Black wood handle athame, 7 1/2″

How to Use It

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Circle casting: point it outward as you walk the boundary clockwise; reverse to release.
• Severing: drawn through the air between you and a person or habit to cut the tie on the spiritual level.
• Outdoor rites: sheathed, it travels to woods, beaches or crossroads where a full-size athame is awkward.

Ceremonial & Occult Magick

• Banishing: trace the banishing pentagram at each quarter before a working.
• Authority: held point-down over the triangle of art during a conjuration as the sign of command.

Demonology & Black Magick

• Pact and evocation work: grimoire practice uses a consecrated black-hilted knife to draw the circle and hold it while spirits are present.

A Simple Working

• Stand in the space and light a black chime candle.
• Draw the athame from its sheath and hold it point upward.
• Name the tie you want cut: a person, a place or a habit.
• Slice the air in front of you from top to bottom, then side to side, saying ‘Cut and cleared.’
• Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt on the floor where you stood.
• Sheath the blade and let the candle burn out.
• Sweep up the salt the next morning and throw it out the door.

Pairs Well With

• A black chime candle: for cutting and banishing work.
• Sea salt: to seal a space after severing.
• A boline: the white-handled working knife that partners the athame.
• A chalice: for the symbolic union of blade and cup.

What You Receive

Ritual athame with a black handle and silver-toned guard and pommel, 7 1/2″ overall, supplied with a sheath.

Origin & Lore

In Gardnerian Wicca the athame is the witch’s personal blade, traditionally black-handled and used to cast the circle and direct power rather than to cut. The black hilt comes from the Key of Solomon, where a black-handled knife is made for drawing the circle. This smaller boot-knife pattern is easy to carry to outdoor rites in its sheath.

Black handle, double edge, kept for ritual alone: the oldest witchcraft texts describe almost exactly this knife.

In the Key of Solomon, published in English by S. L. MacGregor Mathers in 1888, the black-hilted knife is used to make the circle and to strike fear into spirits. Gardner’s witches adopted it as their primary tool, and many traditions hold that an athame should be bought without haggling or received as a gift.