Making Your Own Wand

One neat way to make a wand that is very popular is to get a piece of copper tubing and a crystal that fits in the end of it or even one for
both ends of it. Then you can decorate the tube in various ways.
SOME people solder small chips of gemstones on it, while others wrap
it in black leather (crazy glue keeps this on the pipe!) and then
braid various colors of embroidery thread about this or attach
feathers to it or whatever. You can fill the tubes with herbs sacred
to your purpose/goal in life too.

Some folks have more than one of these wands for various purposes in
their lives.

You can solder the crystal/s in the end/s or you can fashion prongs
out of the end of the tubing and stick it in in much the same way a
jeweler sets a diamond in a ring. Again, if you do this, you may find
a touch of crazy glue keeps it in better.

Of course a wand doesn’t have to be this complicated. Another nice
wand is the ceremonial Magick – type “lotus wand” that some witches
have adopted as their own. Take a branch from a tree that is fairly
straight and the right length for a wand. Preferably this should be
one you find, but it can also be taken from a living tree if you
psychically “ask the tree’s permission” – if you get a strong feeling
this is wrong and that you shouldn’t cut that tree, don’t do it. THIS
SHOULD BE DONE ON THE WAXING MOON. All ritual tools you make should be made and/or consecrated ONLY on the Waxing moon. The waxing moon is the time from one day after the new moon up to and including the
night of the full – moon.

Either way, leave an offering of thanks afterwards. If you are into
the Native American traditions, an ounce or so of tobacco (PURE – the
kind used in the sacred pipe) or cornmeal is appropriate. If you are
in Wicca / NeoPaganims, a libation of apple juice is most fitting – as
is some home-baked cakes (unfrosted plain cupcakes, some corn muffins,
oatmeals or cornmeal cookies or cornbread, a loaf of home-made or
all-natural whole wheat bread, etc – NATURAL stuff, please NO TWINKIES
AND JUNKFOOD) or even a few small charged crystals can be implanted in
the ground for the trees growth. In Santeria it was traditional when
taking anything from nature to leave a specific number of copper
coins, perhaps with specific foods, depending upon the Deities/Orishas
or other entities being invoked according to a very strict tradition
of what Beings ruled what places. (for example, 5 is the number of a
river or fresh water, 7 is the number for the ocean, 4 or 6 for a
mountain, 2 for the forest, etc.)

Then you strip the bark, sand it down, mark it in 7 segments and paint
them each in these colors of the rainbow from top to bottom. Red,
Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

Some celtic traditions put a steel rod through the middle of any
wooden wand – a tricky business, but effective to make it a channel of
the energy. To do this you MUST be sure your branch is of a certain
thickness or it will split as you try to do this. This channels the
energy in a simillar way to the copper tubing in the crystal wand.
They also wrap a coil of thick steel wire around it’s handle, like a
snake, for 4-5 times which makes a grip and is also said to contribute
to the energy flow.

Another way to paint a wooden wand is half black and half white or
half gold and half silver, to express the balance of the polarities.
If you are into Kabbalah, some folks also use Red and Blue as these
are the colors usually associated with Chesed and Geburah in magick
which are the central spheres on the masculine and feminine pillars of
the tree of life, respectively.

And some people leave the wooden rod plain, allowing the natural
beauty of the wood to come through.

ALSO, some people make their wands out of a wooden dowel rod bought at
a local lumber supply house.

I do, however, suggest that if at all possible, you still go into
nature and make a small offering to mother earth for the materials
used. Even a purchased dowel or a crystal bought from a rock shop or
a copper tubes are all gifts from Mother Earth and Father Sky and it
is important to show our gratitude for what they have given us.

Ultimately, you should make the wand be what you FEEL. A simple stick
wrapped with embroidery thread that has some feathers tied to the ends
of the thread works well for one friend of mine in MASS.