Common Tools of Paganism

You will see a lot of material on tools used in Wicca/Paganism/Witchcraft. Personally, I don't think they are absolutely necessary. Some people will insist that you need to have these items, and some will go out and literally spend thousands of dollars getting tools. My personal beliefs are:

1) no, you don't absolutely HAVE to have these in order to practice Wicca/Paganism/Witchcraft, but they do help (and I'll be posting an article soon as to why I think they help, and I'll add a link to it here when I get it done). There are actually two parts to this belief:

    a) Wicca and Paganism are religions, and I don't think tools are required to make one feel connected to deity; I do lots of little prayers and spiritual things that don't require casting a circle or using an athame and so on. So with that in mind, you could practice Wicca or Paganism (the religions) forever without ever having to buy or make a single tool.

    b) Witchcraft, however, is less of a spiritual practice. This is where tools come in handy (but still aren't required-- a pointed finger works just as well as an athame when casting a circle). But this is mainly what I use my tools for, as they help to put me in a "magick-working" frame of mind.

2) items you make yourself are more powerful than ones you buy because you put a "little bit of yourself" into everything you make.

3) if you do need to buy something, you shouldn't just buy the first one you see-- you should wait until you find one that feels like it is really the right one for you. And there are some who would say, "Oh, that's new agey-mumbo-jumbo. Just buy it, for pete's sake!". But I disagree. Whenever we are able, we buy the car, clothes, house, etc. that feels right for us and fits our personal style . . . the tools we use for worship and magick should fit just as well (but if you wait for fairies to fly out of the tool and sprinkle you with happy dust before you buy it, then THAT would be new-agey mumbo-jumbo).

4) On a similar note to #3, don't decline something that feels right just because it doesn't match tradition. For example, my athame (black-handled knife) doesn't have a black handle. But I knew it was the right one for me.

5) Don't get too overly attached to or hung up on your tools, because, like everything else, there will come a time when it's time to leave those tools behind. Many pagans go through several name changes as they travel on their path, and your tools will change too. For example, I've had the same pentacle for YEARS (a pentacle with Isis on the front of it). Recently, it seemed to lose it's "magick" (not literally, of course . . . it just began to feel less like a connection to deity and more like something that just hung around my neck for aesthetic value), and began to feel more like a piece of ordinary jewelry. I decided to begin a search for a new one, and soon found one that feels "more right". So I'm retiring my old pentacle. As a person evolves spiritually, they feel the need to cast off the old and bring in "the new" to better fit their path.

Okay, now off my soapbox and onto the tools:

God and Goddess Images: most Pagans do have these on their altars. They do act to help remind you of deity and make you feel closer to them/him/her. In my case, I use gold and silver candles (gold for masculine aspects and silver for feminine), as well as some "token" of the deity aspect I'm working with at that time (a picture of a lotus blossom for Isis, a crow feather for the Morrigan, and so on). I generally leave rice on my altar at all times for the god-aspect, since most representations of masculine gods are fertility/grain gods. I could do the same for the goddess-aspect representation (put a moonstone since most goddesses are moon goddesses), but I prefer to put a more specific item on the altar for goddess-aspect (probably because I most often work with goddess-aspect).

Athame: most traditions call this the "black-handled" knife and it's used for ceremony only (not for actual cutting-- it's generally used to cast the circle, add salt to water, or whatever you see fit). I don't get too hung up on specifics on things like this, and I go with whatever feels right for me. So my athame does NOT have a black handle. Mine is an Isis dagger (not the one with the serpent-like head that you see on ebay). It's pewter and has a large crystal at the non-blade end of it. It has Isis's wings as the hilt of the knife, and there are Swavorski (which I probably spelled wrong) crystals at her chakra points. I felt that it was the right one for me (in spite of not having a black handle), and it works just fine.

Censer: this is used for burning incense, which, to me, is very important. I am a "nose-oriented" person (meaning scents evoke strong emotional responses from me-- the familiar scent of a cologne an ex-lover wore, the smell of cookies baking like grandma's house, etc.), so incense really helps me get into a proper frame of mind. Even if I don't cast a circle and I'm only doing a goddess devotion (heck, even right now while I'm typing at my computer) I burn incense. But again, it's not necessary for others. My censer is a small black pottery bowl that I bought at a department store (for about two bucks) and filled with sand. Filled with sand, now, that is-- when I first used it I didn't put sand in it. One night while trying to get some privacy, I did a circle in our bathroom-- which is huge and blessedly private-- and I melted some of the floor tiles. So I learned my lesson and filled it with sand. Some people prefer hanging ones because they are much easier to carry around the circle; but I'm pretty attached to my little bowl. The purposes for burning incense are many, from "setting the mood", to carrying wishes to deity, to purifying space.

Chalice: In contrast to my censer, my chalices are elaborate. This is a personal preference-- I'm goofy about glasses to start with, so that's probably why I'm hung up on elaborate chalices (I had a massive glass and goblet collection long before I ever started traveling down the pagan path). This is used to hold the water (to which salt will be added and sprinkled around the circle) and/or for the cakes and ale part of your circle. I have three that I use (I told you I was goofy about glasses). I have a solid silver antique goblet that I put water in to represent the west element. I also have a crystal one (that I added a band of metallic blue ribbon to the rim and a blue jewel on the side) that holds the water which will be "salted" for sprinkling around the circle. And, I have one I picked up at a department store that has an amazing crystal stem and a cobalt blue bowl that I use for holding the "ale" for the cakes and ale part of circle.

Boline: This is the white-handled knife that is the "working" knife. I was lazy on this one. One set of my kitchen knives has white handles, so I pilfered one from the set. It wasn't because I felt it HAD to be white handled, but that this is an actual working knife so it goes through a lot of tough handling (and to be perfectly honest, the white-handled kitchen knives are pieces of cheap crap, and the handles fall off. So I thought, hey, I can have one that's white handled AND not be worried about destroying it during circle). I know that other witches use this for chopping herbs and such, but I don't do a lot of that (and my white-handled knife is a butter knife, so it's not the greatest at cutting but makes a great stir stick). So my personal opinion is that it's better if your boline is nothing fancy, because it may end up ruined.

Salt: is often used in earth-related spells, and is used in water as part of circle casting. Some witches use sea salt, I use Morton's Iodized.

Pentacle: this is used a LOT in rituals and in circle. Part of my method of circle-casting involves touching items to the pentacle altar tile, as does my method of consecrating items. This is right up there with incense on my "almost essential" list. When I started out, I used my Isis pentacle necklace. Since then, I've added a beaded one as the center of my god/goddess candle holder, and made a pentacle tile out of cinnamon dough (I'll post a link to my recipe for cinnamon dough soon). This is really easy (and smells great). You just make a circle out of cinnamon dough, draw a star on it, and let it dry. It becomes sturdy and rock hard. The only caveat is that if you have young kids or pets, you will need to store it away when not in use because it also looks tasty.

Wand: this is most often used in place of (or in the same manner) as the athame. I have two, one a dear friend made for me (that's so beautiful I only use it on special occassions), and one I made myself. You can use it to cast a circle, wave over objects being consecrated, etc. The one I made myself is made from a birch branch that I found while stomping in the woods while my hubby deer-hunted. I had a large quartz crystal (fist-sized) in my rock collection, and I made it the tip of the wand (funny thing is, I don't remember ever collecting that rock-- and you'd think I would since it's so unique! Fist-sized pieces of quartz aren't common around here, and it has beautiful veins of Mica and fool's gold at it's edges). Anyway, I hot glued it to the end of the wand, and then used leather lacing (like the kind you use to make dreamcatchers) over the glue (both to hide the glue and to add extra strength).

There are other tools that are fairly common, such as the besom (broom) and sword, but I don't use them very often in my practice (so I can't really give much comment on their usefulness in ritual). There are a lot of great websites out there on other tools, so I'd recommend that you check them out if I haven't listed a tool that you'd like to know more about.

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