Athame

### Abilities

Used by witches to kill/draw blood from living sacrifices during demonic rituals.

### Wielder(s)

Witches & Warlocks

An **athame** is a ceremonial blade used in demonic rituals, though non-demonic versions of them exist and used by mundane "witches".

## Overview

An **athame**, also known as athamé, is a ceremonial dagger used in magic traditions. The proper use of the tool was started by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the early 20th century, for the use of banishing rituals. The tool was later adopted by Wiccans, Thelemites and Satanists.

The athame is one of four elemental tools in modern occultism, traditionally representing fire for witches and air for ceremonial magicians. The other three elemental tools are the wand, the pentacle and the cup or chalice.

These four magical tools correspond to four "weapons" of significance in Celtic myth: the sword, the spear, the shield and the cauldron (and/or grail).

## Summary

The athame is one of the basic equipment used by every witches and warlocks since the beginning, with the earliest recorded athame dated back to the first warlock Eisheth in the Late Uruk period. They are typically used in demonic rituals where a blood sacrifice is needed, where they would use the athema to slice the throat of the living sacrifice, to collect the sacrificied's blood.

As time goes on, it becomes attached with the notion of magic and sorcery, as even among the earliest books about witchcraft - written by mundane and exorcists - have been mentioned in writing. In the renaissance period, certain versions of the "Key of Solomon", a greatly abridged version of the Legemeton, require the usage of a black-handled athame.

In the early 20th-century, to prevent misguided mundane people from using actual athames while attempting to practice "witchcraft", the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn began to propagandize the "proper use" of the tool for the purpose of banishing rituals instead of physical cutting. This was later adopted by Wiccans, Thelemites and Satanists in their practices, much to the amusement of true magic-practitioners.

## Appearance

Athames are double-edged daggers that usually have a black handle and are carved with demonic runes. Its blade are often made from celestial metals, though ones used by High Witches have the blades made out of demonic metals instead. The ones used by mundane witches are various in forms and appearances, depending on the user's spiritual and religious beliefs.

## Abilities

While there are many believed usages of the athame within the modern witchcraft of the mundane and typical wiccan beliefs, its true purpose among witches and warlocks is to be used in demonic rituals. Its most typical usage is to slice open the throat of living sacrifice, typically human children and maidens, to collect their blood, or to cut open their chest to use their organs such as the heart, lungs, and liver. They are also used to carve boundaries of the magic circle, lines of magical force that are needed during the ritual.

Because of this, the blade is often tempered by witchcraft during the smithing process while the handle is carved with demonic runes for better results during ceremonies. However, as a side-effect, they become solely useful for ritualistic purposes, as all of their demonic power will disappear if it is used in combat.

## Trivia

* The name, "athame", may derived from the Late Latin *artavus* ("quill knife").
* True magic practitioners, not just warlocks, can differentiate between a real athame and a fake one on sight, mundanes cannot. This leads to mundanes sometimes possessing real athames.