What follows is a list of suggested magickal tools which any magician may find useful in their practice of ritual magick. The list is, as mentioned previously, a mere beginning and the possibilities for types and modes of magickal implements are, in fact, limitless. The following list has a classical feel and this is by intention. The use of traditional magickal implements (as well as traditional spells and rituals) can prove of enormous assistance in generating a sense of sacred space and connection with eternal archetypes.

Common magickal tools:

1) Dagger

2) Cauldron (bowl)

3) Wand (s)

4) Candle (s)

5) Bell

6) Ritual pen

7) Ritual paper (parchment)

8) Staff*

9) Knife (etching tool)

10) Incense/perfume

Whether you choose to adopt classical implements or implements of your own devising, ritual tools are created one of two ways: 1) from "scratch" 2) or by "appropriation." I will now discuss, in some detail, the difference between the two types of implements as well as the methods by which they are made suitable for ritual magick.

Despite the superficial appearance, appropriated implements are no less powerful or useful than created implements, although I do advise any magician, to the best of their abilities, to include some hand-made or created implements in their ritual space.

The creation of ritual implements is a time-consuming and often challenging task; however, the "pay-off" for such extended devotion is enormous. The creation of any ritual implement from raw materials usually involves three stages 1) the assemblage and blessing of the raw materials 2) the "fusion" or "conversion" of the raw materials into the desired implement 3) the magickal charging of the implement. All three of these steps are performed within a cast-circle in ritual space and are preceded by meditation or prayer upon the desired results and on the Divine nature of the implements and their intended use.

It is usual for the creation of a single implement to last many days or weeks, depending on the complexity of the task. To forge a magickal dagger from the raw metals the magician personally mined from the ground over a bellows the magician built and fired, and etc. would obviously be an extreme (and largely fantastic!) path toward the creation of an intimately unique and "focused" implement. However, such devotion to a single implement may obstruct the more Sacred purpose of the performance of ritual magick itself, so it is wise to find a measure of "balance' in the creation of magickal implements. A wooden magickal dagger, fashioned by hand, for example, is fine for the purposes of ritual magick.

Appropriation of Implements

A for more common approach to the implements of ritual magick for most magicians and especially Chaotes is the appropriation of magickal implements from common materials, or from everyday objects. Also within this category would be the purchasing of ritual equipment or borrowing of ritual equipment which was fashioned by someone other than the aspirant magician.

To appropriate implements for magickal use you simply follow two steps 1) a magickal transference of the object into ritual space 2) charging the magickal implement.

For step one you bring the desired implement into your cast-circle in ritual space and perform a blessing on it of your own choice or making. Thereafter you must make some visible, physical change to the implement such as anointing it with a symbol or magickal word or name -- or simply taking it out of its pre-existent form by altering it somehow. Examples would be: spray painting a cereal bowl you are now going to use for a cauldron, painting the blade of a butter-knife to use as a magickal dagger, turning a candlestick upside down and using the base to hold a smaller candle for ritual purposes, taking the "works" of a common ink-pen out of their case and placing them in a prepared "magickal" case (or just writing with no case).

For step two, you must meditate in ritual space upon the desired use of the implement in question. In general, it is sufficient to simply ask your god or magickal Source for a blessing of the implement. It may useful for to dip the implement in one of the elemental and archetypal essences: air, earth, fire, or water (or better yet all four!) during the charging phase. You may charge implements with the sun, the moon, your favorite song, your feeelings, a dream, a name, your magickal guide. Whatever works! You will know it is working when you feel 1) excited and 2) surges of joy and power (and maybe a little pride, too!)

After your implements are created or appropriated for magickal purposes you must keep them out of the stream of ordinary life and no matter how beautiful or original they are, you should resist the temptation to reveal them to anyone anytime other than in ritual space.  

* For magickal staffs, I think it is OK to just pick up a nice looking stick from the park or out in the forest and take it home and charge it in a magickal ritual. In fact, the more you treat you magickal staff as a living entity and the more you meditate on it and utilize it in your day-dreams, dreams, and fantasies, and spells, the better magician you will be!

"Art is the celebration of the ego's destruction."

Hi, H.P.!

Just saw your post in the "Self-Publishing" thread, and it was a hoot!  Welcome to the forum.     Also, speaking of your post in that thread, if you have been to the thread about writers and magick then you have already seen that my publication numbers have changed.  I counted recently, and it is over 1000.  Just wanted to warn you, so you won't suffer any more "shrinkage" (lol).  I haven't been to that thread yet, so I don't know if you have found it.  I should also say these numbers reflect one of my basic marketing strategies as a writer.  When I first started out in the writing business 19 years ago I looked at what the top writers in the small press were doing.  Many of them were of the thinking that it is more important to publish a lot rather than in just a few big name mags.  That was before the internet.  Now that way of thinking is more important than ever because Google rules.  So I have these numbers, which grow weekly, because I publish in everything...big mags, small mags, print mags, web mags, fly-by-night mags, you name it.  And it adds up on my resume and in the Google search engine.  So that's how it happens, and any writer can pursue this strategy as well.  What it means in $$ is when someone searches for me, they find me and my books very quick!

Hi, Daniel

Hmm...faery magick.  You know there is a rule of thinking among practioners that you are not supposed to talk about the Fey.  Fortunately, I am not one of them.  I guess you could call me a Fey rebel in many ways.  And I think that is why I liked Andrews's book.  I could tell he approaches the Faery realm in the same way I do.  I have been a Witch for so long that in many ways I have gone beyond ritual.  And I think that is also because I am psychic and an Empath.  Sometimes you get to the point where you move beyond the trappings of ritual in certain areas and just "commune" with the Fey and the spirit realm.  And that's what I do.  Yes, you can call it faery magick, but mostly it is just talking with the Fey, living with them every day, loving and adoring them, telling them my needs of the moment, having them satisfied immediately by the Fey, etc.  That kind of thing. 

I was trying to explain this to my neighbor the other day.  I was standing in her kitchen talking to her about the heat (it had slammed both of us and we were cooling off...she had mowed the yard, and I had packed up a dog pen and dropped off my kittens at a friend's for the day on a very hot hot day).  She knew I had developed the ability this summer to hear animals speak.  Her dog, Katy, was sitting there staring at me.  When I looked in Katy's eyes I heard what she was saying.  She told me her name was Sheila Pichard, and she had been a little blonde girl who had died in England when she was 10 in 1843, and she loved to paint with her watercolors.  When my neighbor asked me how I did that I said I used my Empath skills to zero in on the emotion pouring out of her eyes as she tried to express herself to me.  I dove into it through her eyes, and I used my psychic skills to hear what she was telling me and to see the images she was showing me (through my third eye) of this past life that had meant so much to her.  This was very important to her to tell me this, because my neighbor had painted her kitchen the day before, and Katy had gotten in big trouble for jumping in the trash and "playing" with the paint, which she got everywhere.  I use those same skills when I communicate with the Fey and the spirits that live with me every day, as well as my Patron Goddess...a mix of magick and Empath/psychic skills.  So I don't really use Faery Magick spells I could pass along to others.

I say I am a Fey rebel in that I have come to believe you attract the kind of faeries that match your energy or aura.  If you believe the media buzz about the Fey then you believe they are mostly bad, and that is the kind of faeries you will attract.  But my experience (like Ted Andrews') has been good and loving, so those are the Fey that I attract and commune with every day.  I am actually exploring this theory further in my current novel-in-progress THE FAERY WITCH.  Now this is just my experience with the Fey, and I'm sure others have different experiences, but I think it is an interesting line of thought to follow (or it is to me...lol). 

"Art is the celebration of the ego's destruction."

"Art is the celebration of the ego's destruction."

Since you're making an explanation of techniques to folks who may have no idea about what's going on here, you'd better explain: 

-  Why do you cast a circle?  What's that got to do with anything? (You're telling folks techniques but not meanings or the significance of what they're doing.)  Does following a ritual without understanding its meaning do anything? 

-  Why keep your magic impliments and objects hidden?

-  Why do you feel it is unwise to leave a circle for a prolonged time? 

-  What happens if you don't 'break the circle'?