Mandragora: Familiar Demonic Figures

According to myths, Mandragoras are familiar demons who are often in the figure of little men without beards. They are not Imps nor Golems but of a separate supernatural class of their own. Mandragoras are also said to be small poppets or dolls given by the devil to sorcerers for spell casting and divination.

Abilities:

• Mandragoras play the role of oracles to sorcerers, often giving help to them or assistance to problems which they cannot handle alone.
• According to a lore, Mandragoras can predict the future. They do this by the nodding of their heads when a “What will happen?” question is thrown at them.
• They can hold conversations with their owners. This also means that the Mandragoras are capable of speech.
• They can as well grant good health.
• Mandragoras can cure diseases of all sorts.
• They protect the homes of their owners from all forms of evil.

This ideology draws close similarities to two forms of fetish practices done by medicine-men. The first being a form of dwelling place created by either a shaman or medicine-man for the reception of wandering spirits who may decide to reside therein. The second is the common graven or carved images made by a medicine-man in most African dark arts or Juju (So to say).

The graven images are implored by the residing medicine-man to answer his call, solve a problem or even to tell of future events. The answer is somewhat of a silent-telepathic means of communication to the medicine-man alone allowing him to relate the response to the troubled soul who requires the assistance. When a sorcerer gains a Mandragora, the familiar demon grants him several blessings.

Mandragora as Familiar Spirits

Familiar spirits are said to be beings or entities of the supernatural who assist sorcerers and witches in their practice of magic. These beings have the ability to appear in a wide variety of forms and guises ranging from animals to humanoids to poppets.

When working with witches or when in malevolent and evil forms, Familiars are described as demons but when in more benevolent forms, Familiars are described as Fairies. Taking this idea into consideration and with strong regards to the mandragora, one can identify that they can become good or evil depending on what supernatural character they serve.

Familiars can appear to their owners at any time of the day, in their home or outdoors. An example of this form of meeting can be gotten from Joan Prentice from Essex, England who gave an account when she was interrogated for witchcraft in 1589 claiming that she was “alone in her chamber, and sitting upon a low stool preparing herself to bed ward” when her familiar first appeared to her, while the Cornish sorcery practicing woman, Anne Jeffries related in 1645 that hers first appeared to her when she was “knitting in an arbour in our garden”.

These familiars may also be given to an individual as a gift from generation to generation. A very good example of this manner is the alleged witch Margaret Ley from Liverpool who claimed that in 1667, she was given her familiar spirit by her mother after she died. Leicestershire cunning-woman Joan Willimot related, in 1618, that a mysterious figure whom she only referred to as her “master”, “willed her to open her mouth and he would blow into her a fairy which should do her good. And that she opened her mouth, and after blowing, there came out of her mouth a spirit which stood upon the ground in the shape and form of a woman.”

References:

• The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology.
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familiarspirit
• https://wikivividly.com/wiki/Mandragora_(demon)