Thanks to Hollywood and popular children’s books, magic wands and witchcraft are inextricably linked. Those of us who practice real magick with a “k” know that Hollywood’s version of magick practitioners and witches isn’t exactly true to life. Now, it would be cool if you could levitate objects or deposit a rabbit from thin air into a hat or shoot lightning from your fingertips. But (unfortunately), real magick is a bit more mundane than that. But if you watch a lot of movies, you may notice there is a grain of truth in the theatrics. Does the same go for the fancy magic wands?
Do Witches Really Use Wands?
The answer is yes, but maybe a bit different than you think. This isn’t a wand you swish and flick with a “bippity-boppity-boo,” but instead, it is used to direct energy. Think of the wand as an extension of your energetic body. The tip brings the energy to a point and makes it stronger and easier to direct in one place. Instead of the wand having magic, it is a way to channel the magick that is already within you. This can be helpful for casting circles or sending energy long distances, such as a healing spell to a friend in another part of the world.
Why and How To Use a Wand
This brings us to the question: do you need a wand for witchcraft and spellcrafting? This depends on what you want to do and your personal preferences. While some witches simply prefer to use their hands, a wand can make it easier to direct the focus of the energy more intentionally and extend the reach of that focused energy. If you find it difficult to channel energy through your hands, a wand may give you the extra help you need.
A witchcraft wand may be helpful while spellcrafting for charging or charming items. This is a way to direct your energy other than just holding the item in your hands. Try both ways and see which you prefer. Certain crystal wands, like selenite wands, for example, can be used for cleansing spell items.
To use a wand for witchcraft, you will want to hold it between the palms of both of your hands. Many practitioners interlace all fingers except their pointer fingers. Align those with both sides of the wand, creating an extension of the hand with the wand through the fingertips. If you are unable to use two hands, try resting the end of the wand in your palm and wrapping your fingers around the wand to secure it.
The Meaning of Wood
As witches, we draw our power from nature in one way or another. Ideally, a witchcraft wand should be made from a conductive material like metal, wood, crystal, or glass. If you’re a kitchen witch, you could even use a wooden spoon as your wand! Naturally fallen antlers or sticks make for great wands for witchcraft. Never take anything from an animal or a tree, instead, watch the ground for the perfect wand. It may be left there just for you!
For our purposes today, we are going to focus on wood and making a wand from a fallen stick. Like anything found in nature, each type of wood carries its own vibration. You can go with your intuition, or if you can identify the tree your stick has fallen from, here are a few popular types of wood and their properties.
- Ash: healing, mental balance, removing energy blocks, wisdom and curiosity
- Birch: cleansing, protection, rebirth and renewal, healing
- Cedar: casting a circle, cleansing, protection, longevity
- Elm: endurance, fertility, grounding and centering, death and rebirth rituals
- Hawthorn: faery magick, psychic intuition and protection, creativity, purification
- Maple: love, abundance, longevity, creativity
- Oak: strength, courage, intuition, leadership
It is a good idea to leave an offering to the nature spirits in place of the item you took to express your gratitude. This could be pieces of nature you picked up along the way, a personal item to you (make sure it won’t hurt the environment), or a simple “thanks.”
Make Your Own Wand
Now to the fun part: making the wand your own! There are endless ways to decorate your witchcraft wand to personalize it and make it an extension of your energy. If you found anything else on your nature walk you connected with, you might choose to add that to your wand, like feathers or plants for example. A popular way to personalize the top of a wand is by fastening a crystal point, which helps conduct and direct energy even more effectively. You might choose to fasten it with wire wrap for jewelry making that is flexible enough to wrap around the wand. These are often made with metals like silver or copper, another conductive material.
Once you have all your materials gathered, you can make some initial choices with the wand before decorating. If the stick is too long, consider cutting it to the appropriate length. The ideal length for a wand measures from the crook of your elbow to the tips of your fingers. If the bark of the particular stick you chose feels rough and unpleasant to work with in your craft, you can strip the bark and sand the wood to prevent any splinters and give you a smooth wand.
Consecrating Your Wand
Now that you’ve crafted your wand to your own liking, you are ready to consecrate it. Consecrating your wand for witchcraft charges it with your energy, aligning it to your vibrations so it can work for you. There are many different ways to consecrate your wand, but I’ll be going over a way to do it with the four elements.
Firstly, as with any spell or ritual, you will want to cleanse your space and your wand to remove unwanted energy so you can charge it with your own intention. For this purpose, that will simply be for this wand to align with you as an extension of your energy.
After everything is cleansed, cast a circle with visual representations of the four elements, such as a candle flame in the south, a bowl of water in the west, salt to represent earth in the north, and incense to represent air in the east.
Work clockwise around the circle, passing your wand through each element to consecrate it, such as sprinkling it with salt and water, and passing it through the smoke and flame, each time asking the elements to cleanse and charge your wand to align with your magick, claiming it as a sacred tool.
Once you are finished, close the circle. Now you can use your wand in any magickal working you see fit.
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