[GUIDE] Tools, Objects, Etc... Associated with Witchcraft

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NOTE FROM MOD

I salvaged this thread from a inactive guild that I own. Seeing as a lot of work went into it and that the info it contains is quite interesting, I thought it would be a shame to delete it. It was originally posted by Naomi Tinuveil.
Please also realize that this isn't a list of things you are supposed to have, or even need to have in order to practice. A lot will vary on what your personal interests are, and what tradition (if any) you choose to follow. Some things on this list are for "historical" reference only, and aren't even relevant to modern practices/paths. Feel free to discuss your own thoughts/experiences on this subject, what you currently use, what you would like to have. Do you agree/disagree with what has been listed here? Why?

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I know it might either seem very basic or very informative; but I figure Hey, a lot of people are still learning and it couldn't hurt others to review their practices. ::Shrugs:: I just came across this in my travels and thought it would be highly informative and/or educational depending on your level of training. ^_~ Enjoy (On a side note please excuse the gender prominent noun. The place in which I found it states that it is not out of discrimination but just easier; so instead of he/she or they it is simply her . . . though it applies to both sexes; please excuse the connotation. Thank You)

TOOLS OF WITCHCRAFT


Different traditions and different practitioners require and desire different tools. It is unlikely that any one witch will own or use every tool listed here. The witch who is afraid of fire doesn't need candles; the witch who works purely with verbal charms doesn't require a mortar and pestle.

*If a witch or practitioner uses any tool consistently in her magical work, it is, by definition, a magical tool

Some tools, like the boline, cauldron or mortar and pestle serve entirely functional uses, but in addition to practicality, witches' tools are also magical tools -- tools that are perceived as radiating their own magic power. Different tools radiate different energies. Individual tools express specific elemental energies that empower and enhance spells and rituals, for instance candles radiate the power of fire.

Among the ways of determining what type of power a tool radiates is to consider what kind of materials are used in its creation. Thus a wooden magic wand places the power of trees into the hands of its wielder. Sometimes this is obvious; sometimes the radiant energy is more subtle. The concept of gazing into a crystal ball derived from gazing into the moon. A crystal ball essentially brings the moon inside and enables you to access lunar magic anytime, not just during the Full Moon. The moon is identified with water and women. These associations have passed on to the crystal ball, which is perceived as radiating feminine, water energy.

Female and male energies, yin and yang, are considered the most powerful radiant energies on Earth. Unifying the male and female forces provides the spark for creation, and what is a magic spell after all, but an act of creation? Instead of a new baby, ideally new possibilities, solutions, hopes, and outcomes are born from each magic spell.

A high percentage of magical tools radiate male or female powers. Many tools metaphorically represent the unification of these forces. Earths most ancient religions venerated the sacred nature of the hman genitalia, representing male and female generative power.

Sacred spiritual emblems evolved into tools of witchcraft. Many magical tools now hide in the kitchen disguised as ordinary kitchen utensils including sieves, post and cauldrons, cups and chalices, mortars and pestles, knives, dinner bells, and most famously, brooms. To some extend this parallels the hidden history of women: once worshipped or at least respected as goddesses, priestesses, and community leaders, for centuries (and still in some circles) women were perceived as the weaker, less intelligent, meek gender, fit for little other than preparing meals. Women's old tools of power lurked in the kitchen with them. In recent years, however, witches and their tools have emerged from their broom-closets to reveal their long suppressed powers.

In fact many tools serve dual uses: few ancient people had the variety or quantity of possessions that many take for granted today. The average kitchen witch of not that long ago made magic with whatever was at hand. She didn't have a catalog of wares to choose from. Rare, precious items were treasured by, by definition, these were accessible only to a very few.

* Never permit the lack of a specific tool to stall a magical goal. Among the key ingredients of magical practice is inventiveness. The one and only tool that is a requirement is the spell-caster herself, her full and entire focus and commitment to a spell. According to French master mage Eliphas Levi there are four requirements of successful magic: Knowledge, Daring, Will, and Silence.

One cauldron served a family's purposes: from creating nutritious soup to concocting healing brews to crafting magic potions. The mortar and pestle ground up botanical materials for whatever purpose was currently needed: healing, magic or cooking. In a holistic world, purposes may not have been considered distinct in any case. This holistic tradition still survives in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) where medicinals are sometimes administered via food. Edible, medicinal ingredients are prescribed for the patient: the meal is the prescription and may contain magical protective elements as well.

~Taken from "The Elemental Encyclopedia of Witchcraft" by Judika Illes ~

~ Tools to Follow Include ~
Athame
Bells
Boline
Brooms
Candles
Cards
Cauldrons
Chalice
Cord
Crystal Balls
Dolls
Flying Ointments
Horns
Labyrs
Masks
Mirror
Mortar & Pestle
Pentacle
Sieve
Staff
Swords
Wands

 

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Athame

Also sometimes spelled Athalme, the athame (pronounced a-tham-ay or ath-may) is a ritual knife. The origin of the name is unknown. It is usually, although not exclusively, black-handled with a double-edged steel blade. Whether it is sharp or dull is irrelevant as the athame is not used as a cutting tool. Symbols, such as runes or sigils, may be engraved or painted onto the handle. The athame, as with other metal blades, radiates male energy. Some traditions identify swords and knives with the air element, but they are primarily associated with fire. Although the use of ritual knives, daggers or swords is common to very many traditions, the name athame is almost exclusively Wiccan or Wiccan-influenced. It is among the standard tools of Wicca.

*The athame is used to cast ritual circles

*The athame is used to direct magical energy

*Some traditions incorporate an athame into the creation of "Holy Water"

*Athames are used for invocations and banishing rituals

Some traditions magnetize the blade by repeatedly rhythmically stroking the blade from base to tip with a lodestone or magnet. Black-handled knives have a long magical history. Their Modern uses derives from Celtic Traditions but is reinforced by Ceremonial Magic. The athame probably derives from the black-handled knives of Irish fairy-lore. In the eleventh century, the scholar Rashi (1040-1105) stated that a black-handled knife is required when invoking the "Princes of the Thumbnail," the divinatory spirits evoked by scrying.  

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Bells

Bells are common in various traditions. Generally smaller hand bells, free standing bells with a handle, are used.

*Bells are used for summoning and banishing spirits

*Bells are used to vanquish and remove the Evil Eye

*The sound of a bell ringing, especially a metal bell, is believed to exert a purifying influence and so bells are used for cleaning spells.

*Bells are protective devices: malicious spirits allegedly flee from their sound

*Bells are used in fertility spells.

* Bells are a tool for magical healing: ringing bells facilitates healing, and sometimes healing potions are drunk from magical bells in the belief that the "cup" adds potency to the brew.

Bells derive from ancient sacred images of human genitalia. The bell's body represents the vulva while the clapper represents the p***s. An alternative visions suggests that the bell's body represents the womb while the clapper represents the child within.

Unlike other images deriving from sacred genitalia, the bell's two components cannot be separated. (The horseshoe and nails is a similar emblem: the horseshoe represents the vulva, the nail hammered into it is the p***s. However, horseshoes and iron nails are independently powerful: a bell is not a functional bell unless the clapper is retained within the bell.)

*The fertility imagery is sometimes enhanced by crafting the body of the bell to resemble a women. The handle crafted to resemble her head and torso while the round bell is her skirt.

Bells are also hung from chains or incorporated into mobiles to serve as amulets or the equivalent of a magical guard dog. If strategically hung, allegedly the bells will spontaneously ring as needed. Devises from Pompeii and elsewhere in the Roman Empire combined bells with phallic imagery.

Bells were attached to the ritual clothing of the priests who served the Jerusalem Temple. Bells are still attached to clothing around the world to serve as protective devices to repel mean spirits and the Evil Eye.

It was a common European belief during the witch-hunt era that the sound of church bells ringing repelled witches and caused them to fall off their brooms if flying through the sky.

*Grease scraped from church bells is a common component of Goofer Dust, the Hoodoo magical powder whose primary ingredient is graveyard dust.

*Slavic witches have traditionally used church bell grease to make similar concoctions

*Grease scraped form church bells is allegedly a primary component of the flying ointment favored by Sweden's Easter Witches.  

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Boline

The boline is a knife used as a cutting tool in spiritual rituals. The boline is traditionally a white-handled knife with a double-edged blade.

*An athame traditionally has a black handle while the boline's handle is white. The athame is the ritual knife; the boline is the practical knife. Beyond metaphysical and spiritual significance, by color coding the handles, the two knives are easily and immediately distinguishable, thus lessening the chances of accidentally desecrating the athame.

The boline was originally used to harvest herbs and is believed to derive from the sickle. Older bolines often had a sickle-shaped blade although most modern bolines are standard knives. Among the uses of the boline are carving and inscribing candles and wax tablets, chopping herbs, and cutting cord, thread or fabric.  

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Broom/Besom

Brooms represent the perfect union of male and female energies: the stick represents the male force plunged into and attached to the female straw. Himalayan shrines display sacred images of the phallus and vulva crafted from stone, usually designed so that the phallus fits snugly into the vulva without falling off or rolling out. They may be separated or unified by attaching and detaching. Some, the most sacred, are natural rock formations but others were created by talented artisans.

The broom may be understood as a similar symbol but one that may be spontaneously crafted by anyone. All you have to do is attach straw to a branch or stick. The primitive broom is an incredibly simple device, child�s play; no artisan is required to craft that kind of broom although modern artisans, woodcarvers, do create beautiful ritual brooms for witches that qualify as works of art.

According to Rhiannon Ryall, author of West Country Wicca (Phoenix Publishing, 1989), her journal of pre-Gardnerian Wicca, broom was old English country slang for women's genitals. Riding the broom thus was slang for intercourse and Riding the witch's broom a reference to ritual copulation.

Although broom are now associated with housecleaning, they may originally have been invented for magical and spiritual rites. The act of sweeping was a ritual act: the chore remained after the spiritual aspects were suppressed or forgotten. Depending on direction, sweeping over a threshold manipulates energy in or out, inviting or repelling.

In ancient Greece and Anatolia, brooms were the professional emblem of midwifery, similar to modern pawnbrokers balls. Midwives once did more than just deliver the baby; they were expected to magically supervise the birthing chamber, keeping it free from malevolent spirits and negative spiritual debris. The midwife was expected to provide protection to mother and child: magical protection rituals often incorporated sweeping, especially sweeping over the vulnerable thresholds. Brooms were also used in agricultural fertility rites: women danced on brooms, men on pitchforks.

*The broom was among the sacred attributes of Hecate, Matron of Midwives and Witches. In recent years, the broom has evolved into an emblem of witchcraft. They are displayed as a badge of pride as well as a device to memorialize the Burning Times. As a bumper sticker proclaims, My other car is a broomstick!

Brooms are men's tools, too, although generally without the long broomstick. Herne, Faunus, and other horned gods carry short brooms, usually switches or whisks made from branches, especially birch branches. Whether this broom was intended to represent male or female genitalia is subject to debate. In Europe, Santa Claus' dark helpers, like Krampus, usually carry this type of switch or broom. (Older images of Santa Claus sometimes depict him wielding a whip.) This birch whisk remains a popular tool in the sauna and Russian bathhouse and may also derive from shamanic roots.

Of course, the most famous thing witches do with broom sis ride them. Another theory regarding the origin of brooms is that they are a shamanic tool for soul-journeying. The witch's broom may have originated as a shamanic spirit horse. A hobbyhorse is essentially a broomstick with a horse's head instead of a broom head.

In many witchcraft traditions, a broom along is insufficient for flight: incantations and especially flying ointments may also be necessary components. The connection of the broom with soul-journeying may not be merely metaphoric. It is widely believed that the broomstick was a traditional tool used for topical application of witches' flying ointments.

In Mexico and Central America, brooms and the act of sweeping are symbolic of ritual purification. Central Mexican codices display grass brooms placed beside crossroads, the traditional place for depositing spiritually dangerous or potentially contaminating items.

*The broom is the emblem of the Aztec midwife-witch goddess Tlazolteotl as surely as it is that of her Eurasian counterpart, Hecate.

Purification and protection are closely linked: brooms are also used for protective magic. The footprints one leaves behind are believed particularly vulnerable to malevolent magic; someone who wishes you harm can do so via your footprints. An old spell suggests dragging a broom behind you to sweep away your traces; this way, no enemies can work on your footprints. (And indeed, the broom will sweep away footprints and without prints, no malevolent foot-track magic can be worked either.)

Baba Yaga perform similar actions: she flies in a mortar and steers with her pestle, but she uses a broom to sweep away her traces. (Russia had a strong tradition of foot-track magic)

In Spanish witchcraft, brooms are used in love spells, sometimes dressed up as women. (There are legends of witches who could make these brooms dance!) A similar living witch's broom entertains an elderly woman in Chris van Allsburg�s illustrated children�s book The Widow's Broom (Houghton Mifflin, 1992)

Jumping the broomstick once indicated a marriage unsanctioned by the Church. It was a British folk custom and used by Romany. Slaves in the former British colonies were married by jumping the broomstick. The tradition has regained popularity among African-Americans as well as in Wiccan and Neo-Pagan handfastings.

It is considered unlucky to step over a broom. (The antidote is to step back over it backwards, as if rewinding a video.) Other traditions suggest that a broom leaned against or across a door keeps enemies away. They will be unable to cross your threshold and enter. A broom placed across a doorway at night allegedly keeps witches, ghosts, and spirits away.  

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Candles

Candle magic, also known as the "philosophy of fire", ranks among the most beloved and popular magical arts. It is not an ancient art: wax candles were once rare and prohibitively expensive. Until the twentieth century candles were not readily accessible to the average person. With the development of paraffin wax, however, candle burning developed into one of the most prevalent arts. Many modern witches might not be able to conceive of casting a spell without the incorporation of candles.

Candle magic involves the use of candles in spell-casting. Candle magic spells can be extremely simple or incredibly complex. The simplest candle spell involves holding a candle in your hands while focusing intensely on your goals, desires, and aspirations, then lighting the candle. A complex candle spell might incorporate several candles. Color and style of the candle might be dependant on various astrological, magical, and spiritual correspondences. Individual candles might be lit at a specific moment (not necessarily all at the same moment), left to burn for a specific period of time, then pinched out and lit again at specific intervals.

*Before wax, there was tallow. Comparatively inexpensive candles were crafted from animal fat Tallow candles smoke heavily and have a strong aroma; however some prefer them for magical use. Tallow candles can be found in stores catering to Latin American Magical practitioners.

Modern candle burning derives primarily from two sources. The first is the ancient art of the magic lamp. Before there were inexpensive candles, there were oil lamps. Cotton wicks were floated in small terracotta pots filled with oil these wick were lit, observed and interpreted. Magic lamps were popular throughout Asia and Africa; they retain their popularity in India and the Middle East. Magic lamps based on this concept also remain popular in the French Caribbean and in New Orleans Voodoo.

The second source is ecclesiastical use. For centuries, fine wax candles were reserved for church use. Among the first innovators of candle magic were theologians who secretly dabbled in magic. Other people stole candles from church in order to obtain supplies. This was very dangerous; if caught, they would be vulnerable to charges of heresy, witchcraft, and Satanism for daring to use church property for personal gain.

Candle burning is associated with many types of magic and many different traditions. It is now considered part of mainstream Western magic but for a long time was specifically associated with new Orleans Voodoo and Hoodoo, where candle magic is known as "setting lights". Thus someone will "Set lights" to achieve health and happiness, so for instance: A vast variety of candles are now available in different shapes and colors. Candles are chosen to suit the specific spell. That said, a white candle may always be used in any spell, as the equivalent of a magical blank slate.

Traditional Color Correspondences:

*Black: Fertility, healing, prosperity, protection. Black candles are burned in malevolent spells but also used in defensive magic to counteract anothers negative intentions.

*Blue: healing (especially emotional and psychic healing), protection, the power of the Sacred Mother; blue banishes malevolent spirits

*Brown: justice, stability, prosperity.

*Gold: wealth, glory, victory, solar magic

*Green: Growth, prosperity, fertility, financial success, healing especially for physical ailments including cancer and other serious maladies.

*Pink: self-love, self-confidence, youthful romance, spells to benefit children.

*Purple: personal power, self-confidence, sex

*Red: luck, protection, self-defense, prosperity, healing in terms of general vitality, love, sex and romance, menstrual magic, fertility.

*Silver: lunar power, personal fertility, success, lunar deities.

*White: creativity, initiating new projects, lunar magic. White candles can be used to substitute for any other color if necessary or desired.

*Yellow: Love, Friendship, Romance.  

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Cards

Cards are used for divination and for spell-casting. Cards (including tarot cards) are also used for playing games. It is impossible to tell by the existence of cards alone the purposes for which they were used. Perhaps for this reason, the Puritans called playing cards "the devil's picture book" and considered it a sin to even keep a deck of cards in one's home. In the fifteenth century both secular and religious authorities inveighed against playing cards.

Cards were invented in East Asia; scholars debate as to whether their origins are in China or Korea. The earliest deck of European playing cards dates to fourteenth-century Italy. Before the invention of the printing press, cards were hand crafted. Many still craft their own cards for personal magical use.

*With the exception of one card, The Fool, the cards in a tarot deck are numbered. Card number one is The Magician. Older decks sometimes call him The Mountebank. The magician is traditionally portrayed standing at a table laid with his magical tools, which correspond to the tarot suits: pentacle, wand/staff/stave, chalice, and sword (dagger/knife/athame). The earliest surviving depiction of this image is found within the fifteenth-century Visconti-Sforza Italian tarot deck.

Cards are most commonly expected to provide an oracle but are also incorporated into spell-casting and used as meditation tools and amulets. In Roman Catholic folk tradition, Holy Cards depicting the Holy Family and saints are used for protection and luck as well as spiritual and meditative purposes. Roman Catholic Holy Cards are also incorporated into magical practice, although this is not sanctioned by the Church.

Tarot cards remain the most popular magical cards; however a regular pack of playing cards has profound magical uses too, as do traditional "Gypsy Fortune-Telling Cards." Various special decks have been published over recent years specifically for divination, meditation or other magical and spiritual use.  

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Cauldrons

The word cauldron is related to words indicating heat or to warm up. The English word is believed to derive from the Latin caladarium, "hot bath".

Cauldrons metaphorically represent the female generative organs, the womb, uterus, and v****a. In old Egyptian hieroglyphics, the sign indicating "woman" was a pot. Cauldrons and pots signify the universal womb. Cauldrons are mythically identified with birth and resurrection. In an old Welsh poem, "The Spoils of Annwn", King Arthur visits the Next World to bring back a magical cauldron of regeneration that will return the dead to life. Like a womb, the cauldron reproduces the birth process.

According to Roman writers, cauldrons were used in Teutonic human sacrifice. (As with the Druids, whom the Romans also accused of conducting human sacrifice, this may or may not be true: they were not necessarily impartial observers.)

Cauldrons are consistent motifs in Celtic Mythology:

*The Cauldron of Bran the Blessed in the cauldron of resurrection and rebirth.

*The Cauldron of Cerridwen brews the potion that confers all wisdom.

*The Cauldron of the Dagda leaves no one unsatisfied.

*The Cauldron of Diwrnach will not serve a coward.

Various spirits and witches are closely identified with cauldrons:

*Bran is the Lord of the Dead: ravens are his sacred bird. Bran resurrects the dead in his cauldron. Shamans are "cooked" in Bran's cauldron, too. (Cooking may be understood as transforming new material)

*Branwen is Bran's sister and the star of her own mythic saga. The Cauldron of Resurrection is her marriage dowry.

*Cerridwen brews the potion of wisdom within her cauldron. A cauldron serves as her primary attribute. Her name may derive from a word for cauldron.

*Medea rejuvenates an old ram in her cauldron; she then converts the cauldron into a murder weapon.

*Ogun has among his primary attributes an iron cauldron.

*Teutates, an ancient Celtic (Gaulish) deity, drowned humans in his cauldron in the alder groves. Some believe he masquerades as the Grail legend's Fisher King.

Cauldrons were common grave goods throughout Europe and Asia. Hun graves, for instance, are often identified by their characteristic tall, slim bronze cauldrons.

Cauldrons were also spiritual offerings. Bronze and iron cauldrons were deliberately cast into lakes as votive offerings in the British Isles as well as throughout the European continent. Archaeological evidence exists for the ritual depositing of cauldrons in lakes and marshes throughout the last millennium before the Common Era.

*A great bronze cauldron filled with over two hundred pieces of bronze jewelry was discovered in Duchcov, Bohemia, now the Czech Republic. The cauldron and its contents, presumed to be an offering to a water-deity, were placed in the Giant's springs, a natural spring that was the focus of much ritual activity during the third-century b.c.

The most famous cauldron is the gilded silver Gundestrup Cauldron, so called because it was discovered in a peat bog in Gundestrup, Denmark, in 1891. It had been placed on a dry spot within the bog sometime during the first-century b.c. The Gundestrup Cauldron is now housed in the National Museum of Copenhagen. This ceremonial vessel measures three feet in diameter and is constructed from 13 plates, each one bearing reposed images of deities or mythological scenes. The images included an antlered male deity, deities wearing torcs, and a ram-horned snake. It is unknown where the cauldron was crafted; scholars suggest that it contains combined Thracian and Celtic elements, perhaps the result of interaction between silversmiths. Some believe it was taken from somewhere in Central Europe and brought to Denmark as war booty.

Cauldrons are used for spell-casting. Ancient spells frequently assumed that one had access to a hearth or similar open fire. This is rarely the case nowadays and cauldrons provide the safest substitute.

Cauldrons are used to cook brews and potions but are also used to contain fire. A fire may be built within an iron cauldron. Conversely candles may be burned within. Should one wish to burn candles within a cauldron, it is advisable to spread a layer of clean sand, rock salt or similar within the cauldron beneath the candles for fire safety and easier clean-up. A lidded cauldron enables you to smother the flames within easily.  

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Chalice

A Chalice, sometimes known as a goblet, is a sacred or ritual cup or similar drinking vessel. Chalices are one of the four tarot suits, also known as Cups. This suit represents the element water and corresponds to the playing card suit, Hearts.

The chalice is one of Wicca's four elemental tools. The chalice represents the feminine element of water. It may also be understood to represent the Womb of the Goddess.

*The Grail is sometimes envisioned as a chalice. One traditional explanation was that this was the cup of the Last Supper brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea, in which he had caught Christ's blood during the Passion.

The chalice represents the goddess or the eternal, universal, sacred feminine. During some traditions the Great Rite is celebrated by plunging an athame into a chalice. The chalice represents the Goddess, Lady or female principle; the athame the God, Lord or male principle.

In some traditions, a chalice holds wine during rituals. This is passed between ritual participants and shared. Usually a libation or offerings are also poured out to the Goddess.

Chalices are identified with Circe as she used a potion to transform Odysseus� crew into animals. Circe is commonly portrayed proffering a chalice, ostensibly to Odysseus. However she is often painted full-face looking straight at the viewer, her arm holding the chalice outstretched as if offering it to you.  

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Cords

Cords serve a variety of magical purposes. Smaller cords are used in knot spells, which are virtually universal, common to a multitude of magical traditions. Knot spells are among the most primordial types of spells. The underlying concept is that, as one pulls the knot tight, one's wish, desire or command is activated within the knot. Knot spells are most commonly used for healing, love, sex, and protection spells as well as, most notoriously, for hexing.

Knotting is inexpensive, highly accessible magic, only requiring a piece of string or cord and human will or desire. Knotting is, however, amongst the most difficult types of spells to master: unless one is consumed with emotion, it can be difficult to summon up the intense focus and will necessary for success.

Long cords are used in Wiccan ritual. The Wiccan cord is frequently titled a "cingulam". The standard cingulam is a nine-foot-long silk cord. (Other natural fabrics such as cotton or wool may also be used.) Style and color vary. It may be a single red or green braided cord or three cords braided together, traditional colors being black, red, and white. The cingulam is used in a variety of binding rituals and may be used to measure the circumference of a coven circle. The cingulam also enables a solitary witch to easily cast a circle.

1.Hold the end of the cingulam in what will be the center of the circle.

2.Mark the center by placing the large crystal or rock atop the end of the cingulam.

3.Rotate the cingulam�s other end in a circle; mark the cardinal points with additional crystals or, alternately, sprinkle salt or powder to denote the physical boundaries of the circle.

The power of the cingulam is stored within its knots. Typically a series of nine knots are made which may be tied and untied as desired to release or sustain power, reminiscent of ancient weather magic spells. In some Wiccan traditions, the cingulam is knotted at Initiation. It any be used to fasten a robe around the waist. When not worn or in ritual use, the cingulam may be maintained on an altar; alternatively, it is stored by wrapping it around a staff or ritual broom.  

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Crystal Balls

Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century images of witches and fortune-tellers often portrayed them gazing into a crystal ball. The image has somewhat fallen out of fashion but crystal balls remain potent magical tools.

They are used for divination (scrying), for spirit-summoning and for shamanic communication with other realms. A crystal ball is exactly what it sounds like: a round glove formed from crystal. The crystal ball of the stereotype is a clear ball; however crystal balls also come in colors. The crucial element is that it is a smooth surface into which the user may scry: i.e. one gazes into the crystal ball until one sees images, whether in the ball itself or one�s mind�s eye.

Crystal balls derive from the ancient tradition of lunar gazing, either gazing directly at the moon or into a basin of water into which the moon reflects. Thus they are associated with the feminine, lunar element of water.

Crystal balls are less popular than tarot cards or runes for two reasons:

*A fine crystal ball is an investment. They are not cheap and so inaccessible to many.

*Crystal balls can also be more difficult to master than cards or runes and hence more frustrating: scrying is an entirely intuitive, shamanic process.

A beginner can read tarot cards, instructional guidebook in hand. This is not the case with a crystal ball. One may gaze into a crystal ball for weeks, months or even years before images dependably appear.

Traditionally, crystal balls are kept covered when not in use. They are cleansed using incense smoke or by careful cleansing with magical washes, usually herb-infused spring water or spring water to which flower essences have been added.  

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Dolls

The archaic word used is "poppet" but that obscures the identity of what are plainly dolls. "Poppet" is related to "puppet". In English that implies that a puppet-master manipulates the puppet. (The French word for doll is "poupee".) Puppetry derives from sacred ritual and is still used so in traditional Indonesia. In Japan, as elsewhere in East Asia, dolls serve as oracles; legends describe some very special ones that actually literally communicate prophecies.

Traditionally dolls are handmade, however commercially manufactured dolls may be embellished for magical purposes. Dolls are crafted from bone, clay, cloth, wax, wood or any other possible substance.

*Among the evidence brought against Bridget Bishop at the Salem Witch Trials was that several rag poppets were discovered in her former residence pierced with hogs bristles and headless pins.

The most famous dolls are those made for harmful magic but that's partly because people like discussing the titillating, scandalous aspect of magic. Doll magic is also used for healing, romantic spells, protective spells, and especially fertility spells. Dolls were once used to stimulate pregnancy virtually around the world including indigenous North American traditions, Italy, and China. The tradition remains vital in sub-Saharan Africa. The most famous African fertility doll is the Ashanti Akua'ba, so prominent it has been featured on Ghana's postage stamps although it has now somewhat devolved into a tourist's souvenir.  

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Flying Ointments

Flying ointments, although still occasionally used by some, are not a common magical tool nor is it known whether they were ever common. However they are so commonly discussed during the history of witchcraft, especially during the Burning Times, that, even if they were rarely, if ever, used, they cannot be ignored.

*Flying ointments are exactly what they sound like: ointments or unguents that allegedly enable people to fly, whether literally or shamanically

The very earliest mention of a flying ointment may occur in Greek mythology. In the Iliad, Hera is described as anointing herself with fine oil before flying from Mount Olympus to Zeus on Mount Ida. Similarly, the hero in the second-century CE Roman novel "The Golden a**" secretly observes a Thessalian witch transform into a bird and fly away after applying an ointment to her naked body.

During the witch-hunts, witch-hunters accused "witches" of literally using these ointments and very often the accused were tortured until they confessed that these ointments were gifts from Satan. Various formulas for flying ointments survive from the witch-hunt era. No recorded surviving formulas come directly from witches or shamans: all known formulas were recorded by clerics, witch-hunters, and early physicians. It is unknown where these formulas truly originated or whether they were even used. They cannot be verified. In general, they contain combinations of potentially psychoactive but definitely poisonous botanicals like henbane, belladonna, opium, and water hemlock. Recent scientific studies indicate that some of these herbal formulas may indeed stimulate hallucinations, visions, and sensations of flying and transportation, IF THEY DON'T KILL YOU FIRST. Allegedly the highly poisonous combination of wolfs bane and belladonna produces a sensation of flight, for instance. If these ointments were indeed produced and used as described, this indicates that European shamanic traditions, replete with profound botanical knowledge, secretly existed well into the witch-hunt era.

The connection between brooms and flying ointment isn't arbitrary. It's believed that if these ointments were used, then certain parts of the body lend themselves to most effective application, notably sensitive, highly absorbent vaginal tissue. Some scholars perceived the broom as the applicator tool for the ointment. The ointment was secret; the broom became symbolic for witches' flight.

*One theory suggests that following the increase in witch persecutions, fewer ventured out to literally dance on mountaintops or forests. Instead shamanic flight to withces' balls was substituted.  

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Horns

The primeval admiration and awe for horns has not been forgotten but remains vital. Horns and their derivative, cornucopias, still serve as ritual tools: they are placed on altars and are especially used for summoning spells for ghosts and/or spirits.

*Horns are filled with candy as Day of the Dead treats for child-ghosts.

*They are traditionally stuffed with grapes to summon Dionysus

*Some Wiccan traditions, Seax-Wica for instance, substitute a drinking horn for a chalice during rituals.

*Horned helmets or caps are sometimes worn during Neo-Pagan or Wiccan rituals, especially when a High Priest is impersonating a horned god.

*Among modern Masons, the cornucopia remains symbolic of joy, peace, and plenty.

*Easter witches carry flying ointment in horns in the same way that African witches carry hyena butter in gourds.

*In sub-Saharan Africa, horns are frequently stuffed with botanical and other magical material to create amulets and talismans.

*In Italian and many North African traditions, small horns or replicas of horns made from various natural and synthetic materials are popular amulets. They are used for many purposes but the most common are protection of male fertility and libido and destruction of the Evil Eye

The cornucopia, ancient emblem of abundance, is a large hollow horn from which fruits and other botanicals overflow. Deities who carry it implicitly promise peace and prosperity. If one considers the numerous images of female deities displaying the cornucopia, then the number of goddesses associated with horns increases exponentially. These deities include Demeter, Persephone, Fortuna (Rome's Lady Luck), Fauna, and Flora. Epona, the Celtic horse goddess of fertility and abundance, holds a cornucopia, too.

Cornucopias are still used today, often as festive table centerpieces, but they are rarely if ever made form real horns now. Paper or wicker cornucopias are far more common, thus many perceive it as an abstract, crescent shape and forget the associations with horns. However these associations are explicitly stated in the symbol�s name: "cornucopia" derives from the Latin cornu (horn) and copiae (abundance, plenty)

*Allegedly, the very first cornucopia was the horn of Amaltheia, the goat that suckled Zeus; he placed it in the sky as a constellation in honor of his wet-nurse.  

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Labyrs

The labrys is a double-headed ax used for agricultural, military, ritual, and magical use. It is a primeval symbol found in Paleolithic cave paintings but now most often identified with the Amazons and with Minoan women's mystery traditions.

The labrys is associated with the labyrinth, the famous maze-like structure of the Palace of Knossos in Crete that allegedly once housed the Minotaur. The labrys was the emblem placed on the door of the labyrinth.

The labrys is a mysterious symbol, ubiquitous in the ancient Mediterranean from tiny ornamental replicas to powerful battle axes. A nine-foot tall labrys is believed to have stood beside an altar of Athena.

In Mediterranean regions, the labrys was intensely identified with women. As a weapon, it was identified with the Amazons (and, further north, with the Valkyries). The use of the term "old battle-ax" to describe a powerful, sharp-tongued older woman may derive from the labrys. In ancient Greek art, the labrys was almost exclusively depicted as a woman's weapon; men rarely if ever wield it, with one crucial exception: according to Greek mythology, Athena was born fully-formed from Zeus head after he swallowed her pregnant mother, Metis. Hephaestus performed the equivalent of a cranial cesarean section by cleaving Zeus; skull open with a labrys so Athena could emerge. The labrys remains among Athena's sacred attributes. It is also identified with Ariadne and with Demeter, who used a labrys as her scepter or magic wand.

Various origins and symbolism are attributed to the labrys, none mutually exclusive:

*The labrys derives its shape and name from the labia, the vaginal lips; the handle of the ax might represent the phallus or the vaginal canal

*Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas suggested that the labrys derives its shapes from that of the butterfly, itself symbolic of the human soul, reincarnation, and rebirth.

*The two heads of the labrys represent the waxing and waning moon.

*In ancient times, the labrys was something mounted between bull's horns, intensifying all three of the symbols and meanings listed.

In the ancient Mediterranean, Anatolia, and Middle East, the labrys was a woman's tool. However, the double-headed ax is also associated with Thor (Northern Europe) and Chango (West Africa, African Diaspora)�both intensely masculine, thunder-gods whose myths feature episodes of cross-dressing.

In the twenty-first century, the labrys has emerged as a feminist and lesbian symbol of pride. The labrys is also incorporated into various witchcraft and Neo-Pagan women's spiritual rituals. Some believed the labrys is the ancestor of the magic wand and that when deities like Circe are described as holding a "wand" what is really mean is a labrys.