Magic Wands

A hobby that I got in a few years ago was collecting fallen branches from the ground and widening them.  As my interests in mysticism grew I naturally gravitated towards carving wands. I'm lucky to be employed in a part of Austin TX with plenty of 200+ old Oak trees, old Sycamore and Pecan too. 

I wish to cover in this post a few techniques I uses and some of the processes I use in making magic wands.

* I do not carve wands from live twigs or branches, the tree is still using them if there attached and absorbing sunlight. Usually below trees you can find branches that have fallen off from age or wind. A great time to hunt for wands is after storms and sometimes I've lucked out on huge branches that have come down and yielded 10 wands out of a tingle branch!

* If there is a large branch I use my hands to brach it into a smaller "wand-sized" chunk to carry back home. Sometimes a foldable hand saw can help with bugger pieces especially if you want a clean break.

*If wood is wet I let it dry out with sunlight, either outside or through a window. During this step it's a great time to place crystals around our wood, even geometric alignment and intention are great for you discovering more of the flavor or purpose of the soon-to-be-wand. Careful not to forget your wood drying especially if its larger or very wet, sometimes that water steeps into the wood grain and quickly evaporating the water causes expansion and fissuring or cracking in the wood, HOWEVER this can be intentional if you choose to inlay a mineral or crystal in the fissure later.

*I use mostly or only hand tools on my wands, I have a Dremel which I occasionally use but using various sized flat-edge blades (sometimes used for chiseling) works great at holding the stick as you carve the bark away from yourself.

* Here are three different types of wands I made from various trees. As you can see I left the bark on the handle or hilt, this is kind of my style of making wands to accent the natural art of the bark (and to help me remember what kind of wood it is!) You will notice a tapering of the hilt to the shaft of the wand, these are the different layers of wood.

-Top Layer: Bark

-1st Layer: Sapwood

-2nd Layer: Heartwood

-3rd Inner Layer: Pith or Core

*I usually carve of the bark and sapwood layers of the shaft to expose the grain of the wood, this grain or lines in the wood becomes brilliant once sandpapered and finished with stain, varnish or oils.

*Look at your stick and feel how the brach wishes to be carved, I see the natural curves, lichen patches and knots as a good directive influence of how to carve and where to have the handle placed.

*When carving, really focus a lot of energy into the wand clean your mind, your own mood and emotions can have an effect on the wand at every stage of its life. To make a protective healing wand think loving, healing, accepting thoughts maybe hum or whistle a calming serene tune, essentially be the state your making your wand to express.

*After carving a wand I try and make sure the tips of it are smooth in the way I want it, I try and expose and center a small circle thats on both tips, this is the core or pith. The core of the wand is a direct and smooth channel traveling through every branch to every arm of the tree to its truck core. I feel this is a very important part of magic wands.

* next using sandpaper to smoothen out the blade cuts. I use 100grit paper and then move up to 150grit and last 400silica grit to get the shaft and any other parts that require sanding very smooth. I have found it a good idea on occasion to use some sanding on parts of the hilt to give it a smooth grip, this also exposes the top layer of the bark for interesting color combinations.

*Ive been using a mineral oil blend including beeswax for putting a finish on the wood, this has become my favorite due to no unnatural chemicals involved and it seems to bring out the natural color of the wood in a very bright shine.

Here are some wands I made and my descriptions of the qualities that each type of wood posses. I used a mix of book and online research combined with my own feelings and intuition on what each type of wood is bet suited for.

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Post Oak Wand:

This curved branch I really smoothed out a lot with sandpaper to maintain its unique curl. I smoothed out the 'window' or hole on the hilt as well. Post Oak and Oak in general is a protective energy, suited well for ceremony and security spells. It has been said that the devil can't touch Oak, legends of the properties of Oak view it as holy, stoic and wise. I feel Oak wands are good for learning mysteries that lead into the light and can help one do well to others. Connected to the elements Air and Fire.

Pecan Wand:

I had an Egyptian vibe from the start of finding this twig, I liked the curve on it reminding me of a scythe or some Egyptian scepter. I burned in an amplification symbol on the hilt with a wood burning tool in the style of some hieroglyphs. I used a Dremel on the hilt to get the band of exposed heartwood. Pecan wood is associated with the element Air and the energies of success, luck and good finance/wealth. 

Sycamore Wand:

My favorite trees, very soft wood to cut into. These trees have shedding bark and as you could assume that archetype is represented in the quality of this wand helping you let things go and detach. Connected to the elements Air and Water this wood has a great and steady flow about it. Sycamore is known to be a potent and magical wood by many peoples including the Native Americans that used to live in my area. 

Last thoughts:

As I have made and used more wands I have found that the wooden wand is only part of your real wand. One can make or obtain a physical vessel but it is an object until the connection is made. For potent and powerful wands build a connection with it, this brings all your intentional energy into the wand bringing it life and the ability to send waves through the ether.  I have some wands that no one has seen or touched to keep the relationship a personal one, safe from others energetic throw up. 

The last thing I wish to say is a cool idea I had and will try soon is making a dream wand, and keeping this under the pillow. I think a specific wand for this point and using it to cast spells before bed would be a great way to enhance dreaming or increase recall. 

Love&Light

-TK