Witchvox Article

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Posted: April 14th. 2001
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In the center of a small wooden table that can only be called an altar sits a small, grey, wrinkled old man. His angular face peeks out from amidst hair and bark...his face is part of a stump. Heavy brows converge into a huge beak of a nose which hovers over thick lips smothered by a huge moustache. The man is discolored with age, and slightly disfigured on one side where wax has flowed in the heat. His face is one of serene wisdom, the face of experience.

This man is nothing but a candle, a rather ancient example of the sort that can be purchased in numerous shops across the nation. I suspect that he was originally obtained many years ago at one of the early Renaissance Festivals in Plantersville, Texas, but his exact origin is un-important. He is the centerpiece of my altar, the keystone of my tools and of my ritual mind.

I have an old copy of Webster's Dictionary from which I sought a definition of the word "tool." The dictionary lists five entries, of which two are obscure and two refer to industrial instruments. Only one entry offers a general definition. A tool, according to Webster, is "any instrument of use or service." A very general definition indeed. According to Mr. Webster, almost any object, used for almost anything, could be considered a tool.

The Old Man is a tool. He is an instrument used to focus my thoughts, and my energy. I use him sparingly, and keep him safely locked away in my home. Like any person, his lifespan is limited. After a certain amount of time under the flame, his existence shall melt away. Perhaps it is that very inevitability that draws me to him so strongly. And, like any person, he is not all-important, but is a valuable member of a group. There are many things that come together to comprise what I find useful.

The tool I most often carry with me to group rituals is a knife, what most people would call an athame. It is an old skinning knife, one that has seen use over the years. I found it by accident many years ago while rooting through boxes of old junk in a relative's basement. Its wooden handle was wrapped with twine sometime during the 1960's, and the stuff is now hard as a rock with age. It has an old leather sheath, also stiff with age, as well as brittle. It's just a knife, used by a Boy Scout, with a thin blade made thinner by sharpening over the years. It's also a tool, used as a focus for ritual...a sharp edge of focus.

Many thousands of years ago, in our more primitive past before stone walls and metal implements, we who would call ourselves human collected things to be of use to us. Wood became weapons, minerals became paint, and stone was used to shape the things we needed. All of these things were tools. We in the modern world cannot see into the minds of our ancestors, we cannot know all the significance attached to such objects, but we can see that such things were important to those men and women who used them. Tools have been found interred with the bodies of ancient people.

We can't know for sure, but we can see in what remains of their behavior an echo of ourselves. Paint was used to represent the things in their world that were important. Knives were used to create weapons and to find their dinner. Ochre was buried with the dead for no discernible purpose, except perhaps as a ritual. Even in our more primitive past, we can see ritual occurring, see objects used as symbols, and here, I think, is our link to the past, and their link to us. Even in a life where day to day existence consumes all possible thought, our ancestors used symbols.

Symbols are the key, and the underlying use behind our tools. The Old Man is a symbol of the gods (I use another tool to speak to goddesses) to whom I speak. The flame is a symbol of thought, of reason, and of the spirit. The blade is a symbol of my purpose, my ability to effect change. Each and every object (and there are many) that finds its way onto my altar can be seen as a symbol of something else, and also as itself. The Old Man casts light on the altar. The blade is used to cut food, string, whatever is needed. But, the tools we use for ritual are special because they are both mundane implements and symbols of other things.

But why do we bother? If the tools we use in ritual are symbols for other things, why not simply concern ourselves with the things themselves? The best reason, I think, is simply because that's the way we, as humans, do things. We form and transmit ideas in words. We draw pictures that are not objects, but which show us what objects look like. In my own work I use the language of mathematics to inform people of things I could never show them in person. We think and act and create in symbols. Symbols permeate everything that we do. Tools give us something to focus upon. That's why we use them, and why we should continue to do so. Tools should always be with us. Certainly, not every place is appropriate for every tool. I wouldn't think of waving my blade about in a crowded mall, but my pentacle is also a tool for focus, as well as one meant for protection, and I carry it everywhere. There is no right place for the use of tools, because there is no wrong place for the use of tools. They are our way of interacting with the world around us, and that includes the religious world as well.

There is actually one other reason I feel is worth mentioning that we use tools in our ritual. Tools provide us with a mechanism to connect to each other, which I believe is the essence of Pagan religion. Even two people who are radically different can come together to the beat of a drum, in the shared light of a candle, through the use of an agreed upon symbol. Together, we can do so much more than we can apart. Just look at the powerful effect of thousands or millions of people marching to the beat of a drum, under the watching eye of a flag. If that much ill power can be collected by a flag, cannot we gather an equal and better power with a tool used for good?

Mandrake .....the Bard

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