My new wand!

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. -Friedrich Nietzche

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth - more than ruin - more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. -Bertrand Russell

Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs, Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes, Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall and a preserving sweet. --William Shakespeare

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions. - Lord Alfred Tennyson

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form. --Albert Einstein

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.
--Jiddu Krishnamurti

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. --Goethe

Like a flash of lightning and in an instant the truth was revealed. I drew with a stick on the sand the diagrams of my motor. A thousand secrets of nature which I might have stumbled upon accidentally I would have given for that one which I had wrestled from her against all odds and at the peril of my existence.--Nikolai Tesla

Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance. --Epicurus

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. --Anais Nin

The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to die. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal.--Aleister Crowley

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. --Thomas Alva Edison

The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.
--Pablo Picasso

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. --Ayn Rand

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.--Steven Hawking

My new wand!

Dec 14 |14:56 PM

As I feel as if I have been going through a lot of internal changes, I have been wanting to make some external changes as well. I cannot focus on the future while focusing on the past. A lot of my tools I feel I have outgrown, and have been feeling the urge to make new ones - ones that represent who and what I am, and who and what I am becoming.

My wand is my latest project. The wood is from a holly tree behind my house, and it has been infused with hazelnut oil, bringing in the strong fiery aspects of Holly and the airy wisdom of hazel.

It feels just /excellent/ in the hand. The smooth texture, the shaping of the wood, the warmth of the spirit of that tree within it. The natural shaping of the wood lends itself to being a nice contour to my hand - especially if I were to hold it in a pistol grip. It's perfectly shaped to Take Care of Business.

I think that as soon as I figure out what word is to name this wand, I will inscribe that, my magical name, and nothing more upon it.

I am really starting to fall in love with this wand. There is a great satisfaction I get out of crafting my own magical tools. I have actually been considering buying a lathe so that I can make some beautiful wands like the ones at Acme Wand Supply. My lust for beautiful things aside, I was reminded today of how important crafting is to my magical work - the act of making the wand itself was a magical one. Though I will ritually purify, charge and name the tool, as I always do, I have already begun with this, having started charging it from the minute I cut it from the tree.

In working with the wood as well, I got to know the exact feel of the textures of the wood, the scent, the moisture, the way it felt under my fingers. I got familiar with every bump, knot and wiggle in the wood, as I worked them into a pleasing shape. In creating something, especially something which involves shaping with your hands, you become intimately familiar with the materials which create it - that familiarity will help with naming it.

And naming it is the last step. It is, through this familiarity with its qualities in the act of creating it, that we can learn that word which awakens the power within the object.