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The Wandsmith- The Magick of Wood BLOG PT2
The Wandsmith. The Magick of Wood BLOG PT2
The Wandsmith. The Magick of Wood BLOG PT2 – Blackthorn And Rowan
Having just carved a batch of wood wands for our witchcraft store online, it felt time to write about some of my favorite woods and why I love them…
In part one I wrote of one of the most famous and powerful woods for wands – Hazel!
I promised to talk of some others… Not all in one witchcraft blog… But lets start with some others!
In this and probably the next blog or two I will stick with the Celtic Ogham woods… These are the woods I started carving with long below we opened our wicca store online, and for a long time I worked exclusively with them… Why? I guess part is being English with blue eyes and blonde hair, I have a LOT of Celt in me! My family name comes from the wild west Celtic part of England, the witchy west country, Devon and Cornwall. The Ogham was an early alphabet and Ogham stones are dotted around the British isles. The different staves also represented their holy trees… So each of the old Celtic trees has virtues and meanings… Which translate perfectly into modern witchcraft correspondences for spell casting and spell craft… Therefore although a wand typically represents (in most traditions) the element of fire, generation and manifestation, will and the generative male forces… The TYPE of wood from which the wand is crafted adds its own energy to the spellcasting… SO a blackthorn wand is used to curse and harm, but a solar wood such as oak is for health and prosperity, and an elder or willow wand is watery and Luna in nature and great for working witchcraft with moon goddesses.
So get a coffee, pull up your chair, there will be time later to browse some of Paul’s hand created wands on our witchcraft supplies store online in a moment… Lets start with some of Paul’s favorites…
BLACKTHORN – The ultimate blasting rod! For pagan witchcraft spells for turning, cursing, revenge and needed change.
Blackthorn is sorta evil… It has been used by British famers since pre-history as the perfect fence… It’s fearsome hard strong thorns keep livestock in and intruders out. Its thorns heal slowly, causing blisters. Blackthorn’s other name is Ironwood, and is one of the hardest of all the woods… It was used by the celts as cudgels, the Irish call it a shillelagh.
Sacred tree of the Cailleach, it is associated with the Crone aspect. It’s Ogham name means “Strife”. Associated also with the Fae and especially The Queen Of The Fae… Old legends in Cornwall and devon warn to never fall asleep under a blackthorn tree lest you fall into the realm of the Fae. Blackthorn trees are therefore liminal places, portals to the world of the Fae.
It flowers in the Spring and grows in clumps on the wild moors of the west of England… In Spring you can see the thickets of blackthorn as almost luminous as they are covered in white flowers… The flowers produce sloes in the late summer and fall, used in the production of gin and other delights if you dare brave the thorns!
Considered a “dark sister” tree to the hawthorn, the Hawthorn is light, the blackthorn the dark…
It grows in twisted shapes and makes wonderful twisted wands.
AS a carver the wood is VERY attractive… Often the grain has a dark heartwood and a strong grained white outer wood. The bark has a glorious purple under bark fading to bright yellow. I love carving with blackthorn, leaving the under bark in places so there are patches of purple, yellow and white… Black spots are present where the fearsome thorns one grew.
It is the “loaded gun” of the witchcraft world. Cursing should be a last resort, but when someone REALLY has it coming then having a blackthorn wand handy is most useful!
Also associated with dark goddesses such as Lilith, Morgayne, Morganna, Fae Queen, Hecate and others… Saturn is its ruling planet, hence the edgy revenge vibes.
ROWAN – Ethereal, Mercurial, Gorgeous – tree of witchcraft and magick!
Rowan is Paul’s favorite wood. Its just beautiful. Sorry American witches… The American species of the tree is called Mountain Ash, and is a relation of the old Celtic Rowan from the British Isles, but very different. British Rowan has purple wood that is gorgeous and a strong orange grain with amazing banding. It’s a hardy little tree and can be found growing out of the side of a cliff face or clinging to a rocky tor. Sometimes it is found on the high moors where the wind twists it into strange shapes. The American version has silver bark and a featureless white wood and grows straight and true… Not the same at all sadly.
It has warding powers and protects against dark witchcraft. Each Rowan berry literally has a pentagram on the bottom and Rowan twigs bound with red thread to make “Rowan Crosses” are a popular protection charm for the home. Psst - we also handmake those for our pagan ritual supplies online store!
Norse mythology has Thor saved from drowning by a rowan branch when he was swept by a river in the Underworld. Saxon mythology and norse lore also state the first woman was made from a from a rowan tree.
In the Ogham Ogham and Celtic Lore rowan was associated with fire, light, second sight, and inspiration. Druids used rowan wood and bark for ritual fires, divination, and black dye for ceremonial garments.
Rowan has always been associated with travel also. The Celts would carry Rowan Staves for luck and protection. There is an amazing surviving account from the wife of a Roman officer stationed in England during the Roman occupation… A young Celtic warrior was captured, but he escaped… The guard was blamed and punished because he FAILED to confiscate and remove the Celts Rowan staves, which they thought was the reason he was able to escape, so even the Roman’s were impressed with the magick of the Rowan tree. Oddly, the Celts considered it bad luck to come across a Rowan tree at the end of a journey, so it was great for carrying as a protective charm WHILE travelling, but was a bad omen to find one at the end of a journey.
A “flying” rowan tree is one that grows out of the fork of another tree and is believed by witches and druids to possess double the magick energy!.
Mercury is the god of Magick, travel, symbols… And Paul’s favorite god… WHY would you NOT want a wand made from a mercurial wood!?!?!? And especially one as gorgeous as Rowan!
Next Installment…..
Yew and apple… Necromancy and the dead is one, the other fertility, beauty health and generation!
While we still have some on our witchcraft store online... Here are some of Paul's Rowan and Blackthorn ritual spellcasting tools!
Luna Ignis English Blackthorn witchcraft wand - Circe
English Rowan Crosses - warding and proection spellcasting charms
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