Yesterday (Saturday) I realized that I had two days until Samhain. What kind of wand could I make for the visiting souls? One to help them? Or one to help protect others from them? Okay, both. But was there a specific type of tree associated with the dark holiday? Old creepy trees with limbs that paw at the night? A wooden spike to slay the undead, is there a special kind of wood for that?
A wand with the shape of a spike. Which tree has a pure heart to send the dead back to their plane to suffer in unrelenting peace?
Or do you need a corrupted heart to open the doorways to the Otherworld?
Better yet, do I have any good OR evil wood on hand?
Let's find out.
The Wiki link says, "People also took flames from the bonfire back to their homes. In parts of Scotland, torches of burning fir or turf were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them." The fir link discusses the Scots pine in northern Europe. Hmm, don't have any of that.
The Wiki on Halloween adds this about costumes, "On the custom of wearing costumes, Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh wrote: "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities" I'll infer that any wand I make should mask the wielder from the undead.
The Kurt Adler Twig Tree on Amazon looks like an properly scary-type tree. It looks like a burr oak after the leaves have fallen away. There's a host of burr oaks in the neighborhood, I probably have a stick or two of that, but its not my first choice. The local burr oak is not scary or old.
Having had enough of the brief reading adventure on the interwebs, I vaulted into my garage to see what I could find. The great thing is that I have, I think, about a billion sticks stored in buckets and closets and boxes and drawers. The taller pieces lean casually in the little space between the two garage doors. Lots of cedar, oak, pecan, and all the other types from random trees around the neighborhood. I'm unsure which pieces are burr oak. (I make a note that I need to label each piece of wood when I bring it in.)
Nothing I find is particularly notable in regards to Samhain, except this one twisted branch of really old grey oak. Its hiding among the tall sticks and potential staffs between the two garage doors. The piece is really heavy, and appropriately ghoulish. I bring it out and give it a good study.
Once I get a good look, I know that this piece isn't going to work out as a halloween wand project, because it already is a wand, and a dark one at that. There are crevices and holes in the wood, and remnants of ancient bark, that house a sentience that's spent an eternity waiting for someone to notice it. I guess that means me. I couldn't even bear to clean the nooks and crannies of the tiny spiderwebs, dust and dirt. A little bug scuttled from one crevice to the next.
I noticed that one of its twisted elbows had the profile of an old man's face. Or old woman's, one of those. You can see it here:
It's ear is one of three holes in the branch. Here's hole number two:
I'm not sure how deep that one is. Looks like a good place for spiders.
Hole number three is the largest, it plumbs the darkness of the upper core:
The twisted old oak branch emitted an air of darkness and corruption. I bit of quesiness overcame me when I considered at the least smoothing out the hilt, which really needed a minimal of shaping to make it easier to hold. The branch did not need my administrations. It told me to go away.
So, I traced it first into my book of wands and returned it to the garage, but in a place where I'll it more often. The old oak branch stood up for itself. Hiding it away didn't feel respectful so I propped it up on the main shelf in the craftroom, where I'll see it everyday.
Not to be stoppered by an evil branch, my next choice was to make a wand of holly. I have a long branch of holly that grew a few houses over. The holly had been trimmed into a large bell-shaped tree that loomed over the house's front door. It was the first thing the owners decided to sell the house. This happened while I was in the city, and my wife knew me well enough to salvage one branch before it was all taken away.
Holly is more associated with Christmas and the Winter Solstice, but it also associated with life and death, and Samhain and Halloween are all about the death and returning to life. Harry Potter's wand is made of holly, and boasts qualities of both protection and fighting. (Harry's wand, however, must have been dyed to a darker color but it's not the bright white of holly wood.)
Now I'm excited. Holly isn't specifically a Samhain or Halloween, but I think this wand will be a real ghostcaller.
A wand with the shape of a spike. Which tree has a pure heart to send the dead back to their plane to suffer in unrelenting peace?
Or do you need a corrupted heart to open the doorways to the Otherworld?
Better yet, do I have any good OR evil wood on hand?
Let's find out.
The Wiki link says, "People also took flames from the bonfire back to their homes. In parts of Scotland, torches of burning fir or turf were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them." The fir link discusses the Scots pine in northern Europe. Hmm, don't have any of that.
The Wiki on Halloween adds this about costumes, "On the custom of wearing costumes, Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh wrote: "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities" I'll infer that any wand I make should mask the wielder from the undead.
The Kurt Adler Twig Tree on Amazon looks like an properly scary-type tree. It looks like a burr oak after the leaves have fallen away. There's a host of burr oaks in the neighborhood, I probably have a stick or two of that, but its not my first choice. The local burr oak is not scary or old.
Having had enough of the brief reading adventure on the interwebs, I vaulted into my garage to see what I could find. The great thing is that I have, I think, about a billion sticks stored in buckets and closets and boxes and drawers. The taller pieces lean casually in the little space between the two garage doors. Lots of cedar, oak, pecan, and all the other types from random trees around the neighborhood. I'm unsure which pieces are burr oak. (I make a note that I need to label each piece of wood when I bring it in.)
Nothing I find is particularly notable in regards to Samhain, except this one twisted branch of really old grey oak. Its hiding among the tall sticks and potential staffs between the two garage doors. The piece is really heavy, and appropriately ghoulish. I bring it out and give it a good study.
Once I get a good look, I know that this piece isn't going to work out as a halloween wand project, because it already is a wand, and a dark one at that. There are crevices and holes in the wood, and remnants of ancient bark, that house a sentience that's spent an eternity waiting for someone to notice it. I guess that means me. I couldn't even bear to clean the nooks and crannies of the tiny spiderwebs, dust and dirt. A little bug scuttled from one crevice to the next.
I noticed that one of its twisted elbows had the profile of an old man's face. Or old woman's, one of those. You can see it here:
It's ear is one of three holes in the branch. Here's hole number two:
I'm not sure how deep that one is. Looks like a good place for spiders.
Hole number three is the largest, it plumbs the darkness of the upper core:
The twisted old oak branch emitted an air of darkness and corruption. I bit of quesiness overcame me when I considered at the least smoothing out the hilt, which really needed a minimal of shaping to make it easier to hold. The branch did not need my administrations. It told me to go away.
So, I traced it first into my book of wands and returned it to the garage, but in a place where I'll it more often. The old oak branch stood up for itself. Hiding it away didn't feel respectful so I propped it up on the main shelf in the craftroom, where I'll see it everyday.
Not to be stoppered by an evil branch, my next choice was to make a wand of holly. I have a long branch of holly that grew a few houses over. The holly had been trimmed into a large bell-shaped tree that loomed over the house's front door. It was the first thing the owners decided to sell the house. This happened while I was in the city, and my wife knew me well enough to salvage one branch before it was all taken away.
Holly is more associated with Christmas and the Winter Solstice, but it also associated with life and death, and Samhain and Halloween are all about the death and returning to life. Harry Potter's wand is made of holly, and boasts qualities of both protection and fighting. (Harry's wand, however, must have been dyed to a darker color but it's not the bright white of holly wood.)
Now I'm excited. Holly isn't specifically a Samhain or Halloween, but I think this wand will be a real ghostcaller.
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