Tools of The Trade

What tools do you need for ritual?

Perhaps after how to cast a spell this is one of the most common new practitioner questions.

Is there a set list of tools you HAVE to have to be a practicing Wiccan?

Scott Cunningham, in his book on Solitary Wicca, mentions a lovely ritual he performed in the Hawaiian surf using flowers. Others put emphasis on wands, athames, swords and stangs, but really the important thing is how they relate to your connection to Goddess and God and your trad.

As Lady Serena (High Priestess of Polaris Sanctum) has said many times, Wicca is about making do, crafting what you need from what is at hand. Oak or Yew branches can become wands, a firebucket a cauldron (I have seen this in a beautiful ritual for a transformed friend!).

That being said, it is important that you treat your tools with the same respect that you have for Goddess and God. That is to say the athame you use to open and close the circle is NOT the same one that you use to cut cheese or bread for an after-circle feast or worse clean your fingernails… ugh!

Once sanctified for ritual work your tools are to be used for just that! Some, like the bolline, can be used for mundane tasks (depending on your trad) but these tasks are related to ritual, such as cutting flowers for the altar etc.

Gifting tools could be a sore subject within your trad. They can also be a sign of pure friendship (one of the perks of being a Solitary Eclectic is non-conformity to a single trad btw…).

A few months ago I was chatting over the net with a friend in Mexico. The subject was athames, as in after all this time I still didn’t have one (I am not that seriously ritual minded). I had held off because I wanted to forge my own from elemental copper, but somehow living in the apartment in the middle of the city had hampered opportunity.

A couple of weeks went by after our conversation and I completely forgot the discussion about athames. Then one day, out of the blue, my friend asked if I had received my parcel yet (I was expecting a parcel of computer technical information). I replied no, but later than day the Fedex man arrived with the parcel. To my astonishment and wonderful surprise my friend had gifted me a most beauuuuuutiful athame, made specially for me (with etched bear in the blade etc.) by the same armourer who had made the sword for Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan. I was speechless to say the least!!

The athame is beautiful, but is it right to use it for ritual? Some would say no, but to me the athame is an expression of the friendship of my friend, gifting me something I really needed without asking for any credit. In fact it was the best kind of gifting since I didn’t know it was going to happen until it arrived on my doorstep.

So now I have my new athame sitting with honour on the altar and certain to accompany me to circle for many years to come!