While magic or witchcraft does not necessitate the worship of deities, it does place importance on the reverence of familiar and ancestral spirits for gaining help, insight and illumination. Before the gods and goddess' were conceived, deceased ancestors were invoke, evoked and petitioned for help in knowledge of the unseen, insight into the future and powers for manifestation and healing.
Spirit ancestry is not limited to just genetics and birth lineage, it can include those that were adopted by blood, bone, salt or marriage covenant oaths. Also in more modern beliefs it is extended to include those of whom have walked the same spiritual path (adoption by baptism). For a more in depth study into the primitive ancient blood rituals as a physical representation of bonding and mingling the essence of life force, I would recommend Henry Clay Trumbull's classic, "The Blood Covenant."
The witch's familiar or attending spirit, though more modern teachings say this applies to pets or animals, historically that has not been the case, as the teaching is that the attending spirit is humanoid and has been thought to be the counter opposite gender of the witch. Animals were used as helpers and took on the spirits of imps, while the familiar or spirit lover/spouse took on a humanoid spirit image that transcends humankind and gender. It is the symbolic marriage of the witch's (or human) spirit and his or her higher spirit counter part, a form of Hieros gamos, spiritual marriage of two being or becoming one. The attending spirits have often been depicted as having human and animal qualities and features combined to denote that they are beyond human, containing all genders and all kinds (human, animal and plant life force essence) within themselves. The witch and attending spirit are one and the same, the most intimate of all relations that no two physically manifested beings can ever achieve together. The relation transcends sexual union and even that of a child in a mother's womb. It is the mercurial existences, the alchemical union, the balance of male and female, female and male.
imps
Attending Spirit
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