White Handled Knife

White Handled Knife

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

One of the ritual tools of Witchcraft is a knife with a blade that may be singleor double-edged. The handle is white, as its name implies. The knife is used for making, marking, and inscribing the other ritual tools. The Gardnerian Book of Shadows states, "Its use is to form all the instruments used in the Art. It can only properly be used within the Circle." Like all such tools, the White Handled Knife is consecrated before its initial use. This is not the same tool as the Bolene, or Bolline, which has a curved blade and is used strictly for cutting herbs.

There is also a White Handled Knife used in Ceremonial Magic. In fact it may be from there that Witches picked up the use of this magical tool. According to such old grimoires as the Key of Solomon the King, this knife is engraved on its handle with such words and Names of Power as tetragrammaton, adonay, and jehova, showing the Judeo-Christian connection.