A ritual knife creation guide
A ritual knife can be known by many other names but one of the most common is athame (this is often associated with the wiccan belief but not limited to it) For the purpose of this article ill refer to the knife as an athame.
to create an athame it is important to understand what an athame is. The athame is a common tool (though not required in all beliefs) used by many belief systems to aid in spell casting. The two main uses of the knife in most modern traditions are to cut or guide strands of magic( for this reason it is often used in casting a circle) and as a focus for magical energy during spell casting. An athame is sometimes associated with an element and this is usually fire or air.
When you can use the knife is important to consider as well. there are two prevailing beliefs that are opposite of each other. One is that the knife should only be used for magical purpose and uses other than of a magical nature can weaken the athame. The other goes opposite that in saying that you should use the athame in all things to increase your familiarity with it. Ill leave it up to the reader to decide which they believe for themselves as there are fairly solid arguments on each side.
Now that we have covered what an athame is and when it is okay to use it we can move on to construction. This differs greatly from many other tools a practitioner may use (such as a wand) because more often then not the knife is not made for or by the practitioner. This is most likely because the average practitioner is not skilled in the ways of forging. This is not to say there is not benefits to forging your own athame it is just rarely done. That means the emphasis here should be on finding the proper knife to make an athame out of.
Which knife is a proper knife for an athame? An athame usually has a few specific traits but not always. They often have a black handle. This handle is sometime decorated with various runes or sigils. I believe the black handle is done more so out of tradition but some beliefs may say differently. They often are double edged. This actually has a practical application as they are often used to complete certain gestures that are made easier by having a double edged blade. As an important side note a boline is traditionally a white handled knife used for minor physical task such as herb cutting, so if you use a white handled knife as an athame that may illicit confusion.
Once you have acquired a knife you want to be your athame it is now time to magically form the tool. This is usually started by a ritual cleansing then blessing of the knife. There are many ways to cleanse your tools and it really is something that should be done after ritual use. I can go into some cleansing methods if there is some interest (please comment to let me know) but for now ill skip this step and move to blessing.
Blessings can also be done in a variety of ways. ill explain one method a practitioner can use. Begin by forming a paint or ink for use in drawing symbols. (again this is not required in all methods) You can get paint from many areas which you can add things to imbue your knife. For someone who focus on nature magic you may make your or add bits to the paint. another common method is to add a drop of your own blood (please read side note below if you decide to use blood) to the paint but this is only if your comfortable with such things and is not a must do. after adding what you will to the paint to make it your own it is time to imbue the paint with energy. You can do this by holding your hand over the paint and visualizing energy flowing out of you and into the paint. Well done you have your paint.
As a sidenote im going to take a second to talk about safe blood magic. Its important to remember that you don't need much to see an effect and you don't gain more effect with more blood. I would never use a knife to cut yourself to gain blood as you can easily go to deep. If this is something you want to use then please consider getting a finger pricker (forgive me if there is another name im drawing a blank) used by diabetes patients to test blood sugar. These are possible the safest means of getting blood and as long as they are kept clean they will stay that way.
now that you have your paint its time to imbue the knife. I usually hold the knife in my hand by the handle and see a connection form between myself and the knife. I then use this connection to envelope the knife with energy. I continue to do this till I feel the knife is ready. I then draw symbols on the knife that will help gear the knife towards its purpose. This can be things such as deities symbols that are important to you to runes from varies cultures to give the knife certain traits. It can be chaos sigils or even personal symbols that connect the knife to you. as your doing this continue running your energy through the knife. Its done when you feel it is done and the knife is now your athame. as you use your athame in ritual work the bond between you and the knife should increase only making it more useful as time goes by.
One last note. a ritual sword is often used as an athame for larger rituals or group rituals. They serve much the same purpose in most traditions.
As I said before there are multiple methods of imbuing an athame but this is one of the more common. I think I covered everything so if you have any question please let me know below. Feel Free to add to this post and if you have any ideas for new creation guides let me know
Be well
Ritual Knife (CG)
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