Greetings to you,
Sun of the seasons,
As you travel the skies on high,
With your strong step on the wing of the heights.
You are the happy mother of the stars.

You sink down into the perilous ocean
Without harm and without hurt.
You rise on the quiet wave
Like a young queen in flower.

- Traditional Gaelic Prayer

 
You can do this by filing away what you don't need which is a great way to do it if you only need to remove a little or by cutting with a hacksaw. Whatever method you go for you have to make sure the corners of the tang are rounded rather than square like this

 
this is because a square corner will create a weakness in the blade which could be dangerous if the blade is ever put under pressure.First mark the metal that's going to be removed with a sharpie then if your using a file its simple to file a rounded corner if your using a saw then cut to a few millimetres from your corners then cut in from the side, now file the rest of the material away.
Now for the cross guard and grip. A cross guard is not essential if your making a ballock or dirk style athame. Ballocks and dirks are traditional Scottish knives which swell at the top of the grip to stop your hand slipping onto the blade

A cross guard can be a very simple piece or as elaborate as you like. The basic version can be either wood, metal, bone or antler and can be as long or as short as you like  but obviously long enough to stop your hands slipping onto the blade and at least slightly wider than the grip. Once you've decided on your material and dimensions take the side that's going uppermost and mark the very centre of it. You now need to make a hole here that's slightly less wide than your tang, if your using metal then this will have to be drilled if your using another material then carefully using your chisel/knife should be fine. Now file the hole so it fits the top of the tang of your blade, don't worry if its a little to long as the blade will cover than but be careful not to make it to wide as that wont be covered by the blade. You can now embellish at will, if you've made the guard from metal and you want to polish it up then get yourself a pack of wet and dry sandpaper they're usually sold in inexpensive packs of varying grits you want to start at the lowest grit (the number will be on the back of the paper) and work up to the highest until you've got the polish you want.

Now the grip, for athame grips you can be traditional and go for black in which case you can paint or stain your wood black or go for a black wood. Painting has the option of letting you make the grip from a softer wood (such as pine) or even just picking the wood you want, black woods tend to be hardwoods such as ebony, African Blackwood or bog oak. If you do go for a black wood then take your time and don't get to frustrated if your progress is slow and remember to keep your tools in good condition (a dull chisel or knife is far more dangerous than a sharp one) if you've never worked with wood before I don't recommend bog oak. Bog oak comes from preserved trees that were blown down and buried in bogs over 5000 years ago and although lovely to work with has a nasty habit of developing gaps within the wood while being dried and trust me one of these gaps will appear just were you don't want one. Another option if you want a black grip but don't want to use wood is horn, there are many types or horn available (try ebay for both horn and exotic woods for woods try wood turners supplies while searching) but I would suggest you try to get water buffalo horn. It has the advantages of being easy to work with sandpaper or knives takeing a polish easily (very fine sandpaper) and not being endangered.

If your not going for black then you have the options of bone and antler as well as any wood you care to use. If your not painting a wooden grip then exotic woods such as kingswood, purpleheart or bloodwood look fantastic even if left plain and uncarved if your interested then try a google image search under exotic woods to see if there's anything that grabs you, or you could choose a wood based on its magical properties or your connection to it e.g its the tree you were born under in the Celtic tree astrology. Soft woods like pine are easier to work with and usually cheaper but hardwoods like ash and oak usually have a nicer grain and take any detail of carving better. If your Patron God is Cerrunos then you might want to go for an antler grip, this material has the advantage of being easy to fit to your tang.

First of all cut your tang to the length that you want if you haven't already, if you want your tang to be visible at the end of your grip then measure the length of your fist then add a few cms  or more if you want a longer grip, if you want the tang to stop in the grip then just make it as long as your fist. Now cut your antler or bone to the length you want, if your tang is stopping in the grip then remember to make it longer than the tang by at least a few cms. Now heat your tang, hot water or candles wont do it you'll need to put the tang on your stove but don't let it get red hot and obviously don't pick any part of the blade up with your bare hands. Get your antler secured , I don't recommend simply holding it at best a slip will ruin your antler at worst you could end up doing serious damage to yourself. Now carefully grip your dagger by the blade, not with your bare hands, and line it up so the end of the tang is sitting on the centre of the top of the antler now push gently. If your tang is hot enough if should simply melt and burn away the material it comes into contact with, if you suspect your going off centre or the dagger stops moving with gentle force then stop reheat and then put the tang back in the same hole and if you were going off centre readjust your angle, if it simply stopped then keep going until you get the blade were you want remove it and leave to air cool then clean. If the tang if coming out of the bottom then remember to take this into account also remember to leave space if you have a crossguard. If your working with antler you now have all the parts you need I would suggest a test fit before using 2 part epoxy to glue everything into place, its much easier to make adjustments without having rapidly setting glue in the way. If you want to set crystals into the grip you can either carve out a space for them in the antler and then glue them in place or use a 2 part plumbers putty which air dries to stick them in place.

Wood and bone are very similar to fit. The simplest way is to cut your grip to length then drill a hole big enough to accommodate your tang down the centre, this however requires a long drill bit. Another way is to cut your chosen material in half lengthways and removed just over half the thickness of the tang from each half  then glue the two halves back together, the just over part should make it easier to take the blade in and out of your block while your shapeing it ( its much easier to do any shaping and carving before everything gets assembled). To put a nice finish on bone a sanding with very fine grit sandpaper is all you need for wood very fine sandpaper and a protective substance such as varnish, which proves a barrier but also tends to alter the colour of the wood slightly and make it shiny or a polish such as beeswax or oil which protects against most hazards and also enhances the colour and grain of the wood, should be used. No matter which one you use remember to read the instructions on the tin before use.

The next option is to forge the blade yourself, it is perfectly possible to forge a blade yourself as long as you have a back garden or access to facilities. This page has many links to pages that will tell you all you need to know about diy forge in including DIY forging and $5 and $10 forges > http://gbrannon.bizhat.com/< but before you look at those pages please read the safety links first, as well as common sense safety advice they have info on materials which should not be used during your work such as galvanised zinc which gives off highly toxic fumes when heated which will affect your health even if your working outdoors. As well as wood, bone and antler you of course have to option of materials like sculpy, really anything you want to use let your creativity go wild.

When your athame is complete you need to thank any Gods Goddesses or spirits that you've ask for aid from and consecrate it, these rituals I leave up to you but since your athame is now so personal you might want to think about a personal ritual rather than one from a book.

I wish you good luck and success in your future projects

Blackbird

thanks to Rob Miller at www.castlekeep.co.uk for kind permission to use photos of his blades.

Crystal's and Gardening
by Dreamweaver

Have you noticed the sun is rising earlier and setting later?  The trees are budding and the first flowers are breaking through the frozen earth.  Ah, the first signs of spring!  I love this time of year, you can smell the changes in the air!  One cannot help but start thinking about gardening.  As with other aspects of your life you may wonder if there is any way to magically enhance your garden.  Well...perhaps there is.

First, let me say that I've never had much success with gardening.  I can't really explain it,  I've always laughed it off as having a "black thumb". Within the last couple of years I've finally experienced success with my house plants.  Ironically, or not, it coincided with my discovering crystals.  My plants and crystals were housed on the same window sill. Coincidence?  Maybe.

Crystals come from deep within the earth so is it any wonder that they could be used to help your garden grow?  Egg shaped stones, green stones, Moss Agate, Jade, Malachite and Tourmaline in particular as well as Moonstone, Prehnite, and Zeolite when buried or placed in your garden encourages the health and growth of your plants.  When using Jade, plant 4 pieces around the perimeter of your garden to achieve this.  Wearing any of these stones while planting or watering your plants can also help.  Hang Moonstone or Agate on the branches of a tree and look for signs of improvement.  If it's a fruit bearing tree you should notice an increase in the amount of fruit it produces.  Tourmaline also acts as a natural insecticide.  Rubies protect your trees and plants as well.  If you touch your trees and the boundaries of your garden  with a ruby it will protect them from lightening and the effects of violent storms.

One last thing I'd like to share.  This is actually considered Garden and Moon Lore but I love the idea.  If nothing else, think of how pretty it will look in your garden. "Leave a few tumbling stones, such as amethyst, tourmaline, quartz crystal and moonstone in the garden as a gift to the Earth elementals, specifically the gnomes, brownies and flower fairies.  This will ensure a healthy and happy garden.", from Garden Witchery Magick from the Ground Up by Ellen Dugan.

Sources and recommended reading:

Wicca 201: a review of The Elements of Ritual by Deborah Lipp
 

by Calypso

 The Elements of Ritual is that rarest of gems, an excellent, intermediate-level book on Wicca.  Lipp was first initiated into a Gardnerian coven in 1981, and has been teaching and running rituals since 1986; her extensive experience is evident throughout this book, which can be used by covens and solitaries alike.  Lipp’s focus here is on the meaning of each stage of Wiccan ritual: she examines the spiritual purpose and practical considerations surrounding each rite in painstaking detail.  The result is a book packed with both practical information and food-for-thought for the intermediate student of Wicca. 

The book is structured around the four elements used in ritual – air, fire, water and earth.  Lipp begins by explaining the Wiccan associations with each element – a staple of most Wicca 101 texts – but actually goes one step further by challenging some of the correspondences that most books trot out unthinkingly.  In particular, she explains her own reasons for associating the athame with fire and the wand with air, rooting it in the history of the Golden Dawn magical lodge and Waite’s alleged reversal of the two associations in the creation of his tarot deck to preserve his oath of secrecy.  She also observes that “The sword is the more destructive tool, and fire is more destructive than air [...]. Once you get to know the tools, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that a person wielding a sword means business (has Will), but a person holding a wand might just be thinking it over”.  This, for me, was an interesting and refreshing perspective; although I had come across the sword/fire-wand/air associations before, I have never previously come across an author who took the pains to explain why it should be so – or, in fact, to even consider the question.  The idea of balance is also paramount.  “It is the elements that bring their quality into the circle,” she explains.  “Without Water, your ritual will be heartless and cold; without Air, your ritual will be thoughtless and ill-considered.  Without Fire, your ritual will lack will, it will be aimless and meandering; and without Earth, your ritual will not be grounded.”

Lipp goes on to use the elements to examine every aspect of ritual from the perspective of the four elements: theology (air), practicality (earth), myth (water), and mysticism (fire).  Each chapter deals with a separate stage of ritual in minute detail: cleansing, preparation, casting, calling the quarters, invoking deity, cakes and ale, and closing the circle.  She’s not concerned with providing spells or recipes for funky incense; her purpose here is to guide and encourage the reader to develop a cohesive symbol system, and this again sets her books apart from so many others.  Although she never says it in so many words, there is a very strong sense that the old Eclectic dictum “do what you feel is right” is not always enough by itself: ritual should and must possess integrity in order to be as powerful as possible.  In several places, she goes out of her way to explain how not to perform certain elements of ritual, in order that the ritual may remain consistent with itself.  That said, there is no sense that Lipp believes there is only one “right” way of conducting ritual.  Although she encourages her readers to develop their own rituals and provides many helpful tips, she also includes a variety of examples for each stage of the ritual, from the highly formal to rites performed purely through movement and sound.  I found these very inspiring: even Lipp’s formal rites are written in a style that is designed for memorization, so that you don’t end up fumbling around and squinting at the book in the candlelight.

I wouldn’t give this book to an absolute beginner, as Lipp does assume some familiarity with the general structure of Wicca and Wiccanesque practice.  I’d definitely recommend it to people who have been practicing for a while, as Lipp’s text challenges the reader to reconsider any assumptions he or she may have made about ritual.  And I would totally recommend it to anyone who’s read a couple of ‘101’ books and is eager to learn more; I think it would be an excellent accompaniment, say, to Scott Cunningham’s introductory books on Wicca.  Cunningham’s books introduce the central ideas and tenets of Wicca and encourage the reader to explore and research more.  Lipp’s book provides guidelines for creating a coherent spiritual practice, while still leaving the direction and focus of ritual up to the reader.  I enjoyed this book immensely, and I learned a lot from it; and I am looking forward to reading Lipp’s second book The Way of Four (dealing with the four elements themselves) in the near future.

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In the News

A Pagan Tombstone

Feds weigh allowing Wiccan symbols on govt.-issued grave markers

By LISA HOFFMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
23-MAR-06

While President Bush laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, a self-declared witch embarked on a clandestine mission to mark a grave most dear to her.

It was 2003, and neo-pagan high priestess Rosemary Kooiman, 75, was determined that the gravesite of her recently departed husband, Abraham, bear a Pentacle as the symbol of the Wiccan faith the two shared.

Unlike thousands of headstones bearing a Christian cross, Jewish Star of David, Islamic Crescent and Star, or other religious emblems, Abraham Kooiman's had none because the Department of Veterans Affairs does not permit symbols of Wicca and related pagan sects to be depicted on government-issued stones or markers.

Taking advantage of the attention turned elsewhere that day, Rosemary Kooiman affixed a vinyl Pentacle _ a five-pointed star within a circle _ to the gravesite of her husband, a decorated World War II combat veteran.

That guerrilla action by Kooiman came as part of a decade-long battle by those of her faith to bring recognition to troops and veterans who are Wiccans and believers in other "nature" religions.

Long wrongfully tagged by the misinformed as being Satan worshippers or the casters of evil spells, they say their ancient religion is a peaceful, benign one centered on celebrating nature through rituals, meditations and other spiritual practices.

Why then, they ask, has their religion been snubbed when more than 30 others _ including such relatively obscure ones as Seicho-No-Ie, Eckankar, Sufism and Humanism _ are permitted? Even atheists have their own approved symbol, which features an atom and the letter "A" in the center.

"These people served their country. Isn't America about freedom of religion? They fought for that freedom," said the Rev. Selena Fox, a senior minister and frequent spokeswoman for her neo-pagan faith, as well as a prime mover in the effort for government recognition.

That crusade may be nearing an end. The Veterans department said this week that it is nearing a decision on several requests for memorial markers adorned with Pentacles, including one from the widow of a National Guardsman killed in a helicopter attack in Afghanistan.

"We expect a decision soon," said Jo Schuda, a VA spokeswoman.

In a step interpreted as partially smoothing the way for Pentacle approval, the VA's National Cemetery Administration amended a rule last October that had been a bureaucratic roadblock. Until then, applicants had to submit a letter from a "recognized central head" of the faith attesting to the fact that the requested symbol in fact represented the religion.

But because the Wiccan faith and its related sects are substantially decentralized, that requirement was essentially impossible to meet. Now, the National Cemetery Administration asks for a letter from "a recognized leader."

No one is quite sure how many Wiccans there are in the ranks of military veterans and active-duty troops. Estimates by the Pentagon's chaplains' board put the number of Wiccans at under 2,000, out of the 1.4 million troops in uniform.

Fox, whose Wisconsin-based Circle Sanctuary church claims nearly 54,000 U.S. members, thinks the number of Wiccans in uniform is substantially higher than the Pentagon estimate. Many more likely remain in the religious closet, concerned that they would be tainted by misconceptions about the faith, she said.

But for nearly a decade, the armed services have made it a point to be tolerant of Wiccans and other faiths outside the mainstream. Military chaplains, who are trained to meet the needs of all faiths, held their first Wiccan service in 1997 at Fort Hood, Texas. Today, it is not uncommon to find listings for Wicca rituals on many military base coming-events announcements.

One soldier who was open about his Wiccan faith was Nevada National Guard Sgt. Patrick Stewart, who was killed last September along with four other U.S. troops when the Chinook helicopter carrying them was shot down in Afghanistan. His widow, Roberta Stewart, vowed to push the VA to accept the Wiccan faith and allow a Pentacle on her husband's plaque hung on a memorial wall at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

Her cause got a substantial boost when Nevada GOP Rep. Jim Gibbons spoke out in her behalf this month. So, too, did Lt. Col. Robert Harington, battalion commander of Patrick Stewart's Guard unit.

"Every family should have the ability to honor their fallen loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice in defending freedom and this nation," Gibbons, a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, said in a statement. "It is my hope that the VA will act expeditiously to resolve this matter."

Whatever the resolution, one who will not be around to see it _ at least in her incarnation as Abraham's wife, mother of three, government safety officer, and founder of the Wiccan Nomadic Chantry of the Gramarye _ is Rosemary Kooiman. She died of a heart attack at her home in Laurel, Md., on March 5.

"I'm sad that she wasn't able to see this approved before she died," Fox said.

Palace of Homer's hero rises out of the myths
From John Carr in Athens

ARCHAEOLOGISTS claim to have unearthed the remains of the 3,500-year-old palace of Ajax, the warrior-king who according to Homer’s Iliad was one of the most revered fighters in the Trojan War.

Classicists hailed the discovery, made on a small Greek island, as evidence that the myths recounted by Homer in his epic poem were based on historical fact.

The ruins include a large palace, measuring about 750sq m (8,000sq ft), and believed to have been at least four storeys high with more than thirty rooms.

Yannos Lolos, the Greek archaeologist who made the discovery, said he was certain that he had come across the home of the Aiacid dynasty, a legendary line of kings mentioned in the Iliad and the Classical Greek tragedies. One of the kings, Ajax (or Aias), was described by Homer as a formidable fighter who, at one point in the Trojan campaign, held off the Trojans almost singlehandedly while his fellow Greek Achilles sulked in his tent because his slave-girl had been taken away from him.

The city of Troy is believed to have fallen about 1180BC — at about the same time, according to Mr Lolos, that the palace he has discovered was abandoned and left to crumble. Ajax, therefore, would have been the last king to have lived there before setting off on the ten-year Trojan expedition.

“This is one of the few cases in which a Mycenaean-era palace can be almost certainly attributed to a Homeric hero,” Mr Lolos said.

Fellow archaeologists said that they believed that the ruins were indeed those of a Mycenaean palace. Curtis Runnels, Professor of Archaeology at Boston University, said: “Mr Lolos has really delivered the goods.”

The Mycenaean ruins appear to be at the site where Homer records a fleet of ships setting out to take part in the war on Troy. The Iliad is believed to portray conditions at the close of the dominance of Mycenae, the prime Greek power of the second millennium BC.

The ruins have been excavated over the past five years at a site near the village of Kanakia on the island of Salamis, a few miles off the coast of Athens.

The palace was built in the style of those of the period, including the vast acropolis at Mycenae.

“The complex was found beneath a virgin tract of pine woods on two heights by the coast,” Mr Lolos said. “All the finds so far corroborate what we see in the Homeric epics.”

Homer compares Ajax to a wall and describes him carrying a shield made of seven layers of thick oxhide. Unlike other heroes, he fights without the aid of deities or the supernatural. According to Sophocles, who wrote 800 years after the Trojan War, Ajax committed suicide after the fall of Troy without seeing his homeland again.

Several relics of oriental and Cypriot origin were found at the site at Kanakia, such as bronze armour strips stamped with the emblem of Pharaoh Rameses II of Egypt, indicating trade or possible war in the 13th century BC.

Salamis became famous as the site of a sea battle in 480BC in which the Greek navies destroyed the invasion fleet of the Persian king Xerxes and put paid to the Persian threat.

The other main site where archaeologists claim to have discovered relics of places recounted in the Iliad is at the castle of Pylos in southeastern Greece, believed to be the home of King Nestor.

Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13...2106548,00.html

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