Ritual Tools Through History

Ritual tools should be imbued with emotional memory. Either make them yourself or if purchased then do something to make them your own. Some people cleanse them in moon light while others take them to a favorite place and perform some sort of ritual.

Athames (Ritual Knives)

Minoan workshop tags with inscriptions from Malia
Malia Tag 3 Side B (Minoan Text 1.3.2) Sign assignments by Olmsted (Image from foldout 3 of Goldart and Poursat 1978)
Image showing ritual tools around a gateway altar on the mosaic floor at the Hamat Tiberius Synagogue in Galilee (400 CE). This floor also had a zodiac. Surrounding the gateway are a ritual knife (athame), a sistrum rattle (also used in Egypt), and a horn.
This Divine gateway has a draped cloth to represent the veil which separates the material from the spiritual realm. The seven candled menorah represents the seven heavens, that is, the seven sky-shells holding the celestial bodies (sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn). The rounded arms represent these spherical sky shells.

Athames

(July 7, 2022) Athemes seem to have been used in rituals from ancient times. The Minoan trading tag on the left dating to 1700 BCE mentions them. It reads from point to flat (right to left):

For activities which are not being revealed | (3 knives) for revealing.

The athames mentioned here are being used in a ritual to cut through the fog of the material realm to reveal the spiritual realm.

Minoan Athame now at the Heraklion Museum
Minoan Athame dating to 1700 BCE on display at the Heraklion Museum in Crete. It was found in a temple work quarter called Mu at the city of Malia.

Cauldrons

Bronze Cauldron from Salamis, Cyprus (650 BCE)

Bronze Ritual Cauldron from Salamis, Cyprus (650 BCE)

This cauldron has a mix of eagle-vultures and owls with one owl being personified. Photo from New York's Metropolitan Museum exhibition at: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/assyria-to-iberia/blog/posts/feasting-in-cyprus
Object on permanent display at Cyprus Museum in Nicosia. Item number: T.79/202, 202[b]
Bottom of a Ritual Vase Showing Eagle-Vulture (Griffon) Cauldron from near Corinth, Greece (700 BCE)

Bottom of a Ritual Vase Showing Eagle-Vulture (Griffon) Cauldron from near Corinth, Greece (700 BCE)

This was probably used in rituals as the top layer shows stars and life networks. Middle layer shows representations of the main types of life forms surrounding an eagle-vulture (griffon) cauldron besides an Alphabetic Akkadian letter "taw" meaning "motion-magic." Together the cauldron and letter represent both classes of spiritual powers. The bottom layer represents subterranean waters.
Now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Accession Number: 23.160.18) at https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/251362
Bronze Cauldron from Oxfordshire, England (1100 BCE)

Bronze Cauldron from Oxfordshire, England (1100 BCE)

Most cauldrons were not used for formal rituals but for communal feasting. They either held a stew or an alcoholic drink. Coming together to share a meal is a ritual act in itself by promoting connection between people.
This cauldron is now at the at Oxford University. (Item number: AN1928.324). Online at: https://britisharchaeology.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/highlights/cauldron.html

Chalices

Chalices Represented the Feminine Underdome

Notice how the lower left figure. Its top part looks like an athame while its bottom part looks like a chalice surrounded by stars. The chalice represents the goddess Hecate as the feminine source power. In Sumerian this corresponds to the goddess Erishkigal who after lordification was given the epithet of Ningal meaning “lady of the chalice” from NIN.GAL.
This is unicorn bull seal (H97-3433/7617-01) dates to about 2200 BCE which is at the transition between Harappa Periods 3B and 3C.
https://www.harappa.com/indus4/5.html

Athame and Chalice as Used in Modern Ritual

This ritual is called the "Great Rite" and it has correspondences at two levels. At one level it represents the continuation of life with the coming together of male and female. At another level it represents causality itself with its guidance and flow components. As the key phrase of this ritual says, "In their union exist all the powers of the universe."

Minoan Clay Chalice (2800 BCE)

This was found at on the Aegean island of Santorini. It is now located in the Heraklion Museum on Crete.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EM_I_fine_dark_gray_burnished_ware_chalice_from_Pyrgos_-_Herakleion_AM.jpg