Since I have Frater Ashen Chassan as a Facebook friend, I have seen quite a number of photos of his magical tools, and I must say that they are magnificent artifacts, cleverly and beautifully crafted and quite opulent. If I were more inclined towards traditional ceremonial magic I might be quite envious of his magical tools. They are incredibly awesome indeed. But the main question that I am sure many people ask themselves, and some undoubtably believe is true, do such perfect ritual tools make for a more potent magical outcome? That is to say, is an interesting branch or stick found in a special woods or forest, and used as a wand, unadorned by any clever craft a lesser tool than a beautifully crafted golden wand with ancient symbols inscribed upon it? That is the question which I am asking, and it would seem that there are two automatic opinions on such a question.
Opinion 1: This is the most obvious opinion, and it states that a beautifully crafted wand has far greater power than an unadorned stick. The greater the esthetics associated with a tool will naturally grant a greater power. If the tool is beautiful and also an antique, or even a relic from some past magician’s collection, then it would be even more powerful. Such an opinion would presuppose that the serious ceremonial magician should use whatever resources they have available to acquire the best tool, or the one that is the most beautiful, and even one that is an antique magical weapon. Ceremonial magicians have been known through history for their expensive looking and rare single-purpose tools. In fact, the best tools would be owned and used by the greatest magical practitioners, and the quality of the tools that a magician uses would represent their prestige and importance in the art of magic. Of course, if magicians happen to also be master craftsmen then they could manufacture such tools themselves, and those not so inclined would have to either seek out someone to make these tools for them, or find some rare artifacts or already-made and then adapted tools.
Opinion 2: Since the lower class itinerant magician or witch in the previous age would have to make do with whatever they could find for magical tools, they were often common tools made magical through use. A knife, stick, walking cane, and maybe cast off priestly garb, plain dark cloths or even nudity would suffice for their working tools and vestments. They might have a pentacle engraved on a wax disc, and bits of parchment for making witch marks, bits of tin for the same, and maybe a plain wooden offering cup to top off their collection. If they were literate, they might have a couple of cheaply bound note books with spells and recipes written in them. With such a lower class accumulation of junk to work magic, would the magic be pathetically weak as well? If we look at our history and folklore, we will find that the cunning folk did quite well, and were reputed to be the most consistent and reliable producers of magical effects. As poor as they were, they got results, and their price was quite accessible to their poor neighbors.
Now, because I am a witch, and in fact my use of tools was extremely rudimentary in the beginning of my magical career, I have carried with me the idea that the actual material tool was nothing more than a simulacrum for the ideal magical symbolic tool, and that the intention far outweighed the esthetics of the actual material or configuration of the tool. Since I am not inclined to forging, crafting and artistically embellishing my magical tools, and that I found what I use today in various stores and online markets, what I have accumulated over the years was more than sufficient to perform magic. In fact, being the packrat that I am, I have a number of nice and also junky items in my collection - but very little of high quality. Does this mean that I am a lousy magician because my rites and ceremonies lack any kind of esthetic glamor, making them weak and barely effective? Because my tools are not awesome and therefore seemingly powerful, then I must be a fake magician, or just a pretentious fool. Really!
Yes, that was pretty funny. Since I have decades of practicing magic, the quality of my magical tools for me is quite irrelevant. I could go into the forest and find a stick, a nice straight branch, use my utility knife as both an athamé and a tool to prep the stick as a wand and the branch as a staff, and a use a plastic cup and plate for a chalice and paten and I am ready to work magic. What transforms those rudimentary tools into powerful magical weapons is my magical intention and my imagination, not to mention years of practice. Garbed in my ordinary clothes and coat without any jewelry or any rings other than my wedding band, and I am fully vested for the magical work. It may not be as amazing as turning a pumpkin and field mice into a horse drawn carriage, but it has some of the transformative aspects, except functioning in a much more mundane manner.
So, because I am just a humble Witch who selects various odds and ends as my magical tools, and I have always practiced my magic in this manner, having magical tools that are works of art or museum pieces of the same quality is not important to me. What is important in my magical workings is my mental state, my depth of knowledge and experience, and my powerful imagination. Armed with these capabilities, whatever I use to direct the lines of force, point at the various nodes of my temple or grove, and following my internal magical script or extemporizing a series of cantrips and spells in my mind’s eye, I should arrive at the same place as if I had the most esthetically amazing tools and temple at my disposal. Thus, the outer tools, vestments, temple furnishings, and various other accouterments do not make the magic happen. What makes it happen is my internal mental conditioning, years of practice, and my magical discipline. If I loose everything in a fire or a disaster but remain alive and well, then I can still work my magic.
You could take someone who had a model’s beauty, vest them in sumptuous and expensive robes and vestments, wearing magnificent jewelry, and armed with priceless magical tools and equipment, and place them centrally in a perfectly lit and furnished temple, with expensive incense wafting around them, and have them adroitly pronounce a powerfully intoned invocation using antique barbarous words, and would it really be magical? It would very visually esthetic, and perhaps could be caught on video, but still, unless the actor or actress had the proper mental state and years of practice, it would be empty of magical effect and probably meaningless. All the eye-candy of a Hollywood production would not be able to produce any magical effects or generate meaningfulness unless the cental practitioner had such a capability in them to begin with. Such a trained magician would be able to produce powerful transformative effects or make things happen in the material world with only a small percentage of the accouterments that I have described here.
It is said that the most accomplished magical practitioner would not need any tools to perform magic, and I have done that as well, since my magical imagination can override any material deficiencies. That means that magic, for me, is part of my person, which we should expect after years of practice. I could jokingly say: “Magical tools? Magical tools! I don’t need no stinking tools!!” All these considerations show that magic is a mental state developed over a long period of practice and experiences. We start this path with humble examples of what Hollywood dreams about when depicting ritual magicians, and depending on our nature, we may stay that way until we master our art and ourselves. Then beyond that mastery is just the magic without any material representation. That is a true practitioner of the art of magic.
While I deeply respect and appreciate what Frater Ashen Chassan has crafted with his own hands, and I also find inspiration in the work that others have done to build up their tools, vestments, furnishings and other esthetically pleasing attributes to make their temples quite awesome, I know that real magic that is materially effective and transformative doesn’t require such things. Therefore, I urge my fellow practitioners to love what they do regardless of their tools and trappings, and if they have the money, time and expertise, they can create amazing temples and groves to work their magic. However, snobbery of any kind is meaningless, and it only shows how much someone really knows about magic when or if they declare that expensive and artful tools and vestments are the only way to perfecting the art of magic.
Frater Barrabbas
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