Dan Clore
2005-07-21 20:24:19 UTC
arthame, athame, athalme, n. [< L arthame, artamus,
arthanus; (found in some French recensions of the Key of
Solomon; a British recension calls the black-handled knife
the arclavum or arthanus, and the white-handled knife the
arthany) ?< OF attame, to cut, or ?< Ar al-dhammé,
bloodletter.] A long, black-handled knife used in sorcery
and witchcraft.
[Not in OED.]
She is moving with a regal gait, grasping the arthame, or
magic knife, with the point of which she can instantly
dissolve any of the evil spirits who should dare to attack her.
Grillot de Givry (trans. J. Courtenay Locke), Witchcraft,
Magic, and Alchemy
There is also a description of the essential clothing and
footgear, of the knife, or arthame, of the needle, or burin,
the ring, the sceptre, the fire, the Holy Water, the lights,
the perfumes, the virgin parchment and the pen, and of the
ink and blood to write with; all these instruments are
indispensable to the operation, for the evocation of a demon
is not so easy a business as some idle and curious amateurs
might suppose.
Grillot de Givry (trans. J. Courtenay Locke), Witchcraft,
Magic, and Alchemy
With hands tightening on the hilts of our arthames, we went
cautiously and circumspectly toward the cavern and paused a
little short of its entrance.
Clark Ashton Smith, "The Master of the Crabs"
"Aye, and your neophyte is also armed with an arthame.
However, it matters little. I shall feast on your liver,
Mior Lumivix, and wax stronger by such power of sorcery as
was yours."
Clark Ashton Smith, "The Master of the Crabs"
At the end of the long room he had cleared the cluttered
floor of its equipment, leaving only an immense globe of
crystal glass that suggested an aquarium. About the globe he
had traced with a consecrated knife, the sorcerers' arthame,
a circle inscribed with pentagrams and the various Hebrew
names of the Deity. Also, at a distance of several feet, a
smaller circle, similarly inscribed.
Clark Ashton Smith, "Schizoid Creator"
Wearing a seamless and sleeveless robe of black, he stood
now within the smaller, protective circle. Upon his breast
and forehead was bound the Double Triangle, wrought
perfectly from several metals. A silver lamp, engraved with
the same sign, afforded the sole light, shining on a stand
beside him. Aloes, camphor and storax burned in censers set
about him on the floor. In his right hand he held the
arthame; in his left, a hazel staff with a core of
magnetized iron.
Clark Ashton Smith, "Schizoid Creator"
The only circle that matters is the one drawn before every
ceremony with either a duly consecrated Magic Sword or a
Knife, the latter being the Witches' Athame or Black-Hilted
Knife, with magic signs on the hilt, and this is most
generally used.
Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today
There are no witch's supply stores, so a poor witch usually
has to make or improvise her own tools; a novice is often
presented with an Athame, and of course in a witch family
there are often old tools to be had. Old tools are always
preferred, as they are supposed to have Power.
Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1587154838/thedanclorenecro/
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
arthanus; (found in some French recensions of the Key of
Solomon; a British recension calls the black-handled knife
the arclavum or arthanus, and the white-handled knife the
arthany) ?< OF attame, to cut, or ?< Ar al-dhammé,
bloodletter.] A long, black-handled knife used in sorcery
and witchcraft.
[Not in OED.]
She is moving with a regal gait, grasping the arthame, or
magic knife, with the point of which she can instantly
dissolve any of the evil spirits who should dare to attack her.
Grillot de Givry (trans. J. Courtenay Locke), Witchcraft,
Magic, and Alchemy
There is also a description of the essential clothing and
footgear, of the knife, or arthame, of the needle, or burin,
the ring, the sceptre, the fire, the Holy Water, the lights,
the perfumes, the virgin parchment and the pen, and of the
ink and blood to write with; all these instruments are
indispensable to the operation, for the evocation of a demon
is not so easy a business as some idle and curious amateurs
might suppose.
Grillot de Givry (trans. J. Courtenay Locke), Witchcraft,
Magic, and Alchemy
With hands tightening on the hilts of our arthames, we went
cautiously and circumspectly toward the cavern and paused a
little short of its entrance.
Clark Ashton Smith, "The Master of the Crabs"
"Aye, and your neophyte is also armed with an arthame.
However, it matters little. I shall feast on your liver,
Mior Lumivix, and wax stronger by such power of sorcery as
was yours."
Clark Ashton Smith, "The Master of the Crabs"
At the end of the long room he had cleared the cluttered
floor of its equipment, leaving only an immense globe of
crystal glass that suggested an aquarium. About the globe he
had traced with a consecrated knife, the sorcerers' arthame,
a circle inscribed with pentagrams and the various Hebrew
names of the Deity. Also, at a distance of several feet, a
smaller circle, similarly inscribed.
Clark Ashton Smith, "Schizoid Creator"
Wearing a seamless and sleeveless robe of black, he stood
now within the smaller, protective circle. Upon his breast
and forehead was bound the Double Triangle, wrought
perfectly from several metals. A silver lamp, engraved with
the same sign, afforded the sole light, shining on a stand
beside him. Aloes, camphor and storax burned in censers set
about him on the floor. In his right hand he held the
arthame; in his left, a hazel staff with a core of
magnetized iron.
Clark Ashton Smith, "Schizoid Creator"
The only circle that matters is the one drawn before every
ceremony with either a duly consecrated Magic Sword or a
Knife, the latter being the Witches' Athame or Black-Hilted
Knife, with magic signs on the hilt, and this is most
generally used.
Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today
There are no witch's supply stores, so a poor witch usually
has to make or improvise her own tools; a novice is often
presented with an Athame, and of course in a witch family
there are often old tools to be had. Old tools are always
preferred, as they are supposed to have Power.
Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1587154838/thedanclorenecro/
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"