Athame

A black-handled knife called an arthame appears in certain versions of the Key of Solomon, a grimoire dating to the Renaissance.

It is mentioned in the writings of Gerald Gardner in the 1950s, who claimed to have been initiated into a surviving tradition of Witchcraft, the New Forest Coven.

These four magical tools correspond to four significant "weapons" or talismans in Celtic myth: The sword, the spear, the shield, and the cauldron (and / or 'grail').

The handle of the athame is usually black, and is required in most covens which practice some variant of British tradition Wicca, including Gardnerian and Alexandrian.

[4] Janet and Stewart Farrar in A Witches' Bible suggest that the point of an athame be dulled so as to prevent un-intended physical harm during ritual use.

[3] In eclectic forms of Witchcraft the handle decorations range from astrological glyphs to runes, the symbols being chosen by the owner.

Some modern day magical practitioners believe that if things such as herbs or cords need to be cut, another knife called a "boline" is used.

Fire and water are considered to be polar opposite elements, classically and in alchemy and traditional magical practice.

There are various ways of accomplishing ritual purification and consecration, depending on the specific tradition of Wicca being followed, and also whether the individual Wiccan is practicing with a coven or as a solitary witch.

[6] The term athame derives, via a series of corruptions, from the late Latin artavus ("quill knife"), which is well attested in the oldest manuscripts of the Key of Solomon.

[citation needed] It means "a small knife used for sharpening the pens of scribes" ("Cultellus acuendis calamis scriptorii").

[8] An alternate etymology is given by de Garlande, (c. 1225):[11] (As distinguished either from a weapon, or from a table knife cultellos ad mensam, mensaculos.)

Idries Shah, who was personal secretary and close friend of Gerald Gardner, provides yet another etymology from an alleged Arabic al-dhammé ("blood-letter"), which was supposed to be the ritual knife of a medieval magical cult of Morocco and Andalusia.

This etymology is controversial, however: It appears in his book The Sufis as a quotation from A History of Secret Societies by Daraul – a probable pseudonym of Shah.