The WAND

Traditions vary slightly, and sometimes as with water witches  the wand and athame can be used for the same uses. A sword can also be used as a larger substitute for a wand.

The wand however is the basic tool of the craft, and every witch should be able to create and empower one when needed. Over time most will build a collection, however they are personal tools so they are never lent or given to another and destroyed on the death of their owner.

 Traditionally the wand is considered to be made of wood, and the length of the witches forarm. Due to the need to keep ones wand secret, historically the witch would have used her broom handle or her favorite wooden spoon. Wands can also be made to look like other things, for example a part of a walking stick, or a decorative stick of some type. 

Many older covens report a special form of wand, that owner guarded, and treated with great respect that was always destroyed when the owner died, it is explained as a wooden stick that had a piece of rope nailed into one end, wound around its length fairly widely spaced and nailed again at the other end. In each case we are told that it was said to have been given to the witch by someone special. We think this was an early version of the water witches wand detailed below, but no records exist to confirm this.

Another older wand that you may hear of was the brush wand made out of a small amount of straw being fixed to a short stick. (modern brush wands are explained below).

 Some witches believe that a wand can be any item that you make into a wand, by a ritual, and suggest it should be one that you can carry with you. Many of us have innocent looking pens or pencils that are our day to day wands. you can buy unsharpened pencils that are ideal. 

A ceremonial wand can be a simple stick but is more likely a carved or painted work of art. Some modern witches suggest their wand should be of a conducting material, ie metal or have a metal core, but the more experienced say the material makes no difference, and they general prefer it to be of wood.

 The art of using the wand, is a part of spell craft, and it involves some special movements and works as a means of focusing and directing energy.

Many individual witches do like to try out and get the feel of different wands finding one that they feel suits them, this can be as simple as going for a walk in a wood and finding a stick that you like the look and feel of, to touring shops looking at music battens, and implements of all types. Antique shops and collectors shops present a range of interesting items, although sometimes expensive. Woodlands sticks have a country feel but often drop debris when used indoors, a large wooden spoon is ideal for home use, but not very impressive with a coven ritual. 

Click on the button on the left to see a larger image. This image shows a range of some of the wands as well as a sword used by Aqua from left to right two water witch wands, a specialist flying wand, sword and case, the case as well as the sword can be used as a wand. an ancient black Chinese wand and a walking stick with a carved head that can be used as a wand. The walking stick comes apart in the center to form two shorter more specialist wands, and the handle has a container in it. In addition he has a number of magicians style wands in various sizes, short wands, completed water witches wands and a small telescopic wand, amongst others.

Your first wand

You will not need the range of wand shown here, and a small wooden wand, such as a new unsharpened pencil,  is all that you need to start. We have explained below how to empower it.

As a new witch the wand is the only tool you need and creating one is a basic craft skill that every witch should know.

For a new coven we suggest you use an athame to start instead of a wand so as to keep down the number of tools you need and allow more skill to be gained before diversifying. The atheme is also a tool that can be shared while a wand is a personal tool.

More variety

As you gain experience and find out what a wand can be used for you will find you want a range of wands, larger ones for example can be seen in gatherings and also are not so easy to loose, while camouflaged ones that look like other items will allow you to carry one with you at various times. 

From time to time you will handle something, for example a paint brush, or tool of some type and immediately feel that this item is special, in which case you will collect it is you can so that you can convert it to a wand later. Most of us have far more wands than we need.

Water witches wands

Water witch wands are presented to covens and some individuals, by or on the instructions of the high king or queen, and these are made of wood, and have a spiral running along there length. Two are shown in the photo above on the right. If you could imagine looking through the wand from the end you would see a circle within a circle, shown by the outside and the point in as far as the spiral goes as it goes around. You will recognize this as the container of water within the circle, the sign of Aqua. The spiral also shows the spiral of consciousness. Either before it is presented or soon after a number of notches are cut into one end, and identifies the owner of the wand, the significance of these is explained further at the time. Wands are presented raw, by that I mean they are not painted or decorated, and look as shown above.

The owner has the task of preserving them and can personalize them further, a common move is at the the working end, the same end as the notches,  a hole can be drilled into the end and widened so as to allow a jewel, stone or more often a  crystal,  to be mounted, but this is never repeated at the other end (handle end) and should not be fragile, as the flat of the handle end is thumped on things in some rituals. Wands can be lacquered, painted, decorated, but many are treated with wood preserver of the type you would use on garden furniture.

The reason why it is presented rather than making your own, is that it is cleansed in a ritual, (in fact their is quite a long process lasting several days) and then handled by Aqua, so a small amount of moisture from his hands will have soaked into it. It is then wrapped and the next hands to hold it by the raw wood should be the new owner, allowing moisture from your hand to mix as well. In the case of a coven wand each member of the coven should put a hand on it before it is painted or preserved. It comes to you as a gift, there is never any charge or cost involved, and will be when the time and circumstances are right. All water witches wands are considered brothers, and share some powers so that a coven using one of these is connected to all others. In a similar way to the law treats companies as individuals we treat these special wands as people, and view them as a form of life partner, its a bit difficult to explain  It is not unusual to find an owner who has conversations with her wand. It can also be used instead of an athame for all rituals, but has to be treated with preservative first and dried and put away carefully after.

Energy from the cone of power from all circles created by the coven or individual is added to the wand as the circles are dissolved. If several water witches wands are held within the same coven, then all of the owners take part in the dissolving of the circle. On the death of its owner or the break up of a coven, the wand should be burnt or returned to the high king. You will learn more about these wands if you have one at any time. Should the wand be handed to anyone outside the coven, or stolen, then a protective curse is invoked that dissolves all power and turns it into a decorative item only, if returned to its owner it can be reenergized by a ceremony only owners know. (It has its own owners handbook).

Witches who have the honor of owning a water witches wand treat it with respect, look after it well, and do not show it to non witches, or allow others to handle it. Should you ever come across one by chance, do not handle it if the owner is still living without their permission. If the owner has died you should see that it is burnt.

The ideal place for a Water witches wand to be stored is under you when you sleep, in the same direction with the working end pointing in the same direction as your head. Some people have ties under the springs of their bed into which is slips or a box of some type under their bed. Ceremonial swords incidentally are often stored in a similar way.

Coven and friends cut wands

Some of our covens have what are called cut wands these are in effect a wand that has been cut into a number of parts and have some means of going back together, sometimes using holes and dowels and sometimes involving a case or sleeve into which the parts fit, and sometimes as simple as a central part that others are tied to or fixed with binding or bands. The concept being that the whole is kept safe from outsiders by only being assembled when all of the owners, often the coven founders, are present.

It would be created and consecrated by the coven. The role and use of the cut wand would be detailed in the covens ledger or book of shadows. These would never be a water witches wand (referred to above), and the individual parts are often decorative.

Some individual groups of friends who have not formed a coven but share a circle, like to have cut wands as it is a symbolic sharing of the power of the circles they create and a sign of trust and friendship.

The parts of some cut wands also form a set of Ogham sticks.

Brush wands

A special type of wand is a brush wand, this could have started out in an art shop as a brush for painting the backgrounds of water paintings or possibly a makeup brush. It has a lot of fairly fine hairs so that it can hold water without it all dripping out or running down the handle. 

The brush wand is used similar to the way you may have seen some other churches where a small amount of water is splashed or spread as part of a purifying ritual, or healing ritual. 

Preparing a new wand

All wands are prepared and consecrated, this is often referred to as empowering.

There are a number of ways to cleans a wand;-

• To surround it completely by other wands for a period, this is the way a coven will often do it or a more experienced witch who already has a number or wands. 
• To place it in a running stream for at least a day, but beware many woods that have dried out will be damaged and the grain will open up.
• To place it under a consecrated witches bed in the same direction as she or he sleeps for a period of at least two weeks.
• To place it in a window where it is hit by the rising sun, and surrounded by crystals for three consecutive nights.
• To take it to a special place to be consecrated such as the great stone circle at Avebury, or seven springs just south of Cheltenham, or some other such place, but it should be somewhere like this that is a palace of power, but where you have open access. Stonehenge for example would not be ideal as you are not allowed very near the stones and there are always crowds of people everywhere. Remember that just about all Christian buildings were placed on what was pagan sites, so any abbey or cathedral intact or a derelict shell would be a suitable place, providing you can find a place where you can be on your own. You may have noticed you get a different feeling when you enter one of these older sites to when you enter a modern Christian building, and you will with more tuning become aware more of the place that was there that created and channeled energy before the current buildings were put there. Remember we are not doing any harm by by visiting our sites that they have placed their buildings on. 

Consecrating a wand can be done silently, using your mind, like an atheme you are presenting it as a gift to the spirit, and asking for wisdom in its use. You use your own words, and a wand is usually considered a personal tool so you would do this yourself and use it only yourself. Witches do not lend their wands to one another in the same way as we our atheme, and it rare for a consecration of a wand of an individual witch to be done in front of a full coven, as creating wands is a basic craft skill of all witches. The consecration process is explained more under atheme, You do not need to hold it up or dance around, but can have the wand up your sleeve, or inside a coat, or a bad, but should have your hand on the handle, while it is being concreted. This means you can take it to a place of power if you wish or of course if you have already cleansed it consecrate it within a circle which is a place of power.

Many witches also within the consecration add a curse as well, in the form of the wand losing its power completely if taken by someone without your permission, on your death, and any other situation you specify. If you want to be able to re-empower it you have to allow for this at this time. 

A wand may be re-cleansed and consecrated if necessary.

For many solitary or hedge witches, the creation of a wand is their first act as a witch, as this gives them the one tool they need to create a circle and from there they have no limits. Although in concept you can consecrate yourself, and then create a circle and build up power in this way, it is far slower than having the right tool for the job.  As a wand is so easy to make once you have a little practice you will realize that wherever you are at whatever point in your life, you will always have the ability to make a wand and to practice the craft.

Tuning a wand for another witch

Their are a number of traditions that require a wand to be created, tuned to a witch and presented on consecration of the new witch. Water witches very often undertake this. These wands are often shortish, more like a conductors batten. The exact method of tuning these wands for use by both Water Witches and others is one of the craft secrets never published.

Destroying wands

Antique or very special wands are the only exception and these are deactivated by a senior witch, and can then be made into new wands by a new owner. Water witches wands presented by the high king are always destroyed not deactivated as a part of the high king and individual owner is within the wand.

If you wish or need to destroy a wand this can be done by breaking it in two or by burning. Normally we burn all wands that we wish to be destroyed, such as on the death of its owner.

Wands are personal tools and not handed down from one to another.