Tools of the Craft

Every little girl wants a crown and a fairy wand. Something pretty and sparkly that shimmers in bright light and casts magickal spells. Disney has made billions from magickal utensils and shows like Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel all relied heavily on the mystical accessories. Every magickal shop accross the globe has them in stock, including mine. Beautiful shimmering chalices, hand crafted wands and staves, divination tools aplenty, and who can forget cauldrons. When new witches begin practice there is the obvious question: what do you really need to begin practice as a new witch? More to the point do you really need a wand, an athame, a staff, a cauldron, a chalice, a book of shadows, a series of altar cloths, statuary, incense, etc? Not really.

Magickal tools have a long and colorful history. Each tool in fact has a very long and colorful history. I will spend time on each one in future articles. Basically when you first start out and after you have set up your altar, you will probably want to find basic tools. Generally a basic set up for an altar is as follows:

• Altar cloth. This grounds the space you are working on and sets the tone for ritual. It may be as colorful and bright as you like or as somber and serious. It can be bright blue with sun faces or it can be black velvet with pentacles or triquetras.

• Statuary or some symbol of the Divine. This is specifically for focus. You are not praying or worshipping the item. Statuary and other such items are used for focus and for developing a personal relationship with the divine, much in the way you would find crucifixes, angelic, or saintly figures in other forms of worship. Generally this is a statue of a goddess or god or a totem thereof. Often, it is a general statue although specific ones are also available. This could also be a piece of art. It doesn't have to be a statue.

• Charging plate or bowl. This is either a plate or a bowl for the use of charging an item for use in magick. This could be a fancy silver or brass piece, a wood burned or carved piece, copper, or stone created especially for this purpose. OR it could be Grandma's favorite piece of china handed down to you.

• Candle holders. You will need two of these, one to signify the goddess and the other to signify the god. They are generally called significator candles. They should hold either silver and gold candles or they should hold deity candles associated with the current Sabbat. Either way, they should always be used for the same purpose.

• Cauldron. Here is an item that is worthy of its own article and it will soon have one. The history around this item is deep and goes back thousands of years. The cauldron is currently made of cast iron, and has been for some time, but cauldrons of old were often made of copper, bronze, or brass and heavily decorated with scenes of the gods. The cauldron is used almost exclusively to symbolize the Goddess, although in Celtic traditions, the gods of both genders often had cauldrons (Daghda's cauldron of plenty for instance). They were often used for scrying, preparing medicines, making offerings, or representing the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

• Censor. Used for burning incenses. It may be long ash catchers for joss sticks, small round plates for the same purpose, clay joss or cone holders, or the brass containers with or without chains for cleansing and blessing an area. Incense may be used as an offering and may be resin, herbs, joss, cones, cakes, or ropes. If you use an incense that requires charcoal, you will probably want a censor or a brass burner with a grate and wooden hot plate to keep you and your altar from being burned. These are great for using with smudges also if you do not have access to abalone shells.

• Chalice. These beautiful, high sparkle items are used for libations and offerings thereof. They range from glass, to silver, silver plated, brass, wood, and stone. They may be hand crafted of ceramics or they may be a paper cup.

• Athame, sword, wand, staff, boline. These items are used for casting circle and energy in general. They are used to concentrate and direct energy to a specific location. You also have a wonderful natural tool for this. Your hand. Bolines and athames are used to collect offeratory herbs or herbs used in spellwork. Staves are used to either signify status within a coven or to cast and direct energy. In the old days they served as weaponry. These days they are used for symbolism.

• Book of Shadows. This could be a notebook, a binder, carved of wood, a computer disc, or a beautiful elaborate leather book. Books of Shadows are used to hold records of magickal workings, astrological and astronomical records, herblore, deity history, recipes, written records of apothecary, spellwork, Sabbat work, and anything associated with your spiritual path. This is necessary, but doesn't have to be elaborate.

Along with these basics, other things you may want to add are altar boxes for keeping incenses, oils, herbs, or divination supplies. Some like to keep their athame or wand in an altar box and some use them to place prayers. Other forms of boxes include portable altar boxes that hold all the tools and may be very elaborate or have locks. Flower vases may also be used to place floral offerings.

Some pieces that are often mentioned in beginners books are things like elemental associations. If you choose to have things on your altar that represent the elements you should take into consideration each element. They may be represented by any number of symbolism, totems, or colors. These will vary from tradition to tradition as will the number of elements. Generally they vary from 3-7 and may or may not include Spirit. The altar itself represents Sprit as do deity associations. But some choose to add Spirit as a separate element. In which case, you may wish to also include chime candles or votives in the colors associated with these elements. Chime candles are generally about 4 inches long and tend to last about 3 hours. If you use chime candles the colors may be as follows:

Triad elementals: Stone, Water, Sky (heaven, earth, sea)...Blue, white, brown, black, gray

Otherkin elementals: (7) Stone, Metal, Magick, Wind, Sea, Wood, Fire..black, brown, gray, purple, white or yellow, blue, brown, red or orange

Pentalphic: (5) Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit

Other forms of elemental symbolism include dragons, sylphs, fae, merfolk, sea shells, flowers, crystals and stones, herbs, feathers, pieces of metal or stones with iron ore in them, leaves, ribbons, mandalas, or pieces of art. None of these items need to be expensive or elaborate. In my experience, the more elaborate the less functional.

These are the basics. Enjoy your journey!

Namaste ~