A skull on the hilt is a reminder older than any grimoire: whatever you cut, you are mortal too.
Origin & Traditional Use
The athame is the ritual blade of modern witchcraft, used for casting circles, directing will and cutting ties on the spiritual level. A small folding blade is the traveller’s athame, carried to graveyards, crossroads and outdoor sites. The skull marks it for work with death, ancestors and endings.
Uses by Tradition
Witchcraft & Folk Magick
- Graveyard work: carried to a cemetery to cut a small circle before collecting dirt or leaving offerings.
- Cord cutting: used to sever a cord tied between two candles once they have burned down.
- Pocket protection: kept folded in a bag as a portable ward on night journeys.
Demonology & Black Magick
- Necromantic rites: used to draw the circle and to inscribe candles for calling the dead.
- Hexing: inscribing a target’s name into a black candle before it is dressed and burned.
A Simple Working
- Tie a black cord between two black chime candles set a hand apart.
- Inscribe your name on one candle and the name of what you are leaving on the other with the athame.
- Light both and let them burn until the cord sags.
- Cut the cord at its centre with the athame, saying ‘Done and over.’
- Put out the candles and wrap each half of the cord with its candle stub.
- Throw the bundle that is not yours away from your home, at a crossroads if you can.
Pairs Well With
- Black chime candles: for cutting and ending work.
- Graveyard dirt: for rites with the dead.
- A black velveteen bag: to carry the folded blade.
- A cast iron chime candle holder: to hold candles steady for cord cutting.
Lore & History
Skulls have stood on European desks and altars for centuries as memento mori, the Latin reminder that you will die, and the image is a fixture of the saint Jerome in Renaissance painting. Many practitioners keep skull-marked tools set aside for work with the dead and with endings.
What You Receive
Folding switchblade-style athame, 4 3/4″, with a colourful Southwestern-style handle decorated with a skull motif and geometric detailing.
Did You Know?
The United States passed a federal Switchblade Knife Act in 1958, after films and magazines of the 1950s made the spring knife a symbol of youth gangs.
| Weight | 0.4 lbs |
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