Tools of the Trade     Hands On - working with physical items    by Catherine M.     If you are interested in sharing your own experiences with our readers, or have questions, please email me.     Empty Handed By NiteSage This is a short list of the tools I own; Athame, sword, altar, chalice, tarot cards, crystal ball, runes, pendulums, smudge sticks, dream catchers, candles, incense, crystals, semi precious stones, jewelry, pentacles, charms, wands, staffs, statues, and a broom. I also have the tools for my tools; incense burners, candle holders, snuffer, mortar and pestle, a compass, bags, jars, boxes, sheaths, scarves, etcetera, as well as miscellaneous spell components of every kind imaginable. Robes, capes, and body paint are also on hand. After twenty-one years I am still missing from my witchy arsenal a boline, scrying mirror, scourge, witches ball, and pointy black hat just to name a few items. More experienced witches will compare their list to mine, noting what is missing or forgotten I expect. Some new practitioners may look at these lists and dismay, while others will be excited by the wonderful mysterious names. Names for ancient things and things familiar from past religions, names for things that make us feel part of something magical. We make them or buy them, cleanse them, consecrate them, infuse them with energy and purpose, collect them or pass them on, but mostly we love them. We show them to each other and thrill at the finding of a new one. We don't allow others to touch the special ones and handle them with reverence. I was taught to do all this by my wiccan teachers and saw this practice continued in other traditions as time went on. My Athame was used early in my training to fend off an attacker and save my life. The physical aspect of this is minor because it was the lessons learned through its symbolism that gave me the power and control to wield it. These lessons changed me from a person at the mercy of the fates to one who could influence them and control my own destiny. My Athame got all the credit though. This is the first problem with tools. If you believe it, then for you it is so. There are many witches out there without their power when they are without their tools. I'm sure many of you out there will say, "that isn't me" but if you have ever been asked to give guidance and postponed it because your tarot deck or runes were not on hand then think again. Those who don't do divination can substitute healing or help of any kind for that matter. The second problem is that we don't stop at those first symbolic tools. I recently found a whole octopus in a jar of ammonia in the back of my cabinets.Once you start collecting spell components the list could eventually include every vegetable, mineral, and animal product on the planet. The time it took to look up what to use and the shear volume of space that information plus the items themselves took up in my house was truly crazy. The very worst thing about all these tools though is they took my attention away from what was really important. Learning the meanings of stones and herbs took up my time instead of learning to be aware and attentive to my spirituality. I wish I could say that it was my own enlightened thought that brought me to this understanding. The truth is I had to lose just about everything I owned to get here. The tools are initially great for teaching symbolism. They remain useful to help make things "real" for non practitioners. It gives them something to see and hold. They can be used to honor tradition and sometimes just because they're fun. Let them never become a crutch for you though. It is you who have the power, you who must focus. If it doesn't come from you then it will never come from your tools. I learned many of our basic ideas through the symbolism of the tools. The God power, masculine energy, sun, active, intellect, phallic, the yang, all represented by the Athame. The Goddess power, feminine energy, moon, passive, intuitive, the womb, the yin, all represented by the chalice. These simple items represented very complex ideas. All of the important tools acted as symbols first. Their physical functions were of little importance. We drank from the chalice, but its primary function was not as a glass. We almost never actually cut something physical with the Athame, and most didn't even have an edge to them. The first tools we learn are the important ones. The real value of these tools and their symbolism is that they change the way we think. They introduce the vocabulary of power and give us the ability to begin to exert control. Even if you should choose to continue to use tools heavily in your practice I hope you will try just once working without them. Come empty handed into the work and accomplishing it will empower you in a way that will amaze you.It will serve you wherever your path may lead you. May you walk in the light of their love.     Waterfalls     in the forest, in unexplored valleys of the sky, are chapels of pure vision. there even the desolation of space cannot sorrow you or imprison. I dream of the lucidity of the vaccum, orders of saints consisting of parts of a rainbow, identities of wild things/of what the stars are saying to each other, up there above the concrete and minimal existances, above idols and wars and caring. tomorrow we shall go there, you and your music and the wind and I, leaving from very strange stations of the cross, leaving from high windows and from release from clearings in the forest, the unchartered uplands of the spirit ~ Michael Dransfield, exerpt from "Geography III", 1972     Links of Interest: Some Thoughts on Magical Tools Secret of Delphi Found in Ancient Text Dream Divination Traditions of the Byzantines         Vessels, not just for large bodies of water! By Micah Barnsley I have yet to come across a faith that doesn't have some sort of vessel to use in select rituals. There are offerings made in baskets, small bowls used to hold certain elements or crystals, cups holding wine or water on altars, and cauldrons used for everything from scrying to building fires in. The vessels themselves mean many different things to many different people, and are called by different names: bowls, chalices, cups, cauldrons, pots, horns and cornucopia’s. Most faiths that I found information on recognize vessels as representing the element of water, if there is an element assigned. Sometimes, in Euro-pagan and Wiccan ritual the elements associated with the cauldron change to reflect air and fire as well. Though if the cauldron is being used to hold or contain an element of fire or air, there is also a cup involved in the ritual holding some sort of liquid to hold down the water aspect. The Hopi spin things a bit though when setting up a six-directional altar. They use a bowl with water to symbolize the "middle", with lines of cornmeal branching out from the bowl indicating the directions. While the bowl is a representative of water, it also seems to act as a hub connecting with the dirt strewn across the floor to represent earth, or the down direction, with the bowl (and water inside) acting as a symbol for up in addition to “middle”. In the better known Celtic and Wiccan paths, the bowl, or chalice and cauldron, take on more common meanings. The cup becomes the primary symbol for water on the altar, as well as a symbol for fertility and the Mother Goddess. When a cauldron is used, the meaning changes ever so slightly, and conjures up the symbol of birth, rebirth, fertility or plenty and wisdom. With this added dimension, the cauldron becomes a tool for scrying. To lean a little heavier on the Celtic side, there is the belief that the soul goes into the cauldron and waits to be reborn. In the coming months, we will see this idea repeated with some Halloween traditions of the crone stirring the cauldron. Kitchen witchery however, bends that idea a little by using the cauldron for potion making--taking things in a more mundane route. That still doesn't change much though, as the crone is the one who passes on her secrets of healing to her followers, and that's just one of the things one does with kitchen witchery. Buddhists regard the bowl as one of the 8 precious things, and it represents the stomach of the Buddha and sometimes represents the urn for the bones of the dead. To a certain extent, this falls in line with the rebirth ideas as well as the ones about plenty. The "plenty" meaning is backed up further by the fact that some monks eat only what is placed in their begging bowl that day. Their bounty is only as much as the people they petition give them, and they must not let it go to waste. The Greeks picked up the cup, or horn aka Cornucopia, to be a symbol for plenty from the legend of Amalthea's horn. Zeus took one of her horns to his kingly caretaker of Crete that would fill with food or drink depending on its owners need. This reinforces the symbol of plenty and fulfillment. Whatever the use--a holder for the element of water and a symbol for plenty, or a container of fire and a symbol of rebirth, vessels definitely have a place in daily ritual. Added meaning to such personal objects can be further played out by what you make (or purchase) your chosen vessel out of--though most stick with the commonalities of their faith. Enjoy working with the prevalent and multi-faceted vessel, and use what is right for you. Happy trails!     Little cauldron Traditional cauldron     "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." ~ Shakespeare, Macbeth: Act IV, Scene I

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