INTRODUCTION
I have met many neoPagans and traditional witches alike who use staves but really have no idea what their history and purpose is or how to use them in magic. I hope to remedy that in this article with my research and own experience as a ritual tool maker and tree worshipper. My god is the World Tree and he has been hung upon it both willingly and unwillingly throughout myths bringing back the mystical knowledge of trees; of their medicine as well as staves, runes, and charms carved from their wood. Each year he cuts himself down with his sharp axe in sacrifice so that each year the tree, representing this time the fertile greenmantle of the earth, can be reborn growing out of the mineral rich decay of the previous dead tree. Within the lore of staves are the rich and ancient mysteries of the Forest -- the Earth when it was wild and we were but babes just opening our eyes laying on the ground like fallen fruit beneath the great World Tree.
THE DIFFERENT TYPES AND THEIR RITUAL USE
Although the different types serve many differing purposes, they all have one thing in common: what they represent. Simply, staves are a symbol of the World Tree which is the axis mundi of our world and of the universe itself. I will cover the ritual pillar and sacred grove worship in another article on the World Tree.
THE STAFF
Not just belonging to Christian mythology, staffs are symbols of power and status reserved for shamans or the priesthood of other religions as well. Staffs are a magical ritual tool not just walking sticks. Staffs are traditionally 3-6 feet in length and in general are crafted to be the bearer's shoulder height. Magicians who led battles carried staffs, shamans and cunning folk who travelled from village to village carried staffs, divine chieftains and peacemakers carried them also - I'm referring to European, Asian, and Native American cultures.
In Pagan history staffs were used for protection, blessing, blasting, for opening doors between worlds, runic calendars, peacekeeping or crowd control, as well as spirit invoking and banishing. Oak or Rowan were carried as a staff when travelling to protect the bearer from either physical or spiritual harm. If a magician carries an Oak or Blackthorn staff it was usually for magical protection and blasting. Blasting isn't just the throwing of curses, but also a charge of the magician's power blasted out of the staff to an attacker with an effect like an electrical shock. Apple and Rowan staffs were used to open doorways between worlds at threshold places and a Yew staff would have been used to travel to the underworld. In Celtic folklore a Rowan staff is used to protect the bearer from spirits and fairies as well as to grant the bearer the ability to command them, within reason, such as sending a ghost back to its grave or preventing a spirit from doing harm.
A staff which is made to act in ritual as the World Tree is usually carved with one or more serpents. This design is found across cultures, but most commonly in the Greek, Norse, and African. The serpent represents the wisdom and knowledge of the Universe and grants the bearer access to divine inspiration whether it be for magic, healing, or inspiration for arts and poetry.
THE STANG
There are many misconceptions about the stang in modern Traditional Witchcraft; partly due to Robert Cochrane's incomplete writings about this tool and also due to the lack of research on the part of modern Traditional Witchcraft authors who never looked further than Cochrane. "Stang" is an Old English term for a distaff which in its earliest form was simply a forked tree branch with two or more tines. A distaff was a tool for handspinning used every day by women for at least 2000 years before it went out of fashion with the invention of the spinning wheel and its introduction to Europe in the early 13th century and then mechanical wheels during the industrial revolution. Raw carded fibre is tied to the top of the distaff which was usually taller than the spinner and the fibre was continuously pulled, twisted and spun onto a spindle.
"The so-called 'sacred object' held in such reverence by some witches was in fact a weaver's distaff-and could easily be mistaken for a phallic symbol. The weaver's distaff, bound with reeds or straw, appears frequently in rural carvings and elsewhere. It again has reference to the Craft and supreme Deity. It would appear that the witches were not in the least influenced by Freudian concepts."
-- Robert Cochrane, "On Cords"
In mythology, the distaff represents the universal world tree and the spindle is the axis mundi of the Earth. The distaff was also viewed by Pagan cultures as the embodiment of the creative powers of the Universe and of a woman and man -creating something from nothing just as the Universe itself was created. In ancient myths a creator Goddess spins the earth and everything upon it from her distaff using the raw fibres of chaos. In Greek mythology it was Clotho, one of the Three Fates who held the distaff and spun the thread of life. For ritual, the stang is struck into the ground outdoors. The part in the earth reaching down to the underworld like the roots of a tree, the branch representing our realm, and the tines reaching to the heavens uniting the three realms and opening a doorway to the Otherworld. Then the gods or spirits may be drawn down or up through the stang to be petitioned or communicated with during the ritual. A live tree or staff can be used in a similar manner. In many Medieval depictions of witches flying to the sabbath, they are flying on their distaffs -the bundled unspun fibres on the ends often causing the distaffs to be mistaken as broomsticks which have an entirely different use. Thus the witch flying to the sabbat on her "stang" is really a metaphor of transvection for the witch using her distaff to travel between worlds as the shamans of animistic cultures flew up or down the world tree using their staff carved as a horse or deer.
Male magicians are usually associated with a staff rather than a distaff as it was not proper for men to spin in the past. For an example, a punishment in Middle Age Britain called "riding the stang" was for a man who had abused his wife or mother. He was seated backwards upon a donkey while forced to hold the woman's distaff and was paraded through the village. For the man, this was considered utter humiliation.
In magic and ritual use stangs can be used for spinning z-twist thread for magic, working with the gods of Fate, invoking and banishing, transvection, finding lost objects, leaving offerings, or as a spirit trap.
THE WAND
Wands are miniature hand-held versions of the staff, stang, or pillar - still representing the world tree. Wands are found across cultures, but mainly in those stemming from Proto-Indo European religions as well as Native American tribes. Wands are best made from wood to directly connect with the association with the world tree, but ones have been excavated from graves made of metal and bone as well. Crystal wands do not represent the World Tree, but instead are used for healing and spirit work as stones have the ability to house spirits or energy. Metal wands also are not representative of the World Tree, nor used as wooden wands are, and instead are conductors of power and energy.
Wooden wands and staves are used for divination such as with Ogham or Futhark runic staves, divination sticks like throwing sticks, or as dowsing rods for locating water, ley lines, places of power, stolen goods, burial sites, or treasure, etc. Wooden wands are also traditionally used for blasting, which is the sending forth or "throwing" of spells whether they are for healing, protection, cursing, or as a weapon. A wood wand can also be used for opening doors between worlds and travelling safely within the realms. Traditionally they are also used for invoking gods or spirits and sending them back to their realms and, depending on the wood used, they could also be used to command spirits.
Wands were used by the V"olva of the Norse and have been found in their excavated graves, by the Egyptians in the form of their hand-held djeds, by the Celtic magicians and the later Cunning Folk, as well as by the shamans of tribal animistic cultures across the world such as the Coast Salish tribes of British Columbia, Canada. What they all have in common is that they are a magical ritual tool used by initiated "shamans" and not laypersons.
IN CONCLUSION
It is only in the present with our modern technology and machines that the use and meaning of staves has been forgotten, but the remnants still remain for the determined magician to seek out in lore and folktale. I plead with you modern witches, druids, and shamans not to let them be forgotten or fall into disuse. Do not make or use a stave without knowing why or how it is used as well as the history behind it. But most of all, do not forget the trees, our ancestors, which they and the knowledge of their use comes from.
I hope to follow up this article at a later time with another one on the traditional crafting of wooden staves and which wood is best suited for which ritual use. Until then I hope these words have helped the reader to discover the purpose and history of staves.
REFERENCES:
* Barbeau, Marius. "Medicine-Men on the North Pacific Coast". National Museum of Canada, 1958.
* Cochrane, Robert. "On Cords". "Pentagram", issue 3. March 1965.
* Harris-Logan, Stuart A. "Singing With Blackbirds: The Survival of Primal Celtic Shamanism in Later Folk Traditions". Grey House in the Woods, 2006.
* Harrison, Dick. & Svensson, Kristina. "Vikingaliv". Natur och Cultur: Stockholm, 2007.
* Hochberg, Bette. "Spin Span Spun: Fact and Folklore for Spinners and Weavers". Bette Hochberg: California, 1979.
* Hutton, Ronald. "Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination". Hambledon & London, 2002.
* MacAnTsaoir, Ian. "Divination and the Second Sight: Renowned Gifts of the Gaels. Clannada na Gadelica".
* Pennick, Nigel. "Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition". Thoth Publications, 2002.
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