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Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:49 pm
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Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:22 pm
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It depends.
In Wicca, yes, the tools are required. For Neo-Wicca, it depends on the form of the religion you practice. Either way, the tools are preferred. You can substitute a pointed finger easily, but whether this is allowed, whether it deviates too much from ritual form, is, I suppose, up for debate. Of course, this is in ritual.
For witchcraft, tools are unnecessary. You can practice witchcraft in any way you choose, and spellwork needs little in the way of tools.
Edit: Just to expand... an athame is a particularly important ritual tool. Even in Neo-Wicca, some symbolic versions of the Great Rite are involved, and you can't insert the athame into the chalice if you have no athame. You see why this would make the athame particularly important... They're not actually all that hard to find. An athame is, traditionally, a black-handled, double-bladed ritual knife... but you can substitute something similar. There are plenty you can buy online, many magical supply stores carry them... plus you can find similar things at knife shows, gun shows, medieval stores, etc. Hell, some people substitute a butter knife.
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:40 pm
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Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:02 pm
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 5:26 am
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:23 am
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 1:25 pm
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:48 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 4:18 pm
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Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:34 pm
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:00 am
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:09 am
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:30 am
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Morgandria whiporwill-o have an athame, but i do not use it (though it has been consecrated). i'm not wiccan, nor do i cast circles so i really have no practical use of it, but it's there just in case. athames are actually quite simple to aquire. there are tons of places to find them online and i bought mine from a knife/sword shop in the local mall. then there are always flea markets and antique shops and you never know when you might get lucky at a yard sale. just always make sure you take proper cleansing precautions biggrin There is a specific method of consecration required to make a ritual blade an athame, that is particular to Wicca. Athame, unfortunetely, has passed into common parlance for "ritual blade". Most people don't actually have an athame.
What about an arthame?
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:35 am
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Sanguina Cruenta Morgandria whiporwill-o have an athame, but i do not use it (though it has been consecrated). i'm not wiccan, nor do i cast circles so i really have no practical use of it, but it's there just in case. athames are actually quite simple to aquire. there are tons of places to find them online and i bought mine from a knife/sword shop in the local mall. then there are always flea markets and antique shops and you never know when you might get lucky at a yard sale. just always make sure you take proper cleansing precautions biggrin There is a specific method of consecration required to make a ritual blade an athame, that is particular to Wicca. Athame, unfortunetely, has passed into common parlance for "ritual blade". Most people don't actually have an athame. What about an arthame?
Wicca specifically has a black-handled ritual knife used only for energy manipulation, created in a specific way, called an athame. I admit the derivation of 'athame' could be from"arthame", but it's impossible to tell at this point - there's no clear etymological derivation for either word. Knowing that Gardner did tend to borrow from wherever, it is a definite possibility.
Idries Shah (who is sort of shaky in scholarship), thought that the word athame was derived from the Arabic for "blood-letter", but his source for that is just another book he wrote under a pseudonym. It certainly doesn't make sense to me, since an athame definitively does not draw any blood, or physically cut. Robert Graves posits that athame might come from the Arabic "the arrow", but not only was his scholarship less than accurate, he was also an associate of Shah.
However - arthame, where it appears in the Key of Solomon, refers to a ritual blade that is not the main black-handled knife used in its' rites. I don't have a problem with people using arthame, simply because it doesn't actually refer to an athame-like blade.
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 6:59 am
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