As it says in the title really. TRied reding about consecrating ritual tools etc. but i'm still not totally clued up.
i basically get the chicken and egg senario of how do you consecrate your first tool in order to consecrate the rest? and which tool?

how do you guy's go about this? or do you at all?

peace
Mothy

All of my working tools are consecrated. I have never used other tools to do this though, so have never come across the 'chicken and egg' that you're talking about.

Rhiannon

I think I get what you mean, but I don't see why it has to be done that way.

I'm not sure if tools have to be "consecrated" in a particular way - the only frame of reference I have for this is when I "dedicate" crystals...after cleansing them by whatever means feels right I usually just hold them, concentrate energy into them and speak over them to say I am dedicating them to the highest good and filling them with my love and light. To me, that's sufficient.

Serious question: what's the necessity? Why bother?

Do people think it will change how the tool works? How?

Are you 'consecrating' it for yourself or for some other reason?

Should a carpenter or surgeon also consecrate their tools?

Marto

I'll give it a try. However, consistency and logic are not guaranteed.


Serious question: what's the necessity? Why bother?

Mindfulness. If i have dedicated or consecrated a particular tool to a particular work, I become unable to use it without contemplating the work as well. My mindset changes to emphasize the qualities/techniques/philosophy necessary for what I am doing. I can do this with an unconsecrated tool, but then I have to do it each time, essentially re-inventing the wheel every time i want to bike to the store.

I will grab anything to hand to do a quick something, but when I want to do it with full specialness, I want the tool I have dedicated to the purpose. I used to have a special pen for writing to politicians and service clubs for donations when I did charity work. As soon as I picked it up I sort of fell into a mindset that could not be refused, and felt this go into the letters.

The consecration ritual I used to charge it was a little cannibalistic, though, since I made my fire out of pencils.

Do people think it will change how the tool works? How?

As above, I think it makes the tool more effective, if only by making me more focused. Kind of like setting out the 'good' china. Even if I'm the only one eating, the meal is still special.

Are you 'consecrating' it for yourself or for some other reason?

For myself, and for my purpose(s). I don't dedicate tools to gods, since my gods aren't really the tool-using types.

Should a carpenter or surgeon also consecrate their tools?

Yes. It will make them more mindful when using them, and a mindful surgeon is a very good thing. And if the consecration imparts a little power or magic to the tool itself, even better.


unsung

sorry about the confusion, the consecration i came across was from the Witches' Bible by the Farrars. it talks about consecrating the salt and water over the pentacle using the Already consecrated Athame, then consecrating the athame using the previously dedicated salt/water mix and censer, then uses the Athame again for all the rest of the consecration rituals. which made me wonder how they managed to consecrate their fist tool in order to consecrate the rest.

takes time to breathe....
hope thats cleared up the question a bit

peace,
Mothy

I can understand 'mindfulness' in the manner in which you phrased . Indeed, cuing on the 'best china' bit, it made me extend the question.

From my parents estate I inherited a lot of very old and very beautiful things. I was looking at the 'silver' the other day. It originally belonged to my great grandmother (and some my great-great grandmother )so that puts it back a bit. Our family used it during 'special' times. But I thought today of how many times it had been used, in preparations done with love for sons or husbands going to war, some never to return or to celebrate their return. For births and 'occasions' and deaths, by hands wielding them with love and concentration. One knife in particular I remember seeing both father and grandfather use for carving and my mother and grandmother use in cooking . I was going to use it myself for my own reasons but thought: time itself and many hands have already 'consecrated' it in a way.

But perhaps that doesn't matter? Seriously. If one was to use it for 'magical' purposes, it would be best to get rid of the 'weight' of time and tradition these things carried, I would have thought.

Yet I cannot bring myself to do it. A lack in me, I do perceive.

As for surgeons tools, since they get a new sterilized set for each operation, I do wonder how they would go about consecrating them! I think if it were an emergency, I'd settle for the sterilizer . In a way, I think the surgeon's hands and 'mindfulness' in using those hands was a kind of 'consecration'. After all, they trained for years and practiced on so many people. Think of all the people , all the lives, those 'hands' have touched - quite literally. Is that not in itself a type of consecration?

So I guess the flip-side question is: what is something if it is NOT consecrated?

Marto

(note to self - buy pencils in bulk )

Something used for that long is, I think, consecrated to its task. Picking it up and using it for you, since you are the same 'line' it has been consecrated in, should be a continuation of all the other hands, and not require anything else.

That's for cooking and serving, though. For magic directed through those things I think it is fully consecrated. For magic of other kinds, especially kinds contrary to it's history, I don't think you could clear it enough to re-purpose it. At least not in one generation - it would probably take several generations using it consistently for something like cutting and banishing to make it work even sluggishly to that end.

I'd get another knife for other uses, I think. The only exception I can envision, faintly and if the case was/is desperate, is if you needed to cut out someone else of the same line. Then that tool would be appropriate and powerful, although it would be an extremely sad working.



I think you're right. The surgeon's hands are the actual tools, if the scalpels and such are new each time. Shows how out of touch I am (and how little I've had surgery) - I had visions of each surgeon having a personal set of tools, lovingly cared for and jealously guarded.

It's probably the same for the carpenter. My memories of my dad's workshop are of tools ranked along the walls and on shelves, and my dad having his favourites for every job. He could take a new one out of the box, or borrow one from a friend, and do the same marvelous work, though. He still can.

So, tools, hands, mind, and heart. The tools consecrated by use or ritual, the hands by skill and practice, the mind by learning the crafts to begin with, and the heart by the actual desire to do a good job. Maybe you need the whole package, and mindfulness to tie it together.

I still like the conscious intent of a planned and executed ritual of consecration, though. Pomp and ceremony.



No reason for it not too work anyway, I guess. Like I said above, I'll grab any old thing if I need something done right away. It just feels a little slipshod that way. For me, personally.



Two notes: Use lots of tinder because for some reason pencils don't burn well, and TAKE OFF THE ERASERS FIRST!


unsung

It has. I think we've kind of run away with theory rather than looking at the actual rite you were talking about.

Maybe the athame is already consecrated to it's athame-ish purpose to begin with, and fit to consecrate the salt and water, but then the salt and water 'refine' the athame's consecration to the specific purpose of the ritual, making it fit to consecrate everything else the same way?

So, the plain salt and water are sanctified, in a sense, by the athame, and given their purpose by the priest/ess doing it. Then, the athame has to be re-tuned in order to sync everything else up.

It's a bit circular, but if part of the purpose is to set the mindset for the celebrants I can see it working. Like mixing two liquids by pouring from one glass to another until they are mixed, rather than just starting out by putting them in the same glass.

This is making me dizzy, but I can sort of follow the reasoning, if not the logic.


unsung

I really want to thank you for that answer. I've been very conflicted by much of the 'estate' goods. I think I will use them ( I've been hesitant to ) by being 'mindful' of their history and for appropriate uses - ones their 'history' would understand , if you see what I mean. They have been making me uneasy because there are so many wonderful things and for them just to 'sit there' when they were so loved and used seems....wrong.

And there needs to be more 'ceremony' in my life as I get older. I cannot get back that which is gone, but I can honour them and perhaps please the ancestors (if they are still about ) by using what THEY cared for with the same care and intent. But in a weird way, I think ( fluffay moment coming up ) in some way, ancestors 'live' in such moments whether or no they hang about all the time. That's just a thing of mine, but one I've thought a lot about lately.

And right - remove erasers

Marto

Marto I genuinely think that anything - silver, table, plate, painting, anything - actually is enhanced by the weight of tradition and use behind it and things that have been used and enjoyed should continue to be so, if at all possible.

Magically I don't use any tools really - no special set aside tools, but I have one thing that I was given that is very old that I can literally feel the weight of tradition behind it and if anything i would consider that a major asset. not a drawback magically at all!

I have some things including jewelry that my granny gave me, I wear them and use them, because they are not meant to be showpieces in a museam. i do take care over them, but I enjoy them.

I'm running into the same thing. My mom passed away this summer and there are some things it is very difficult to even think of using without her there, but that we know she very much wanted us to. She gave me most of her baking stuff a while before, and it feels when I use them as if I have to use her recipes, rather than my own (much healthier) ones. It's like the bowls and pans insist I do it her way.

The one's which were my gran's before they were my mom's are even 'louder' about it.


unsung

Boy! Is that true! I have a tart pan from 1840 that's always been used and is still in usable condition. And you know, it still makes the best pastry ( and that's not just me saying that - something to do with how they made things then that distribute heat evenly or something).

I will continue to use it for that. As you say, they sit there and say " Why aren't you using me? You loved what I produced before, I can still do that!".

I've also decided to take the china out of hiding. There are some fabulous pieces with incredible colours - they make me...happy just to look at ( well, they were 'art' as well ) and it makes me think of all the 'Ladies' taking tea . Even my son loves them and laments they don't 'do' china like that anymore.

The jewelry is more problematical. For instance, I have a beautiful gold locket but it has pictures in it of young men killed in the first world war. I hesitate to take those pictures out and for me to wear it seems not right. I do believe there are some things that one takes out and handles and thinks deeply about and others that one can wear and use.

Odd, it's almost a kind of meditation with some things and it's amazing the pictures that arise in the mind. Perhaps I will carry the locket on Remembrance day.

Marto

Mothy, I suspect the answer is something along the lines of the original tool being given to you when you're initiated by someone who got theirs the same way etc and so back up the line.

The alternative is that it's a nice ritual that someone made up because it sounded more authentic.

I always found "The Witches Bible" problematic, for a number of reasons, not least that the theology doesn't hang together. However, others would disagree. And it is primarily addressed to the Gardnerian or Alexandrian (mainly the latter, as the Farrars were Alexandrians) coven setup. If you're not in a coven, then most of the 'rules' don't apply anyway and you're free to create your own. In any case, there are many ways of consecrating tools, and, if you go looking on the 'net, you'll find more than you'll know what to deal with. I've come across oddities such as:
- putting the tool in a singing bowl.
- putting a tool on a large crystal
- putting a tool through the elements
- keeping a tool about your person and under your pillow for a set time (difficult with a sword, one might think? )

For myself, I do choose to consecrate my knives because it suits me to do so. I will put my blood on the blood and dedicate the knife to one of my patrons. Having said that, one has changed its dedication, as one god took it to accomplish a piece of work. But, as others have said - it's not the consecration that is important: it's what it picks up when you use it to work.

ok thanks for that MH, i've been having a few problems goin through the book, i bought it assuming that it might help me further on my path, but it doesn't really cater for the solitary witch which doesn't help me all that much.

thanks for the advice though, i'll have a troll around the interweb and see what i can find

peace,
Mothy