iron & salt

[Sovaan]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this discussion board but I'm not new to the Craft. However, I've felt very much like a neophyte lately as all sorts of pretty basic questions about magic have been baffling me lately. For example...

It's my understanding that ccording to some traditions, iron can't hold a magical charge. (Because of this, some also say that it will protect the bearer from magical forces--e.g., an iron sword can be used to banish a magical creature sent against you. This is covered in the novel _Steel Magic_ by Andre Norton.) But if that's true, why are cauldrons made from iron and athames often from steel? Wouldn't they disrupt/negate our magic rather than enhancing or directing it? (I have heard of some traditions using silver or copper athames. I've even read about one tradition that believes that *all* metal disrupts magic, so they use wooden athames.)

Similarly, if salt neutralizes/disperses magical energy, then why do we keep it on the altar? Why do some witches use it in their potions and brews? Wouldn't it disperse the energy we work so hard to raise? (I have heard of using rice or grain on the altar to represent the earth instead of using salt.)

I'd appreciate any and all thoughts on this matter. Thanks much.

[Rose Sunny Rionach]

Whoa... never really gave much thought about it...but it really is something to think about. But, I think that salt banishes negative energy or is used as a sort of cleanser/purifier.
Okay.. I've had my brain workout for today.. Now I need to go back to bed :D

[Dragonmother]

most things have more than one property, and several uses, right?
Salt represents purification, on the altar and we use it to psychically cleanse things- because it really is a cleansing agent, and also somthing of an antiseptic. Salt is an essential element in all life on earth, so when we mix it with the water we recreate the water of the womb, the salty blood of our bodies, tears of grief, semen of joy... you get the idea...
when we salt an object, the magic isn't dispersed, it's sucked away.
As salt will suck up a drop of water, so will salt suck up the energy in an object of use. That's why you discard the salt afterwards, because it's 'dirty'

Iron and Steel are anethema in some traditions but not others. One elegant reason I have heard for not using iron is this;
the Fae don't belive that humans should have iron. It belongs under the ground, they feel, and they are jealous of it in our hands. It's not that it disperses magic- rather that of all metals, it's the one they can't control, that has some power over them, and the power derives from the fact that the secret of iron was once theirs.
Why this would hold true for iron and not silver gold or bauxite, I don't know!
However, I once was brought a blade forged from meteor iron (oooh!) to set a handle to. I was told that because the metal came from off-planet and not under this one, the Fae would tolerate it
Personally, I make my athame blades from copper or bronze, because no one else seems to make them for sale in those metals.
My biggest problem with the stainles steel athemes that abound is that theyare mostly made in China or Pakistan- by child slave labor, most of them. That can't be very good karma!

[Ryhla]

Isn't stell refined iron? I was wondering about an atheme out of glass? Come to think of it...quite a bit of my tools are made of glass...where it can be done of glass.

[Sovaan]

Thanks for the replies. Naturally, your answers have made me think of more questions:

1. I understand and appreciate the symbolism of salt as an ingredient of all life on earth. I also understand its use as a cleanser/purifier. But if salt sucks up energy, wouldn't it suck up *all* energy? That is, wouldn't it suck up the energy we're trying to raise and direct in addition to all the psychic garbage we're trying to eliminate?

Let's say you wanted to cleanse a crystal or a piece of jewelry. One method of cleansing it would be to immerse it in salt water. (Careful! I learned the hard way that salt water will eat away at some crystals, such as fluorite, and will damage the polish on others.) But wouldn't you want to keep salt water *away* from any object that you were trying to *charge*. Why, then, have it on the altar? Or does the salt have to come into direct contact with the object in order to absorb its energy?

2. I knew the Fae didn't like iron (especially cold iron) and that it was the only metal that could bind them, but this is the first time I've ever heard why. Now I'm puzzled. I don't know if I should keep using iron tools in my magic or not. I think I'm going to have to research these traditions further.

I'm very sorry to hear that many steel athames are made by child slave labor. I'm relieved to say that my athame was made in Sheffield, England. I would like to replace the handle on it, though. It's a metal. I'd prefer wood. I'd love a nice oak handle. For the life of me, though, I can't figure out if the handle can be removed. I've also got a bit of rust on the pommel. Any recommendations for how to take care of that?

3. I've read that cast iron cauldrons are traditional tools of the craft, for brewing herbs and potions. But I've also read that herbs should not be brewed in a metal pot, only an enamel or earthenware pot. What's the deal?

Thanks.

--Sovaan

[Dragonmother]

I have made athames with flint knapped blades. They seem to drain energy right out of them after the work is over- very nice earth energy when they are charged. Glass knapped blades are fantastic!
http://www.underthemound.com
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/wyrd_systers/
links to a pair of women that make athames with knapped blades. They have someone else knap for them, and I have to do the same! Their work is very nice- different than mine. They are one of the only athame craftworkers that I will link to, Actually, they are one of the only other craftworkers at all, that I know of...
Okay, last night I talked to my teacher, who is one of those people with an encyclopeadic memory. I have to ask her two or three times before it all kicks in, and then I get cramps in my fingers trying to write fast enough! Here's what she said, as much of it as I could get down:
"The Copper - Iron dicotomy relates to the ages of man- Copper precedes Bronze and iron. Copper is malleable, easy to use, easy to render. Copper is asociated with the goddess Venus and all the Mother goddesses.
Iron is a duller and harder metal, it requires a lot of heat and a lot of muscle work to render and work it. Iron is relaterd to the god Mars, the god of the plow and the sword. Iron has been used for thousands of years, although steel was only developed in the last hundred years. But copper was used for thousands of years before that.
Iron, being hard and tough, keeps a point and a blade sharp longer. Copper dulls swiftly and easily.
Stoneage people used copper. But weapons of Iron and bronze are harder, and therefore people who had iron weapons were able to conquer the stoneage people they came in contact with. So Iron became a metal of negation.
Iron is used to negate Copper aged and Stone aged magic, as for instance the Pictish people, or the native american people were conquered

Iron is Mars, copper is Venus, Iron is used to negate seductive and ond or love spells, as well as Goddess magic (associated with Venusian things) Iron is used magically for tools and weapons of dominance and possession, of conquering and holding what has been conquered. Iron is just as magical as any other metal, but is disdained by many Wiccans and other earth religion followers because of its association with martial societies and the christian era
Cauldrons are Iron because they HOLD and CONTAIN and don't allow for easy escape of magical essence. Iron is also magnetic, therefore a magnetized cauldron will hold and contain even more of the magical essence.

(the reason you don't use an iron pot when you are making herbal brews is because Iron is so reactive to heat, to acids and bases. It will discolor your teas, at the least, or bind onto the molecules of whatever bioactive you are working with. AND, related to that, if you want to sneak iron into your families diet, cook your spagetti sauce in a cast iron pot- the acid from the tomatos will leach iron into the sauce.)

and more on salt, too- to use salt to cleanse energy from most items, I have always laid the article in a dish, if it's small enough, and poured dry salt over it. I lay the dish in a window sill to catch the moon's rays.
I don't worry if the moon is obscured by clouds or not, it's the SYMBOLOGY that's effective. In the morning, I shake the salt off the thingie and toss the salt. Why the moon in combo with the salt? well, in the old days, the best way to bleach clothing clean again, was to lay it out in sunlight, and let the UV light fade the stains. Therefore, moonlight ought to fade stains we can't see...
As you found out, salt in water can do some amazing things amazingly fast!
The alchemists used salt water to scour the scummy residues of their experiments from their precious glassware vessels.
But salt has a lot of properties. In cooking and dyeing, and some paint pigments, it's a fixative. And we use it in magic for that property, on the altar and in potions, and in its most extreme form in cleansing.

as for your Sheffield Athame, I bet you can unscrew the pommell, because it is a well-made knife. The handle will slide off the tang. UNLESS you see rivets in the handle, and then you will need to cut those out. Then, if you send me the handle, I can cut one in oak for you!
A bit of emery paper will polish the rust off the metal. Emery is a very very fine sandpaper- you can use one of those good foam-backed fingernail board from the beauty supply section in the supermarket. There might be ones with slightly coarser paper on one side and finer on the other, or even four grades of paper on one board)

[Sequoia]

wow, what an incredible amout of information! Thank you so much for sharing that!

I love their website. . . I saw that "Kore Athame" and really liked it. . . too bad it's sold! (and that I'm broke. . . :p ) Obsidian blades. . . incredible. :D

[Sovaan]

Wow, ask and ye shall receive. Thanks so much for taking the time and trouble to find out all that stuff for me. I've got to tell you, I've been asking everyone I know and you're the first person to give me some detailed, in-depth answers that actually make some sense.

If you can't brew herbs in the cauldron due to the iron reacting chemically with the herbs, then what is the cauldron for? What can you brew in it?

It's interesting you should mention magnetizing your cauldron. I was at the bookstore the other day looking at books on the Craft and putting together a wish list. One book, I think it was Raven Grimassi's _The Witches' Craft_, says that you should magnetize your athame (assuming that the blade is made of a ferrous metal) by stroking the blade with a magnet or lodestone. Have you heard of doing that before? Does it work?

[Incidentally, are you familiar with Grimassi's books and, if so, what do you think of them?]

As for replacing the handle of my athame, it does look like there's a nut or screw in the end that ought to come off, but I haven't been able to budge it. If I could get it off, it does look like the handle would slide off the tang, as you said. There are no rivets.

Thanks again,
Sovaan

P.S. I like the quote from Dame Julian of Norwich in your signature line. Have you ever read any Annie Dillard?