Athames and Tools: Your Stories.

[Jolantru]

Recent discussions prompted me to ponder on athames and ritual tools.

Not all of us have the luxury to get "true-blue" ritual tools like a real athame or a chalice. I think it's safe to assume that a lot of us have to depend on our ingenuity/imagination/creativity to come up with our own ritual tools. Of course, all of us have our own set of personal correspondences to work with, so our ritual tools (or our own interpretations of them) are varied.

So, if you have any stories or tales to share about how you came across your athame or ritual tool, do share. It will be a good thread for both newbie and veteran practitioners. :)

Cheers,
Jolantru

[fangedeshana]

For some reason, although I am entranced at the beauty of some of the metalworked athames and dagger on the market... I'm really in love with the idea of crystal athame's... I hope to get a crystal quartz one with a black leather wraped handle, sealed with a wax pentacle.

But honestly, even if I do get one... I'd probably end up using my finger like I do now. The only tools I use are candles and salt/herbs, and occasionally other bits of bobs when I really feel the need... which isn't often.

It's all me doing the work anyway, tools to me are just pretty alternatives that may, or may not serve as a focus for whatever work I am doing. I've taken down my permanent altar as I don't even feel the need to use one as a focus point anymore and feel moresatified with my efforts using purely myself, my will and visualization.

[Xirian]

I purchased an athame, I couldn't help myself. I use it during my rituals regularly, however I made my wand.

The athame I bought, had something on it that I didn't notice when I first ordered it, yes, I ordered it online. Anyway, when it arrived I was so elated because it had a symbol on it that I have been drawing on my notebooks since I was little. I had forgotten about the symbol, but when the athame came, I knew I had made the right choice. I am very pleased with it and use it regularly.

[Malcolm]

I found the one I have now in my great-uncles house. He passed away and we were cleaning out his house. I'm not sure where he got it, he was in the navy for along time so its hard tellin. He had all kinds of wierd stuff in there but I needed one so I asked If I could keep it. I've had it ever since. I don't use it but I have it.

I like the ones that are made from antler or bone. Sometimes I leave my things outside over night and I've had the blade of an athame get rusty from rain. Bone or antler just seems more practicle.

[Sage Rainsong]

I used to use a steak knife and a wine glass.

[Merrilyn]

My fiance reforged my athame from an old railroad spike, and gave it a stem & leaf-shaped handle, with a matching wooden sheath, made from bloodwood. It's absolutely beautiful, and extremely personalized..bringing a lot of love into the work that I do with it.
My chalice is an old knobby green glass goblet I found at a thrift store. It was the only one of its kind there, and so far I've never come across a match.
My ritual dishes and bowls are all of either a red metallic or red glass material that I picked up on sale after the Christmas season. I've found that it's a great time to find candles, decorations, and miscellaneous shiny baubles for your altar. ( I like shiny stuff)
:hahugh:

[Shasta]

for a long time i just used a pocket knife i had, then i was at disneyland one day and they had this scottish sword shop(very random, it's gone now unfortunately) where i just HAAAAAAAD to buy this small sword that is held by a dragon that hangs on the wall. it fits perfectly where i do my rituals, and it's the perfect size, i'd say between an athame and a sword. really cool. i think it was meant for me because that place didn't last long at all(maybe a month or two?) and i rarely go to disneyland, what an unlikely place to get ritual tools...hahahha

i just use a big wine glass my friend gave me for my birthday as a chalice, and it doubles as a bell! since for now i don't have one, i use my little athame letter opener to make it chime..

[PoisonIvy]

I bought my athame at at Ren festival for $8. It's not fancy at all but it does the job. I buy most of my oils there also.
It really doesn't much matter to me where or how I get my tools. If something calls to me I get it and make it my own after I get it home.

[Philosophia]

My athame is a letter opener in the shape of a pirates sword. Its small but workable.
My chalice is a cheap wine glass with a dragon twirling around it.
My cauldron is a large "pot" from my grandmother that she used all the time.
My wand is a piece of willow I found while walking near the edge of a river.
My oils and candles I buy cheaply, and my stones either come from online or given to me.

[CelticMoon11]

My athame is a cheap $20AUS china thing but is a lot sturdier than I would have expected

[Redshire]

my first athame I had seen online and linked, then found in a pawn shop for $8. Turns out that I didnt like it much at all, but I still used it for a year or so...

the athame I have now was a gift to me by a now ex-boyfriend. He was a fugitive, and we had gone from Oregon to Arizona, but he f***ed us over in AZ, so we headed to Maine... living out of my car, working day-labor places... but yes, I love this athame, it's handle is an Egyptian woman and a winged scarab. It means a lot to me. Many signifigant things happened to me in that period of 4 months. This athame represents all of that, and my ability to rise above it all.

(I'm still amazed the ex got it for me, seeing as he snapped my Yinepu statue in half... >:|)

I was given another athame recently from my coveners, and that is now our coven sword.

I made my wand from a piece of driftwood I found along the bank of the river that runs by our house... some hemp to attach the quartz tip, some beads, some moss. I dont use it often, but I like it.

I found my cauldron in a thrift shop shortly after I moved to Portland.

My chalice I've had since the begining, and found it in a dollar store. But it holds a lot, so no complaints. ;)

[Cerulean_damselfly]

I have a small athame that is used at home and just what I wanted personally-horn handle, stone-chipped blade. It was a fortunate find online, as it was small and light.

I went to a bead store to make a travel one--which are two rather narrow and smooth 'long' agate beads...one is oval, and attached by woven threads to a long leaf-shaped one. They are attached by a stiff cord, so that I can hold them and when my index finger is pointed upward, there's something in the palm of my hand and the leaf-shaped bead is extends upward.
It was made with the earth-tone colors of my father's family sepia to remind me of their gardens and grandfather's influences...and it symbolizes my intention of finding out more of my paternal grandfather's family for my father and relatives. That one is rather useful as a reminder when I'm in contact with childhood community folk and other people who speak Japanese...

And I might use one of the stainless steel ones ordered from China in a general Western circle.

None of them are big or nice enough to be mistaken for swords--the stainless steel one really looks like a fancy letter-opener with a pretty handle. I'm making holders and decorating handles with black cord and small charm attachments.

For some 'ritual' uses, parents and friends have given me discards that I cleaned out and reused...or I happily found some art pottery places where one can paint a design and choose a glaze. The odd Xmas star ornament/candles at craft supplies or windchime/patio decoration has also made 'alter decor' a fun treat.

Thanks for the shared story thread!

Cerulean_Damselfly

[MoonDragn]

Sorry, I grew up in the 80s. I am a yuppie, I brought all of my ritual tools. My Athame is one of those knives from india they sell at a pagan store. I also have a Crystal ball and an Onyx ball. I got these cheap clear plastic candle holders and my tarot cards are in a nice cedar box I brought also from the pagan store. I got a ceramic dragon also on my altar that I brough from there as well.

The only hand made item is the cord for my robe, which I weaved in a crochet style from left over cord used for trims.

[omar]

Does anyone else use the white handled "Bolline " knife to cut the ritual food? My Athame was a black handled knife but I got a new obsidian blade mounted on a buffalo rib made by the Apache Indians. $50.00.

[Imbrium]

I don't pesonally use an athame, or bolline, because I like to work with my hands. However, I have a chalice that kind of just came to me. One of my mother's clients had to get into a assisted living residence, and she asked my mother to take home a few knickknacks. My mother did, just to please her, but one of those knick-knacks was a handblown red and white glass chalice. (red bowl, white stem, red base, transparent :)) Very lovely. Came to me just as I was looking for something appropriate.

[Qeniheru]

I have an athame I ordered online when I got some of my other ritual stuff, like mini candles in bulk. :) I use my wand more though, it is a white birch branch I found near my university after a thunderstorm. The handle is wrapped in white yarn and has a quartz shard stuck to the tip. I love it! :D It is weird though, I felt like taking the bark off of it to make it smoother, but I didn't want to remove it all--I left random splotches of the second layer of bark all over it. I think it looks best that way, actually. :lol:
I picked up random other things along the way, like my chalice (clearance @ Spencer's, its one of the dragon chalices they sell). Personally I think places like flea markets and any kind of clearance sale are the best places to find tools. And of course, Nature as well. :)

[MankyCat]

I have so many tools from so many places (finds in the oddest of places), I wouldn't even know where to begin to list them... but...

I have several wands. Mostly gifts, but one in particular jumps to mind.

While working at a magic shop at a renaissance festival two years back (magician type magic, though we started caitering to pagans too with a few specialty items), I was going through our wands. These were some that were made with pagans mostly in mind and were one of a kind. I was wondering at some of the designs (the wand maker wasn't really pagan, had some odd designs, but some really nice ones too). One odd wand was what I started calling the Harry Potter wand. Not like in the books, but the symbols were amusing. I didn't understand what inspired him to make a wand like this... let me explain.

At the tip of the handle, there's a carved white owl. I believe there's also a twisting stripe that looks like a candy cane, in red and gold on the handle. Then on the rest up to the point there's an etched lightning bold. The tip of the wand has a quartz crystal. I'm sure there's more on there, but I can't remember the rest. I looked at it, scratching my head and thinking, no one is going to buy this. It's not harry potter enough for the fans, and too harry potter for most of the pagans that come in. As time went on, I got more of that impression that it wouldn't sell, but I started thinking, "Hmm... that's cute... not me, but cute."

One day, when one of the other workers at the booth dropped several of the specialty wands. All of the other wands were fine, crystals intact, except the H.Potter wand. I salvaged the crystal bits that broke off (only a small bit of it remained on the wand tip itself). I informed my boss (who was really cool, and didn't let this stuff bother him) what happened. I explained why this one was broken. I knew he'd be cool about it... the other worker was with me when I explained, so it wasn't tattling.

My boss smiled at me and said, "Well, you wanna keep it?" I thought it funny that it worked out that way. I got another free wand from them (they made me some just because I was a good worker and had been there for many years), and that one never sold. For some reason, I felt it very fitting that it when home with me... and I've grown to like the playfulness of it. Fits in with my goofy statues and such perfectly. :hehehehe:

[mooneyes]

My athame was a kitchen knife w/a brown wood handle. Sometimes I think I will purchase something fancy, but now can't bare to part w/it because it has been thru so many rituals. My chalice, is a soup crock w/a handle. I actually bought a beautiful pewter chalice, but again, cannot bare to part w/the crock. My wand is an oak branch that I found in the woods. I had written in another thread about wands, that I keep thinking I will add ribbons or crystals or carve runes into my wand, but have never done so. My altar pentacle is actually paper. My bolline is actually my fanciest tool. I purchased it from BudK catalogue. It has a white, ivory handle w/wolf carvings in it, the tip and the hilt are metal, w/decorations and a wolf's head and the actual blade has wolf figure etchings, it's really beautiful - and this poor knife does all the hard work.

[Avalonia]

What I use for an athame (considering I rarely use much in terms of tools beyond candles) is a largish crow feather. I found it when I was walking home from class a few months ago. Obviously, it didn't cost me anything, but it does the job (plus I like waving it around. XD). I don't have a wand, a cauldron, a boline, or a chalice.

[GemmaPhoenix]

I'm a very arts and crafts type of person, and it shows in my tools. After 9 years of being a pagan I finally made a wand and athame that I really like. The wand is a simple piece of pine from a very large tree on my parents' property. It has a quartz crystal in one end. I have a large (18") altar pentacle that I made by covering a lazy-susan with clay, letting it dry, carving out the pentagram and other symbols with a Dremel tool, and then painting it.

My athame took many hours of work. I took the blade of a throwing knife and gave it an ebony handle. The handle is wrapped with black leather cord and inset with over 40 cut gems and cabochons - including a ruby, emerald, and sapphire. It sounds extravangant but the gems are small and flawed. The whole project cost less than $100 and took three weeks to complete. It was well worth the effort!

My other tools are store-bought. My chalice was purchased in Salem, Massachussetts. My cauldron was an antique store purchase, and a real find at that. (It's a traditional pot-bellied cauldron, complete with cover!) I have a few goddess statues, including the Millenial Gaia, and one seated goddess figure that I created recently with polymer clay.

[KylalaKitty]

Around last Halloween my boyfriend bought a staff from Spencers in the mall, I went with him to the woods to preform a ritual in which he used his new staff and I thought to myself "I want a staff :awwman: ". The next day I went outside and went to the side of the house (I dont remember why, maybe I was watering the flowers) and there I saw a long stick, about 7 feet tall....much taller than I am :P, almost perfectly straight, and leaning against the fense perfectlly. Then I knew I found my staff. :)

[Gemmagic]

I am a lucky person who owns a shop bought chalice and athame. They are lovely, but I have always been taught that tools and props are by no means necessary, they are merely an extension of the witch... the power comes from within you, not the tools. So I think of my tools and cool/pretty toys (yes, toys) that I sometimes use to help me reach a state of conciousness which is conducive to ritual and magical workings.

I also think the tools you feel called to own are highly personal to each practitioner... having said that, my tools are pretty "traditional" tools of witchcraft... I also have a wand (which I made myself using fallen wood) and and a stone pentagram which I bought from a local shop (it was made by a woman who apparently charged them every full moon). I adore my tools!

[debnmike]

I've found most of our tools at the Dollar Tree--I bought them without any specific purpose in mind, just knew I had to have them. They sat on a shelf for about 6 months before Mike and I used them for anything.

Our chalices are the champagne glasses we were given when we got married. They are very beautiful and delicate...and because Mike and I always do rituals together, to us they symbolize the energy we have as a unit (I can't believe I just referred to my husband and me as a "unit").

Anyway, they are a beautiful crystal and etched with our names on both of them. They mean a lot to us.

[serenarian]

Most of my tools are store-bought, simply because I'm not very good at making things. I bought my athame from a website, it's just a basic one. And my wand came from a local store, the owners of which I am friends with. My bolline is unique as it's made of silver and is shaped like a leaf, and folds out into a curved knife. I don't have a chalice, per se, I use a normal glass. I also have a secondary athame that I use in outdoor ritual - it's a letter opener that I inherited from my grandmother, made of wood, with a dog's head on the top.

Some of my tools have just appeared when I was ready to use them - such as my cauldron, which I found in a charity shop three years ago. I use seashells which I find on beaches, which I use as personal talismans as I am very drawn to the ocean.

[Silverfire Darkmoon]

Being the sort of witch who likes to have everything, I've got, well, everything.
Back when I was just a little baby pagan (at the ripe old age of seventeen!) I had a sword-shaped necklace I used as an athame, a regular glass from the kitchen for a chalice, a piece of cue card with a pentagram drawn on it in glittery ink, and the same wand I use now, which is very nice and I made it myself. Then I got an old letter opener from my dad, which replaced the necklace thingy, and I went to the dollar store and got a little pressed-glass chalice with stars on it. Then I found a green marble paperweight and scratched a pentacram on it, to replace the card one. As a bolline I had a little yellow lock-blade knife I found in a desk in school back in grade eight.
Eventually I went and bought a wooden pentacle with the symbol apparently silk-screened on it, at the little witchware shop in Westdale that shut down a few years ago. I've thought about getting or making a more ornate one, but this one fits on my altar perfectly so I'll survive :P I also picked up a brass silver-plated chalice for a buck at a garage sale, which I need to replace as all the silver has worn off and as I've finally found a wine I can stand to drink, I'd like to do so without poisoning myself. I've found the perfect one on Ebay which I absolutely adore, so I'm going to be buying myself that soonish, I think.
The letter-opener athame I replaced with a $25.00 knife I got at Murder Melee (an SCA event) which I absolutely love because the blade is beautifully shaped (it's tongued!). Those at the Wiccan Church of Canada who have seen it have told me that it's just gorgeous....although it has a tacky plastic wood-grain handle I haven't been able to remove yet. When I do, I hope to replace it with ebony, as I doubt sandalwood is a possibility. Dammit.
Bollines are easy, I make them for freinds and to sell often. What you do is, you go to Wal-Mart and buy a carpet cutting / linoelum knife, which will have a white wood handle and a black hooked blade which is wicked sharp. They cost about five bucks Canadian. Then you woodburn pretty symbols on the handle, and voila! Bolline! They're the best herb-gathering knifes you'll find anywhere.

[Aurin]

A couple of weeks back my friend tells me he wants help loading up some wood that was cut down... we're driving up to the mountain and I get this vision in my head of a staff, surrounded by a golden light. I tell my friend that today I was going to find a staff... After we load up the wood we're driving out and I just happen to glance out the window and catch a beautiful looking piece of felled ash lying there, about 16' long and 2.5" or so at the base, tapering nicely... And it still bore some green leaves. Some jack*** felled the tree and left it. Grr. Anyway, I knew it was perfect so I harvested about 9' of the wider end and tossed it into the back of the truck. Took it home, kept it outside to dry a few days then trimmed it a bit furthur down to 8' (taking from the thin end mostly)... I debarked it and started sanding it a few days back. Down to 100 grit smooth and goin' down even furthur. Once it's smooth as silk I'm going to oil it; Planning on mixing some dragon's blood resin with the oil I use... prolly linseed oil. Oh, yeah, the staff had a nice vine curling around it with enough impression to leave some nice markings in the wood. This is the first tool I've found/fashioned. :boing:

[Windsmith]

When I was a wee witchling, all on my lonesome, and before I found a tradition that considers tools to be fun and sometimes helpful but in no way necessary extensions of the practitioner, I ran out and acquired myself every tool I thought I needed. I bought a "woo, special!" athame and a pentacle that could've done admirable double duty as a trivet in my mother's kitchen. I also found a gorgeous blue goblet on a clearance rack at Hudson's and a long stick at the edge of my apartment building's parking lot that really wanted to become my wand.

Guess which ones I still use. :hehehehe:

Seriously, I used that athame regularly for 3 years and never felt like I had bulit up any energy or relationship with it. 2 years ago, when I was packing to move, I rediscovered a sword-shaped letter opener I'd had since middle school. I put that to use as my athame and felt more bonded to it after 1 ritual than I had to the other after 3 years of use. When my beloved and I set up our altar, we replaced the pentacle with a tree sculpture a friend gave us (which is much more our style anyway - there's a picture of our altar here (http://www.mysticwicks.com/showpost.php?p=2463458&postcount=508)). The pentacle is now the base of a sort of mini-altar in my writing space. Which is one of the most sacred spaces in the apartment, but the pentacle doesn't really do anything - it's mostly being used as a candle-holder these days.

I've learned my lesson: for me, it's far better to let the tools that want to be mine come to me, rather than picking random objects and trying to force a relationship with them.

[Jolantru]

I guess I should add in my own thoughts. ;)

My tools are a mixture between store-bought stuff and natural findings. Initially, in the beginning, when I was more influenced by Wicca, I wanted to get an athame. So, I got one: a letter-opener, shaped like a dagger. It was supposed to be a replica of a barbarian sword. Now, I hardly use it (only at certain occasions) and it now lies on my altar. The rest are mostly picked when I am out. I also believe that things come to you naturally.

At the moment, I have a handful of feathers, sage bundles and a bowl of river-polished stones (picked when I was working at a local parks management company). The candles are mostly store-bought, from Spotlight (Aussies should know about this shop - it has a branch in Singapore).

I keep my ears and eyes open. Gifts come at unusual (and often right) times.

Keep the thread going! :)
Jolantru