What is the Athame
and what is it used for?
Today I will be discussing the importance of the Athame in Wiccan rituals.
A typical athame will be a double edged dagger with a black or brown wooden handle (some choose to carve various magick signs into the base).
As for uses, the athame is most notably utilized when casting a circle (an act central to many spells), as well as calling forth spirits and channeling energy.
After the casting, the athame is the tool traditionally used to invoke the elemental guardians of the four directions – also termed “calling the quarters” – typically by drawing elemental pentagrams at each quarter. This important traditional practice is one of the reasons often given for the requirement that the athame must be double-edged; because attempting to trace a pentagram in the air with a single-edged blade will require some awkward twisting of the hand and wrist, in order to keep the single cutting edge in the direction of motion.
