Witchcraft Tools: How to Use and Choose the Right Supplies

Witchcraft tools don’t need to be expensive or complicated. In fact, most of them include basic items, traditional tools, or DIY supplies you probably already have.

They aren’t necessarily about aesthetics (although I love a cute bottle or crystal to decorate my altar). They help you connect with your power and intentions. This article explains how to use witchcraft tools or even skip them altogether. Let’s jump in!

Please note that I make every effort to ensure this information is correct and accurate through my own experiences and referencing sources throughout this article.

Posts on this site may contain affiliate links that allow me to earn a small commission from your purchases (at no extra cost to you!)

What Are Witchcraft Tools?

Witchcraft tools are items witches use during rituals, spells, or in their daily lives. These witchcraft supplies can be practical or meaningful to you, but each tool has its own purpose. It’s more about you and how you use it than how fancy or “authentic” it looks.

Some tools are used to focus your spiritual energy, others serve as offerings to deities, and others help you set intentions. Don’t feel like you need to run out and buy a bunch of witchcraft tools, though. Most beginners start with only a few supplies or something they DIY’d.

I recommend using tools that feel personal and meaningful to you. Try not to use your tools for mundane tasks to avoid mixing intentions. However, all that goes out the window when I do kitchen magic, so the choice is up to you, my peculiar friend!

Popular Witchcraft Tools and Their Uses

As your craft progresses, the witchcraft tools you collect will reflect your unique magic. They don’t need to be flashy or rare (although that’s great, too). They can be simple, maybe natural, and chosen for how they resonate with you or symbolize your intention.

Magic begins with intention, which comes from within you. Each object you use adds another layer to that intention. Although it’s not necessary, using tools can help your work feel more sacred. What makes you feel like a witch?

Athame or Dagger

An athame, also known as a dagger, is a ritual blade. However, instead of using it for physical cutting, it’s used to direct energy during spells or ritual work. You don’t need anything fancy, just whatever you connect with. You could even try DIYing your own.

Athames have black handles in traditional practices like Wicca. I pronounce it as Ah-Tha-May, but I’ve heard many occult practitioners say Ah-th-mm. As far as I know, they’re both correct.

The Dagger is often used in ritual magic as an extension of one’s finger. It is used to draw sigils, pentagrams, and other magical symbols in the air.

Phil Hine – Condensed Chaos (page 96)

Bells, Chimes, and Sound

Sound is one of the simplest ways to shift energy quickly. Many spiritual practitioners use sound to cleanse a sacred space, banish stagnant energy, or raise its vibration. One of my favorite techniques is to hang wind chimes near my windows for additional protection.

You can use bells, chimes, sound bowls, or any sound you prefer. I like to wear headphones and use binaural beats during meditation or ritual work. It’s a powerful tool, however you use it.

Besom (Witch’s Broom)

A besom is a spiritual broom, often crafted with twigs, herbs, or branches tied to a wooden handle. It’s commonly used to sweep away negative or stagnant energy from your altar, magical supplies, or sacred spaces. It’s also used to symbolically cross spiritual thresholds or as a tool for ritual work and home protection.

Many occult practitioners love to craft their own, but it’s not required. If you’d like to see how I made my cinnamon broom a little “extra,” watch this video. I also created a DIY besom for Yule decorations.

Around Samhain, some witches like to set out a cinnamon besom near the front door to sweep away any lingering shadows from the past year. It welcomes light and happy moments in the longer days to come.

Boline Knife

A boline is a small, practical knife used in witchcraft rituals when you need to cut cords or herbs. They’re also helpful when carving symbols into candles. Many green witches use theirs when gardening or gathering herbal supplies for spells.

In traditional Wicca, bolines have white handles with a crescent shape, but some practitioners prefer a straight-edged blade. The choice is yours as long as it’s helpful to your practice!

Books

I think witchcraft books are the most powerful tool of all. They expand your perspective, grow your craft, and teach you how other witches practice their craft.

Reading sharpens your mind and deepens your spiritual path, whether you got it from an old, worn-out paperback or a free PDF from an online archive.

A great place to look for books is at your local public library! Libraries are full of free resources for your mind and spirit (that’s why they’re the most magical places in the world).

I highly recommend looking for books that aren’t necessarily focused on witchcraft. I’ve found endless amounts of helpful information in books about history, gardening, meditation, foraging, wildlife, crafting, recipes, homesteading, and more!

Candles and Candle Holders

Candle magic is a very popular tool in spell work for beginners and more advanced spiritual practitioners. What’s not to like? It’s easy, accessible, powerful, and each candle carries a lot of meaning.

Using candles along with witch symbols, herbs, and oils adds many layers of intention. This is called dressing a spell candle. Understanding and including candle color meanings will help you add more depth.

Try attracting abundance with a money candle or a protection candle to keep away negative intentions. I’d also recommend learning candle divination by reading the flame, smoke, or wax for spiritual messages.

Safety is very important in candle magic. Remember to never leave your candle burning unsupervised, and use sturdy candle holders that won’t tip over.

Cauldron

A cauldron is such a classic witchcraft tool and symbol. It’s very versatile and can be used for many purposes. Some occult practitioners add water, flowers, herbs, or citrus fruits to create a simmer pot; this fills your home with your intended intentions.

Wiccan practitioners often use its womb-like shape to represent the Divine Feminine. It’s also symbolic of life and death. Cauldrons can also be placed on your altar to represent the magic element water; you might even try scrying in yours.

They don’t need to be fancy; my favorite place to buy caldrons is at my local thrift shop or dollar store. I typically use a 6″ cast iron (featured in the image above) to burn ritual candles, petitions, and herb bundles on my altar or in my sacred space. Feel free to choose whatever cauldron suits you best.

Crockpots can work well as cauldrons to create soups, ciders, or other foods to feast on during the Pagan Holidays!

Chalice or Goblet

The chalice is a sacred cup or goblet frequently placed on an altar or sacred space to represent the element of water. It’s used to represent emotions, intuition, and the flow of energy.

In traditional ceremonies, it’s filled with wine, juice, or meaningful ritual libations. Witches drink out of chalices during rituals or to hold offerings for deities or ancestors. Remember to routinely clean and spiritually cleanse your chalice, if you’re using it for offerings or drinking from it.

The Chalice is used as a physical receptacle of transmission. Thus it may be used in ritual to hold wine (or other fluid) which is first ‘charged’ via an act of invocation and consumed by the celebrants, or it can be used for scrying.

Phil Hine – Condensed Chaos (page 96)

Crayons and Chalk

Crayons and chalk aren’t just for kids, and they’re extremely helpful when drawing sigils, journaling, adding color symbolism, outdoor ritual markings, and more!

They’re easy to use, mess-free, and you can find them at the dollar store. Plus, isn’t there something special and magical about using childhood tools to create spells for yourself as an adult?

Crystals

Crystals are a favorite of many witches because of their beauty, spiritual energy, and connection to the earth. However, they’re not required tools. Most beginners feel they NEED a crystal collection, but your spiritual energy and intuition are far more important tools.

However, if crystals resonate with you and your practice, they’re wonderful to assist with spell work or to simply keep in your home, car, pocket, or purse. I prefer to wear my crystals as pendants, earrings, or bracelets.

If you aren’t sure where to start, I highly recommend checking out my articles: How to Cleanse Your Crystals, Green Calcite, Orange Crystals, and Honey Calcite. You can choose to work with one stone, or create a whole crystal grid.

Dice and Dominoes

When you think of witchcraft tools, dice and dominoes may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but they’re an excellent way to bring numerology to your craft.

Dice Divination, also known as Astragalomancy, can be used in various ways due to the different methods of casting dice. A spiritual practitioner may use multiple or various-sided dice. I’ve even seen some witchcraft practitioners use 20-sided DnD dice and sets.

Dirt

Using magical dirt in witchcraft is pretty underrated, but it packs a spiritual punch. Collect dirt from certain locations (crossroads, banks, courthouses, cemeteries, etc.) to use in your ritual or spellwork.

If you’re interested in working with magical dirt, my Utterly Wicked Book review highlights Dorothy Morrison’s practical advice on gathering dirt, storing it, and using it creatively.

Divination Supplies

Divination tools help connect witches with their intuition, subconscious, spirits, and unseen energies. They aren’t required, but are very useful. Popular tools include pendulums, scrying mirrors, and casting lots with sigils, runes, bones, or handmade tokens.

Here’s a list of popular divination techniques if you’re looking for more ideas to help you get started. Start simple, be patient, and trust what comes through.

Eggs

Eggs are symbols of fertility, new beginnings, and spiritual protection. Witches and occult practitioners sometimes use them for egg cleansing rituals. This involves rolling a whole egg over the body to absorb unwanted energy. Sometimes the egg is broken into water for a divination reading.

Cascarilla powder is a spiritual tool used for protection, cleansing (limpiar), and ritual work. It’s often associated with Santería, but its meaning and origins are also rooted in the Yoruba traditions of West Africa. Here in the United States, witches and spiritual practitioners typically make a fine powder from eggshells.

Elements

Many witches honor the five Magic Elements (earth, air, fire, water, and spirit) in their practice, on their altar, or within their sacred space. Wiccans (although this is not exclusive to their practice) use traditional items or objects to represent the spiritual energy of each element.

It’s meant to bring balance, intention, and symbolic reflection to rituals and our daily life. Here are a few ideas to help you get started, but don’t let this list limit you! Feel free to add whatever items you like!

Grimoire and Wiccan Book of Shadows

A Grimoire is a book filled with magical knowledge, like spells, rituals, symbols, and instructions. It can be a very old ancient text or a personal DIY journal you’ve created over time.

A Wiccan Book of Shadows is very similar to a Grimoire. In fact, they’re so similar, I use the terms interchangeably. In the 1940s, the founder of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, connected with occultist Aleister Crowley and accepted membership into the Ordo Templi Orientis. He gathered tons of information from their transcripts, including rituals, traditions, and magical ceremonies.

He wanted to compile all this knowledge into a book for himself instead of using information from other sources. After his death, some early work, Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical, was found unfinished. According to High Priestess Doreen Valiente, Gardner was thinking of calling it The Book of Shadows based on an article he’d seen in an occult magazine. 

You can use these as spiritual reference guides as a witchcraft tool when doing your own magic work. If you need ideas on what to include, I put together a post with 101+ things to add to your Grimoire!

Herbs and Witches

Herbs are one of my favorite witchcraft tools, and the best part is, you can find most of them in your kitchen or local grocery store. You can also grow your own!

Popular choices include bay leaves, cinnamon, basil, rosemary, salt, and lavender. You can use herbs fresh or dried, depending on your preferences and what your intentions are. Note: only use dried herbs in infusions; moisture will create mold, and there’s nothing magical about that.

Many witches prefer to use a coffee grinder or high-powered blender to grind herbs for spell work. However, I prefer to use a mortar and pestle. I like this slower and quieter tool, and use the grinding time to infuse the herbs with my intentions. The choice is yours, that’s what makes witchcraft so wonderful.

If you’re looking for more information about herbs and their spiritual intentions, I suggest reading Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. I recommend getting the Kindle version because it’s easier to search when you need quick answers. The book does have a few outdated ideas, but I still think it’s a great reference tool. If you want to learn more about that, read my article: Witchcraft Herbs: Surprising Secrets of Magic Botanicals.

Incense with a Holder

Witches use incense for cleansing, meditation, or just because they like the smell. Different scents carry certain spiritual intentions with them. You can use cones, sticks, or even DIY some for yourself!

I recommend using them in conjunction with a proper incense holder to catch the ash. You can even use it to make black salt later. Watching the way the smoke moves can also be a form of divination.

Jars and Bottles

Jars and bottles work great to hold herbs, Moon Water, crystals, or spell ingredients. They’re often used to create Spell Jars. These are small containers filled with magic items holding spiritual intentions, and can attract love, protection, abundance, or whatever else you want to manifest. Plus, they’re customizable and easy to make.

Most of the jars and bottles I use come from thrift stores. I also like to clean and repurpose old kitchen items like pickle or spice jars. If I’m going for something more fancy or decorative (see image below), I buy them from a craft store like Michaels.

Oils

I love using magical oils in my practice; plus, it’s fun to be creative with them. Use oils to anoint yourself, a candle, or witchcraft tools. It carrier oil holds spiritual properties to add more layers of meaning to your spell or ritual.

Here are my favorite oils and their correspondences to help give you some ideas to get started:

• Almond Oil (money, prosperity, and wisdom)
• Grapeseed Oil (grapes bring wisdom and are often used on money altars)
• Olive oil (for spell potency and protection)
• Coconut oil (for purification and protection)

Pentagram or Pentacle

A Pentagram is a five-pointed star created in one fluid motion without lifting your pen. A pentacle contains a pentagram within a circle, bringing chaos magic and sigil creation to mind.

Some spiritual practitioners believe the pentagram and pentacle are synonymous and use them interchangeably. Other spiritual practitioners believe the added circle to the pentacle symbolizes infinity, nature’s cyclical seasons, and limitless energy.

Whichever you choose to use, it’s great for protection, energy direction, and spiritual grounding. It’s often used to represent the five elements, and you can place it on your altar and wear it as jewelry.

The meaning of the pentagram has changed a lot throughout history. If you’d like to learn more, check out my article, Pentagram Meaning Throughout History.

Robes

Wearing robes, cloaks, or special outfits when performing spells or rituals can help to shift your mindset and create a sacred space. They aren’t required, but it can be helpful to get into a more relaxed and spiritual state of mind.

Wear whatever you like! It can be elaborate or simple, but the point is to only wear this designated clothing when you do magical work. I’ve seen some witches sew their own DIY robes, but feel free to do whatever makes you feel most connected to your craft.

Safety Supplies

Many witchcraft rituals include candles, incense, and burning herbs. Basically, a firefighter’s worst nightmare! It’s important to always have safety supplies handy. A fire extinguisher can make all the difference in an emergency.

Never leave candles or burning tools unattended, especially around pets, kids, or flowing curtains. Always work on fire-safe surfaces and keep your areas well-ventilated. Practical safety always keeps your magical rituals and spells running smoothly.

Stang

A stang is a forked staff, typically made of wood, and is used by traditional Wiccans. This witchcraft tool was made popular because it was used by English occultist Robert Cochrane.

It’s traditionally placed on an altar or in a sacred space to symbolize the Horned God or used to direct spiritual energy during rituals.

String or Cord

String and cord work wonderfully for binding spells, knot magic, and many other rituals and spells. You can even braid in herbs. I love to use different colors to represent different intentions and meanings. For example, red for sexual passion or black for protection.

They also come in handy when doing a cord-cutting ritual to release spiritual or energetic connections you feel with a person, place, or thing. This spell is great to establish boundaries and helps us make the best decisions for ourselves. It’s a fresh start!

Wands, Rods, and Staves

Wands, rods, and staves are used to direct and channel energy in witchcraft. They basically guide your magical intentions. These tools aren’t required, though, and if needed, you can simply use your index finger.

I’ve seen plenty of witches DIY their own wands using branches, crystals, sigils, or personal charms. Anyone interested in Fae Mythology or different types of Fae might like the idea of creating a fairy wand to enchant spells or rituals. The choice is yours, let your imagination run wild!

The Wand or Staff is a physical representation of the act of projecting one’s will forth (intentionality directed along a given vector)…

…The wand also represents the initial drive to begin a project.

Phil Hine – Condensed Chaos (page 97)

Witchcraft Altar Tools

Technically, most of the tools I’ve mentioned here can be used as altar tools, but these objects are more specific to altars. They help represent spiritual beliefs, focus intention, or support magical work.

Items can include statues of deities, ancestors, or spirits you connect with. It can also include photos, artwork, an altar cloth, or anything else that feels right to you. I like to refresh my altar during the holidays or changes in seasons.

There’s no “right way” to decorate your altar. If it feels right to you, go for it. Remember, these tools aren’t just for looks, they help anchor your energy and spiritual intentions. You can change them any time you like, and you probably will as your practice evolves.

Should I Buy a Witchcraft Supplies Kit?

Witches and occult practitioners have been around long before we could buy starter kits on the internet. Historically, witches created spells and rituals from whatever they had on hand.

I say this only so you know you don’t need to buy anything, and it’s not a requirement to be a “real” witch. However, if you’d like to buy a witchcraft supplies kit, I think you should!

If you’d like to buy a kit, I recommend supporting small creators and real practitioners. Etsy is a great place to find some lovely options. You can also find ingredients around your house, at grocery stores, thrift shops, dollar stores, or your local metaphysical store (they often have great kits).

It’s common for witches to slowly build their supplies over time and often choose items holding personal meaning or spiritual significance.

How to Use Witchcraft Tools in Rituals

Using witchcraft tools helps to focus your energy or assist your spell work and rituals in some way. They’re basically an extension of your will. They aren’t required but can be helpful, symbolic, or give your magic a bit more oomph.

Which tools you choose to use will depend on your intentions and beliefs. You can follow a more traditional ceremonial path or take a more intuitive, simple approach. Your tools should support you, not overshadow your magic. Practice and experiment to find out which works best for you!

Practicing Witchcraft Without Tools

Even if you don’t have a single witchcraft tool at your disposal right now, you still have magical assets: your mind, will, and intentions. Use spoken words and visualization to focus your intentions and create powerful spells and rituals.

You can strengthen your inner strength and intuition by practicing without any tools. Try meditating or casting spells using only your voice. YOU ARE MAGIC; the tools simply help you shine.

My Personal Tips for Beginner Witches

If you’re a beginner witch, here are a few tips to keep in mind. Please don’t feel like you need to go out and buy every tool. Witchcraft is a very personal journey, and it’s okay to build your supplies over time.

Remember to cleanse your tools regularly to keep the energy fresh. It helps to choose a time when you do this so you don’t forget. For example, you can always cleanse your tools during the Full Moon or on the first day of the month.

Journal about your experiences with each tool. Write what works for you, what doesn’t, and WHY. Lastly, always respect cultural boundaries. Not every supply belongs in your witchcraft tool kit. Staying curious and respectful will take you far.

I hope you found this article on Witchcraft Tools helpful! Sending you lots of love, and remember, as always…

Sources

Hine, Phil. Condensed Chaos: An Introduction to Chaos Magic. The Original Falcon Press. 1995.