The Chalice in Magick

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.