1.  Blood, the life-preserving fluid in our bodies, has always been associated with magick. It was initially seen as having the property of life, for if a person loses too much blood, he or she would die. This has led to some “women’s mysteries,” as women can bleed through menstruation yet not die.

Blood has been used to empower rituals and as a stand-in for another person (a form of sympathetic magick) through the anointing of an object with that person’s blood. Pacts with “demons” or the devil supposedly require a signature in blood. In the early days of modern Wicca, a drop of the new initiate’s blood was used on their cords of initiation. Many covens no longer follow this tradition.