Your Essential Tools
Your altar is the center of your enchantments, your personal power space. A Wiccan altar is where you place symbolic and functional items for the purpose of spells and ritual work as well as a space for speaking chants and prayers. Your altar can— and should—evolve and change with the seasons.
Your Book of Shadows is a journal of your choosing in which you write down your magical workings and notes. When you track the effectiveness of a ritual, you can use this to refine your spellcraft in the future and your power will increase.
Candles are truly essential and contain all four of the elemental energies:
* Air—Oxygen feeds and fans the candle flame.
* Earth—The solid wax forms the candle.
* Water—Melted wax is the fluid elemental state.
* Fire—The flame sparks and blazes.
You can “dress” or anoint the candle with a couple of drops of essential oil on the side of the candle using a dropper or cotton ball. Go with your instinct on choosing sizes, shapes, and colors. I recommend keeping an array of options on hand. Different candle colors can enhance your spells and many of the rituals in this book suggest specific colors.
Magical knives: An athame (pronounced “a-thaw-may”) is your magical knife and should be placed on the right side of your altar. The athame is used to direct the energies raised in your ritual and usually has a dull blade. Since black is the color that absorbs energy, athames should have a dark handle. A bolline is a white-handled knife that is used for making other tools and for cutting materials, such as cords and herbs, within a magic circle. You can cut a branch to create your wand, for example.
Brooms (or “besoms”) have certainly captured the popular imagination as the emblem of witches. Using a broom as a magical tool came about from sweeping the ritual area clean before and after casting a spell. Now they’re mostly used in symbolic energy management.
Cauldrons represent the Goddess (also called Source or divine power), their round basins symbolizing the womb from whence all comes. A cast iron cauldron can hold fire and can even be used to burn incense or purifying sage. You can place a cauldron on your altar if there is room, or on the floor to the left of the altar.
