The Importance Of Athame

Athame is a black-handled, double-edged ritual knife used in modern witchcraft. An athame is a magical knife used by Wiccans in ceremonies and rituals, used for casting a circle, among other things. The term “athame” probably derives from the late Latin term “artavus” ( which refers to a kind of quill knife). The term “artavus’ is also found in the oldest manuscripts of “The Key of Solomon”.

Athame signifies and represents the fire element and the masculine energies of consciousness, force and action. It is used to direct energy or cast a circle so as to contain the energy of the circle, for protecting energies within a circle or for creating a sacred space.

It is considered to be the direct extension of onself by many Wiccan and Pagan practitioners.

Athame is a tool of center, of

The Athame, is considered to be an extension of the users "one own self". This could be a person’s will, spirit, emotion, thought or even the manifestation. The Athame is used to direct energy and can also be useful when we want to cast a magical circle so that the circle or sphere within which we do the ritual is marked to contain energy, create a sacred space or for providing protection. When the ritual or ceremony is completed, the practitioner closes the circle by drawing it anticlockwise using the athame.

Personally, I was not aware that Athame is a sort of a knife and mistook it for some chemical compound like in alchemy because of the way it sounds. People feel that athame should necessarily be a black handled knife though it is not always so. People have misconceptions about athame because since witchcraft was always associated with black magick, thus people believed that witches used athame for killing people and/or animals for ritual sacrifice. They did not know or understand the spiritual meaning of