Gypsey Elaine Teague - The Witchs guide to wands: a complete botanical, magical, elemental guide to making, choosing, and using the right wand

This edition first published in 2015 by Weiser Books

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

665 Third Street, Suite 400

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2015 by Gypsey Elaine Teague

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-570-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on request.

Cover design by Jim Warner

Interior by Deborah Dutton

Typeset in Goudy Oldstyle and Goudy Text

Printed in the United States of America

EBM

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I am a longtime witch, seer, and root worker of more than thirty years. So, I am no newcomer to spiritual, magical, and mystical work. As such, every now and again I will meet a teacher, experience a ritual, encounter a tradition, or review a book that contributes to witchcraft and magic in a way that has depth, wisdom, power, and practicality. When this happens, I do a happy dance, and I get increased enthusiasm for where witchery is moving and its usefulness to the world.

The book you hold in your hands is inspiring such a hopeful response in me. So, this is not a mere foreword; it is a declaration of usefulness to the work therein. It is a call to action for the spirit of the tool we call wandits uses and the working of woods in its magic. Gypsey Elaine Teague shows us the ways to work metals too, but woods are her focus, since they have occupied a place in magic far before the advent of fire and metallurgy. A wood wand is a means to encounter the roots, trunk, and branches of a magic tree that grows from the earth prior to human hands. It is a means to manipulate the forces of magic through an ally (the tree and its woods) that have been shaping the forces of heaven (sun, stars, planets, and moon) and ancestry (human and other) through the unifying forces of the tree for millions of years. Who is better at bringing the powers of above, below, and the horizon than the tree?

So, this foreword is more than a recommendation. It is an invitation. Read this book and work its contents; pass it on to others who seek to work the ways of the wand in witchery. Finally, through the agency of this book, the work of the wand is receiving the attention it deserves as a specific tool in the magic of the witch! I am hopeful that readers will see the power and application of the wand as a magical tool the way our ancestors did, and will seek and secure the potent powers of the woods of the wand for the ways of witchery and make good magic happen in the world!

As a witch with more than thirty years of experience practicing and teaching the craft, this book will be on my recommended reading list. Why, you might ask? Well, for the following reasons. This book:

• Gives wands the attention they deserve as a special item in the witch's toolbox.
• Gives an introduction to the names, spirits, and attributes of the woods for the wand in a way that has not been done in the past.
• Profiles the full anatomy of a wand and its applications to accessing, shaping, and channeling magical forces to a forecasted, projected, and desired outcome.
• Demonstrates an admirable love and commitment to the wand, wood, and their power like I have never witnessed in previous books and teachings.

We have all heard of magic wands in the books, movies, and teachings of our media, magical practices, and traditions. But they are often overgeneralized or embedded in a cadre of implements without attention and honor given to them as the powerful tool they are. Teague treats the subject of wands as a specific magical practice and tradition. This approach is fresh, respectful, and useful. After all, if wands are only a side note, why should we respect and use them? Teague demonstrates that these tools and their spiritual powers should have their unique and specific place on the magical stage.

Wands have captured our attention in movies, lore, and practices. But, have they had their place in our attention in a way that shows their anatomy and application? No, I doubt they have! In the book you hold, Teague seduces us into the allure of wands while informing us of their usefulness. She brings our attention to the wisdom of there is a partnership between the witch and the wand. This relationship can only be discovered and cultivated through intimate partnership. So, to enhance this, she gives a structure to the formal introduction between the witch and the wood for the wandthe order, family, genus, and species, as well as the Janka hardness scale, energy, elements, Celtic ogham (where applicable), and Gods and Goddesses representedas a means for the human magic worker to meet the spirit of the wood on a dancing floor of conscious change and mediation of magical influence. She does this using the feel of a family member introducing you to fellow family at a reunion. She also does this as a craftswoman welcoming you to her craft and her group. Invite the wand to your altar. Work its power for magical influence. Seek and find its mysteries. Find the ways of the witch in the working of the wand.

Orion Foxwood

The wand chooses the witch; the witch does not choose the wand.

Two women, one about sixty and a younger one in her teens, enter a tent at a pagan event. The small sign on a table by the entrance says CANES AND WANDS FOR ALL OCCASIONS. They are a few steps behind a man in his late twenties. The man is wearing jeans, boots, and a T-shirt that says across the front DO AS YE SHALL, RECEIVE AS YE WILLTHRICE. The young man walks up to the back table where a woman sits reading. She looks up and brushes a loose strand of blonde hair out of her face and says, Good morning. Cane or wand?

I'm being threatened, he says as he looks around the tent. I need protection.

Protection, the blonde responds, and the other two watch from the edge of the tent. Let me see what we have then.

She pulls a few long, slender silk bags from under a glass display case and spreads them out on the table.

One of these should do the trick, she smiles.

The man passes his hand over the bags. He touches none of them but stops at one toward his right, second from the end.

This one, he declares.

A good choice, the blonde smiles again. She carefully wraps the bag in white paper and places it in a small box, never looking inside. Fig, she says as she hands the wrapped wand to her customer. Fourteen inches long, double knot and single ring. A very good choice. She bows slightly and he returns the bow.