Earthwaves creativity has been enhanced with some wand waving pagan fun. Research on the Sirhowy value discovered links to druid activity and how druids made wands intuitively. They took wood, which represented life, and through rituals out in the wild chose a staff from found wood. So suitably distracted from our Landscape creative work Mike set out, Gandalf style, to have a Harry Potter wand waving adventure.
Whilst walking in local Bedfordshire woods Mike found a staff with just the qualities he had in mind. It sort of appeared to him without actually hunting for one. As they say from wand lore “the wand chooses the wizard Mr Potter”. Perhaps JK Rowling is not really the authority in more ancient and traditional magic, but Mike certainly felt the wand chose him. The wood was muddy black wet heavy and covered in algae. Mike wondered if the wood was rotten, or too heavy to use as a staff. But the branch points were perfect places to locate crystals and the staff proved later to be perfect.
The wood dried nicely, lightened to a good weight, kept its strength and lost some bark revealing soft places to hold and gnarly bark in some places too to give character. Brushing, rubbing and waxing transformed it. An off cut created a beautifully shaped wand. Copper wire work bound the crystals. Gandalf eat your heart out!
Mike has training as an energy healer and a background in spiritual energy work with Tantra. So working with the wand was intuitive, using it as something to channel energy. The experience of using the wands was beyond expectation or imagination. The staff and wands seem to work in enhancing and focussing the experience of spiritual energy. Whether this is something magic or rather more fun and just a way to shift perceptions is a moot point. Frankly does it matter as long as in the art partnership work it boosts our creativity. Shifting perceptions is more than magic enough for us.
The following weekend Mike was down at the Sirhowy Valley in the snow to have some magical fun with the wands. Wow! This was powerful magic. “The pagan pool” part of the river was a beautiful white tranquil space with new snow and the wands did their magic. Mike could feel energy channelling and had fun invoking healing the for land to help continue its journey from its industrial past. Lance found when handling the staff his hands warmed up, remember its snowing, and his feet were cold, and he is feeling lighter with energy. Without doubt these wands helped us to connect with the landscape, shift our minds into altered states of consciousness, and take us deeper into the Sirhowy project. Magic play, magic day.