What is an athame?

Two short stories that I’ve read recently have used the word “athame”. For the first time in my life, dictionary.com has failed me. It just says that I’m probably looking for the word “ashame”, but it’s wrong. So, in desparation I come to this forum. What is an athame?

Is it possible that the word you are looking for is “anathema”?

An athame is a ritual knife.

*Also known as ritual knifes, athames are black-hilted knifes carried by witches. Supposedly having magical properties of its own, it always had a black handle and often bore magic symbols on the blade.

In neo-pagan witchcraft the athame is used only for casting the circle, and never for cutting. Other older traditions use the knife as much as possible in the belief that its power increases with use. The athame is associated with the element of fire (in some traditions, air). The athame is also used in many invocations, evocations, calling the watchtowers, LBRP (lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram), spellwork, ceremonies, initiation, and various rituals and rites.*

OED doesn’t have it, but a Google search suggests that it’s a type of knife used in neo-pagan rituals.

Example: http://www.occultopedia.com/a/athame.htm

The fact that it’s not in the OED suggests to me that this word was borrowed very recently into English by neo-pagans, perhaps from some Celtic source.

Several websites suggest that ‘athame’ is derived from ‘artanus’ (a small ritual knife) as described in The Clavicle of Solomon, revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian. (1572)
The comments on the transcript of the document (assuming it’s real) include this note:

Not sure how much stock I should put in this site, but they seem to have done some research, and they do admit the possibility that the word is a 20th-century invention:

http://www.summerlands.com/crossroads/remembrance/burning/secA.htm

In case you’re wondering, the companion to the athame is the bolline, a white-handled knife that is used for cutting things.

Also, nobody seems to be able to agree on the pronunciation of athame, but then nobody in the neo-pagan community seems to be able to agree on much of anything. :slight_smile:

True, if you get two Pagans together you’ll have at least three opinions.

Which is why, when I’m invovled in a public ritual, I generally just say “my knife” rather than “my athame”.

Probably made the leap into popular usage via the TV show ‘charmed.’ IIRC the series premiere episode involved a warlock who was going around killing witches by stabbing them with an athame, and the terms has popped up on the show several more times.

It’s pronounced “Uh-THAH-may” by neo-pagans who actually talk to other neo-pagans (as opposed to the solitary witches who’ve only read it in a book. Most of them think it’s “A-thame”, rhymes with “A-frame”.)

It’s the quickest way to figure out who’s at their first gathering. “Hey, check out my new A-thame! I hope I can get it charged in time for Sam-hayne.”

“Traditionally,” is a weird word when talking neo-paganism. Wicca is, at best, 50 some odd years old. Lots of the other neo-pagan religions are “recreations” of what we wish things were like. So the black handled bit is probably pure invention, and most of the athames I see knowadays are things of real beauty. My own is crafted from a piece of wood I picked up about 12 hours after its tree had been hit by lightening. It’s sanded and sealed with clear coat, but I didn’t shape it in any meaningful way, except to bring the end to a point. Then I wrapped it with conductive wire and set a few crystals into it. A wiccan might not recognize it as an athame, but it works for me.

Hmmm… on the above-mentioned TV show, they seem to render it pretty consistently as “AAH-thay-may” With the emphasis on the first syllable (secondary emphasis on the third,) and both of the first two syllables using more or less the same vowel sound as in ‘Cat’

I’m having trouble even saying “Uh-THAH-may” out loud with the emphasis on the second syllable - it keeps wanting to turn the third vowel sound into a long e, “Uh-THAH-mee”

:smiley:

If you don’t mind saying, what were you reading?
Could you perhaps include a small quote or sentence from one of the paragraphs in which it was used?

My pronunciation, incidentally, is “AH-thuh-may”, the first syllable being like the a in “cat”.

“Recreations of what we wish things were like” is probably one of the best descriptions of most neo-paganism that I’ve ever heard. :smiley: