Athames and Bolines

[Lark]

I have both an athame and a boline I use in ritual practice.

My athame was made for me by my hubby.  It has a double edged blade with a crescent moon for a crossguard, and it has a polished ebony hilt.  

The original athame as described by Gardner did have a dull blade.  He never actually said why this was the case, perhaps it was so that people would not use the athame for anything so mundane as actually cutting herbs or things.  Or it may have been for safety's sake...mark out a 9' diameter circle on the ground sometime and then imagine 13 people standing in it.  It would have been very crowded...and someone might have been hurt if everyone's blades were sharp!

In the Trad I trained in, the athame is used solely for directing energy and for "cutting" the circle...separating sacred space from the mundane world, creating a space outside of space.  Because of this "cutting", and because we work in larger circles, our athames are normally sharp edged.

I also have a traditional boline with a white handle and a curved blade.  It's a lovely piece of ritual gear and often used on the altar when I want to symbolize the Crone who 'harvests' us all.  It is also good for harvesting herbs and plants where you are cutting them from the stem as they grow..but since the sharp edge is on the inside of the curve, it is useless for chopping herbs for incense or other uses.  For that kind of work I have a small, straight, single-edged knife with an oak handle that I use.

It is important to remember that the use of the athame and boline is a modern invention.  Our ancestors that may have practiced Witchcraft several hundred years ago would not have had the luxury of having these fancy tools.  It would be likely that they had one knife to their name, and they would have used it in ritual and to cut the carrots for dinner.  So no one should feel that they need to go out and buy fancy tools in order to follow this path.

And it is important to remember that all of these things are just tools.  While a tool may make it easier to move energy or work magic, it is not absolutely essential to have.  Find a knife that appeals to you or make one, or use a twig or your finger.  If you understand what it is you are doing all will work equally well.

And if you can make your own magical tools so much the better.  Making an athame, a boline, or a wand yourself imbues it with a great deal of your own energy and purpose, tunes the tool to your mind.  It is possible to have a much more effective instrument if you chose to do it this way.  Brock doesn't buy the blades when he makes an athame, but he does make the crossguard and the hilt for it.  You can work a lot of energy into the athame while you sit there polishing it smooth with 600 grit sandpaper!

Blessings,

-Lark-

[Anonymous]

In my case, I spend a lot of time working in the gardens, prepping foods, and preserving food-items for the Winter season.  I've a small, white-handled kitchen knife---a paring knife, actually---that I've used for years now as my "Bolline."  It's used for such fun things as peeling apples, potatoes, and pears; carving pumpkins; scribing gourds and pumpkins during the growing season (decorating the house with various gourds that have "scarred-in" Runestaves, and putting the kids' names on their pumpkins, can be quite nice...); then, there's the harvest-work for herbs and veggies, mincing, chopping---it's an all-around tool.  I've even used it for cutting wildflowers to go in the vases, and dried grasses/thistle-stalks/reeds/etc. for decorating....
 
The Athame in our home is a silver letter-opener with a lead crystal handle.  Granted, it's quite dull on the edges, but it does prove useful.  Opening the daily mail and getting paper-cuts while spending the afternoon brining cucumber-pickles or sauerkraut is not conducive to positive energy...or maybe I should say that opening the daily mail and getting papercuts, while spending the afternoon with my hands buried up to my elbows in a mixture of salt, water, and vinegar---which can be, shall we say, an exceptionally-stinging event for those paper-cuts...      
 
The other "special" tool is an old "Hori Hori" knife---one edge is saw-toothed, and the other sharp-edged, and it has a wooden handle.  It gets used in the gardens for cultivating, weeding, and pruning.  I've used it to prune back our fruit-trees  Those are the "normal" uses.  As for the "extranormal" applications, I've used it to take cuttings for starting new grape-vines and willow saplings.  If I take down a tree for firewood (late Winter), I'll cut slots in the stump, trim off some healthy branches, graft the branches into the stump, and seal the open slots with wax.  Then, the following Fall, I'll trim out all but the healthiest "sapling," leaving a new, young tree with a fully-mature root system to grow on.  Sort of an "Old Life/New Life" knife---but the "New" Life is actually a continuation of the Old---which is a part of my personal Symbolism....
 
Personally, I prefer that both tools have alternate tasks, so that they are, in effect, a part of my daily regimen.  But that's just me.  If someone feels the intimate need for that expensive blade, then by all means, they ought to have it....

[Anonymous]

Would you be able to channel your energy "more effectively" If you were to make the athame (or whatever it is you'd want to use to channel energy) yourself? Like, maybe out of wood or something, because you'd have more of a connection to it since it was made by your hands? Or will consecrating it be the same?

I think it would be MUCH more effective.  I'm currently making my own maple staff.  

Wait, maple is good for that sort of thing, right?  I'll look it up.  I've tryed, i've tryed, I'll try again.....

[Brock]

Offhand, I'd say that the most important issue about a staff is whether it is capable of being used as a staff is supposed to be used.  The type of wood one uses would, I think, be of secondary importance.

As for making your own athame, I have found that in general, making one's own tools is preferable to using tools that one buys.  However, I've never had a problem with using tools I purchased.

On a more basic level, I have an issue with the idea of a wooden athame.  The athame is symbolically a cutting tool, and wood is something that one cuts, not something that one cuts with.  

If you want to make an athame, there are any number of knifemaking companies on the Internet who will be more than happy to sell you a brand-new factory fresh blade and all of the exotic hilt and guard materials you can imagine.  If steel does not appeal to you, I have seen athames with blades of other metals, such as cast bronze or cold-worked copper.

[Anonymous]

In Norse magick, an athame must be blessed in the graces of the good Dwarves. Therefore, i do not find it fit to cut with one. However, according to my multiple Ritual guides, a boline does not require any consecration whatsoever, making it suitable for cutting and or carving. However, one is allowed to practice paganism and spellcraft in the manner that he or she wishes, so do whatever you feel is right.

Blessed be the Asa-Gods

[Anonymous]

Why can't you cut with anything blessed by the good dwarves?  I've read a bit about this and I've never heard anything like that.  
But then, I also thought one spelled "Asa" as "Asier".
  Explain please?

[Anonymous]

To answer the second question, the Asa-Gods are all the gods godesses and deities in Asgard and anyother divine area. They consist of the Aeisir (or Aegir) and the Veinir. But anyway. One is not to use an item blessed by the good dwarves, the light elves, or the Asa-Gods, for any mundane use. The rituals that these blessings entail concecrate items, making them for use only in the Astral Plane, and all other planes excluding the Material Plane. In other words, if you use a concecrated item for mundane purposes, you will be smote by Whomever concecrated it. This is also true if you exclude leaving out the offerings.

For instance, i asked a tree and the Light Elves for permission to take a branch for a wand. I forgot to leave an offering for the Elves, and now my wand is useless for all that it was meant to do ie. Healing Spells, Cauldron Magick


Blessed be the Asa-Gods

[Anonymous]

I'm having a traditional gardnerian training right now and according to my teacher, the athame should never be use to cut anything else than the circle.  The athame's grip should be black because it is the color of protection.  We also use another white handle knife - white being the color of creation - to carve symbols, cut herbs and do any other practical cutting related to magic.  It can be a boline or a regular kitchen knife.

Before I had all of my tools, I was always using my finger to cast the circle.  Then I started using my wand and lately I got my athame and I  prefer it to any other tool.  It feels like the wand is not imposing enough, the wand suggests energy,, it directs it, but the athame is more "assertive" so to speak.  

I don't think tools are necessary but they sure intensify the energy.  Well, that's the feeling I get, at least.

LotN

[Anonymous]

I don't think tools are necessary but they sure intensify the energy. Well, that's the feeling I get, at least.

And that is really the only thing that matters.  Everyone has their preferences.  What feels right, IS right(for you).  This is the same basic stance I take on all religions. "If it feels right for you, then it IS right for you."

[Rowan CedarWolf]

Well, I use my wand where most use an Athame. I include my children in circle and I just don't like the risk involved if one of them were to move while I was casting circle. My athame is all metal, the handle is in the form of Isis and has heiroglyphics on the sheath. I do use my athame for cakes and wine blessings. I have a bolline that I have used, but I find it difficult to cut some of the things I need or to inscribe candles ans such with it. I generally will use a kitchen knife for cutting herbs, it's kitchen witch in me I suppose. I have never used my athame for any physical cutting, of course that has to do with my training. I was taught that the athame was for energy work only or cutting energy (like making a door way during circle) but never for use in physical cutting. Of course this is just the way I was taught and I always say "do what works for you"