Step Away From The Credit Card! - Making Your Ritual Tools 1

Hey there folks,

I have been a Pagan for about five years now, and when I first set foot on my path I was so excited about making my own tools: I always had a fantastic sense of achievement and great connection to every one of them.

As time wore on, I started to explore the vast array of Pagan shops, stalls, festivals, and online stores, and… Ok, I admit it: I have fallen prey to the bling! I have no will power! Oh why do they make it so easy to spend money online?

Traditional wooden wands with gold accents, fancy silver ones with crystals, intricately detailed pewter dragons, hematite wands with fine pentacles along the shaft… There is just so much Pagan bling out there, it just looks so good and I always, always think I need it! I am glad to see that Pagan crafts and craftspeople are doing so well but I can’t help but think that all this commercialism has taken us even further away from the natural landscape that we are trying to reconnect to.

I am determined to get back to that joy and enthusiasm that I felt when I handcrafted my own tools.

So here it goes: I am going to make a wand that is beautiful, practical and powerful. But I am going to put in place some boundaries to curb my capitalist leanings.

1. I must not spend any money.
2. I am not allowed to cut down any branches from the living tree - it must already be fallen.
3. It has to be all my own work.

The first rule - no money - means no money. Nothing, not one pound.

The second rule: I know myself, I will just get impatient and cut off a branch to speed up the process, but this is about listening and letting myself be guided. The third rule: this rule is pretty much a given I want this to be all my own work so that I can have a connection to it and be proud of what I have achieved.

So, here I go!

Step away from the credit card!

1. Selecting Your Materials

I guess this is going to be different for everyone. We all have our individual methodologies for choosing our magickal supplies, but this is the method that I am going to use. I have never been one of those people that have to have that piece of obsidian for healing or sardonyx for creativity, there are certain materials that have come into my life and for one reason or another they feel important to me. Sometimes I am not even sure exactly what each stone is or what type or wood it is that I am using but I know that I am supposed to be using them.

Sometimes, when I am researching philosophy and history for my Pagan studies I get into a very reasoned and rational frame of mind, which is great for academic work and something we should always be aware of when studying. However, this self-imposed frame of mind sometimes leaks over into my magickal workings. I end up asking myself, “should I be doing this? What are my motives?” Questions like this are definitely a good thing… sometimes. However sometimes the cause me to feel stifled; I loose the momentum and energy of a situation and that’s not something I want.

So, I am going to flip my rational brain off and let my intuition be my guide. But don’t worry - I am keeping my common-sense brain on! I am going to use wood for my wand: I don’t know what kind yet, but I want quite a dense wood that is not too soft, so I will keep an eye out for that when I begin my search.

One more thing I wanted to go over here is the use of animal parts in your ritual tools, for example: feathers for decorations and bone for handles. What I mean here is the moral issue of incorporating them.

I am a meat eater so I think that to condemn the killing of animals would be naïve: it goes on, and you cannot ignore that. Animals are killed for you every day, why not celebrate this sacrifice by using the rest of the animal? If you are not a meat eater, why not take antique animal parts, such as taxidermed animals in poses and fur coats and give them some dignity and respect by using them. [Ed – does this count for the bear in the Bear Shop in Cardiff? That would be an awesome addition to your magical tools!] Whatever your views, you will have to make your own mind up, but for myself I am not ruling out any animal parts that I find or want to use.

Links and notes

There is a great interview with Lupa, the author of “Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone” on the Pagan podcast Deo’s Shadow. They discuss, among other things the ethics of using animal parts as materials in creating magickal items. Listen here: www.deos-shadow.com/index.php?id=42

2. Finding My Wand

Why is it that whenever you have purposefully set out to find something, it always escapes you? And the second you stop looking, you inevitably find it. This was the case for my wand.

We are very lucky in the UK to have an extensive Cycle Network. Here in Wales we have an illustrious network, which includes the Taff Trail. For those of you that don’t know, the Taff Trail is a popular walking and cycle path that runs for 55 miles between Cardiff Bay and Brecon in Wales, so called because it follows the course of the River Taff.

During my niece and nephew’s half-term break from school, I had planned a 10 mile cycle trip along the Trail from Llandaff to Tongwynlais and then on up to Castell Coch. The Trail is known for meandering through untamed but beautiful landscapes and then later through the Brecon Beacons National Park, the perfect situation to come across fallen trees and branches, I thought.

I am not much of an athlete in fact, you could say I was kind of unhealthy. But one of the things I do enjoy is cycling. I have to say that it was a perfect day for it: we had glorious sunshine, lovely company, stimulating views but not one single bloody fallen tree anywhere! (Or at least not one that was accessible.) Wow, the trail is certainly well maintained, I’ll give them that!

Anyhow, we had made it to Tongwynlais and so it was on up to Castell Coch. Castell Coch (Red Castle) is a 19th century folly castle built on the remains of a 13th century fortification. The Castle has also been used as a location in many films as it is nestled into the side of a picturesque leafy hillside, a hillside we now had to cycle up. When I say cycle I mean get off your bike and push it up a 40° slope! Lol, Wales is like one big hill but I love it.

We had made it! (I had made it, cor blimey!)

What a fantastic journey! I will never forget it, it was beautiful. One of those memory-making days you had when you were a kid and I am glad I shared it with my niece and nephew. But, I was sill wandless.

When we got home, we rinsed off our mud-caked bikes, peeled off all of our mud-caked clothes, left our mud-caked shoes by the front door and trudged rosy faced into the kitchen where we discovered my Mum had laid on a magnificent feast of pizza and pop for us. May the Goddess bless all Mums everywhere!

Later that evening, gorged and feeling considerably more cheerful, I strolled outside with a cup of tea and inspected the garden for further signs of spring (I swear it gets later ever year.) I turned the corner and sitting on the table by the pond was a mass of willow branches, still attached to the top of a small willow tree.

“Mum,” I shouted. “What’s with all these branches?”

“Your father cut down that willow at the bottom of the garden. It was interfering with the shed. Hey, weren’t you after some nice branches for a new wand, you had better take some now before you father puts in the compost bin.”

Thanks again Mum! Now I could pick and choose.

Willow is brilliant stuff you can chop it down, carry a bundle of withies across the country, and jam the branches into the ground in any patch of earth and they will grow into a new tree. So to say thank you to the willow, I chopped off a nice looking branch and planted into the ground next to, but a little further to the side, of the original stump. After all, I wouldn’t want this one to interfere with the shed.

There you have it: the second you stop looking, is when you inevitably find what you are looking for.

Links and notes

The Taff Trail website: www.tafftrail.org.uk

If you would like a virtual tour of Castell Coch check out this link: http://www.castellcoch.info/

An article with pictures of Castell Coch: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2202747.stm

3. Making My Wand

OK, so I admit it I was expecting to make my wand and to be hailed as the fantastic craftsman that I know lies dormant with in me… Ha, ha, ha.

Anyhow, here is what I needed to make my wand:

• Swiss Army knife or a good sharp knife,
• Sand paper: coarse, then a more fine-grained paper,
• Super glue,
• My chosen branches,
• Crystals, ribbon etc.

So far things were going well. I collected my willow branch and an extra Dogwood branch for luck. First, I used my Swiss Army knife to cut all the bark off; I had brought the branches in green (before they are dry) so I could begin to straighten them a little. They were already fairly straight so it wasn’t too much hassle for me to steam them straighter, which I did by holding it over a boiling kettle (be careful: steam hurts!) and by peering down the shaft so you can see where it needs to be straightened out. Then I gave it a good sanding with course sandpaper and with fine sandpaper. It is very messy so I suggest sanding outside.

With only a few scolds, I was looking at my nice, clean, (quite) straight willow branch; suddenly I was inspired to carve a nice pattern for the handle. La, la, la, I am the most wonderful craftsman, with great patience and a knack for carving wood!

You see, the trick is to carve it when it is still green; the wood is softer and makes it easier to carve. I cut V-shaped grooves into the wood in various patterns and then sanded down some of the shapes to round the edges off: I believe the style is called Low Relief carving.

I even drilled a whole through the end of the handle so that I could hang it up, la, la, until…

Yep! I broke it!

For a while I was really bummed, so I just put it aside. I would stare at it every now and then, trying to figure out what I could do with a broken wand. [Ed – fix it with Spellotape!]

Until, one day I brought a little polished quartz crystal that was the perfect size to go on the end of the broken handle. I drilled the end with a little blade from my Swiss Army knife and glued in the crystal, and I think it is lovely! It is like a mini-wand! I figured I could use it like a travelling wand.

It’s a cop-out but I may as well do something with it as I have already put a lot of time in to it and I am going to finish the other half off as well.

It’s funny actually, how the property of the wood changes over time. Originally I thought that the dogwood branch was a very soft wood compared to the willow and now that it is dry it feels much more dense, the bark has also become thick and tough which is why I haven’t stripped the bark of it… I also like the colour!

So here we are - this is the stage I am at.

Coming up Next time!

4.) Sigils and Symbols.

5.) Finishing Touches.