Copper and Iron! Mars and Venus in the witches athame.

Copper and Iron!!! Mars and Venus! Why DOES Paul always seem to combine a copper cap with with his iron blades???

"For he is ever a sun, and she a moon!" - Aleister Crowley

"Venus and Mars Are alright tonight" - Paul McCartney

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make" - Paul McCartney

"Every intentional act is a magical act" - Aleister Crowley

Paul's pagan blacksmithing has become very popular over the last decade or so.

Ritually made, charged with intent, so everything is THERE for a reason... So what IS the story with the copper end cap that are on most of Paul's ritual athames, daggers, bolines and swords????...

Welp witches and pagans....

Its all down to good old pagan witchcraft correspondences... The idea that similar things have the same energy and therefore can be combined ritualistically. This concept goes back 1000s of years to ancient astrology. The seven classical planets don't just rule the days of the week, but also herbs, crystals, metals, trees, animals, parts of the body, and so on...

The four elements are also linked to this idea of correspondences with certain planets "ruling" the various elements.

IRON is sacred to Mars/Ares... God of war! (also Tyr, Chango, Sekhmet and so on in other pantheons). Iron is therefore for courage, war, conflict, fortitude, strength, determination and the element of FIRE. It talks therefore to our WILL... Our FIRE... Our intention to get shit done! Achieved! Nailed! Slayed!

The first blacksmith was Tubal Cain. The Tubal Cain mythos also has iron as a tool of our will and apostasy, Yahweh after the expulsion from Eden told Adam and Eve they would have to scrabble among the thorns for their food... But Tubal Cain, 7th son of Cain had other ideas and discovered the working of iron and became the first blacksmith. To the Tubal Cain currents of witchcraft iron is therefore a tool of our will and apostacy.

In Traditional English cottage witchcraft the Fae Folk are scared of iron and therefore iron tools can be used to protect against or control the Fae.

In some wicca traditions the athame or witches dagger represents FIRE for this reason.

In other ceremonial magick and cunning craft traditions the dagger or sword represents AIR... Air as an element is the child of FIRE and WATER - representing their union... Swords and daggers are double edged. The sword of justice therefore represents that decisions can go either way.

So what of the copper then ??...

Copper is the metal of Venus and all love goddesses... Freya, Frigga, Lilith, Aphrodite, Astarte and so on... In witchcraft, wicca and the occult it represents the womb, love, sex. fertility and regeneration. Venus also rules the element of EARTH.

Copper therefore is the feminine and iron the male.

The iron blade has a "Tang". The tang is a tongue or phallus of iron that penetrates through the handle.

Therefore witches... Its all about sexual alchemy... The coming together of opposing ideas, opposites, dualities... Sex magick...

The iron tang penetrates into the copper sleave (vagina) of the end cap... Representing the alchemical wedding of the male and female forces.... The marriage of FIRE and WATER! Manifesting the forces of AIR!

The wood handle, in which the tang sits, further adds intent to the ritual athame or magick dagger... Paul always uses woods based on the Celtic Ogham... Where the nature of each type of tree adds its own flavor to the spell... Solar woods like oak and holly and ash for strength, success and victory, saturnine woods like blackthorn for cursing or Yew for spirits and the dead, Lune woods such as Elder and Willow for moon magick, Rowan or Mulberry for the forces of Mercury... And so on.

The forging of Iron arguably is a very magickal act that combines ALL the elements... The FIRE in the forge makes the iron malleable by being super heated with AIR, the fuel is charcoal or coal from the EARTH which is reduced to ash... The blade is hardened and cooled by being quenched, plunged into WATER!

Mars/Iron is of the element of FIRE! Venus/Copper of EARTH. The Male is of FIRE, the female of WATER... The union thereof of the male and the female is AIR.... These are the forces imbued into the forged witchcraft dagger, athame, boline and sword...

So, yeah... Everything is there as an act of will and intent.. And Paul has A LOT on his mind when swinging those hammers... Phew!

Check out Paul's athames.... Hand forged athames and pagan daggers

Swords... Hand Forged Swords

And Bolines... Hand forged bolines for kitchen witchcraft

A great book on correspondences... Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences