When I’m asked what I do and I mention that I make wands, it usually ends up with a blank stare..

followed by a slight pause before they say, ‘Wands? Oh that sounds…interesting’….continuing the blank stare as you know they are thinking about Harry Potter and how to move onto the next subject. I’m pretty sure they forget to blink as well.

Wands have been around for centuries, so there must be something to them right? Why would so many people from all around the world get the urge to make one or buy one? I didn’t understand it either at first until I made my first one.

There is something very magical about creating a wand and when you start creating them, you understand what it is. You are working with different elemental energies and you need to trust your intuition with bringing them together, because essentially you are being guided as to how it needs to come together. There are bigger forces at work here. Sometimes a branch or crystal can sit there for a year or more waiting for the right time or piece to finish it. They cannot be rushed and once you have put the last finishing touch on it, you stare at it in amazement as all the energies you have been working with combine to make one unique and powerful piece! Each wand has a quality of it’s own and therefore has it’s own use.

Here’s a few samples of my latest work:

What draws me to making Celtic-styled wands?

I guess it’s in my blood with a surname of McIntosh! I have always been drawn to my heritage and the Celtic way of life holds nature very dear and in particular the trees.

The Celts revered trees and had their own Celtic Tree Calendar and Ogham symbols (Celtic Tree Language). The symbols and trees all have their special meanings just like the increasingly popular Rune symbols. Working Shamanically, we can commune with the spirit of the tree and also with the spirit of the crystal. When creating my wands, I feel the energy of each piece and how they need to go together. It is a process of intuition and once the two are joined, it creates a synergy of the two. I use a lot of quartz crystal tips because quartz enhances the energy of any crystal or branch it is combined with.

I also hand-pick all my branches and crystals through intuition. It’s like I stand out of the way and spirit goes shopping. It’s a fun process of trust! I pick up branches, crystals and feathers everywhere I go on holiday. You should see the looks as they get x-rayed at the airport!

So what the heck do we use them for?

Well what do I use them for? I find when I sit with them and tune into it, I connect to the area from where the branch came from or can connect to the actual tree itself. I have found that I can call the energy of the tree back into the branch. That was an amazing one to figure out! I was given a branch that had fallen off a tree from Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It looked like it had been on the ground for ages and was really dry and lifeless. As I worked with it, it actually changed colour. When I finished it, I felt compelled to call on the spirit of the tree. I sat with it and all I can say is WOW! I was instantly transported to the temple. I stood looking out over the trees and then saw a monk boy next to me in the red garb. The energy was just one of pure peace, like nothing I had ever experienced before. I remember just sitting there looking around and taking in all the beautiful energy of the place in which this branch came from, with tears in my eyes. This is the beauty of working with wands. It’s not a hocus pocus thing for me, it is a practice that draws upon the beautiful energies of the earth that is inherent in all things. A way for me to experience places that I have not been to or wish to travel back to.