B IS FOR BOLINE

The boline is the companion blade to the athame.  Whereas in today’s pagan practices, the athame is used only to channel energy in casting the circle and during the Athame and Chalice Grand Rite, the boline is used for more practical purposes.  It is used to harvest and chop up herbs, cut rope, slice fruit or bread – anywhere where a cutting tool is needed in a ritual setting.

Traditionally it is a white handled knife, with a curved blade, resembling a scythe.  However, sometimes that curved blade presents some difficulties and is not very practical, so straight blades with white handles are also used by many Pagans today. 

Personally, I love the boline with the curved blade.  It reminds me of the crescent moon and I have come to think of it as being the Feminine Energy tool.  There have been times when I used it to cast a circle, during those rituals when only the Sacred Feminine was called for.  The handle on my boline is made of wood and has a number of sacred symbols etched into it.  I also used to have a white-handled steak knife which I used as a boline, for those times where it was easier to use a straight blade rather than the curved one.  Recently, that handle cracked and broke, and I am looking for a replacement now.

My research into the name, Boline, has not yielded too much information.  The most I found was in Wikipedia, which says the following:

Many of the bolines advertised in on-line 'magick shops' have a characteristic crescent shape, and are described as being for harvesting herbs. This crescent shape is reminiscent of the sickle described in the Key of Solomon, a medieval grimoire which is one of the sources for modern Wicca^[4].. Confusingly, an Italian version of the Key of Solomon has a hook-shaped knife called an artauo (a possible root for athame) and a straight, needle-shaped blade called a bolino. When the name 'boline' was first used to describe the crescent-shaped blade is not clear. In The Book of Ceremonial Magicpublished by Arthur Edward Waite in 1911, Waite references a number of early works on magic which mention the bolline or sickle, saying "Among the necessary properties mentioned by the Book of True Black Magic are the sword, the staff, the rod, the lancet, the arctrave or hook, the bolline or sickle, the needle, the ponaird, a white-handled knife and another knife, with a black handle, used to describe the circle. The most important to make is that called the bolline....".^[5]

(This “Key of Solomon” looks interesting.  I will make sure to research it in more detail and will write on it when I reach the letter K.)