirits or beings, although I don't suggest summoning them, there are a number of diffrent ways this can be accomplished, it really depends on who/what you are trying to summon.

[Arcane Artifice]

By my Summonings, I mean friendly creatures who I have come to know and befriend. All Spiritual entities ,and some created creatures. Would I need to have some form of medium or a way to house a part of their energy to summon them. Mainly because a lot of the creatures I have come to know have long and complicated names, some that are hard to pronounce, and I was wondering if I could merely store part of the essence in a medium to have it ready for quick summonings. Adding on to this is an activation key required or just willpower and focus?

[Countess]

By medium do you mean in a physical vessel or a human with mediumistic abilities? In either case I would say no. Storing another being's energy isn't fair to that entity. Remember, even the ones you have created are not there to be at your beck & call they are there to assist you when they are able. If their name is too long/difficult to pronounce then maybe they aren't the right entity for you. Can I ask why you have all these entities? What are you summoning them for?

[Arcane Artifice]

Well It's more of they came with the territory of my powers, or the ones I used to have, as for their names it was all due to their own customs and beliefs. Now I don't "have" these entities, but I commune with them on occasion, or at the very least I used to, however recently a majority of what I was able to do has been revoked. I haven't done anything wrong, but my origin source had things to do and required the powers, I was loaned ,back. Long story short most of the entities and creatures I have come to know have been called to a greater task and because I respect this I have began the process of moving onwards to a new "Character" if you will.
As for the summoning reason, it deals with defensive callings as well as a combat style. While I would never put a non created entity into harms way, a repairable spirit golem seems appropriate for when I, or an ally, needs something to defend themselves with or to carry out a a specific function.

I have no reason to do anything malevolent with these spirit golems, so please don't get the wrong idea. By medium I meant either a physical vessel or use myself to house them. If you'd like I can explain the whole situation later or in a message but for the sake of this topic ill try to keep things as minimal as possible.

[Countess]

Okay this clarifies the picture a good deal. They sound like they may be Totems. Totems are creatures (animals/creatures) which carry special meaning or messeges for the person they appear to. Some stay with you your whole life & some appear when needed. If this is the case just focusing on the image of the entity may be sufficient to summon its energy & image although most likely not a physical manifestation.

[Arcane Artifice]

Okay thank you very much, this helps a lot. Now I suppose I can go on more about possibly being able to add onto these totems or if its dangerous to have too many at a time. Considering you seem to be the most helpful if you wouldn't mind answering a few more questions it'd be much appreciated.

The first being: Is it too dangerous to have too many Totems? I always assumed that most of the time a Golem or Totem could be self sufficient as long as it had magic or something to sustain it. I can understand keeping track of any specific Totems, but say a mass produced messenger or drone was created would that have any serious strain.

The Second: Considering a created Totem is much different from an already existing entity, does that put the Totem at a disadvantage. I say this because in the event something malevolent comes I wouldn't want to be recklessly throwing something in harms way only to have it be destroyed.

The Third: When is this considered going to far? I hope I haven't already done so, but I view this as more of a fascination as well as an art form. I currently only have a Spiritual Guardian and say three totems, along with a few more in the design process.

[Countess]

Having too many created ones would be considered unsafe since they are essentially a part of you & could be to draining to maintain them all. Along the same vein putting a created one in the way of something malevolent could have a negative impact on you.

[Arcane Artifice]

I see your point there, would the negative impact from placing one in harms way come from the personal connection I'd share with the Totem? If so then is there any safe way to use a totem for defense aside from creating it as something extremely durable?

[Countess]

Totems aren't meant for defense. It's not like a Patronus in Harry Potter. The totem is a messenger &  companion. The best defense methods depend on the entity you are facing & your personal belief system in some cases.

[Levinthross]

okayyyy huh??? i thought totems were sort of guardians which where looked to for inspiration guidance and protoection sort of like a metaphysical role model. They arent something you should be able to necissarily altar with magic but moving forward attaching spirits to a object makes the object a fetish of sorts and if the fetish itself contains the spirit then its energy supply should be contained and seperate from yours making it so that the spirit would if kept in a static or at rest no energy would be needed or expended however leaving part of a spirits essence and not the whole spirit itself merely makes the fetish a object used to ease summoning. If you want a entity of protection i would recommend creating a egregore of sorts and attaching it to a object so that it either stays with you or has a small portion of its spirit wso that it can be called in times of need, or like many priests do creating a figure of there gods they evoke a small portion of there power which stays in such a image and thus becomes a sort of spirit representitive of that god this can be done to protect a place and ive often seen it done with merely keeping a scarecrow out and about a goddess figurine or even a doll. as to the nature of a familiar most magicians and magic practitionerrs have assisting spirits which they have  good regard with but a fmailiar is usually seen more as a servant or extreme confedant also for less spiritual practitioners there familiars serve as there spiritual representitive and counterpart which makes the relation between a witch and there fmaliar very intimate and not taken litely.

[Levinthross]

In conjunction does anyone know how one would go to summoning the spirit of a dead animal familiar with only osme hair a few pictures and a collar/scarf

[Levinthross]

hmmm im not sure but thats how ive been treating it as such with special reservation to hecate a triplicity transportaion death goddess one of her symbols is the dog but i dont  have a standby summon the spirit of a dead person spell nor do the few ive found online or in new age books seem to work or have adaptable parts.

[josiah]

Could a filmiler be a shadow animal? Cause I always feel like one is around me. I saw one which look like a cat which I feel like it with me no matter where I go. and it is it possible to make a item that serve as vessel?

[Countess]

It is possible for familiars to present themselves in shadow form. As for "vessels" I suppose it depends on what you mean by vessel. If you mean creating an inanimate object which the spirit could enter/inhabit, I've never heard of anything like it. Representations of the animal are very common to honor the animal & to keep it in your thoughts.

As for summoning an animal spirit I would have to agree that it is probably similar to summoning a human spirit. There are a number of good books on the subject of animal/pet spirits available right now. I'll see if I can get a list together & post later.