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

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Masks

Masks serve so many spiritual and magical functions that a thousand pages could easily be devoted to them alone. The invention of the mask is so primordial as to be unknown and unknowable. How old are masks? Masks are as old as art, religion, spirituality, and magic. They appear all over Earth and are common, in one form or another, to virtually every human culture.

*The oldest known surviving mask is estimated to be about ten thousand years old. It depicts coyote and was found in what is now Mexico.

Masks are crafted from and embellished with wood, metal, fabric, leather, hemp, clay, quartz and other crystals, feathers, seashells, paper mache, stone, beads, and animal hair and horns.

Masks are shamanic tools; they are portals to other realms and existences; they enable spiritual possession. Putting on the mask enables a person to enter the realm of the sacred, to become another person or another being.

They are ceremonial objects. Some masks are believed to possess or radiate their own personal power as, for instance, Balinese barong masks. Masks are power items. They are the receptacle of divine force or the manifestation of normally invisible divine forces. For centuries, masks were the most precious, valuable possessions of many spiritual traditions around the globe.

Masks are created for countless purposes:

*Masks are used in religious ceremonies

*They serve as talismanic shields; some are believed to deflect malevolent spirits.

*Masks have served as votive offerings.

*Masks were used to cover faces of the dead; death masks cast from corpses but preserved by the living may have served as oracles or in necromantic rituals.

*Masks are components of various magic spells, especially those for healing.

Masks are also used for protection and privacy. During the witch-hunt era, many witches wore full- or half-masks when attending gatherings or dances in order to maintain anonymity and prevent identification. Many wealthy nobles allegedly wore masks while attending witches' balls, whether as participants or observers (it was the medieval equivalent of slumming) to protect their privacy and prevent blackmail. The concept of the masked ball is believed rooted in witches' balls.

The most famous modern Western masks are those associated with Halloween costumes and with Carnival/Mardi Gras traditions. Both derive from ancient shamanism. Halloween masks are now largely mass-produced. Fine Carnival masks are still handcrafted from beads, sequins, and (especially) feathers.  

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Mirrors

Modern mirrors are commonly crafted form glass but ancient mirrors were usually created from smooth metal, usually copper, highly polished to be reflective.

Magic mirrors are popular in many traditions including ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Western Ceremonial, Aztec, and Italian folk magic. They are used for the following purposes:

*Divination and scrying

*Love magic

*Lunar magic

*Protective spells

*Spirit-summoning

Mirrors are frequently found among the remains of Scythian priestesses and/or queens. (We don�t really know exactly who they were, only that they were people of importance based on their grave goods. No writings or explanations survive.) Mirrors were also found among the grave goods of women at Catal Huyuk.

Mirrors are identified with specific deities:

*Hathor, among the most primordial of Egyptian deities, presides over beauty, love, sex, fertility, romance, cosmetics, magic, and copper, the material from which ancient Egyptian mirrors were crafted. She and copper share the same essence: to hold a mirror in your hand is to hold Hathor. This was made explicit in ancient Egyptian mirrors, which very frequently incorporated an image of Hathor's face and characteristic flip hair-do into the mirror's handle. To hold a Hathor mirror and gaze into it is to absorb a little of the goddess' own beauty, power, and essence.

*Tezcatlipoca is known as the Lord of the Smoking Mirror. The omniscient, all-knowing Aztec Lord of Sorcery, Tezcatlipoca observed everything in his obsidian mirror. He is the equivalent of the All-Seeing Eye, similar to the lord of the Ring's Sauron. Tezcatlipoca was the sponsor of Aztec Shamans and sorcerers. We know that pre-European-conquest Aztec wizards used magic mirrors for divination and spiritual communications; the practice remains popular in Mexico and Central America. The most famous of the Aztec obsidian mirrors belonged to Dr. John Dee and is now in the collection of the British Museum.

*Mirrors frequently serve as protective amulets as they are believed to repel the Evil Eye. Small mirrors are sewn on to clothing and furnishings. They are hung from the rear view mirrors of automobiles. Mirrors repel the malevolent forces that Feng Shui terms "poison arrows"; the ba gua is an octagonal mirror placed outside the house to repel these dangerous forces and provide safety, security, and stability for the inhabitants.  

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Mortar & Pestle

Mortars and pestles are ancient, primal tools used for grinding. The modern mortar and pestle is now most commonly used to grind herbs, whether for cooking, healing or spell casting, but it was once also used to prepare flax for spinning.

More sophisticated grinding tools such as food processors have largely replaced the mortar and pestle for the purposes of cooking, but for magical purposes the mortar and pestle is irreplaceable for two reasons:

*The manual act of grinding puts one literally in touch with the spell-casting materials: by simultaneously concentrating on one's desired goal, visualizing its accomplishment, one is able to insert one's intentions and desires into a spell in a way that merely pressing a button will not afford you.

*The act of grinding with the mortar and pestle metaphorically reproduces sexual intercourse. What is a magic spell after all but an act of magical creation, the birth of a new reality or new outcome? Mimicking the literal, physical process further empowers the spell as well as imbuing it with sacred male and female energies.

~If one lacks a mortar and pestle, it is preferable to substitute manual methods for grinding materials rather than automated ones. Place the material between folded wax paper and use a rolling pin or hammer as a pulverizing tool.

Mortars and pestles come in all sizes, from huge to minuscule, and are crafted from various materials: stone, terracotta, glass, brass, and marble. The molcajete, the traditional Mexican variant on the mortar and pestle, is created from volcanic rock.

Mortars and pestles were once visualized as witches' transportation devices, perhaps a subtle reference to the use of psychoactive herbs in witches' flying ointments. The ointments would likely have been prepared using mortars and pestles.

*Baba Yaga flies in a mortar and uses the pestle as her steering device.

*Witches and goddesses, according to various legends, convert mortars into boats and travel across the sea in them.

*Witches were sometimes envisioned riding pestles like others ride brooms.
 

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Pentacle (Pentagram)

"Pentacle" and "pentagram" are now frequently used synonymously but technically a five-pointed star is a pentagram: a pentacle is a small flat disc on which a pentagram has been engraved or inscribed. So the pentagram is the geometric shape and a pentacle is a round amulet or magical tool that displays a pentagram. Many people use the words interchangeably, however, and do not distinguish between the two.

Pentacles can be formed from clay, wax, bone, and wood; most frequently they are made form metal. A practitioner on a low budget could cut a round pentacle from construction paper and inscribe it with a pentagram. Pentagrams may be drawn in the air, with an athame or other ritual knife, in each of the four directional points to consecrate a magic circle.

Over the centuries, pentagrams, five-pointed stars, have been used to represent witches and to protect others against them. The pentagram has been used to symbolize Jesus Christ and also to represent Satan. Talk about contradictions!

A German folk name for pentagram is drufenfusz, "witch's foot". German folk tradition indicates the use of pentagrams as protective talismans against evil spirits. During the middle Ages and the Renaissance, pentagrams were painted on homes or mounted within them to protect against evil spirits and witches.

*The Pennsylvania Dutch hexafoos also indicates "witch's foot" and is sometimes used as a synonym for hex signs. It also names a specific architectural motif involving an arch or decoration painted beneath a barn window that was expected to protect against witches.

Pentacles are traditionally a protective talisman. In much of the ancient world, especially the Middle East and North Africa, the number five radiates protective energy and is the number most associated with protective spells. The pentagram may, thus, be understood as related to give-fingered hand-shaped amulets like the Hand of Fatima or the Hamsa, which symbolizes the all-protecting Five Fingers of God.

Master Magus Cornelius Agrippa explains that every pentagram reveals the ideal qualities represented by the number five: it demonstrates five triangles, five obtuse angles, and five acute angles and is an excellent symbol for counteracting demons or malicious spirits.

Pentacles are one of the tarot suits where they are also called coins. They correspond with the playing card suit of Diamonds and represent the feminine element Earth. Pentacles represent Earth's bounty, abundance, and protective energies. A parallel image would be the cornucopia, the horn overflowing with fruit and wealth.

*The pentacle is one of Wicca's elemental tools, representing Earth, usually serving as a protective talisman. It has evolved into the religious emblem of Wicca in the manner of the cross for Christians and the hexagram (Star of David) for Jews.

Pentacles are ancient; earliest surviving images date back to over four thousand years before the Common Era. The pentagram within a circle appears on rings worn by members of the Pythagorean brotherhood. Pentagrams, both with and without surrounding circles, appear in Kabalistic writings, and they are among the sacred, magical images associated with Onmyoji, the wizards of Japan.

The pentacle may be interpreted in various ways:

*The pentacle may represent a human figure

*The pentacle may represent a parturient (birthing) woman

*The pentacle's solitary point may represent spirit while the others indicate the four elements (air, earth, fire, water)

*Magus Eliphas Levi suggested that the pentacle represented the triumph of the human will over the power of the four elements.

*East Asian cosmology perceives five elements (air, earth, fire, water, metal) not four, and so the pentacle may represent the eternal interplay of the elements.

The solitary point may be considered the pentacle�s head. A pentacle may be positioned head up, down, or sideways. Satanists have adopted the inverted pentagram but not because of any witchcraft associations. Many historians suggest that Satanists adopted the inverted pentacle as their emblem because early Christians used the pentacle as a symbol of Christ with the uppermost point indicated his head. Thus turning the pentacle upside down was perceived as a hostile, desecrating act.  

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Sieve



Among the magical tools hiding in the kitchen disguised as a mundane kitchen utensil are sieves. The term refers not only to the modern metal strainer but to any type of sifter including grain winnows, which may have been the first sieves. The sieve may derive originally from agricultural rites associated with the Corn Mother.

According to legend, when her beloved Osiris was murdered, Isis collected the dismembered parts of his body together in a sieve. Her act was ritually re-enacted during the annual harvest festivals that commemorated Osiris the Grain God's death.

Sieves for culinary use are now mainly identified with sifting water from a pot. One removes pasta from boiling water, for instance, by pouring the contents of the pot into the sieve: the food remains while the water drains through the multitude of holes. However, herbalists also use sieves to sift botanical materials. Henna in particular must be very finely sifted in order to create henna paste, a natural dye used to ornament and magically empower the body, the equivalent of a temporary sacred tattoo. (To understand how finely henna needs to be sifted and the effort required an appropriate makeshift henna sifter can be concocted by stretching pantyhose over a bowl and sifting the botanical powder through the exceedingly fine mesh.)

Sieves are crafted form all kinds of materials; North African and Middle Eastern frame drums, women�s magical, musical, and practical tools, are sometimes riddled with tiny holes so that they served as sifters too.

Sieves are used in divination and various spells, especially for fertility, healing, and weather magic. Witches were once popularly envisioned using sieves as a travel device, by converting them to boats.

Bulgarian witches were rumored to cause lunar eclipses by drawing the moon from the sky using a magical sieve. (Why would they wish to do this? Not merely to terrorize people. Allegedly they were able to temporarily transform the moon into a cow and milk her before letting her transform back and return toe the sky. Presumably this was very powerful, magical milk.)  

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Staffs


The distinction between staffs and wands often come down to size. The staff is longer, thicker, and often doubles as a walking stick. A staff should be long and sturdy enough to lean on comfortably. (Thus a tall person requires a longer staff than a shorter person.)

Staffs are now identified primarily as wizards' tools. The most famous modern image derives from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings cycle, whose wizards Gandalf and Saruman do battle with their staffs. Staffs are also closely identified with the biblical Mosses and his opponents, powerful Egyptian magicians.

Deities identified with staffs include Odin and Eshu-Elegbara. When Hermes isn't carrying his caduceus (see Wand), he substitutes a shepherd's staff instead.

*Like most magical tools, staffs have other uses besides magic, being associated with walking sticks and shepherds' staffs.

The staff is not a subtle tool: it's a big piece of wood. When walking sticks (and perhaps walking in general) fell from fashion, so did the magical staff. Its niche has somewhat been filled by the smaller, and thus more subtle and versatile, magic wand.

Magic staffs are now most profoundly identified with Obeah, the African-derived magical and spiritual traditions of the British West Indies. The Obeah or Obi Stick is a carved wooden staff, frequently ornamented with a serpentine motif. The Staff of Moses is a more elaborate staff that usually features a carving or a snake encircling the staff from top to bottom.

Staffs were once also powerfully identified with Nordic spiritual and magical traditions. Staffs were engraved with powerful runes to further empower and direct their inherent energies. Many traditions recommend hollowing out a staff and filling it with botanicals, amulets or other magically empowered materials. Staffs radiate male magical energy; they are the direct descendants of sacred phallic poles, especially those carried in Dionysian processions. Wooden staffs radiate the power of the type of tree they were crafted from. Staffs, also called staves, are among the tarot's four suits, corresponding to the playing card suit of clubs.  

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Swords

Magic swords have historically played a role in Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, and Persian magical traditions. They remain popular in East Asian magic, High Ceremonial Magic, and modern Wicca.

Magic swords may be actual functional swords complete with sharp blades or ceremonial replicas. Swords invoke primal metal magic although wooden swords also exist, particularly in East Asia. Swords are powerfully associated with the primordial magic traditions of metal-working.

Swords radiate masculine energy; the scabbard is its feminine partner. Swords are most commonly associated with the element air, however this is controversial; some also identify swords with fire. Swords do not fit neatly into elemental categories being the product of all elements. The raw material for swords is dug from Earth and the process of crafting a sword involves the interplay of air, fire, and water.

Crafting swords was a secret, magical operation. Spell-casting and spiritual invocation was once involved in the creation of powerful magic sword (and in some cases it still is). Rumors periodically circulated that blood sacrifice, including human sacrifice, was required to forge magic swords. Vestiges of these legends survive in Japanese mythology.

Swords may be engraved with runes, sigils, Names of Power, Kabalistic inscriptions or other magical embellishments. They are used for casting circles and for various magical practices including protection spells, exorcisms, spirit-summoning, and banishing spells. Swords are among the four tarot suits, corresponding to the playing card suit of Spades.  

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Wands

It is crucial to recall that a magic wand is but a tool. Magic power ultimately derives from the person who wields that tool. The wand serves to enhance and direct that power but never substitutes for it.

Wands rival brooms for the title of tool most associated with magic and witchcraft. It is important to note that, as with brooms, not every practitioner uses a wand. They are not a requirement of magical practice, merely among one of its most popular tools.

Wands represent male phallic power but are used by both male and female practitioners. Wizards use wands but so do the sorceress-goddess Circe. Female fairies are commonly depicted employing wands. The Maenads brandished Dionysus’ sacred wand, the thyrsus. The wand may put masculine power in the hands of a woman in the same manner that a broom or birch switch places feminine power in the hands of a man.

The wand may be understood as deriving from ancient sacred phallic images and is closely related to the staff. It may also be understood as deriving from the ancient feminine mysteries of the labrys. (See Labrys)

The wand may be understood as tapping into the power of trees. Different types of wood are believed to radiate different energies and thus suit different magical purposes.

A magic wand carved form apply wood, for instance, is believed especially beneficial for love magic, while a wan carved from yew, oleander or hemlock, poisonous plants all, enables necromancy. Some practitioners only use one wand; others collect different wands, using each for specific purposes.

*Although less common than wooden wands, wands are also crafted form metal.

Wands specifically direct the power of humans: there’s a crucial reason why most children are taught early on that it’s rude to point. Pointing is a potent magical gesture, quite often used in spontaneous, hostile magic: the curse that just slips out of someone’s mouth is usually accompanied by a pointing finger directing hostile words in their intended direction. The wand may be understood as an extension and enhancement of that finger of power.

Wands may be ornamented with crystals, feathers, and amulets,. They may be engraved with sigils, runes, hieroglyphs, Names of power or magical inscriptions. As described in the Harry Potter novels, wands may be hollowed out and filled with a reed or some other material, however due to limitations of size, obviously less material can be placed within a wand than inside a staff.

*In the German mythic epic The Song of the Nibelungs (Die Nibelungenlied), the dragon’s treasure hoard includes a tiny gold wand that enables its possessor to rule the world.

Don’t have a magic wand? Not to worry. Substitutions are easily made: an umbrella serves as a magic wand as does a cane, folding fan or flute. (And when in need, one’s finger really can substitute!) The crucial thing is to recall that once the instrument has been designated as a magic tool it must be treated as such: an umbrella magic wand is potentially no less sacred than a more conventional wand. If one expects it to behave magically, it must be treated with the respect and care due any magical tool.