Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

BOLINE
usually pronounced 'BO-leen' or 'bow-line'

A Traditional Boline and Scabbard Most Traditions of Wicca recognise the use of eight Working Tools (Sword, Athame, Boline, Wand, Pentacle, Thurible, Scourge, Cords), which in some Traditions are all presented to a Witch on their 1st Degree of Initiation, whilst in others only the Athame is presented to the 1st Degree Initiate.

While the Athame is meant as a sort of battery for containing power, the Boline is used for more mundane purposes, and does not store energy - it is a Witches 'practical' knife.

Traditionally the Boline is a white handled sickle like tool with a crescent moon shaped serrated blade. However, any type of knife often suffices.

Although not used in the practice of magic itself, the Boline's use is usually resticted to Magick related purposes, such as harvesting herbs and chopping them up, cutting thread when making Sachets and so fourth.

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc