What is a Wand?

A wand is a magical tool used in Ceremonial Magic and various traditions of Wicca. Associated with both air and fire, a wand may be used a lot like an athamé, directing power for consecrating a ritual circle, for instance. In many witchcraft traditions, it is used for "Drawing Down the Moon"-invoking the goddess to descend into the body of the high priestess.

The royal scepter, a symbol of power, is derived from the magic wand. The caduceus of the Greek god Hermes was a wand. Coins found at Cydonia dating from 250 to 267 BCE, show a unclothed Hermes bearing a wand. A Roman emissary would have a wand or staff with him at all times when visiting a foreign land. If he drew a circle around himself with the staff, it designated the area sacred to him and he was deemed protected from attack within it.

As a symbol of power and virility, the wand is recognized as a phallic symbol. Some wands are in fact carved with the image of a phallus at the tip, others with a pine cone, a common representation of the phallus. In magic, the wand is a capacitor, storing energy raised in magical ritual, as well as a transmitter, sending out that energy when and where it is needed. An anonymous 15^th-century work, Errores Gazariorum, stated that a witch is given a wand at the time of her initiation. In fact, in today's Wicca, witches receive their own personal athamé rather than a wand. Dr. John Fian of the Scottish witches belonging to the North Berwick coven stated that, while in jail he was visited by the Devil, and he carried a white wand. When Fian broke the wand, the Devil disappeared.

In Ceremonial Magic, the various grimoires contain an assortment of recipes for creating a wand. The type of wood varies-yew, rowan, ash, hawthorn, hazel, or willow. The length of the wand also varies. Some grimoires state that it must be the length of the magician's arm, measured from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Others say it must be exactly 19 ½ inches long, while even others indicate 21 inches. Most wands are straight, but some are not; the end may be forked or have a gemstone set into it. Occasionally a symbol such as an ankh may be affixed at the tip. Many times the shaft is engraved with magical words of power and/or sigils.

In the Old Testament, the "rods" used by Moses and Aaron to divide the Red Sea and to produce from a rock were magic wands. According to Eric Maple, Jewish legend has it that Aaron's rod originated with Adam in the Garden of Eden and was handed down through a long line of patriarchs. Maple also indicates that an early third-century portrait of Jesus shows him in a catacomb holding a wand.

Whatever the length and regardless of what type of wood it is made of, a wand is no good until it has been consecrated. This is what makes it special and also what ties it to the magician who will use it. Consecration usually entails sprinkling salt water on the wand and holding it in the smoke of incense.

Bibliography
Buckland, Raymond: Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft. 1986.
Hope, Murry: Practical Egyptian Magic. 1984.
Maple, Eric: Man, Myth and Magic: Wand. 1970.
Shah, Sirdar Ikbal Ali: Occultism, Its Theory and Practice. 1955.