The Gathering of Ritual Tools
by Kirralee

Time and again advice has been given to those who use  ritual tools  to  make your own wherever possible.  Sage wisdom indeed, and also a lesson to pay attention to the psychic senses.  The moral of this is to never attempt short cuts on the path to enlightenment.

Over the course of my sojourns and meeting people I have acquired and been generously gifted with an expanding collection of daggers, which, until recently, none had quite seemed to fit my ideal of a ritual blade.  My problem was that I was clueless in the crafting and expertise of forging such an instrument, which led me on a restless search to purchase a ready made item.  So now to my story.

Recently I found myself in the position of needing to find a replacement for the blade that had been currently in use.  It wasn't long before I was rewarded and brought into contact with a potential and fabulous looking tool, so I thought! At first, this seemed to be an accidental occurrence, but I believe now, as you will see, that there were forces at work and this was no random thing.

On a warm, balmy Sunday afternoon in the sub-tropical rainforest, we villagers met for our monthly country fair market.  Homemade produce, crafts and sausages sizzling on a barbecue, in a wonderful  idyllic  setting with happy  children flitting around like our emerald butterflies.  My husband Chris bought a raffle ticket, the prize was $100 cash.  We sat nervously awaiting the draw because the previous month he had won this same raffle, a happy knack of his.  Well, lo and behold and embarrassingly so, you guessed, his number came up and as soon as the cash was being handed over I quickly dashed in and snatched a $50 bill from the hand at the crucial moment, smiled sweetly at Chris and ran for my life.  (This is called "sharing.")

The first stall I came to was antique wares and I quickly spied a very old wooden chest.  Upon opening the lid I discovered it full of treasures, like a veritable Aladdin's Cave, just itching to be rummaged through.  And then...my hand pulled out an old dirty piece that vaguely resembled a wooden hilt.  On closer inspection I could see a sickle shaped blade next to it which later turned out to be an executioners blade, but my attention was drawn back to the one I was holding.  It was expensive, I thought, $48.  When I pulled on the handle, a wavy serpentine blade appeared blackened with a wavy pattern.  It looked very exotic and I was struck by its unusualness.  Instinctively, I knew this was no ordinary dagger.  In fact, I was confident it was a ritual knife, even though I couldn't actually identify its origins.

After getting it home, I cleaned it up and removed the blackened patina, hoping to get a silvery sheen, while I oiled and lacquered the wood.  Then I noticed the gold and jewels near the hasp.  This was definitely not glass, so I realized this was no ordinary blade indeed! But the carvings on the wood nagged at me unrelentlessly, something j familiar that I couldn't place.  No, not Tibetan, not Chinese, but what?

Interestingly, this dagger came to me at the Dark Moon and I was thinking maybe I could prepare it for the coming Full Moon as my new ritual blade, but I was compelled to find out more about its origins first.

After taking it around to others in the hope of identifying it, my daughter who is a student anthropologist, helped me to finally identify it, mainly because the word Balinese was strongly on my thoughts.  The subsequent research on the Lore of these particular knives was appalling and very disturbing.  It was said that my particular style of knife was used in self-sacrifice, and rumoured that the knives on the Western market had all been involved in bloodletting, murder etc., since they were not in the habit of being let out of their families.

The Balinese religion combined elements of nature worship with deities.  Little is known about the origin of the archaic tools except through legend.  It is alleged the first of these knives was made around 230AD by smiths called Pande Wesi who belonged to a privileged guild who worshipped the volatile fiery Batur volcano.  This region was called the Ring of Fire.  The smiths were regarded as sorcerers because they knew how to work the two magic elements of iron and fire.  The magic .power of the tool corresponds to the "pamor," a damascene motif on the blade itself.

In their forging, incantations were made and spirits invoked into the blade as the patina was applied, and also into the handle.  The wavy blade is called Sapu lumaka, "the walking serpent," which suggests activity and action.

New Kris were brought to the priests to be blessed in a magickal rite.  The blades were often made of a meteoric substance and dedicated by the priests to the gods of their volcano The Kris were traditionally symbolic of  the rank and power of the Balinese man, his worth represented by his Kris.  Much wealth was invested in the jewels and gold decorating them, while the less fancy wooden handled pieces were used for hand to hand combat.  Legend says that "bloodthirsty" Kris have made men run amok and that enemies could be killed by merely pointing the knife at them, buildings could be burned as well as render the bearer invisible.  It could also act as a powerful amulet.

Spiritually charged Kris where passed down through the generations and were heirlooms, as well as a family deity in their own right (batara kawitan).  The knives were considered a gift from the gods themselves in which the cumulative strength of all the ancestors still resided.  Such was the reverence and alleged powers that these knives possessed, it was custom for the dagger to stand in proxy for a bridegroom at his wedding and attend all important social functions such as funerals and matters of State.  The jewels could be pawned in times of need but never the actual blade itself.  Many of them were made with ivory and rare woods, the least valuable being sandalwood.  The dagger I picked up was of sandalwood, set with gold and rubies, sapphires and emerald.  Further research suggests that on the open market they are collectors pieces and selling for hefty prices, 3-4 figures.  Because of the Lore attached to them it was considered sacrilege to make reproductions, as that would be disrespectful and dishonorable to the families involved as well as an insult to the Gods.  I do know that mine is old and not a reproduction.  The figure on the carved handle is that of the demon Raksasa.

You can imagine the alarm and distaste I felt upon unraveling this tale along with some disturbing historical facts, one which was named the great mass suicide in 1906 in Denpasar.  The Kris were taken by the Dutch as war booty from the corpses of the Southern Balinese Kings.  A further bloodthirsty incident occurred following the eruption in 1963 of the Gunung Agung volcano.  The natives were convinced that the gods were angry at their politicians for abandoning the old ways and so the gods responded in causing mass destruction in the process.  Ceremonies and sacrifices to appease the gods were made where live animals were thrown into the crater, but still there was fear they would incur the wrath of the gods again.  Two years later, on the night of September 30th, 1965, which later came to be called "The Night of the Long Knives," whole villages including children took part in an island wide hunt for Communists who were slashed, clubbed and hacked to pieces.  The death toll tallied 100,000.  The Balinese believed this was an act of national purification and would purge evil.  Many believe that the knives in existence in Western hands were bloodied during these frenzies.

Why had I been attracted to it? It called to me, and fortunately my psychic senses alerted me to be cautious about it.  Some people have reported spooky phenomena happening to them on acquiring one.  Thus far I hadn't been handling it and so it seemed to be benign, but nevertheless I was very suspicious of it.  How could I be so sure of its origins, and was I willing to take a chance and charge it? Only a fool would do that, and besides, even if my concerns were unsubstantiated, it still held negative associations which I couldn't shake.  Who's to say what I may have unleashed?

The day I made up my mind to be rid of it, something happened to convince me that it would be better off discarded.  The dagger obviously knew I wanted it away, because that night at little past midnight as I was putting the finishing touches to a pentagram painting, a sinister icy chill greeted me at my back.  I stood up, the hairs on the back of my neck were prickling and the heaters were all turned up high to 28C.  The chill passed right through me.  I followed it and was confronted by an appalling, oppressive atmosphere by my bed and I didn't pause long for more.  I went straight into a banishing ritual which relieved the situation temporarily.  Next I spied the dagger in my ensuite and followed up there.  I felt like I had eyes in the back of my head and I was standing surrounded by full length mirrors.  My psychic senses were going into overload literally.  I wrapped and bound the dagger after further banishings, then ceremoniously got it out of the house.

A valuable lesson learned: listen to your inner voice at all times, and remember there are sound reasons for making your own tools, apart from those of imbuing your own energies into them.  And if you can't make them, buy new from a reputed source.  Failing that at least know their history.  This experience had the potential for something far worse, so we need to be responsible for our actions.  Using a tool like that is playing with fire, and ignorance is an inadequate excuse for something as powerful as a ritual blade.  From now on, I have the incentive to cultivate my creativity, and any hankering for collecting has a whole new outlook.

The Goddess Athame

This ritual Goddess blade is perfect for magickal workings and other sacred work.