Path: typhoon.sonic.net!feed.news.sonic.net!sjc70.webusenet.com!news.webusenet.com!cyclone.bc.net!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: paulhume@comcast.net (Paul Hume) Newsgroups: alt.magick Subject: Re: Use Of Magick Wand Date: 22 Jul 2003 09:56:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Lines: 49 Message-ID: References: <2238-3F1D352E-373@storefull-2357.public.lawson.webtv.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.107.93.163 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1058892970 7440 127.0.0.1 (22 Jul 2003 16:56:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 22 Jul 2003 16:56:10 GMT Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick:352352 > Hi, all! I would like to know from those who use a wand just how it is > they put their wands to use. Is there more to a wand than using it as > one would an athame? Off top of head: - wands invoke, swords/daggers banish. Yes, cups invoke too, and so, even, do pentacles, but the wand invokes actively, as it were, holding aloft fire stolen from heaven, projecting the will of the magician, where the cup or pentacle receive that which responds. - wands represent the will of the particular magician, as aforesaid. Conjuring by the authority of the wand represents, at that moment, the will of the magician that this operation shall, of necessity, succeed. Conjuring by the authority of the sword is more coercive, for lack of a better term. - wands fascinate and even seduce, as do cups, but again, from a projective rather than receptive perspective. post-GD magick tends to identify implements with elements, so when working with a wand that is specifically identified with Fire (those who do the swords/fire, wands/air flip insert sword/dagger here instead) you are asserting your connection with and authority over the element of Fire. All the meditation, ritual, consecration, etc. that goes into making the wand makes it a link both for the mind and on the astral/etheric level to that force, and when you wield it with intent, it symbolically and quite literally brings all that energy to your hand. I don't go with the "it's all in your mind" school (you may haved noticed (g)), but this works in that model as well. If you are also working with a "greater" wand, a la the Lotus Wand, you are again declaring the sovereign working of your will when you wield the wand - this may be why the wand is the "default" weapon in many of these systems (GD, AA, AS). Some models use the Swiss Army Knife wand (viz. Liber A vel Armorum) where the wand as symbol of will and the wand as particular symbol of fire use the same implement. You mention the athame - seems to me Wicca transposes the wand and the dagger (not necessarily the elemental meaning, but the role of the weapons). Certainly the athame is the default weapon in trad Wicca, and so in that sense, one cannot help using the wand as a "substitute" athame. The wand in "classic" ceremonial magick plays the same role as the dagger in "classic" Wicca. Hope there is something of use to you in this mindless maundering of mine. Paul