Do any of you have a wand?

Christine N. · Jul 29, 2007

Just a question that occured to me. Who's got wand and what kind of wood is it made from? Did you pluck it from the ground, or cut it from the tree with a silver knife or buy it in a shop?

I've always wanted a wand, just never found one that seemed to speak to me.

PattiTheWicked · Jul 29, 2007

I have two. One is a nice long piece of what I suspect is pine that jumped into my hand one year on a hike in the woods.

The other is willow, and it's one I picked myself, brought home and decorated with a crystal, some ribbon, and a bit of sparkle. It seems to be more decorative than functional, because I prefer to use my plain pine one.

I actually lust for one I saw in a catalog, it's got a metal handle and a quartz on one end, with a serpent and a Celtic knotwork on it. It's horribly ostentatious, but I love it. It's also about $70.

Christine N. · Jul 30, 2007

LOL. I admit I lust after the ones on Alivan's site. I know it's a Harry Potter type of magic thing, but it's fun. And they're real wood, handmade.

They have this one with carved ivy vines around the handle...
So...pretty...(and most of them less than $70)

Carole · Jul 30, 2007

I use a maple wand that I've had for about 10 or maybe 12 years. I also wanted it to speak to me, but I thought I was out of luck at first. I just couldn't find it.

I looked and looked in the forest behind where we used to live, but I couldn't come to terms with cutting a branch for my own "selfish" purposes. I also didn't want to take something dead that was lying on the ground. At the end of my trek, I found a perfect branch, broken by a recent storm, but still hanging from the tree. I decided that Mama Maple gave the wand to me. While we lived there, I took an offering to the tree every week afterward and always referred to her as the "mama" tree. I miss that place.

Christine N. · Jul 31, 2007

Did you do anything to it, Carole? Strip the bark or sand it or anything? Wrap the handle in ribbon?

sunna · Jul 31, 2007

I have one I made from a hollow copper pipe that used to be part of a lightning rod, silk cord, and several different stones that are welded to the tips and beaded around the shaft (sorry if that sounds a bit dirty

); with herbs and a few other things inside.

It looks prettier than it sounds, I swear.

It's more of a meditation tool than anything else these days, but it was a blast to make.

Sarita · Jul 31, 2007

I think we saw a pic of Carole's wand in a post a while back. Let me see if I can find it...

ETA: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=674&d=1130824006

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=675&d=1130824171

Christine N. · Jul 31, 2007

Sweet! Thanks, Saritams

MMcC · Jul 31, 2007

Hawthorne, with moonstone, citrine, aventurine, turquoise, amethyst, garnet, obsidian, a hawk's feather, and rabbit skin binding.

Sarita · Jul 31, 2007

Does anyone else have cool pictures of their wands?

Christine N. · Jul 31, 2007

I'm wondering if I can get my dad to hand turn me one on his lathe...I'd get him the wood if I could find the right kind. Willow sounds nice, or maple. I have a giant maple, and she's always losing branches, none of them ever seem to be 'right'.

I guess I'm partial to smooth and elegant instead of bumpy and rustic. I like the idea of filling it with herbs.

sunna · Jul 31, 2007

So, to all you wand-users out there....

This may sound a little stupid, but I'm agonna ask it anyway: What do you use your wand for?

One of my friends only used hers for invoking; another used his the way I have always used an athame - pretty much for all things involving the direction of energy. As my wand was made for something fairly specific, it doesn't get used very often outside of meditation these days. And I love my athame, so I tend to use that for casting, charging, invoking, etc..

Just curious...

MMcC · Jul 31, 2007

If I draw a small circle... banishing... calling. I've been known to use it to discharge or draw energy. I use my athame almost exclusively for cutting.

Carole · Aug 4, 2007

What you use your wand for really depends on the person. I use mine for the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (which I really should do more often), in spellwork, chakra healing (because I set chakra-related stones into the wood), and meditation. It just depends on my mood really.

sassandgroove · Aug 6, 2007

I hate to sound silly, but I didn't know people really used wands. This is a fascinating thread.

Does the wand help to focus?

RumpleTumbler · Aug 6, 2007

In my best Mr. Spock voice....."Fascinating."

MMcC · Aug 6, 2007

It's sort of an instrument, and creativity LIKES to focus in our hands, if you think about it. My Nana used a broom. My Ma (great-grandmother) used an old blackthorn shileleigh with a whitby jet acorn set in a knot that came loose. I still have it.

I use an athame for cutting and a wand that has symbolic items worked into it for drawing or banishing a circle, etc. I like to hold things in my hands. I like pens, pencils, pendulums, anything that connects me to the work via my hands is positive for me. A wand that incorporated color and a TINY black stone to help bind my power was essential. I added the rabbit fur as a way to incorporate my fear as a positive thing.

The making of it was a very special, private weekend. That empowers the article, too.

sassandgroove · Aug 6, 2007

MMcC said:
It's sort of an instrument, and creativity LIKES to focus in our hands, if you think about it. My Nana used a broom. My Ma (great-grandmother) used an old blackthorn shileleigh with a whitby jet acorn set in a knot that came loose. I still have it.

I use an athame for cutting and a wand that has symbolic items worked into it for drawing or banishing a circle, etc. I like to hold things in my hands. I like pens, pencils, pendulums, anything that connects me to the work via my hands is positive for me. A wand that incorporated color and a TINY black stone to help bind my power was essential. I added the rabbit fur as a way to incorporate my fear as a positive thing.

The making of it was a very special, private weekend. That empowers the article, too.

What is an athame? And a banishing circle?

MMcC · Aug 6, 2007

Athame= ritual knife.

Ali B · Aug 6, 2007

Carole said:
What you use your wand for really depends on the person. I use mine for the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (which I really should do more often), in spellwork, chakra healing (because I set chakra-related stones into the wood), and meditation. It just depends on my mood really.

I have a stone I use for chakra healing. Is there a certain wood that would work best in combination with chakra properties if I was to combine them into a wand?
Does anyone do that? Use a certain type wood to intensify the power of an object you add to it?

plaidearthworm · Aug 6, 2007

I didn't have a traditional wand, but I used a 5 ft tall walking stick for many years. I used it to ground to earth energy, or draw it up, and I took it on many, many walks, in addition to using it in ritual. It finally bit the dust a couple of years ago, and I've never found another one that I connected with like that one. I think it was made of sassafras, and it had a special energy all its own.

Carole · Aug 7, 2007

alinasandor said:
I have a stone I use for chakra healing. Is there a certain wood that would work best in combination with chakra properties if I was to combine them into a wand?
Does anyone do that? Use a certain type wood to intensify the power of an object you add to it?

I actually had to research that a bit. I know that clear quartz crystal is a pretty decent all-purpose stone and can strengthen nearly anything you do, but I hadn't thought about the properties of a particular wood being that way. What I'm seeing is that Myrtle might be a good choice. My wand is Maple and I have different stones set into it representing each chakra point.

Bartholomew · Aug 8, 2007

May I ask what a wand does?

Carole · Aug 8, 2007

Depends on what you're doing, but generally speaking your wand concentrates and then sends out the energy you're directing at a particular thing or situation. It's a tool.

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 8, 2007

Seems to me, and don't take this the wrong way, that it seems more of a crutch than a tool.

Can't you just use your finger or even just your mind?

Because I've always thought of wands as fiction accouterments, not real honest to goodness magical devices.

Do any of you have a wand?

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