Common and Not So Common Tools of Witchcraft

Join Lord Night and Oswin in this enlightening episode of Pagan Coffee Talk as they dive deep into the essential tools of modern paganism, including swords, staves, wands, cauldrons, pentacles, altars, and cords. Explore the sacred significance of these ritual tools, their associations with the elements—air, fire, water, earth, and spirit, and their use across pagan traditions, rites of passage, and ceremonial magic.

In this episode, discover:

•  The mystical meaning behind swords, staves, and spears in pagan rituals 
•  How cauldrons, cups, and bowls represent water and feminine energy 
•  The correct purpose and use of altars vs. shrines or monuments in ritual space 
•  The distinction between Books of Shadows, grimoires, and spell journals
•  Proper use and respect for personal tools like athames and cords
•  Challenges of integrating technology in sacred space and why certain devices can disrupt ritual energy 

Perfect for pagan practitioners, witches, Wiccans, and spiritual seekers, this episode offers practical advice on maintaining ritual integrity, sacred space, and spiritual discipline, while honoring ancient traditions and personal practice.

🌙 Stay connected with Pagan Coffee Talk and Life Temple Seminary for weekly discussions on pagan tools, ritual practices, sacred space, magic, and spiritual growth. Visit LifeTempleSeminary.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit to explore more about modern paganism, Wicca, and ceremonial traditions.

Join us on
Discord:  https://discord.gg/MdcMwqUjPZ
Facebook: (7) Life Temple and Seminary | Facebook

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Welcome to Second Coffee Talk. I'm Oswan, and I have with me Lord Knight. So today, let's talk about tools.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Now there are quite a few tools, but we're not going to cover all of them. We're only going to cover some main ones that are constantly popping up in questions and YouTube videos and Reddits and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Well, so which ones do you want to cover? The main five. Yes. All right. If we start in the east, you have swords or athletes.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

In the east. Um, there's a fair association with air and swords and blades anyway. And actually, if you look at all the pictures and stuff that we hear from them, for some reason there always looks like there's lightning involved. Right. Never sure what the exact implication is on that.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

No, but there is a theory.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

There's a theory. I do not know how right this is, but I'm beginning to think that the ancient mineral that was used for a lot of these swords that they you keep on hearing people talk about for these special swords, like the sword of Lou and you know, Excalibur and all that. Right. I believe the mysterious metal that they used was aluminum. I believe somehow they figured out a way to create it. I do understand, from my understanding, I could be wrong, that there was some small amounts of aluminum floating around in ye olden days.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

It might not have been as pure as what we're used to now, but it would still have some of the qualities there.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Well, and it would stand to reason that all the pictures with the lightning on the swords and the blades and all of that is due to the fact that when you extract aluminum from bauxite ore, it's you it's done through electricity.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Oh, yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. Me and Lord Men had debated at one point that the reason that the um lightning strikes were shown on swords so much was it could have been part of the tempering process that they actually put swords on pikes during electrical storms in hopes that they'd get striked. That's very possible. You know, so it's either one of the two theories, if not both. Still not sure which one. Of course, I should say in in our tradition, swords are only used by third degrees.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

And there's ways, we can't really explain why there's no, and I'm just letting you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Mainly it's third degrees, and normally there's only a temple sword. Um, most third degrees have their own sword, plus there's a temple sword normally. Then we have staves, which are a second degree mystery. You can't use staves until your second degree in our tradition, but it's representative of fire. There ain't too much you can say about that. Now, the spears were done were more decorative than actual used spears. Stavs are associated with south, which is fire.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Okay, and that includes spears and wands.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Spears, wands, and staves. And stabs in our tradition are a second degree tool. Um so nobody with first degree can actually use a staff. You can use one, but you can't use a staff. Strange, ain't that? So there's mysteries there. There's mysteries there. Yes, there are. Let's see. The spears are normally carried, and like I said, they're more decorative than they are actual use spears. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Right. They have they don't actually have a purpose.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Right. Uh think of them as like the decorative canes and stuff. They're you don't actually need them for walking, they're just accessories to the outfit.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

All about the accessories. Let's see. Then you have Wes, which is associated with water and cauldrons. Yeah, it's just a cauldron. It's normally cast iron, cauldron that we use, uh, but it also represents by cups and well, cups.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Cups and bowls. The cups, bowls, uh, anything that can contain or hold water. Right. Uh mainly it's that, and especially if you can get more of that bowl shape, a cauldron. Right. Trying not to say the body part here that it's associated with. But it is. It is. Yes, it is. Just just like wands are associated with the other genitalia. Right. For guys, so do cauldrons and cups associated with women and their genitalia.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Let's see. Then you have north, which is earth, which is associated with, believe it or not, pentacles or stones. Um is what we use there. Right. And then we have the last tool of all altars. Its direction is center, and its element is spirit.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

There are people out there who say they have ten altars in their home, offer something different. That's that's not the way this works for us.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

No. No, I mean, uh altars are actual working tables, they're there to hold certain tools and to represent spirit energy. Right. You know, that's their main job, just like using all the other tools or candles in all the other directions. This one is for spirit.

unknown 7:05

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

What you're talking about are those altars that you where people are sitting there going, I got an altar to all the Celtic deity or all the Roman deity, whatever in their homes, where they got like 10 of them. Those are less altars to me and more monuments or what did you call them? Shrines. Or shrines, which I really wish they would either call them shrines or monuments and not altars. Altars to me are actually tables that are specifically made to use in ritual space. Right. Regardless if it's a church or whatever, these are altars, they they serve a function. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Well, it does to me.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

But you know, I don't see why anybody makes this so complicated, but yeah, the actual altar is a tool, it represents an element just like the other ones do. Right. And I never hear anybody talk about that when they talk about altars. No, here, let's make it pretty. Let's do this. I don't have a problem if you want to be Martha Goodwich and do your decoration and all that. I'd I would prefer y'all to use the correct words.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Right. I mean, it's to me, if you've got a bunch of stuff on your altar, it's not functional. Well, no, it's just that's just decorative, and then it's not an altar anymore because you can't use it.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

You can't use it because you got all this stuff on there. But then on the other hand, if you got all this stuff on there and it's all dedicated to Venus, to me, this is a shrine to Venus.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Can we just use the right word and quit using the word altar? Part of this is yeah, is about us using words correctly, just like you know, we still got problems with people going around trying to say warlock's male witch. It's an oath breaker. It means you're a liar, it means you can't keep your word. That means if you sit there and you promise to do something for your spirit or your thought form or whatever, and you don't, and it goes away, you broke your word, your magic no longer works, you are absolutely useless, and you have to re-build up that whole entire trust of truth that you can keep your word. Went off tandem there, didn't I?

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Just a little bit. Just yeah. There's there's a whole nother episode on that that we've already done.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

I know, but it still upsets me to hear people say that and sit there and go, but it's a pretty word. I think we ought to use it. Well, you know, say some other words, but it doesn't, you know, you're not going to use them. Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

So anyway, back to tools.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Back to tools. Let's see. What other tools would you like to know about? These these are the by the five main right there. Yeah, those are the five main, but we also have let me go ahead and mention this while I'm thinking about it. Notice that the tools that are associated with West and with Earth are not uh ranked tools.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Only the sword and the staffs are. And is there a reason for that? Uh, there's mysteries behind it and which you've got to learn, but not going to discuss those here, but go ahead. Okay. All right. Now I just want to make sure everybody understands that these are the only places, and we mentioned them there, but we didn't on the other ones because there's no rank to use these, as far as I know. Right. And that's in our tradition.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

That's in our tradition. May not be the same for everybody else, but that's in our our tradition. Just making it clear.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Making it clear. I know other traditions do other things.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Right? Not my tradition. So, yeah, as far as tools go, I mean, there are some other things that are that we consider tools that I don't know if everybody else does. Well, um, you've got like your book of shadows. Yes, your grimoire. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

I know it sounds confusing on the grimoires in the books of shadows, but the book of shadows, in the way we view it in our tradition, this is where you put all your religious thoughts. All right. So this would be well, the best way to start off the book of shadow is to find a three-ring binder, put some pages in there, go to the first page and say, Today I believe, and start putting what you believe and why. Okay. That's it. That's how you make a book of shadows. Good place to start. Good place to start. Your Grim was, on the other hand, are a record or a journal of your spells. When you cast them, how they worked, what you did, what you didn't do. Is it possible to combine the two? It is, but it's a little bit easier when you're when you're collecting data on the spells for you. I would want to keep that in a separate book.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Okay, that makes sense because it gives you a little more freedom to write stuff down.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Write stuff down specifically about the spell. That way you can go look at them. If you get them in your book of shadows, you might have you might have a section on uh reincarnation or another section on certain things that you want to do in ritual, and then a spell.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

So that means to find the information on the spell, you've got to go through all this other stuff that has nothing to do with spell work.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Hence the reason I typically encourage people to have two. One for just spells and one for what I believe, you know, your your book of shadows, what you believe. Hate to be this way. I even believe in a third one, so you can do your dreams or meditations and stuff and write stuff in there.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Well, I mean, that makes perfect sense to keep it all separated.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Right. Because again, one's your spirituality, one's your spell work, yeah, whatever. And and then the other one, your your one for meditation, that's your psychological stuff, that's your emotional and psychological stuff. This is not stuff that I would not want to leave it sitting out on the table and just let anybody go through it because this is more personal, very personal and private stuff.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

This is yeah, this is where you're sitting there going, and today, dear Diary, I had a dream about Matthew Broadwick. Okay, that would be a mine, not yours, but oh, good lord. Again, does it make sense for your book of shadows? Because again, somebody reads my on my death, my book of shadows goes to Course to our Temple. And I'd hate for somebody in Temple to look at that and going, why does he talk about Matthew Broadwick all the time? Right. What does that have to do with Donu?

SPEAKER_02 14:16

What is this?

SPEAKER_01 14:17

This makes no sense.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Well, it's not gonna make sense anyway, but you know, that's beside the point.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Again, no, your your book of shadows might not make no sense to anybody but you, right? Because again, there's been a fear, and me and Lord Men used to joke about this all the time, that we're gonna write something down in a book of shadows or our grimoires or something like that one of these days. And it's gonna be something we're not paying attention for, where I'm like making out a grocery list on you know the stuff I need to make chicken salad. Right. And that 50 years from now, they're gonna be sitting there going, here's the holy chicken salad recipe. We have researched all the herbs and stuff he put in there, and we have all the correspondent is chicken salad people.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

He was such a great kitchen witch. And here's the holy spatula he used to stir it all together.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

I mean, don't get me wrong, like another tool I see a lot of people get confused in that is the pentacle and the pentagram.

unknown 15:26

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Right? The pentagram is a necklace or normally a uh five-pointed star inside of a circle, and the five-pointed star already represents the feminine, where the six-pointed star represents the masculine. Place it into a circle, it's a symbol of protection.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

And a pentacle is a wooden disc with a five-pointed star on it with a bunch of other symbols. This while has both first and second degree mysteries wrapped up into it, is actually a tool to use to cast circle.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Right. I believe we briefly mentioned that in the podcast on sacred space. Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

And that and then that's what it's for. Other than that, it sits on the altar and we just use it as a focal point. This is where we're gonna put everything that we're gonna bless or anything like that. And the normal reason we do that is because those pentacles are pretty big like that. Yeah, it's a pretty good size, it's pretty good size. So just naturally setting stuff on there ain't that big of a deal. There is such a thing as a peyton, which is an offering bowl. Right. And it's it looks like a plate, it looks like a cross between a plate and a bowl.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

That's not vague at all.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

But imagine, imagine a bowl that's bigger, like a plate, almost like a dinner plate, but the edges round up like a bowl, but not deep like a bowl. Right. So that I mean, this is good enough to keep a little bit of white, wet contents in and stuff like that. We normally use a patent to put, you know, a little bit of wine, some um, some of our cakes from our cakes and wine uh ceremony at the end of ritual and matches and all other stuff, and these contents are normally emptied outside after we're done.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Right. So return everything back to the earth from which it came.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Exactly. So, you know, and it it if the Tuafed anon want a squirrel to come by and to take that food away for them, they're more than welcome to do that.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

That's their prerogative.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

I'm not gonna stand out there and you know, especially out where you know we live, I'm sure in the world ain't gonna sit there and try to, you know, run away all the squirrels, raccoons, wild turkeys. No. That we got around here and deer. Right, can't figure the deer. Any other tools you'd like to know about? Now, for us and not for all traditions, but just to let you know, atoms can be a very personal item.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

And a lot of traditionalists will not let you touch or play or anything with their atoms. So again, be nice before you pick up anybody's and ask permission if you're told no, don't take it personally, is all I can say on that. That's good advice. You know, it's just not something we do. You would not go around touching our atham if you're not gonna let me go around touching your genitals when I won't.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Without asking.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Did I say that right?

SPEAKER_02 18:52

I believe so.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Point is respect the property. Respect the property, yes. Some of us consider it very personal. Cords. Cords are another tool that most traditionalists use. Typically, if you see somebody wearing it, and it's just cords are nothing more than braided rope. A certain length, some have certain knots in them, some don't. But if they're if they're all white, more than likely you're looking at and they're wearing all white cords and maybe a robe, more than likely, they're probably a neophyte. If it's all red, it's first degree, typically, one single color. At second degree, we use white and red, but in other traditions, they use they might use two different colors. Then you have uh third degrees in ours, which use three different colors. We use um green, red, and white. So just to let you know, if you if you go to a more traditionalist area and you actually see people wearing their cords, that's gonna be how in the world you're gonna pretty much figure out what degree somebody is. Right. They kind of help you out. I can't say the same thing for the uh if you see somebody with a a sword or a staff, because other traditions do things differently. All right. Well, what about technology? Technology in ritual space is never good, and it's normally because the technology quits working after being in ritual space. I've seen people back in the day when cell phones were first becoming popular and everybody had the flip phones. You remember those. Oh Lord, yes. Um, we had some uh people come to ritual. They were guests, and I remember looking at her, looking at this girl, going, Hey, uh, can you you need to turn off your cell phone? And I suggested that she actually go and put it out in her car. She goes, Well, no, no, no, no. She turns it off and then shoves it into her pocket and goes, it's gonna be fine. And I remember telling her, Well, if it don't work, you cannot blame me. I am not, we are not held responsible.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

And she came out of circle, and lo and behold, she tries to turn on the phone, it will not turn on. She tries to charge it, it will not hold the charge. So she actually had to get a new battery. Technology in ritual space normally does not work well.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Now we have used technology for ritual, but the main, but the main equipment was always outside of sacred space.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

And even then, well, I remember us having to use a remote on uh a radio, right? The radio was outside, but the remote, I I remember that. Because I had to wrap the remote in Sage. Right. To kind of insulate it from the energies inside circle. Hey, a good use for a real good use for Sage. Absolutely. It's an insulator.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

So, but yeah, I mean, there are ways you can get around it, but it ain't easy.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

No. I remember Lord Mann telling me about a circle. He, an actual physical circle, he did somewhere where he actually had to he dug up stuff and put a pipe under there, wrapped it up in sage, reburied it so he could run speaker wires from the center of the altar outside so he could control it.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

You remember him telling you about that? The lengths we had to go through to isolate us from technology when we're in circle. I know. And what a lot of people don't understand, believe it or not, another tool that we sort of try not to use, but is there are time pieces.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

That chime. We actually have to turn that off and actually cover it up or at least turn it backwards.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

So we actually even cover up clocks during rituals.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Right, because you don't want anything distracting you from from what it is you're doing inside of sacred space.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

No, you don't you don't want to be there inside a sacred space and look and be staring at while somebody's staring at the clock.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Anyway, I that's annoying, and you sure in the world don't want to do it if you're the high priest or priestess or the person leading ritual. Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

But now, as far as technology as a as a tool, you can still use it. I know a lot of people nowadays are transferring their book of shadows and their grimoires to their computers, their laptops.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

I don't have a problem with this. If that's what you want to do, I mean I'm not saying don't do that, but I'd still would want to keep a hard copy somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Because, you know, at the end of the day, when you pass away, they might not have your passwords to everything. Right. They may not have access. Right. And if you're wanting to leave this to somebody, you'd probably want to leave it in a hard copy or on a flash drive or something that they got access to. Now I know, not getting too much into my business, but I I'm in a lot of pain a lot of times. And I know I went to an appointment in which a doctor, me and the doctor actually talked about them inserting an electronic device in me. And this is the only place where I would say that the which community or religion would be the only place. This would be the only time we'd go, no, you can't do that.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Right. And a lot of people are gonna say, why? Well, it's back to that conversation we just had. On electronics. I mean, because electronics right inside a sacred space is not a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

It's not a good idea, and especially, I mean, and inside your body. I mean, how many times would they have to replace this device because of exposed it to spiritual energy energy over and over again, and it's either died or quit working. Absolutely. Don't want to go through that. Trust me, sitting there and trying to explain that to your doctor.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

It's not an easy task.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

You should see the look. No, then I can never go into ritual space again. You know, I mean, don't get me wrong, I guess we could be doing ritual space wrong, but I don't think so. The energy seems to be pretty good in our rituals.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Just for chance. I think so. Well, it it depends on who's there and what they're used to and what they're not. Any other tools you would like to discuss that you've heard people talk about? No, I believe that's the main part of it.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Um all right. Altars are for ritual space. All these other ones that I hear about, I'm I'm just going to refer to them as monuments or shrines. I really wish everybody else would use that. Personally, I'd I'd rather hear somebody sit there and go, hey, here's my shrine to Aphrodite, here's my shrine to Boudicca, here's my shrine. I'd rather hear that. Right. Shrine, there's something about the word shrine. This is a shrine to this deity. It it gives it a little bit more mystical. Oh, yeah. Because I, you know, I I hear that word and I I I I just think about all the shrines that you see in, you know, Japan and China and all this. Old and sacred and worshipped and that, not an altar, not a not an actual working tool. Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Right. Good point.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

All right. Well, I think that's about it for me. Yeah, I'm I'm out of coffee right now, so I'm out of coffee too, and I guess we'll see y'all next week.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

All right. Thanks for listening. Join us next week for another episode. Pacin Coffee Talk is brought to you by Life Temple and Seminary. Please visit us at LifeTempleSeminary.org to learn more. You can also find links to all our social media Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

We travel down the strodden path, the maze of stone and mire. Just hold my hand as we pass by steel blazing fires. And so it is the end of our day, so walk with me till morning break. And so it is the end of our days, so walk with me till morning.