Making a staff as a beginner

[Linnie]

Hi everyone! I have just started on my first ever witchy project, and wanted to share the process as well as perhaps get some advice. I feel myself leaning very much towards hebal and nature based magick, alongside with working with the Fae. Although this is not somethong I have yet started doing. I have decided to make a staff, from a wild cherry tree branch I had found a few years ago. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it back then, since I did not know much about the craft apart from a slight interest, so I was quite pleasantly surprised when I found out the properties of cherry wood, and how they align very well with my interests today. It almost feels quite poetic I think I will use it mostly when I go out in nature, particularly woodlands, as I feel more inspired to practice there.

I have now stripped the bark, of some I have saved for future spell work (although for what exactly, I do not know), and have made an oil infusion which I wish to use to annoint the staff with once I am done.

Here are the components I will be working with. I have been a little unsure about the symbolism as various sources give different meanings to different things. So the correspondence is what I could generally find, as well as my own intent with it. Feel free to correct me if you think that something is not quite right.

Cherry wood - Precise energy manipulation, sharpens mental focus, uncovers hidden magickal energies. Associated with dreams and joy. Favoured by the fae for it’s fruits, and often used in faery magick.

Herbs (infused in oil for annoinment):

Thyme - Invites the fae’s presence. Guardian against negative energy
Bay Laurel - Promotes wisdom and protection. Aids developing psychic abilities. Finds and forces out negative energies.
Cinnamon - High spiritual energy. Aids developing psychic abilities. Cleansing.
Nutmeg - Aid developing clairvoyance and psychic abilities.

Labradorite - Will be attached on top of staff with brass string. Enhances intuition and psychic abilities. Promotes growth and change. Can be seen as a bridge between the Otherworld and the physical world (mimics the shifting, elusive and camouflaged magick of the fae)

Small brass bells - Attracts the fae, and also makes my presence known.

This is what I have felt to work with so far. What are your thoughts? Is there any advice and other factors I should consider?

 

[vintagechaos]

I think your approach is a amazing start. For a beginner, I feel like you have your info down and grounded. I think to give it more power, I would suggest adding some engravings to your staff. In Traditional Witchcraft, we also use staffs and stangs. We drill a hole at the end of the staff/stang and hammer in a nail to be a conduit to the land, making it like a sort of hoof for your staff. Working with the fae can be tricky, I have not gone through it yet but I would suggest working with the land with your staff. That should make the fae aware of your presence.

 

[Ben Gruagach]

Like vintagechaos suggested, I think that working out some appropriate symbols or sigils to carve onto it would be very appropriate. If you include a symbol or sigil for your own name (magical name if you have one, or a sigil you work out for yourself as a sort of signature) that would definitely make the staff yours.

You can carve the symbols on with a knife, or scratch them on with a nail or the tip of a pointy knife, or you could use a wood burning tool. You could also rub some coloured powder (like finely ground black salt, or maybe some soot from a candle flame, or finely ground black herbs or seeds) into the carved symbols to help make them more visible. Or you could use a permanent marker to darken them, or just draw them on the staff with the marker if you don't want to try carving or scratching them in. Or you could use paints. You can also use a combination of different things to get the result you are looking for. (If you're using paints, you could grind up some of the magical herbs and add a small amount to the paint before you use it, too!)

You should also consider putting some sort of protective coating on your staff (or wand if you're making one of those too) to help the wood last. If your magical oil that you're going to put on it uses a base oil that doesn't go rancid (like many vegetable oils) you could use that. Or you could make your magical oil using tung oil, or a blend of mineral oil and beeswax, or something similar as those are also often used as a protective coating on wood items. If you go this route just wipe the oil onto your staff, let it soak in for five or ten minutes, then wipe off any excess oil with a clean, lint-free cloth. (If there's too much left on the surface of the wood it can become gummy or sticky to handle.)

There are also wax-based protective finish products you can get (even just beeswax) that you can rub on. They usually give directions for how to use it on the product packaging.

Or you could use varnish or lacquer although those are getting more into the "artificial and highly chemical" sort of thing I expect you're hoping to avoid for a magical staff.

I'd recommend you try to get a small piece of cherry wood you can try things out on first before doing the real version on your staff. That way you could try different ways of doing symbols, or different ways of doing a protective coating, before doing the "real one".

 

[speculumphilosophi]

It reminded me the earliest wand I recall from a 1st century A.D. text was a ballaenacea virga, which translates as whalebone wand.

 

[Grayhoss]

There are organic lacquers like shellac as well. But yes, a beeswax based treatment with oils added can be very beneficial to preserve your wood-crafted magickal implements.

 

[speculumphilosophi]

It seems wood was highly favoured to create pagan religious symbols, especially charms in the form of figurines. Wood was supposed to have special qualities. A magus would carry a wood carved image of Mercury on his person, and sacrifice the first fruits of grain and wine. Special craftsmen would carve these images, using special types of wood.
"Gold and silver in other cities, whether in the keeping of private persons or of temples, are invidious possessions; ivory taken from a body wherefrom the life has passed is not a welcome offering; iron and bronze are instruments of war. Whatsœver a man dedicates, let it be of wood and wood only, or if it be of stone, of stone only.’
From my notes, I found as favoured woods.
Buxeus, a, um, pertaining to the boxwood-tree,
Hebenus, hebeni = ebony (wood or tree)

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 9:14 PM

Anyone who recalls Leonard Nimoy (Mr Spock of Star Trek) should be aware he did a very interesting documentary on modern witches in Salem, where witches enjoyed religious freedom. This is a bit old (late 1970s) but the women interviewed are fascinating and creative in their passion.
There is footage of a girl making her wand from a branch. I thought Nimoy did some great media coverage

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[Dyn Hysbys]

I think your approach is a amazing start. For a beginner, I feel like you have your info down and grounded. I think to give it more power, I would suggest adding some engravings to your staff. In Traditional Witchcraft, we also use staffs and stangs. We drill a hole at the end of the staff/stang and hammer in a nail to be a conduit to the land, making it like a sort of hoof for your staff. Working with the fae can be tricky, I have not gone through it yet but I would suggest working with the land with your staff. That should make the fae aware of your presence.

I agree, all excellent advice. My only query is the iron nail to 'shod' the stang. Depending on the tradition, the fae/faeries/Tylwyth Teg despise iron, so personally I never use it in their territory or Workings.

 

[IllusiveOwl]

Iconography is most important to me. I place power and meaning into my staff through ritual and use, but it must look beautiful and resonate with your will.

I simply bought a staff I found resonated with me, clensed then blessed it. I use wax instead of oil, it has a 'frozen in time' feeling that I don't get from oil.

 

[Ben Gruagach]

It reminded me the earliest wand I recall from a 1st century A.D. text was a ballaenacea virga, which translates as whalebone wand.

The earlier form of wands appear to be carved hippo teeth used in ancient Egypt. There are some great examples on display in a number of museums that have Egyptian artifacts.

 

[Dyn Hysbys]

Also bone/ivory wands found in the Paviland burial (Cymru).
I just watched a great lesson by Dr. Al Cummins which mention different woods for early modern necromantic wands: Hazel for calling the directions/elements, and yew/cypress for spirits of the dead. Also historic 'wands' of basil, rosemary etc. (likely stalks).

 

[speculumphilosophi]

I find these threads interesting, though myself I'm not a Magus. My grandmother, though, was an extremely gifted psychic who was sought high and low to become a medium, due to her abilities to see spirits. Especially in childhood, I inherited her attributes, which had the effect I was too afraid to sleep. So, I guess you could say, witchcraft is something that has a certain connection and, at the present time, not dominated by fear of the unknown any more.
Good luck.