⋆ tools, clothing and names ⋆
about working tools, knife, marking in metal, sword, other tools, dress, jewelry, horned helmet, inscriptions, your witch name
յ. the working tools are dictated by the tradition, usually every witch has a personal knife that in many traditions is called athame, it usually has a steel or iron double-edge blade and the length should be whatever feels comfortable for you
շ. if you’re not able to make one you can adapt an existing knife, the main point is that it should have something made by you, so get a knife (such as a hunting knife) and replace the handle and/or carve your craft name or monogram on it, don’t worry if you have one you think was used to murder someone, cause all tools after being made will be ritually cleansed and purified before use to remove any negative vibrations, then they’ll be personally charged and consecrated
Յ. the knife is your personal and magical tool and as such is something very special, so it’ll not do to simply go to a store and buy and unaltered ready-made knife, you have to work on it to make it your own
կ. there are two ways you can etch the blade to inscribe something on it:
you can use wax, cut into that what you want on the blade, pour on acid or some other etching agent and then wash it after some minutes, or you can engrave the blade, writing on it with a proper engraving tool that can be motorized, it’s still effective but this method doesn’t give a solid marking as the acid etching
Տ. the knife can substitute the sword, that is usually not essential but many covens like to have a coven sword, usually used to mark the circle at the start of every meeting
ճ. other ritual tools are the wand, staff, bell, burin (or white-handled knife, an engraving tool used to mark the name or sigil ritually on your magickal tools) and cords, which use will depend on the path you decide to follow
also, even if it’s recommended to work naked, if you prefer not to you can wear a robe, that can be as simple or as elaborate as you like, the material can be whichever but natural materials are preferred
the book then illustrates a simple method to make one: first you have to measure from wrist to wrist with your arms outstretched for the height of the material, then from the nape of the neck to the ground for the length needed of material, fold it inside-out, cut each side as indicated and sew the sides
most witches used to wear white robes, lately more colors appears at festivals and in various traditions, a few wear black but, while acknowledging that it’s a powerful color, some think it plays up the misconception of equating Witchcraft to Satanism and it should be avoided, this is a religion of nature and nature is made of color, so let’s use them more!
other things used can be jewelry, in some traditions used to signify ranks, usually made of silver or copper, and horned helmets, usually used by the priest in some rites where they specifically represents the God
Դ. about your craft name to etch on your working tools, there are a number of different magickal alphabets that can be used, the most popular are various runic alphabets and the theban form of writing
the word rune means mystery or secret in early english and it’s charged with overtones, the book then shows the Saex-Wica runic alphabet, specifying that if there are double letters in a word any of the glyphs can be written backwards giving a mirror image
now, by starting the witchcraft path you are starting your life anew, so why not start it with a name or your choosing? Many choose a name that reflects their personality or describes them cause names are important, and powerful
to choose a name you have to check out numerologically the ones you’d like, there are different systems of numerology but the one described here is the most commonly used, let’s give an example: Jessica born on 15 march 1962 wants to call herself Rowena
Jessica will have to find her birth number by adding each digit of her date of birth, so 1+5+3+1+9+6+2=27 and bring that down to a single digit so 2+7=9, note that it’s important to include all the digits of the year too
after having found the birth number she’ll have to find out the number of the name she chose, Rowena, so she’ll have to number each letter of the alphabet from 1 to 9 as in picture and then sum up the numbers as before, so 9+6+5+5+5+1=31=4
if, as in this case, the number of your chosen name doesn’t match you birth number, you could add letters to it to reach the right number, or try with another possible one
Ց. choose your own name and write it in various forms - your witch name should match your birth number cause it’s the one thing about you that is unchanging and by doing that you are aligning with the same vibration of the moment you chose to be born
once you have found a proper witch name, practice writing it in various forms of magickal script
գ. here is an example of the name Galadriel written in Saxon runes and its monogram:
from Raymond Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft, the Big Blue Book
recommended supplementary reading:
Witchcraft from the Inside by Raymond Buckland
The Meaning of Witchcraft by Gerald B. Gardner
Numerology by Vincent Lopez