1. Tools are the symbolic extensions of the Witch him/her self in a 'Spiritual sense'.



2. 'The Mind' is the 'Tool' that can be used in replace of any physical implement. James Allan wrote, that "Mind is the Master Power that molds and makes" etc..
   From the novel 'The Wizard of Earth Sea' comes a beautiful phrase which I believe extends to us the prime example of how Witchcraft can fit into our daily lives... "And as his true power grows and his knowledge widens ever the path he can walk grows narrower and narrower until at last he chooses nothing but does only and wholly what he must do!"



3. In the days of the great mystery schools the apprentices made their own tools with care and attention to detail. Once made they were treasured for a lifetime and sometimes passed on to a favoured student, a gift that was highly esteemed. At other times they were destroyed at the death of their maker.



4. Something you all need to think about is: What is to be done with your 'Magickal Tools', Books Robes Altar etc. You can of course be buried in your robes with your tools as well.



5. Since medieval times there have been certain traditional ways to obtain the magical instruments. In Todays society however, things are just a little changed. So there may be some difficulty in procuring your implements as below. If you can possibly do so though, we believe that the old ways are the best ways.

The Cup - is best received as a gift.

The Sword - should be won if it is not possible for you to forge one yourself.

The Wand - must be cut and made.

The Pentacle - If wood, needs to be cut and fashioned by your own hand. If metal, it should be incised with symbols by its owner.

• Should you choose to have a Horn rather than a Pentacle, it must be found in the wild where the animal has died, or otherwise dropped it.

The Wand:

1. Every child is weened on magick wands as used by a variety of fairy godmothers and evil witches. (In the main witches are mostly healers and conservationists whose worship is anything but evil, Much of their symbolism can also be found in Christianity if you care to look.)

   For thousands of years, Gods, Kings, priests and emperors have been depicted carrying a symbol of their power, in the form of a straight staff. Sometimes it is topped by a totemic animal, bird, or an abstract symbol that shows the type of power being used by the bearer.

   By comparing such symbols in ancient wall or tomb paintings it is possible to decipher which priest is portraying which god.

   It is not enough to have or make a Wand or Rod, you must be able to see and understand beyond the form and material used to the archetypal symbol at the very root of that shape.

   Archetypes are not always in the form of a being. Each pure form of shape has its root in an archaic, and symbolic form, from which all other concepts of that shape evolve. For example An animal will work better with someone it likes and trusts, so too will a magickal implement, if it becomes a part of you.

   All implements must be made because of a basic desire or need for them that wells up inside you, in this way they emerge from the Supernal Archetypes of Form and Force.

   Think of all the other forms of the Rod of Power
   A King's Sceptre, A Field marshall's baton, and those carried by drum majors and majorettes. Mace bearers and Master Seargents, Aaron's Rod and the Rods of Moses and Aesculapius, The Caduceus of Hermes, The war clubs of Polynesian chiefs and the Shillelaghs of the Irish warlords, the ancient weapons used to dispatch the outgoing 'oak kings'. The Crook and the Flail of the Pharoahs, The bishop's crozier, The witch's broom and the shepherd's crook. The baton of an orchestral conductor. The star-tipped wand of the fairy queen and a billiard cue in the hands of a master..

   All are Rods, emblems of power and force carried through from the higher levels to the physical. All to a greater or lesser extent are magic wands.
   The best woods for a wand are Oak, Ash, Rowan, or Hawthorn.

   The Egyptians held a feast day called the 'Nativity of the Sun's Stick'. They believed that as the year grew older and the days shorter the sun needed a stick to help him along.

   In Ritual � The purpose of the Wand is to extend the will, to add strength to the desire or wish of the magician.




2. It is therefore necessary to develop the Will to its highest point. Partial surrender of an imperfect Will is of no account in Magick.



3. This Magical Will is the Wand in your hand by which The Great Work is accomplished.



4. This Magick Wand is thus the principle weapon of the Magus and the name of that wand is the Magical Oath (Magickal Oath being The foundation of all work in Magick is an affirmation of the Will). An oath binds the Magician forever.



5. The Word is often referred to as the Will. Word should express Will Hence the Mystic or Witch name can expresses your Highest Will. Ultimately the Magickal Will so identifies itself with the persons whole being that it becomes unconscious, and is as constant a force as gravitation.



6. MAGICK is therefore the Changing of consciousness at Will.

The Robes:

The robes are that which conceal and which protects the witch/magician from the elements. It is the silence and secrecy with which he works, the hiding of himself in the occult life of magick and meditation.

This is the going away into the wilderness which we find in the lives of all men of the highest types of greatness.

It is also the withdrawing of one's self from life as such. In another sense it is the 'aura' of the Magician/with that invisible egg or sheath which surrounds him.

The Cup:

The Cup's primary function is to contain and form. To primitive man the first Cup was a woman. Within her, new life was shaped in some miraculous way that was magickal to early man. It was a very long time before he realised that he played any part in the conception. Out of this ignorance grew what is known as the 'Sacred Relationship'. A man could never be sure that his wife's child was his, on the other hand he knew that he and his sister had come from the same mother, so he reasoned that his sister's son was his true kin. So the nephew became in many cases the successor to a king or chief. That is one meaning of the cup - the fertility of the female (the Moon).

Another meaning is the Cauldron or container of wisdom. For example, in the White Goddess you can read the story of Ceridwen and the transformation of Gwion Bach, the simple peasant boy, into Taliesin, the Bard and Mage, through the magic of the Cauldron. All Grails, Cauldrons and Cups have a similar function, they feed those who find them with their heart's desire.

If that desire is wisdom then it is given, if the desire is power, then that too is given, though not always in the way one would wish. In this ability to apparently make wishes come true the Cup shares a place with Aladdin's Lamp.

If the Wand was the first magical instrument, the Cup was the one that early man revered most. It held the promise of rebirth into Godhood. Unity, with knowledge and power added.

Today the church communion promises at-one-ment with the Godhead. The practice of eating the body and drinking the blood of the sacrificed God-King is not new. It was known and practised in one form or another in most of the Mystery Religions. Jesus adapted an ancient rite to his own use, thereby linking the old and the new together. By this act he intimated that the old ways were still valid and not to be despised. The Cup is then above all a container. That which is invoked by the Wand is contained within the Cup. They form a pair, a polarity.

In another sense they symbolise the creative act with the Wand as the phallus and Cup as the womb. According to the ancient Law of 'As above, so below' the interaction between the two symbols brings into manifestation that which is desired by the magician.

The emphasis is on the desire or need for the object or event being invoked. Just as desire on the physical level can bring about a new being, so it is held in magick that the Wand and the Cup create what is desired by magical arts. Without desire the magician can do nothing, though that desire is on a very high level of consciousness.

Sometimes locations can act as Cups of Power. Some countries, because of their special vibrations act like racial cauldrons, containing within their soil and their races special bloodlines that throw up great men and women when times dictate a need for them.

Once you have your Cup fill it. Place it on your altar and use it as a meditation symbol for several days. Try to 'see' it from the inside, from its own highest levels, fill it with yourself almost in the sense of sacrifice, fill it with memories both bitter and sweetfor the Cup of Cups contains both honey and Myrhh.

When you feel your cup is full, pour in a little wine and drink it down. With this symbolic act you accept all that is within your Cup, all that the future holds for you, all that the past has made of you.

Truth, they say, is found at the bottom of a well. It may well be found at the bottom of a chalice. It has also been said that 'the all' important thing is the 'empty inner'. There must be a space into which knowledge and grace can be poured. It is up to you to make that space within yourself, unless you do there will be no room at the inn' for the light to enter. Whatever you receive from the cup let it flow outwards to others, then more will enter to keep it filled.

As the Magick Wand is the Will, the Wisdom, the Word of the Magician, so is the Magick Cup his understanding. The understanding of the Magus is his link with the Invisible, on the passive side. His Will errs actively by opposing itself to the Universal Will. His Understanding errs passively when it receives influence from that which is not the ultimate truth. It is by the understanding of the magician that his work is purified.

Kant has shown that even the laws of Nature are but the conditions of thought. And as the current of thought is the blood of the mind, it is said that the Magick Cup is filled with the blood of the saints. All thought must be offered up as a sacrifice. The Cup can not be described as a weapon. It is round like the Pantacle-not straight like the wand and the Athame. Reception not Projection is its nature.

So that which is round is to him a symbol of the influence from the higher. The circle symbolises the infinite, as every cross or Tau represents the Finite. That which is foursquare shows the finite fixed into itself; for this reason the Altar is foursquare. It is the solid basis from which all the operation proceeds. One form of the Magical Cup has a sphere beneath the bowl, and is supported upon a conical base.

This Cup (crescent, sphere, cone) represents the three principles of the Moon, the Sun, and Fire, the three principles which, according to the Hindus, have course in the body. This is the Cup of Purification. So therefore first the Priest who governeth the works of Fire (wand) must sprinkle with the Water (chalice) of the loud-resounding Sea.

Understanding is the structuralisation of knowledge. All advance in thought is made by collecting the greatest possible number of facts, classifying them, and grouping them.

• Excerpts taken from Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki 'The Ritual Magick Workbook' and Aleister Crowley's 'Magick'.

The Circle:

The circle announces the nature of the work you are about to perform. A Circle is chosen rather than any other lineal figure for many reaons.

1. The Magician/Witch affirms thereby, their identity with the infinite.



2. The Magician/Witch affirms the equal balance of their working, since all points on the circumference are equidistant from the centre.




3. The Magician/Witch affirms the limitation implied by their devotion to his/her work. They no longer wander about aimlessly in the world.

4. The uniting of subject and object.... This place of his/her working therefore declares the nature and object of the work (INTENT).

The Pentacle:

The Pentacle is an earth symbol, and the least known of all the magickal implements . It can be made of wood or metal and it is the only one that grows and changes with the magician himself.

It takes the form of a disc inscribed on both sides with symbols of personal value to the magician/witch.

On one side is depicted his idea in symbolic form of the Godhead in whatever tradition he is working, these symbols are the result of much meditation and deep thinking.

On the other side through the same form of mental discipline he must evolve a symbol depicting himself in relation to that Godhead.

Just as the universe and the Godhead changes and adapts to new growth, so those symbols will change over a period of time. You start with an idea of the Creator and yourself in juxtaposition as you see it now.... but that will change as you grow in understanding and wisdom. Then you will need to make a new Pentacle with new symbols.

The Pentacle is very similar to the wheel of Fortune in the Tarot pack, the wheel of life, birth and death. each new disc will show evidence of your growth.

No two people have the same pattern of change. For some the symbols will last longer than others, the time is not a criterion of success or failure, time is a misnomer for it indicates only the spacing between the rings in the personal spiral of attainment.

For the rare few the disc will never have to be changed, for in a flash of insight they have a moment of complete knowingness, but they will still have to grow into what they have seen.

A Pentacle can be used without symbols for a time. This magickal tool is a link between you and the Earth, in some rituals it can represent you as an earth being, in others it will stand for the Earth herself.

In Ritual, as the magick Cup is the heavenly food of the magus, so is the magick Pentacle his earthly food.

• The Wand was his Divine Force.
• The Sword his Human Force
• The Cup is hollow to receive the Influence from above.
• The Pentacle is flat like the Fertile Earth.

The name Pentacle implies an image of the All, 'omne in parvo', (latin for "all in small"). This is by a magickal transformation of the Pentacle.

Just as we made the Sword symbolical of eveything by the force of our magick, so do we work upon the Pentacle, that which is merely a piece of common bread shall be the Body of God. (Our Earth).

• The Wand was the Will of man, his wisdom, his word.
• The Cup was his understanding, the vehicle of grace.
• The Sword was his reason.
• The Pentacle shall be his body. The Temple of the Holy Ghost.

There is therefore nothing movable or immovable under the whole firmanment of heaven which is not included in the Pentacle, though it be but "eight inches in diameter and in thickness half an inch.

The Altar:

The Altar represents the solid basis of the work, the fixed Will of the Witch, and the law under which he/she works.

The Altar embodies the Witch's knowledge of the laws of nature, which are the laws through which he/she works.

There are three shapes an altar can take:

• The Double Cube - The Altar of Sacrafice
• The Rectangular - The Altar of Communion
• The circular - Round -Table of companionship.

The Altar of the double cube is traditionally navel height to a six foot man. It is made in the form of a cupboard with a shelf inside to take such things as candles, altar cloths, incenses, tapers for the lampsand a file with your rituals etc...

The Sword / Athame:

Next, to the Wand , the Sword/Athame It is the best known of the magickal instruments � also it is the most misunderstood and misused.

It's main purpose is to defend, rarely if ever to attack, certainly not to carve anything that may come your way on the inner levels. As the Wand is to fire, so the Sword is to Air, it is an expression of the magician's energy on the Inner Levels and as such it should be conserved.

Swords are part of Initiation ceremonies where the Sword is held to be part of the equipment of the Officer of the East. In working group, the temple guardian, who is responsible for guarding the door against physical plane intruders (there is an Inner Level guardian to take care of other kinds), would also carry a Sword of Office. There would also be a Sword for general temple use, but the Sword we are concerned with now is the personal Sword.

Like the Wand and the Cup, the Sword has a long tradition behind it. Like the Sword that drove Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, being perhaps the first example of a magical weapon. Myths and legends are full of the exploits of heroes and their swords

Nearly all the great swords have been dignified with a name that described their power and purpose.

The Answerer was the weapon of Manannan the Mighty who gave his name to the Isle of Man. Durandel belonged to Roland the greatest of Charlmagne's Paladins.

Four swords are used at the coronation of a British monarch, the Sword of State, the Sword of Mercy, named Curtana, the Sword of Spiritual Power and its twin the Sword of Temporal Power. Set at the four corners of the canopy they are the protectors of the Kingdom. A sword is worn by all Solar Gods and Heroes, and the higher degrees of Knighthood.

In the East it has a straight phallic shape, in the West however it takes on a curved female shape as their mythos looks on the woman as a threatening figure and this is reflected in the shape of the weapons. In some respects it is a counterpart of the Distaff, a true female symbol, both, you will remember from the story of Sleeping Beauty, can inflict a wound.

Excalibur is perhaps the best known sword. In its earliest version it is called Excaliburn, or Excaliban meaning "Out of Earth". It is only loaned to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake, and had to be returned to her at his death. We could say that once Arthur was dead the Inner Plane energy that was available to him through Excalibur was no loner needed.

There is an ancient belief that a sword once drawn must be blooded before being sheathed again or it will lose its power and sharpness. This lays emphasis on the part played in sword symbolism by the scabbard which is 'female' as it is a container, and reveals the meaning behind the action of a knight lay his sword between himself and any lady with whom he might be travelling when they rested at night.

Arthur lost the scabbard of Excalibur to Morgan le Fay, a tragedy, for while it was in his possession he would never have lost any blood no matter how deep the wound. This again tells us that had Arthur been more in touch with his Anima or female side, he might have won that last battle.

To a modern magician his magical Sword is a reservoir of strength and energy he may draw on at will.

In the days of Chivalry, a knight spent a vigil in a church or chapel on the eve of his entry into the Order of Knighthood. The night was spent on his knees praying that he might prove worthy of the sword that lay upon the altar in front of him. CAN YOU DO LESS TO EARN YOUR SWORD. (search for a sacred site of your own, if not your own temple). Give your sword a name and choose that name carefully, in fact this can be made part of the vigil to meditate upon a suitable choice. Once chosen keep the name secret.

In Ritual As the Wand is the Will, "the Father", and the Cup the Understanding the "Mother", so the Magick Sword is the Reason. The "Son".

The Magick Sword is the analytical faculty. Directed against any demon, it attacks his complexity. Only the simple can withstand the Sword.

The Hilt is of Venus, for Love is the motive of this ruthless analysis.- if this were not so the sword would be a black magickal weapon.

"Whoso taketh the sword shall perish by the sword' is not a mystical threat, but a mystical promise, for it is our own complexity that must be destroyed.