The Magic Wand
The most important aid in ritual magic is, and always will be, the magic wand.
Since the days of yore magicians and sorcerers have been pictured with a magic
wand. Charlatans and stage illusionists are still making use of it today, trying
to throw dust into the eyes of their audience by all sorts of tricks. The person
who thinks it suffices to hold a magic wand in his hand in order to fulfil wonders
is led astray.
I will give here an explanation of the symbolic meaning and the description
of the syntheses of the magic wand, seen from the magical point of view theoretically
as well as for practical application.
Above all, the magic wand is the symbol of the will, the power and the strength
by which the magician maintains his influence on the sphere for which he has
made and charged it. A magician will not have just one wand for his practice,
but he will make several wands depending on what he intends to do or attain.
The actual purpose of a magic wand is to help the magician project his will
into any sphere or plane. He may have a wand:
1. to influence any being, no matter if human or animal,
2. to cure people from diseases and to do away with bad, unfavorable influences,
3. to evoke high intelligences and to invoke demons and spirits.
To say that the magic wand symbolizes the absolute power of the magician is
truly justified. The person having fully comprehended the mystery of the magic
wand in its magnitude will never do his operations of ritual magic without this
implement. It would lead too far, if I tried to state here all the possibilities
of the magic wand. For the intelligent student these hints will suffice and
will serve as guiding principles. His knowledge will be enlarged by ample meditation.
The magic wand is a condenser, no matter what material it is made of or in
which way it is manufactured. Charged with the will of the magician, it expresses
a certain power. It may be a simple one (the usual type of wand) or a complicated
one.
All the wands carved out of wood are regarded as simple wands. But only a special
kind of wood, suiting the purpose, may be used. Thus, hazelnut or willow are
to be used for a wishing-wand.
The wishing-wand is a modification of the magic wand. Though a wand made of
ash-wood may be used as a magic wand for all magical operations the magician,
when carrying out operations of ritual magic, will only charge it for the purpose
of curing people.
The wand made of elder-wood, proves, on account of its analogy to Saturn, especially
efficient when calling up or evoking elemental spirits and demons. In making
magic wands willow twigs may also be used for any type, for the willow is a
very good fluid condenser. The attentive reader will remember that willows are
often struck by lightning because of their high content of water, and their
capability of absorbing. He may also remember the old saying referring to thunderstorms:
"From the willow flee, look for a beech-tree".
The wood of an oak or an acacia, too, is an excellent material for making a
magic wand. It is, indeed, very easy to make a magic wand of any of the kinds
of wood mentioned.
Cut a twig, approximately 3/8 to 3/4 ins. in diameter and about 12-20 ins.
in length, remove its skin and smooth it.
Often the cutting of a magic wand has been restricted to special astrological
periods, and the magician acquainted with astrology is free to make use of his
knowledge when making a wand. But such a procedure is by no means necessary,
since the magician knows very well that the stars may have a certain influence,
but that they cannot force the wise to do anything, as he actually rules them.
Thus anybody may, if he likes, make by himself a magic wand out of one of the
materials mentioned above.
If the magic wand is to serve ritual purposes, you are recommended to use a
new knife when cutting the twig. The knife may later be used for other ritual
purposes or other magical operations. It should, in that case, never be employed
for any common purpose.
If the magician does not expect to use the knife again after having cut and
smoothed the twig for the magic wand, he should bury it in order to prevent
it from ever coming into the hands of anyone else.
Another kind of magic wand is the steel magnet which has to be equipped with
an insulated grip. Take a round steel rod (the best steel to use is electro-steel,
(i. e. magnet steel) approximately 12-20 ins. long with a diameter of 3/8 ins.,
polish it and have it nickel-plated to prevent it from rusting. After having
nickelplated the rod, the magician may magnetize it by means of an electric
coil, similar to the magnetization of a horse-shoe or the magnet of an electrical
motor. The greater the power of attraction of the magnet, the better it works.
This is the way to get a very strong steel magnet which will not only do its
work as such, but which will also serve as an excellent magic wand for many
magical and magnetic experiments.
First of all one must locate the north and the south pole on the magic electro
magnetic rod and mark both poles: the south-pole with a minus and the north-pole
with a plus. For the insulation of the rod the middle must be then wound with
a silk ribbon as wide as the palm, i. e. about 3-4 ins. A rubber hose of the
same length or a wooden handle that has been pierced for this purpose may also
be used.
Such a wand will enable the magician to cause many magnetic and magical phenomena,
of which only a few will be treated here. If the magician is working with the
electromagnetic fluid of the universe, intending to intensify it strongly in
the physical world, then he must take hold of the wand in such a manner that
his right hand will touch the plus-pole and his left hand the minuspole, with
the ends of the rod touching the middle of his palms. After this the electrical
fluid from the universe has to be led via the right side of the rod into the
magician's body by means of the imagination. The plus-radiation of the rod (odpole-radiation)
will thus be strongly intensified as it has the same oscillation and will make
it easier for the magician to store the electrical fluid in his body.
The same procedure has to be applied to the magnetic fluid of the south-pole.
Vice versa the magician now intensifies the electrical fluid again, which he
has previously stored up in his body, this time concentrating it into the plus-end
of the rod so strongly that he can make his influence work directly on the physical
world.
The same goes for the magnetic fluid which he will be able to store up in his
left, that is the negative pole radiation. The middle of the rod, covered with
the insulating material, will remain neutral. If the magician, by force of imagination,
now concentrates his intention into the condensed electromagnetic fluid of the
steel magnet the wand indeed becomes a magic wand. By means of the electromagnetic
fluid, which radiates as a brilliant light from the rod, any realization on
the physical world will be possible. Initiates usually apply this wand for influencing
sick people and for all magnetic phenomena.
This magic electromagnetic wand is, by the Law of the Universe, an excellent
condenser with the same kind of oscillation as the universe, but in a most subtle
way. The person meditating on this will be able to find other methods easily
due to the universal laws. The magician will, for instance, be able to either
pull the fluid out of the universe like an antenna and store it in his body,
or to transfer it by force of imagination to other people, near him or far away.
The wand will soon be an indispensible implement for the magician, for the positive
and negative powers concentrated in it will help him to create the necessary
oscillation in his electromagnetic fluid.
Besides this, there are magic wands charged either with solid liquid, or combined
condensers. Much could be said about how to make such rods and which methods
are to be used, but I will only mention the most appropriate to serve the magician
in his work. Take the twig of an elder-bush, 12-20 ins. long and 3/8 to 3/4
ins. in diameter, peel off its skin and smooth it with sand-paper. Then remove
its pith so that you get an elder-pipe. Put a cork on the one end of the pipe
and seal it with sealing-wax, insert a condenser (a liquid condenser, if you
like) from the other side, then also seal this end of the pipe airproof. The
rod is now ready for use.
You may, if you wish, use a different kind of wood, for instance, the twig
of an ash, willow or oak tree, or of a hazelnut bush. The twig, which has no
pith must, however, be pierced through carefully with a fine drill, making a
pipe of it. Instead of the liquid condenser a solid condenser may be used, the
same kind of condenser described in "Initiation into Hermetics".
It is also possible to use a piece of blotting paper soaked with a liquid condenser
instead of a solid condenser, which, after it has dried well, is charged, and
then, after having been rolled together, is inserted into the hollow space of
the rod.
The disadvantage of wood is that it will, as time goes by, moulder or be affected
by the fluid condenser, which will cause it to become perforated. It might therefore
as well be replaced by a metal-pipe. Those kinds of metals which are good conductors
of heat and electricity are best. The best of all, of course, is a copper pipe
with a diameter of 3/8 to 1/2 inch.
In order to avoid any oxidization on the surface of the metal, the pipe can
be nickel, chrome, or tin-plated before it is filled with the condenser. One
opening must be soldered together at once, the other immediately after having
filled up the pipe; thus you get a first class magic wand, applicable for all
purposes.
Magicians working with the magnetic and the electric fluid in turn will do
well to procure for themselves a rod made out of a thin iron or steel pipe,
as recommended above, for operations with the magnetic fluid, and a copper-pipe
for operations with the electric fluid. A universal wand is manufactured in
the same manner, with the exception that a nickel-plated brass pipe must be
used, instead of a pipe of copper or iron.
The magician wealthy enough for financial considerations not to matter can
use, instead of the fluid condenser, a condenser made of semi-precious stones.
He will use for his electric fluid, a copper-rod the inside of which is filled
with pulverized amber, an unsurpassed condenser for this kind of fluid.
For his operations with the magnetic fluid he will, in this case, have to fill
up the steel-pipe with pulverized rock-crystal instead of using a solid condenser.
Rock-crystal, again, is a very good fluid condenser for the magnetic fluid.
But it is also possible to solder two separate small pipes, thus making a single
rod out of them; one half of the tube is, in this case, filled up with pulverized
amber, the other with pulverized rock-crystal. Having done this, a single rod,
separated in the middle, will contain both kinds of fluid condensers. In a case
like this, however, the two halves must be connected by a thin piece of copper
- or iron - wire going through the centre of both pipes. The outside of such
a rod may be nickel- 45 plated. This ideal wand then has a unique fluid capacity
and will serve any magical operation.
There is still another possibility: a wooden rod may by ornamented with seven
rings made of the planetary metals. The rings should be fixed to the rod in
quabbalistic order. That is, a golden ring (for the Sun) is placed in the middle
of the rod and three metal rings on each side.
The following metals may be used for the rings in question:
* Lead corresponding to Saturn
*Tin corresponding to Jupiter
*Iron corresponding to Mars
*Gold corresponding to the Sun
*Copper corresponding to Venus
*Brass corresponding to Mercury
*Silver corresponding to the Moon
Apart from this, the rings may have engravings portraying the intelligences
of the above-mentioned planets. The use of a wand like this will, in general,
be restricted to the conjuration of intelligences of the seven planets. When
used for other purposes, it will not prove superior to the other types of wands.
This is all the magician needs to know: from the examples above he will, by
himself, be able to proceed to other variations.
Continued In The Magick Wand Part 2...
| Authors
Details: By Franz Bardon (Extracted from “The Practice of Magical Evocation”) |
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