Using Witch Trial Records as a Resource for Contemporary Spirit Work
Authorβs Note: The materials shared on this blog are based on the authorβs own research and interpretation. They are intended as resources for students of Hagstone Witchery and for practitioners exploring traditional, folkloric, and folk magic. All posts are offered in the spirit of shared knowledge and inspiration, not as prescriptions or declarations of the βrightβ way to practice.
Witch trial records are some of the most challenging historical sources available to contemporary witches and spirit workers. While the accused were not practicing witches and their confessions were extracted under duress, these documents nevertheless preserve fragments of popular belief about premodern and early modern witchcraft. They can be especially useful to those witches interested in historical spirit-work and spirit lore.
It is important to recognize that these testimonies are not literal accounts of lived magical practice. The confessions were extracted under torture, coercion, and immense social pressure. The pictures they paint of wild romps with spirits, witch flight that was visible to all present, and sexual service to demonic forces are not accurate tableaus. They reflect cultural scripts more than individual truth. However, those cultural scripts matter. They reveal what people believed about spirits, magic, and the supernatural. They show us how communities imagined the powers witches wielded and the entities they were thought to consort with.
Patterns of Spirit Lore in Trial Testimonies
Across European witch trial records, recurring themes appear in the descriptions of spirits. We can begin to develop and understanding of the different classes and types of spirit the witch was purported to be in league with. These include:
Familiar Spirits β animal or human-like beings who taught, aided, or accompanied the accused.
Initiatory Spirits β figures who appeared suddenly, offering pacts, knowledge, or demanding loyalty.
Guardian Spirits β protectors who warned of danger, defended against other spirits, or offered guidance.
These spirits often appeared in liminal spaces (dreams, forests, crossroads) and identified themselves with names like Pyewacket or Vinegar Tom. (This creates a contrast between the spirits associated with historical folk magic and sorcery as opposed to the celestial and infernal spirit figures that are called on in ceremonial forms of magic.) These spirits often made themselves apparent in the witchβs own environs. They did not need to be summoned with a circle or invited in, because they were already present in the villages, woods and homes of the community.
Applying This Lore to Contemporary Spirit Work
Trial records can provide a framework for understanding categories of spirits still encountered in magical practice today and how we might interact with them as practitioners of folk and traditional magic. These spirits may appears under different names or be referred to with various terminology (for example, familiar, imp, sprite, demon, devil, etc.,), but they can generally be organized into a few archetypal categories.
The Familiar Spirit: Ally and Assistant
Within the lore preserved in witch trial records, familiar spirits often appear as close companions to the βwitch.β They are described as helpers in spellwork, providers of knowledge, occasional spies, and intermediaries between the witch and greater powers. In contemporary practice, the familiar can be understood as a helping presence. A familiar is a spirit who provides guidance, delivers messages, aids in the carrying out of magical workings, or offers practical tools for magical work. Rather than being commanded, such spirits are often approached as companions.
The Initiator Spirit: Tester and Mentor
Trial lore also preserves stories of Initiator or tutelary spirits who typically appear suddenly, offering knowledge and power to those individuals seeking it or in need of it. These figures may offer knowledge at a price, propose pacts, or come at moments of personal or spiritual crisis and transition. In the practice of modern traditional and folkloric magic, such βinitiatory spiritsβ are sometimes called on to act as a witchβs benefactor and magical mentor. They are recognized as facilitators of the witchβs βdebutβ into spirit society as well as teachers to help guide the practitioner along their path. They can bring challenges, trials, and transformative experiences that mark turning points in oneβs craft and development; fostering growth, reshaping identity, and opening the way into deeper work.
The Guardian Spirit: Protector and Vard
Guardian spirits appear in stories as protectors. (The folk practice I was trained in refers to such spirits as a vard.) These are spirits who ward against hostile forces, warn of danger, or otherwise shield the witch from harm. In practice, we can think of our household spirits and warding spirits as our guardian spirits. Many witches also employ types of created spirits and servitors as guardians.**
Weaving Past and Present
In Hagstone Witchery, working with trial documents isnβt about be about reenacting confessions or claiming the accused as magical ancestors. Instead, it is about studying the strands of folklore embedded within the testimonies and using them (alongside our own spiritual autonomy and magical authority) to help shape contemporary practice.
Approached this way, witch trial records become part of a larger dialogue with the past. They remind us that spirit work has always been a part of magic, and help us to navigate relationship, reciprocity, and the negotiation of power with unseen beings.
**The use of created entities, thought-forms and servitors in witchcraft falls outside of the scope of my own background in folk magic and practical traditional witchcraft. I have included this information here for the sake of presenting a complete picture of the applications of this spirit lore to contemporary practice. If you are interested in learning about and creating servitors, you can find a YouTube video about it here.
