Right Tool for the Right Job?

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

Elemental Association of Wands and Swords

I knew that this thorny issue would show up when I posted my last article on extending the basic tool set, giving the standard Golden Dawn element associations for the four archetypal tools. There is some controversy associated with whether the Wand is to be attributed to Air or Fire, and the same is true for the Sword. I would like to present the following considerations for everyone to examine and ponder, as I originally have done. There isn’t any correct attribution, because attributions are not doctrines or part of some dogma, they are just associations that aid in refining a definition.

Here is a piece that is distilled from my book MARM - Foundation, which I think will explain how these two conflicting associations occurred. Of course, my position is that either one is correct if used consistently.
 
Ritual and ceremonial magick use various tools to amplify and project the powers of the Elements, and to perform other tasks as well. The organization of the four tools as associated with the Four Elements is a recent development and can’t be traced prior to the late 19th century.

If we use the Greater Key of Solomon as a typical source of the usual magickal tools, we will find that not only are there a white and black hilted knife, but also a dagger, a scimitar, a sickle, a poniard, a burin, a staff, a wand, as well as a sword. Various planetary talismans and the lamen (pentacle or seal of Solomon) rounded out the repertoire of the classical Solomonic magician. There were also the temple furniture, brazier for burning incense, an inscribed magic circle, various vestments, jewelry, and other accouterments particular to the practice of ceremonial magick.

All of these tools had very specific uses, and each was specially consecrated and engraved with magickal sigils and Hebrew letters. This regimen of magickal tools varied from grimoire to grimoire, and although there were similarities, there was no accepted standard except for what that specific tradition dictated. There was also no system of organizing the tools and no symbolic correspondences for them either. Magickal tools were purely operational and used for very specific purposes in ritual, and they had no additional symbolic meaning nor associations. Curiously enough, the list of tools didn’t include any kind of cup or dish, which would have been identified as Christian and associated with the Catholic Mass.

What caused the tools of magick and their associations to change was the incorporation of the Tarot into the Western Occult philosophies and magickal practices. The Tarot was examined and given Qabbalistic attributes, and the systems of ceremonial magick were influenced by that association and began to be organized in a fashion not previously known. The four suits of the Tarot, being Rods or Wands, Swords or Epees, Cups and Coins or Pentacles became the symbolic analogues for the Four Elements, which were also associated with the Divine Tetrad or Tetragrammaton. The four suits became, by analogy, the four magickal tools, as presented in the teachings of the Golden Dawn.

However, this association of Element with symbolic Tarot Suit and magickal tool produced two different opinions, and therefore, two different occult perspectives or schools. Still, it was the Golden Dawn who simplified the diverse collection of magickal tools, organizing them based on a system proposed by the Tarot. It caused the four suits to become the four symbolic magick tools associated with the Divine Tetrad. This was a new perspective as conceived within the Golden Dawn, and having no prior exemplar.

If we examine the occult writings previous to the Golden Dawn we will find no reference to the elemental association of the four magickal tools. It is not to be found in Agrippa’s classic Occult Philosophy nor in the early 19th century variation called The Magus. It is first discovered in the writings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that expounded on the subject of the occultic and Qabbalistic associations of the Tarot. It is here where the association is made between the four elements and the attributes of the four Tarot Suits.

The writings of Eliphas Levi and S. L. Mathers appear to be the first to make this association and then it is further and more solidly made by Papus in his book Tarot of the Bohemians (1896). This idea was either picked up or simultaneously derived and appears at around the same time in the teachings and rituals of the Golden Dawn. An association of the Tarot suits to common playing card suits first appears in a work written by Mathers, but it is poorly contrived and seems to be confusing. However, that association of Suit and Element is rectified and laid out in a constructive fashion by Papus in his later book.

A. E. Waite’s book, the Pictural Guide of the Tarot (1911) does not make this association, but it was well established in another work, the General Book of the Tarot, written by Dr. A. E. Thierens (a renown Dutch astrologer and Theosophist), which was introduced by Waite. In that book the correspondences between Astrology and the Tarot are developed, particularly in regards to the four Suits and the minor Arcana.

Using the Qabbalah or Astrology to determine the elemental attributes of the four suits of the Tarot seems to produce two different sets of associations. Where the Qabbalah is used, the order of elements begins with Fire, then Water, Air and finally, Earth. When one uses Astrology with Theosophic influences, the elements begin with Air, and proceed to Water, Fire, and Earth.

The order of the four Suits of the Tarot does not change, and it begins with Wands or Scepters (Clubs), Cups (Hearts), Swords (Spades) and finally, Coins or Pentacles (Diamonds). The sequence is a hierarchy associated with the four levels of the European social order of nobility, clergy, military (land owners) and merchants (artisans). The element associations for these four suits differs whether Wands are considered to be Fire and Swords are Air, as in the Qabbalistic system, or whether Wands are considered Air and Swords Fire, as in the Astrological system. These two approaches have produced two different sets of associations, and have spawned two different systems of magick, in as far as the four elemental tools of magick are concerned. Both systems are substantiated by symbolic correspondences and either will work quite well. What is required is for the magician to adhere to one or the other, depending on what makes sense and works for the individual.

The four tools have the elemental configuration of the Wand, which is Fire or Air, the Cup or chalice, which is Water, the Sword, which is Air or Fire, and the Pentacle or Dish (paten), which is Earth. All tools that the magician uses to project magickal power are a variation of these four Elemental Tools.

Frater Barrabbas

Extending the Magickal Tool Set

As a competent witch or pagan, you will know how to wield the basic magickal tool set, which can be grouped under the four Elements, a practice that was started with the Golden Dawn and the promotion of the magickal use of the Tarot. The four suits of the Tarot have become the four Element tools in the practice of magick, which are Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. It doesn’t matter that this is a recently contrived organization, since it seems to work very well in classifying the types and use of magickal tools. Grimoires and magickal books from the Renaissance proposed the use of quite a large array of different tools, and all of them required not only special characters and symbols etched on the handles and even the blades, but each had to be consecrated in a special way. The tools used for magick in those times were purely functional and served no greater symbolic purpose - yet they all had to be consecrated in some manner. Still, I believe that the Golden Dawn system of classifying the archetypal four tools seems like a good idea, since it simplifies the number of tools and extends their symbolic quality to a powerful archetypal level.

For the archetypal magickal tool set, then, we are left with just four categories (the four Elements), and within those categories we can group more than one tool. Let’s very briefly look over these tools and analyze their qualities and their use in ritual magick.

Fire - Wand - A wand is one of three pointers that a magician can use, and it is a classical tool in the annals of ritual and ceremonial magick. A wand is usually made of wood (although a number of other materials have been used) and is terminated with some kind of knob or shaped tip; it can also be double terminated. The length of a wand varies, since it should be measured according to the length of the magician’s forearm, which is from the elbow to the palm of the hand. There are a number of recommendations as to what kind of wood should be used, the proper planetary hour it should be cut down or carved, and what kind of magickal characters should be engraved on it. I leave all of these aesthetic considerations to the owner, since the embellishment of the wand is a personal and artistic preference. The wand is used to call and summon gods, goddesses and amicable spirits through the artifice of drawing invoking spirals and magnetically attracting them down. Most witches would not want to invoke their Deities using a steel blade because that would be disrespectful or even threatening - just as it’s bad manners to point a blade at a fellow practitioner.

Water - Cup/Chalice - A cup or chalice is used to contain liquid sacraments, either consecrated salt water, which is used to make sacred space, or consecrated wine or ale. The cup was typically not a tool in most of the old grimoires (except a few, where it was used to capture blood from a sacrifice), since it serves a more liturgical than magickal purpose. A cup or chalice can be made out wood, ceramics, precious metals (silver or gold), or even pewter, brass or bronze. Typically, witches and pagans might have two separate chalices - one for the salt water, and the other for wine or ale. Since salt is highly corrosive, a ceramic or non-ferrous metal would be used to hold the salt-water or lustral water, and a more elegant one can be used to hold the wine or ale. The archetypal qualities of the cup are that it is female, a container or holder, and has the magickal ability to transform common liquids into sacraments though a process likened to transubstantiation. Analogues of the chalice are the cauldron, sacred well and an alembic (alchemical vessel).

Air - Dagger/Sword - A dagger is a very useful and practical tool, so it usually comes in a pair - one for magickal and the other for mundane use. Some traditional witches have differentiated between these two bladed tools by giving them different colored handles - one black, and the other, white. The black handled dagger is called the Athame, but it is still a basic magickal blade that is used to draw lines of force and to “cut” or differentiate between things and domains. A magickal dagger is, in a word, a kind of spirit knife and another magickal pointer. It’s twin is a plain or white handled knife that is used to engrave or cut things that are used exclusively for magickal purposes.  The sword is basically a large black handled magickal dagger, which means that its functions are enlarged over that of the dagger. A sword is used to ward the sacred space, charge the magick circle, to draw lines of force or points of the circle together. Both the black handled dagger and the sword are consecrated and used only for magickal purposes, but the white handled knife is kept sharp and used as a utility blade. In most cases, the ceremonial blades are kept dull so that they will not accidentally harm the magician or one of the attendees.

Earth - Pentacle or Paten - A pentacle is a round flat disk shaped tool, usually metal, but it can also be ceramic or wood. It often has a pentacle (pentagram in a circle) inscribed on its face. The pentacle or paten is used to charge and bless food, such as bread, salt, fruit, or other sacraments. It varies in size, depending on its use, but often, it is placed on the altar so that the chalice is resting on it, creating a sacramental unit. Often, I place a small mound of sea salt on the paten underneath the chalice, which is filled with spring water, as a preparation for the circle consecration rite. The paten or pentacle can also be held in the hands on its edge, so that the face (with the pentacle) is fully displayed before the wielder. When used in this manner, the paten projects a powerful sacramental force of earth-based energies, which can be used for healing or blessings.

Another way of looking at the four Elemental tools is to compare them to the four basic representations of the Grail, where the wand/staff becomes the lance, but the rest are represented as they currently exist - sword to sword, chalice to chalice and paten to dish. There are other analogues in Celtic and Germanic paganism as well, so it would seem that these four archetypal tools are quite useful and represent a rich source of symbolic correspondences.  If we are to add additional tools, they would need to fit into this already determined matrix, or allow it to be properly and rationally expanded. This is exactly what I intend to do. I will begin by first adding a new category, a fifth cell, to the matrix for Spirit.

Spirit - Crystal or Stone - The quality of Spirit has some particular correspondences associated with it, and these are determined by the definition that Spirit is the unique joining of the previous four elements, producing a synthesis which is also their source. The crystal is uniquely qualified to fill this position, and has many useful and important magickal properties. 

Crystals come in many different sizes, shapes, either naturally occurring or man-made; they have the variable qualities of hardness, cleavage, optical properties (clear, opaque, translucent, colored) and electrical conductivity. Some crystals have quite unique electrical qualities, such as quartz, which demonstrates piezoelectric phenomena (where mechanical stress produces electricity). Other crystals, such as germanium or silicon carbide, are used as semiconducting rectifiers, such as what has been used in the various layers of a computer chip. Crystals also exhibit the qualities of resonance and oscillation when a small current of electricity is passed through them (an anti piezoelectric effect). Thus, from a purely metaphysical perspective, crystals receive and store, unleash and vibrate or oscillate; these qualities make them uniquely useful in a magickal context.

The basic magickal premise of crystal magick is that a crystal can capture and contain the etheric or fusion-like energy that is produced in a magickal ritual. This is particularly true when the ritual magician bases all of her workings on the prismatic ritual structure of the magnetic spiral vortex. Vibrating patterns of magickal energy trace patterns within the crystal, and it can hold that energy indefinitely, or that same energy can be retrieved by the will of the magician. Multiple ritual workings can accumulate etheric energy in a crystal so that over time it will contain all of the workings that are performed in its presence.

So a crystal can act as a kind of memory receptacle, holding the energy until it’s needed or discharged by the magician. From a magickal perspective, crystals can be natural (hopefully, ethically harvested) or man-made. Each crystal has a unique magickal effect depending on its shape, size, clarity, color, facet characteristics and whether it is natural, manufactured, or made from molded and polished leaded crystal glass. All of these crystal types are useful in ritual magick, and the only arbiter is the esthetic sensibilities of the magician. Cleaning a crystal in salt water will clear it of all influences, yet anointing it with oil or sacrament does just the opposite - empowering and emphasizing a certain event.

A magick stone is any unique and eye-catching rock that one might discover, either in a store that specializes in such mineral products, or perhaps even on the ground while one is hiking. The stone can be rough, smoothed and polished, and of any shape, size or color. Less common rocks have more esthetic appeal, or they can be stones that are retrieved from a location that is significant to the magician. Because light is not usually able to pass through an opaque rock, it’s uses in magick are much more limited than crystals.

Crystals have the following qualities:

Collectors of magickal power - not only do they collect the light frequencies of discrete magickal workings, they can store them almost indefinitely, allowing the magician to retrieve either part or the full energy signature of a specific spell performed in its midst.

Emitters of magickal power - crystals not only collect magickal power, but they also can transmit that power as well.

Processors of magickal power - multiple magickal workings stored in a crystal can be condensed averaged, summed and even multiplied.

The basic temple arrangement uses three crystals in the typical magickal working. These are:

1. Base Crystal or Collector - This is a large crystal, usually natural and consisting of many terminated points. Can be clear, smokey quartz, or of any color, as long as it retains some clarity, allowing light to pass through it. The collector crystal is kept either on or at the foot of the main altar. The collector is used as a kind of recording system for any and all magickal rituals performed in the temple. It can recall any part of any ritual performed, recall a series of rituals in a working, or process the magickal power collected.

2. Controller or Transformation Crystal - This is small crystal that is worn around the magician’s neck on a necklace. The controller is a crystal that records the impression and energies associated with the individual magician. The controller can draw and direct power from the collector into itself for the magician to use at any given moment, regardless of the actual physical distance between them. The controller can be worn underneath a shirt or blouse when the magician is in the mundane world, allowing him/her to access and project magickal power from the temple complex while far outside of its normal influence. When used during an evocation, it is called the crystal of transformation, since it assists the wearer to fully experience the domain of the spirit that is invoked.

3. Transmutar - This is a small crystal that is affixed to the end of a wand. The transmutar wand is a hybrid tool, an amalgamation of a wand and dagger. The transmutar wand can draw power into itself, and disperse it to the controller or the collector, or both. The transmutar wand is also a powerful emitter, channeling magickal power into itself and amplifying it into the temple confines. Because of its obvious nature, a transmutar wand is usually used in a temple or a grove, but it can be hidden on the person of the magician and used in the mundane world. The transmutar wand is the tool that is used by the magician to access the base crystal, recall previous energy structures, and either re-emit them into the magick circle, condense them with other structures or even erase them. How this is done is through a process of sensitive touch and focused visualization. Sometimes it helps to have a very bright LED light source with a very narrow focus to aid this process. Strobe lights and black lights can also be used to access the contents of a crystal. Once a magician is able to readily sense, touch and visualize the magickal energies stored in a crystal, it then becomes a natural part of his or her regimen.

Another tool is the Stang, used by traditional (non-Gardnerian) witches as a marker or sign for the immanent presence of the Deity as personified by nature. The Stang is literally a pole surmounted by horns, or horn like tines on a bifurcated pitch fork. Other embellishments can be added to the Stang to dress it up, but the essential characteristics are the pole crowned by horns. There are many mythic elements that can be attributed to the Stang, and these overlap the attributes of the staff, such as the World Tree, Ladder of Lights, or the World Pillar. However, the Stang, as I use it, acts as a placeholder for the Divine, symbolizing that at this spot, the emergence of Spirit and the ascent of human endeavor meet and merge into one. The Stang, like the staff, is usually held by the wielder, but it can be erected to stand on its own, either in the magick circle, grove, or in some sacred precinct.

Finally, let us consider the architecture of the temple or the grove. The simplest construction will have a central altar and some kind of a boundary, such as a circle or other demarcation. A grove can be embellished, but it usually functions better if it is unencumbered. A temple is a very different matter, though, and often is quite embellished.

Depending on the ritual structures that the magician will deploy, the indoor temple can become quite complex. Simple workings don’t require much in the way of furniture, but if one is going to employ the ritual structures of the extended energy theory of magick, then a more elaborate layout is required.

Eight Point Circle - To fully deploy the eight point magick circle, then the magician will need to somehow mark those eight points. I am, of course, referring to the four cardinal directions and the in-between points, or angles. My solution is to place small tables at each of the eight points and place on them an oil lamp. The cardinal directions are marked with colored glass lamp covers, and the angles are left plain. One of the altars in the four cardinal directions can act as the main altar, and another can act as the focus for the shrine. A shrine is an altar that houses the statues of the gods and goddess, which are used in the personal spiritual cult of the magician. Other sacred objects may be placed on this altar as well - it should act as the spiritual focus of the temple. In the center of the temple can be another small table that functions as a central altar. I use a portable table in the center of my temple, one that can be easily disassembled and taken down.

We have now gone over the four basic magickal tools and have shown that these may be extended to include other tools, all of which are used in the simple additional ritual structures that assist one in graduating from a basic wiccan or pagan magickal practice, to one that is more aligned to the complex workings of the ritual magician. Certainly, there are other more complex tools and techniques in my repertoire, but these should suffice to allow the basic practitioner to advance the next levels of ritual practice.

Frater Barrabbas