Tools of Magick: The Athame, Part 2

Athames and Faery Work:

Okay, I know there are some of you out there asking about using a steel blade and yet working with the Fey. There is much lore that states that the Fey have an aversion to steel and iron. (See The Faery Faith in Celtic Counties)  On this, I have a couple of thoughts.  First and foremost, I believe that the Fey need for us humans, the iron bloods, to be the most human that we can possibly be.  This means accepting the iron within us and the iron in the tools that we use.  This allows us to be our full potential, to be the most powerful allies to the Fey that we can possibly be, to work together to protect the old ways and the wild places.  I learned this from my own work with the Fey and my allies but I later heard Victor Anderson give much the same message. 

With that said, I do also have a blade that is not iron that I use for casting circles where I will be calling on and/or working with the Fey.  While I accept the iron within me and the tools of our people and time, I also learn from generations of wisdom passed down through the ages that suggest not using iron-based tools when working with the Fey.  This blade was made of horn in Scotland by a Druid friend of a friend, specifically for the purpose of being an athame and working with the Fey. It has an intense point on it.  I know others who have held athames that were made of fossils, crystals, flint, and volcanic glass specifically for working with the Fey.  If you choose to have a faery blade, whatever material of which it is made, I strongly recommend that it still have a point, an edge, and be sharp. 

Science Geek Alert:

‘If both the athame and the wand are used to work with energy, how are the different?  Why would you use one over the other?’ I remember the first time that I was asked this question in a class.  I struggled to answer the question in a way that truly satisfied me.  While it was intellectually accurate, my answer didn’t result in an energetic lightbulb of understanding going off over anyone’s head.  So, being the scientist that I am, I sat with my tools, experimented, observed, analyzed, reflected, and drew some conclusions (i.e. rejected my null hypothesis). 

I’ll talk about wands in my next post but here is my take on how an athame is used to work with energy: In fluid dynamics (fluid moving through a cylinder or pipe) when a fluid moves through a pipe it maintains a consistent velocity if the diameter of the pipe remain the same.  However, if the diameter of the pipe tapers down to a smaller diameter, known as a “reducer”, the fluid velocity increases.  Essentially, a “reducer” looks a lot like a funnel. 

And so in magic, when working with energy, my experience is that the athame acts much like a reducer or a funnel: it takes the energy flowing to it, focuses it into a narrower stream, and accelerates it. It also concentrates this energy into a highly focused beam that is intense and powerful. As we stand drawing the energy (mana, life force) into us from the fire in the earth, the stars above, and the air all around us, and we send that energy to our athame, it does it’s magic of focusing, directing, and adding power to our magical actions. My experience is that this energy is also further transformed by the athame, exciting the atoms flowing through it such that the beam of energy emits light.  Usually this light is visible only to our mind’s eye, but there are times where it may be visible to the optic nerves in our ocular eyes.  And because we are witches, we can change the color, heat, velocity, and other attributes of this beam of energy at will. 

Disclaimer: Damn it Jim, I’m a molecular biologist, not a chemical engineer or physicist.  I took a minor in biochemistry instead of a double major just so that I could avoid a year of studying fluid dynamics, physical chemistry, and having Bernoulli’s Law seared onto my brain. (Note to self: Bernoulli’s Law might make a cool tattoo though, maybe on the forearm.)  And if fluid dynamics are your special obsession, please feel free to drop me a line and add your scientific insight to this metaphor. 

Magical Home Adventures (this is what Raven Moonshadow used to call “homework”):

Turn the lights down low, maybe light some candles and incense.  Create sacred space and stand in the circle with your athame.  Wrap your hands around the handle and hold it so close to your face that the exhale of your breath makes sound as it wraps around the edge of your blade.  Continue to breathe and let your breath pull up energy from the fire in the earth, the stars above, and the air all around you and send it through your exhalation to your athame.  Let this energy feed and charge your athame.  Let your eyes soften and continue to breathe into your athame, filling it with mana.  Continue to do this until it is full and the flow of energy begins to slowly overflow out through the point of the athame.  Notice how this trickle of energy appears in your softened eyes and in your third eye.   What color is it?  Continue to breathe into it and with your breath, change the color of this trickle.  Let it become fire engine red, maroon, violet, blue, white, green;  let it move through colors of your choosing at your will.  With your breath, let the trickle speed up slightly, and then let it slow down.  Let your mind be one with your athame, an extension of you, adjusting the flow of energy through your athame at will.  And when you are done, let your mind and your athame come to rest, letting the flow stop.  Ground your athame by touching the point to the ground. 

At this point, I like to thank and bless my athame with a kiss, letting it know that it is sacred, treasured, and holds a special place in the heart. For tools are like lovers, the more you caress, kiss, and spend time with them, the better you know each other, the more you flow synergistically, symbiotically together, forgetting where one ends and the other begins. 

Tools of Magick: The Athame, Part 1

illustration of athames from The Key of Solomon

Introduction:

First let me start off by saying a few things about myself: I am a not a ceremonial magician and am not in a British Traditionalist line, nor have I had training in these traditions.  I have the utmost respect for these and other traditions, but I am ultimately a Reclaiming and Feri witch and priest.  It is from this experience and perspective that I write.  

In my traditions, there are no rules or prohibitions per se about the tools of magick and their use, though there are opinions and advice.  As a result of this and my life growing up on a farm, I am very much a cottage witch (sometimes called a “kitchen witch”),  growing and making as much as I can to weave into my practice.  As part of these two streams of influence, my training by my teachers, allies, and ancestors has been that tools should be used often and should be able to be used for multiple purposes.  It was instilled in me that a tool that has a single purpose is decadent and having many tools with single purposes is frankly something that many of us may not be able to afford.  And while there is a place for occasional decadence and indulgences, in a time of rampant consumerism, materialism, and disposable society, I return to my cottage influence when thinking about how I work with my tools. 

For some, my writings may go against your training and/or your practice.  If this is the case, I invite you to consider how our practices are different and similar and how they serve you.  My intention is not to persuade you to a different way of working but rather in hopes that in thinking about how our practices are different that some new piece of wisdom is revealed to you about your own practice.  I find myself in complete awe when morsels like these reveal themselves to me, such wonderful gifts.   To quote one of my early teachers, “take what is useful and leave the rest behind.”

Lore and Use:

A witch’s athame is both a practical and magical tool.  It is traditionally used to cast the circle.  The athame can be used to focus and direct energy.  This is done by pulling the energy up from the fire in the earth and down from the fire in the stars into you and then send it out in a very focused, steady stream of energy.  This can be used in circle casting, protection and banishing work, as well as in overcoming energetic obstacles (such as in the classic Feri Barrier Trance typically used in the Reclaiming Elements of Magic class on Water day/night).  Athames may also be used in magical workings that require the ability to cut, to sever, such as cutting energetic threads that connect us to other beings or bind us to patterns that no longer serve us.  They may also be used to carve sigils, runes, or symbols into magical objects such as wands, talismans, candles, or pieces of spellwork.

I believe that the athame should be a knife that is able to cut and it should have a point on it!  There are times when stand-ins are required, where a knife is not practical (like getting through TSA screenings in the airport).  In these cases, a crystal, a pen, a letter opener can be a suitable stand-in.  But in these cases, I also recommend having an actual knife as an athame for personal work at home.  And in these cases, you can magically tie together both your knife and your stand-in athame so that you can access the power and energy from your knife through your stand-in athame. 

In some lore, the athame is described as a black-handled, double-edged blade with the metal of the blade running all the way through the handle. It may be magnetized if it is made of carbon steel.  And there might be sigils, runes, and other symbols carved on the handle and/or the blade.  Ideally, it would be housed in a leather scabbard.  And in this lore, the witch may also have had a boline, or white handled knife for more practical workings (such as harvesting herbs or cutting apples).  This handle might be made of bone or ivory even and the blade might be shorter, or even sickle shaped.  Additionally, swords are sometimes used as an athame.

But while double-edged swords and daggers can be quite powerful, they may not be practical as magical tools for the modern witch, especially for those of us who gather and practice outdoors and in public places.  In many localities, possession of such an instrument in public is actually illegal.  I also have concerns that the fancier the tool, the further away it is from the owner of the athame from being able to make or take care of their tool.  I’m not saying that there is not a time and place for such an instrument, but this tends to relegate such athames to sitting on an altar gathering dust.  Highly stylized athames, bolines, and swords are beautiful and romantically nostalgic for me, but historically most witches during the burning times and up until the last century used a knife that would not stand out, such as a kitchen knife or an everyday work knife for magical workings.  As a result, the cottage witch in me prefers to work this way as well. 

As stated in the previous post, The Tools of Magic: Introduction, I recommend that a witch use their athame for any sacred act. I see every use of the athame as an opportunity for binding the athame to the hand that wields it and deepening that connection, to work as one.  This might include harvesting herbs in the garden or wild-crafting them in the park or forest.  It might also take the form of working a tree branch into a wand, whittling away the rough spots, and/or stripping off the bark.  In our tradition, it might also take the form of cutting cakes, bread, cheese, and/or apples during the post-ritual feast (aka “cakes and wine”).  For many years, I used my athame to carve basic symbols for specific purposes or general blessings into every candle I burned.  (Preparing this article has helped me to resurrect this practice.) 

And in each use, I honor the tool before use by connecting with it energetically (through my mind’s eye and a kiss) and breathing into it.  I follow this at the end of a working with grounding the athame by touching it’s tip to the earth to release any excess energy.  This latter part makes sure that there is not stored up energy that might discharge unintentionally, much the way an electrician makes sure that a circuit is disconnected and grounded prior to working on it. 

Maintenance:

Blade maintenance, such as sharpening and oiling, is another way to infuse your athame with your intensions and your energy and deepen the connection.

Sharpening your metal blade will ensure that you are able to focus energy through it into a very fine point.  If a blade’s edge is dull or dinged up, then the flow of energy through it will not be straight and some of the energy will be dissipated.  There are many videos on YouTube for how to sharpen a blade and many of them seem to disagree.  For our purposes, this video is simple and I found it helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Vn8RA_7zE  All you need is your athame and a sharpening stone, which you can find at a hardware store (they range from US$ 5 to US$ 25).

knife sharpening stone, double-sided

While some videos say to use water for a wet-stone, others suggest oil, and still others insist that it be used dry.  My grandfather always used a little bit of spit.  In my experience, this provides a good amount of lubrication, is more viscous than water, and adds your essence to your blade.  I think magically, it also familiarizes and aligns the spirit of your blade to you, that your athame will better work your intent and be less likely to injure you. 

If you don’t ever use your metal blade to physically cut anything, you may not need to sharpen it.  However, it may still get dinged along the edge. In this case, you can use a knife steel to smooth out the blade. This is also good to do periodically with your blade even if you periodically sharpen it on a stone.  Here is an informative video on how to use a knife steel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEO7DlZAjtA

knife sharpening steel

In addition to knife sharpening, it is also helpful to lightly oil your athame.  The nice thing about oiling or anointing your athame is that you can do it no matter of what material your athame is made.  However, if you are using a carbon-steel blade, it is essential to oil it periodically as it will keep your blade from rusting. I highly recommend using a high quality butcher block oil that is food safe and not petrochemical based.  I actually take some of this oil, put it into a bottle, add some magical oils to it, and use it for anointing and feeding my athame.

To oil or anoint the blade, I pour a small amount of the oil on a cloth and then gently rub both the handle and the blade with the cloth.  After the entire athame has a nice sheen on it, I take a second piece of cloth and lightly wipe off any excess oil.  For safety purposes, it is best to always position the point of the athame and the edge of the blade away from you and start your motions at the blunt end of the handle and work away from yourself to the very tip of the blade.

Through all of this work, it is important to stay mindful of the connection between you and your blade.  This is both important from a safety as well as magical context. I recommend singing, chanting, or humming to your blade as you work.  My grandfather always seemed to hum or whistle when doing this work.  This helps to stay focused as well as feeding and charging your athame.

And as we sharpen, smooth, and anoint our athame, so too may our minds, intellects, and knowledge be sharpened! 

Blessed be!

The Athame, Part 2 will provide a couple of exercises on using your athame.

The Tools of Magick

The Tools of Magick

In memory of Raven Moonshadow, teacher, priest, and witch!

Introduction

Tools of Magick was both the name of a magical shop in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district run by Uma as well as a Reclaiming class taught by Raven Moonshadow.  I learned much from each of them, in completely different ways.  But the name, Tools of Magick, has much power and mystery in it; it excited me as a fledgling witch much like a little kid opening a present that becomes their favorite toy.  And still today it conjures power, magical images, symbols, and practices for me. 

In some ways, I think that Reclaiming has lost some of our connection with the witch’s sacred tools.  Sure we use our athames to cast our circles and we teach and run the iron and pearl pentacles.  But it seems that for many Reclaiming witches our tools are an afterthought, things on a list that we should check off at some point.  Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly many Reclaiming witches who are very serious about their tools!  But I get a sense from many Reclaiming practitioners of, ‘I have one but what do I do with it?’ 

Someone at California Witchcamp this year said to me, ‘but I have all of my tools within my body.’ Yes, we absolutely do!  I am a strong believer of this concept, so much so that I use the tools within me all the time.  And I believe that our external tools act as magical extensions, condensers, and amplifiers of our own power.   As a result, I thought it would be good to meditate and work on trying to answer the question of ‘how do I use my tools?’

First and foremost, I believe that a witch’s tools should be handy and able to be used often.  I also believe in putting ‘the craft back into the Craft,’ to borrow a phrase.  For me, this means either making my tools or being able to care for them.  I’m not a blacksmith or a glassblower, but I have spent many hours on a potters wheel as well as hand-building with clay.  I’m also the son of a carpenter and the grandson of farmers, so I grew up learning to work with wood and watching my grandfather sharpen the garden hoe on the grinder in his workshop.   And while I learned a great deal from my father and grandparents growing up, I’ve also learned a great deal from watching YouTube videos!  And so, I will attempt to provide ideas on how to care for and, in some cases, options for making your own tools. 

I also believe that tools should be used often (preferably daily) and not be props that sit on our altars, getting used only at the high holidays.  I say this mindful that I have definitely been guilty of this!  I believe that using my athame to cut apples and cheese at a picnic or plants in the garden teaches my hand, mind, and spirit how to use it.  I believe that using my cup or chalice daily to drink water, tea and/or wine infuses this tool with my energy, my intentions, and my power.  I believe that our tools of magick should be practical and able to be used for multiple purposes.  And so I will attempt to weave in ideas for daily use. 

The standard or common witches tools of magick are the athame, wand, cup, and pentacle.  In Reclaiming, we add the cauldron and we traditionally work with them with the following associations:

Tool	Element	Challenge
Athame and/or sword	Air	to know
Wand and/or staff	Fire	to will
Cup	Water	to dare
Pentacle	Earth	to keep silent
Cauldron	Center/Spirit	to be

I also believe that every witch also needs at least one necklace, ring, and bracelet.  Hey, I’m a gay man and I know the importance of accessories!  These objects hold power and are things that we can wear in public that still allow us to connect with our practice and with our own power.  Cords, rocks/crystals, and brooms are also important tools.  Other traditions have other tools important to their rites and lore. For this series, I will the five common tools of magick listed in the table above.

Lastly, I believe that our tools need ‘charging.’  A wise witch (who’s identity I am unfortunately blanking on) once told me that charging our tools is feeding them.  What resonates for me in this concept of feeding them is that it is something we need to do often. There are many ways to do this, to feed or charge our tools.   One way is to do a consecration of the tool, a ritual bonding of the tool to you and your work.  It usually consists of a cleansing, anointing, and dedicating the tool for magical purposes. This is followed by raising energy and grounding it into the tool. These activities can be done individually or together and can be repeated at any time.  Charging can also be accomplished through chanting or breathing into your tool or simply through touch and use.

In the next several weeks, I will be posting an article on each of the tools.  I will attempt to cover how the tool is traditionally used, how to care and maintain the tool (and in some cases options for making them), and ways to use them.  At the end of the series, I will post an article on charging, feeding, and consecrating our tools. 

Re-Awakening

I am re-awakening,
I am re-opening this door,
I am spreading my wings and taking flight,
May spirit flow through me.

18 months ago, I started this blog as a creative venue, a way to use writing as a tool to coalesce my thoughts, my ideas, my way of working as a priest and witch in the Reclaiming Tradition.

After writing 8 posts in 2 months, I published only 2 and then stopped, letting this venue, this tool, myself go to sleep.  I used my busy life as an excuse to mask my fears about showing my work.  While I have had these same fears every time I have shown my photography, publishing my writing online for anyone to see is even more frightening.  easier to go to sleep...

But now, I am re-awakening myself, this venue, this tool, this outlet.  I am re-opening this door.  My intention is to post one article each week.  This will include the 6 posts that I wrote before and never published as well as other topics including a series on the Tools of Magick.

And so, I invite you to not only read my thoughts and ideas, but to send me feedback and even ideas for future postings.  I also invite you to give me a poke if I haven't posted for awhile.  ;-)

Thank you for reading.

With love and blessings,
Gwydion

I Was a Teenage Witch

During a recent conversation about art with a muggle artist, it came up that I was a witch and that this has inspired my photography.  He asked how long had I been a witch?  A fair question but one that required some mental calculations on my part.  I was surprised to realize that I have been a witch 29 years.  And because I am in my mid-40s, I felt like I had to clarify: I had been introduced to the Craft in high school at the age of 16.  I had been a teenage witch.

As a kid, I loved stories about witches and magic, but I always felt that there was some element of truth in these stories.  I was a geeky, introverted kid who was an avid reader and frequently spent hours in the library.  It was there that I read books about modern witches and of the burning times.  I was so interested in the subject, that as a high school freshman when it came time to write a term paper on a historical subject, I wrote it on the burning times.  I accessed the required 5-10 reference books from the local library and cited my research with the required footnotes.  (I got an A.)

A year or two later, a high school friend of mine cattily commented that a new acquaintance of ours was a witch.  I knew instantly that it was true and began pestering her with questions whenever we had a moment to ourselves, usually during lunch period.  I had met my first witch and my lust for knowledge and hearing of her experiences was insatiable.  I knew after our first lengthy conversation on the subject, where she explained to me about the gods and the cycle of the seasons, that I too was a witch!

For simplicity's sake, let's call this new friend, Persephone.  Persephone had a boyfriend who lived in Berkeley.  The mother of her boyfriend was a witch and developed a friendship with Persephone, eventually agreeing to take her on as a student in the Craft.  Though the romance with the boyfriend was measured in months, Persephone's friendship with the boy's mother lasted years.  Persephone was invited into this woman's home, her coven, and eventually, sometime after graduating from high school, was initiated into her Feri lineage.

My friendship with Persephone blossomed; we had many similar interests including music and poetry, but most notably witchcraft.  She took me to my first metaphysical book store (Shambala in Berkeley), took me to buy my first quartz crystal, and taught me how to work with it and other stones.  She taught me an in-drinking spell that I later learned was part of the Feri Kala ritual.  She took me to my first ritual, a Beltane ritual with the woman's Feri coven.  She even told me secrets I wasn't supposed to know, denying later that she had shared such information with me.

Persephone and I eventually went our separate ways but my connection to the Earth, the cycle of the seasons, and the Craft that she had introduced me to remained and continued to deepen.  I continued to study and practice as a solitary witch.  My love of science led me to my college freshman Principles of Biology class and through this course of study, I had a religious experience studying for a biology midterm on a grassy hillside. Learning about the commonalities and interconnectedness of life through cell biology, ecology, and evolution brought me closer to the gods.  It taught me the divine nature of the microbes, lichens, fungii, nudibranchs, garden snails, and sea anemones and gave me context for the cycles of life.  It was magical.  I was enthralled and for me, science, spirit, the gods, and magic all intertwined as one.

As a teenager I wasn't sure about many things.  Between my love of science, my love of photography or my enjoyment of writing and working on student publications, I couldn't determine which one(s) to pursue.  I didn't know what college I wanted to go to, what I wanted to major in, or what I eventually wanted to do for employment.  I was confused about my sexuality, enjoying my sexual relationships with women, as well as the time I spent with my male friends but wanting more from that, while not being really attracted to the straight men or gay men that I knew.  Yet in this time of so much unknowing, I strongly knew that my politics were on the left and that I was a witch.

Welcoming the New Year of 2012

Several days ago during the week between Christmas and New Years, I was driving home after the gym.  I was listening to NPR's All Things Considered and heard this great story by Margot Adler, the NPR contributor and author of Drawing Down the Moon.  She detailed an event that occurs in New York City in Times Square every year a few days before New Years Eve.  People come from all over and write down things that they want to leave behind in the old year, things that they don't want to take into the new year.  People were writing down the names of ex-lovers, events, qualities of the present and/or past, that they wanted to let go of and be free of.  And then all of these things that people want to let go of are shredded, destroyed.  Margot Adler ended the story commenting that these types of rituals occur in most cultures all over the world in many different forms.

I loved this image and the simplicity of this act, this ritual.  I also thought about while this occurs in Times Square in NYC, it doesn't happen as a standard event in our culture.  I arrived home excited by the story and immediately began telling my other half about it.  We decided that we would do something similar for ourselves on New Years Eve.

And so, after an early movie and a delicious meal that we made together, we gathered in the living room with a pad of paper, a pen, a candle, and the cauldron.  We burned some sage to clear our minds and the space and began writing down the things that we wanted to let go of, things that we didn't want to bring into the new year.  We tore off these things in strips of paper, lit them on fire with the candle and placed the burning paper into the cauldron.  Most things we spoke aloud or let the other read; a few we kept to our selves and silently lit them. And then when we were done, we lit some more sage and tossed the smoking mass into the cauldron, letting the smoke swirl and rise and free us from these things on this last day of the year.

This has been a year of multiple deaths for me, that of my mother as well as two co-workers who committed suicide.  I realized that I really needed to let go of my anger towards Joe for taking his own life as it has been preventing me from truly mourning him and being able to access the fond memories that I have of him.  I also realized that my feelings that I should have done more for my mother, that I didn't do enough (regardless of signs of the contrary and reassurances by my loving partner), were keeping me from missing her.  And so I let these things go with the old year, that I may more fully embrace the loss that I feel in my life from their passings.

I also remembered the old saying that 'nature abhors a vacuum.'  So now, we have a new sheet of paper, one where we collect all of the things that we want to bring into our lives in this new year.  It sits on our altar with a pen as a work in progress.

Happy New Year!