Matrika #2 @7314
Fri Apr 27 16:08:24 1990

The use of the Chalice in Magick is as a feminine symbol.  It holds
the juice, wine, spring water or ale.  IT is usually purchased but I
have seen some hand-made ones that are gorgeous.  Pewter, Silver,
silver plate, and pottery are the most common materials they are made
of.  I knew a woman with a pottery chalice that had various Goddesses
from all 5 races of the world painted around it, nude, with arms
linked together.  This was her own work.  It was NOT a great artist's
work, but it reminded one of the primitive cave-paintings upon which
our Craft revival draws for much of it's history and so was very
beautiful in it's own right.  It was one of the most unique chalices I
have ever seen.

Another witch I knew, who was ethnically Jewish, used a chalice that
had a great deal of meaning for her.  It was her GRANDMOTHER'S Silver
Kiddush cup used to greet the SABBATH BRIDE and draw the Shekinah
Presence - also female according to Jewish tradition - into the home
after the lighting of the Shabbat candles.  As this connected this
particular Witch to her lineage and to her grandmother's spirit, it
was expecially appropriate for her to use it - especially since she
was an initiate of one of the offshoots of Gardnerian and Alexandrian
tradition that draws heavily on the Kabbalah; which she emphasized
more even than other H.Priestesses of those lineages due to her desire
to remain connected to her background.

In some traditions a drinking horn is used instead of a chalice.  It
is mostly used by those drawing from the Norse or Germanic legends in
recreating their ritual structure, but really such a horn could be
used by anyone.  You can make your OWN drinking horn far easier than
making a chalice.  Get a cow's horn - usually available from farmers
or from your local Tandy Leather store - and make a stand for it with
heavy copper or silver wire that you wrap around it and form into a
stand.  You can GENTLY engrave (DO NOT USE ACID FOR THIS) the horn or
you can solder small gems and crystals to the wire stand or whatever
else strikes you as being appropriate symbolism.

But having a chalice or horn that IS YOU is important in your work,
perhaps more so than any other article in Wicca which is so Goddess
oriented.