Athame Uses in Wicca & Rituals-An athame is a witches ceremonial knife. In many traditions the athame is black handled, with a double sided blade around 9 inches long. Some covens and high priest(esses) have a white handled decorative ceremonial athame and a black handled secondary athame for cutting fruit and herbs, carving symbols etc, and each member has their own black handled athame. The reason for this is because your athame is not meant to be used as a weapon even if it is a mundane task such as herb cutting. In some traditions this is reversed and the black handled athame is ceremonial and the white handled work knife is known as a Boline. Many traditions hold that the boline is a work knife for cutting and preparing items used including herbs fruit etc, while the athame is to only be used to cut air and the wedding cake at a handfasting (witches wedding). It also represents the male element in some ceremonies. It functions similar to a wand as a means of channeling energy and is often used for invoking and banishing elements, entities and other energies