Boline
type of ritual knife in Wicca
A boline (also spelled bolline, pron.: boh-leen) is a white-handled ritual knife, one of several magical tools used in Wicca, mainly for the cutting of herbs and inscribing candles.
Description
Unlike the athame, which in most traditions is never used for actual physical cutting , the boline is used for cutting cords and herbs, and carving candles. It has a small, straight or crescent-shaped blade with, traditionally, a white handle.
Purpose
The boline has been adopted by several other modern forms of witchcraft including Eclectic Wicca. Among these later traditions opinions vary as to whether the boline is truly a magical tool or is merely of utilitarian purpose. Similarly, sometimes a white-hilted knife called a kirfane (various spellings) is used, for roughly the same purposes as the boline.
According to the Kitchen Witchcraft philosophy, the use of magical tools for mundane purposes like cooking is actively encouraged, and as such there is little or no need for a boline as a separate tool from the athame. Some traditions, such as that of Robert Cochrane, also prescribe the use of a single knife for both ritual and practical purposes.
Key of Solomon
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 and one of the sources for modern Wicca.
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This entry incorporates text from “Boline” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.