Athame or Wand?

[[DarkWoman]]

I like to use the wand that I fashioned for myself. I have no idea what type of wood it is though, but it was lying on my sidewalk one day. I put an amethyst on top and wraped copper wire and crystals around it. I also painted shimery sparklies on it, and carved runes into it. I have never used an athame for circle casting, but I do carve into candles with it...

[Hera#76]

I bought a rown twisted athame which has an amethyst crystal on the end. The wood has been seperated and twisted with gaps between it. It is a lovely colour and a perfect size.

[[Enlightenment]]

I like to use the wand that I fashioned for myself. I have no idea what type of wood it is though, but it was lying on my sidewalk one day. I put an amethyst on top and wraped copper wire and crystals around it. I also painted shimery sparklies on it, and carved runes into it. I have never used an athame for circle casting, but I do carve into candles with it...

Sounds beautiful hun. I have two Wands, one which I bought and the other I made, I haven't finished it yet though but once I do it will be similar to the way in which you made yours, wire and crystals around it It's fun to make your own too, it gives a really special feel to that certian tool.

[[DarkWoman]]

It's fun to make your own too, it gives a really special feel to that certian tool.

Yes it does. I am very attatched to it and the energy I feel when I use it. Although, some people don't have tools to make their own...ummmm....tools. I went to my friends house to make my wand as she had alllll the materials you could imagine to make anything you desire to make. Wood carving tools, sanding paper, special glues.... I just provided my personal materials like paints and crystals and such.

I have a friend who made his own athame for example ( I would never attempt it) but he does professional metal work and welding. Its beautiful!!!!

I would love to make all my tools, but my skills are in other areas. Lol. I guess the most important thing is that you bond with your tools, right?

[[Enlightenment]]

I bought a rown twisted athame which has an amethyst crystal on the end. The wood has been seperated and twisted with gaps between it. It is a lovely colour and a perfect size.

The seperated wood sounds really pretty and quite rare too, very nice!

[jcrowfoot]

I've been known to cast a circle with a burning stick of incense. I guess that's a wand. I like using feathers, or holding a crystal. Sometimes I just cast it with my feet, by walking around the edge of the circle three times.

That being said, when I do use one or the other, it generally depends on how much 'resistance' I feel in the environment. If the environment feels heavy or stagnant, I use the blade to get the energy going, or to cut through the heavy energy that's around. I use a blade especially when I am doing protective/cleansing magic.

I use a wand when I'm in Nature. Seems like a "friendly neighbor" sort of thing to do. Especially when working with the fair folk. They don't like steel in my experience.

[goth-kid555]

i'v only casted a circle 3 times,and used an athame

[Sercee]

I use an Athame to cast a circle.

[Wolf*]

I have a wand, but I rarely ever use it. I prefer my athame. It has an imbosed pattern along the blade and a wolf's head at the end of the handle.

[Butterfly1984]

I used my finger up until my boyfriend bought me a new Athame. It is also in an Egyptian style but is not quite so ornate as enlightenments. It is black handled and hilt woth ???hyroglyphs??? on the hilt. It is really lovely. It has a slight pattern down the middle of the blade. I have only cast one circle since he gave it to me and that was to cleanse it so I haven´t actually used it to cast a circle yet, but I will be soon. I did also have a wand but it got broken But Aaron is going to make me one from Olive wood, its so beautiful, because I am not quite so good at the carving lark. Once it has been shaped properly Aaron is going to help me carve the symbols in it that I want. it is also going to a have a lovely quartz wand on the end of it aswell.

[[Enlightenment]]

Your Athame sounds lovely Butterfly, I'm really into the Egyptian Pantheon at the moment so anything Egyptian goes for me Mine also has hyroglyphs on the case, the actually blade is a wavy shape. I've posted some piccies of my Athame and Altar in the Everyone section so you can see it there if you want a peek.
I wish I had someone to carve a Wand for me, I have two, one that I bought and the other I am in the middle of making, haven't got any further than sanding it down and glossing it lol.

[Butterfly1984]

Wow, yours looks beautiful! Aarons v handy lol. He started making it out of eucalyptus but the wood wasn´t very grainy and he wants it to be pretty, hence the olive wood. But as I say we haven´t found any yet and I can´t go and ask a tree for ome wood because the police would arrest me if I got caught because you can´t cut down olive wood in spain

[Sobek]

you could sneak a chunk couldnt you? large enough but not enought to warrant an entire tree?

probably a stupid thought lol

[WolfWitch]

Tools are just props enfused with our own Magic, hence why our hand/finger works just the same.

This is very true. The objects we use only have as much power and signifigance as we put into them ourselves. Our faith and beliefe the alighty(ies) is what is ultimately important.

It's why I try to make every one I use. I wish I could have had someone set me down and show me how to work and forge steel, I'd have made my own Athame, but as it is I like the one I have and it is suited perfect to me. I found it in an nimport store, It's cheap and not the ghreatest of blades but, the moment I saw it, it spoke to me and I just knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was THE blade I needed. Only cost me ten bucks.

Eventually I want a wand, as staff even, if I can get away with it. My problem is that I wish my wand to be made of a very specific tree. I grew up on my Grandfather's farm in rual NW Kentucky. Setting in the middle part of the main Barn lot, right next to the house and nesstled atop it's own private mineral spring, sat a beautiful pin Oak. Because it was smack on top of the second spring on the farm and had near exclusive access to it, this tree looked similar to the Yggdrisl world tree. I say this because at my chests height when I was eighteen, this tree was just shy of 20' in circumphrence. It sat for a while as the second largest of it species in the US, though I do not know if it still is. I grew up respecting that tree. I liked it, I was awed by it. It was a dominating life on the farm and eclipsed every other feature. When I became Wiccan, I decided that I would make my first wand from that sacred tree. It ties me to a childhood that I no longer have, it's a link to a past I cherrish fondly in my heart. I put a lot of myself into the farm and the tree. I can think of no better place to get my wand.
The problem is that cousins I do not get with now own the farm. But this just makes the quest interesting and the reward all the more sweet once the wand is mine.

BLessed be.

WW.

[Sobek]

so long as your a good sneak you'll be fine lol