An athame is a ritual black handled double-edged magnetized blade used to direct metaphysical energy, kavanah and divine shefa during the mystical workings of a witch. It is "never "used to draw blood. It is a sacred ritual tool associated with the element of air (avir kadmon) and balance.
It can never be "used" by anyone else. Once a witch has obtained and consecrated her athame, it can never be "deconsecrated". It is a witch's tool for the duration of her life. It is used to cast a ritual circle, to invoke, summon, consecrate, bind, banish, awaken, charge and enliven.
The word athame can be etymologically translated as "arrow". Consequently, pharaoh's arrow, meant to cripple and kill, has unwittingly provided me with the material from which I have crafted a witch's most prized possession - a metaphysical athame.
I am truly an initiated Jewitch (as in Jewish witch, not Wiccan) now.
Footnotes:
R' Yitzchak Ginsburgh, "The Hebrew Letters", on the letter shin (p. 320)
See fn.3 in previous entry (link above) regarding chemah/chomah and davah/hod.
R' Yitzchak Ginsburgh on "avir kadmon": "The word avir--"atmosphere" or "air"-- is composed of the three letters which spell or--"light"--together with a fourth letter, the letter yud. In Kabbalah we are taught that the or within avir represents the "impression" (reshimu) of the infinite light which shined before the primordial plan of creation (that light in which God "engraved" the plan). The yud represents the "impression" of the Divine plan itself."
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Reference: wiccancommunity.blogspot.com
