Spring and the Living Wands

By Jon Hughes

The arrival of Spring marks the beginning of the Tree Cycle in Druidic lore. A time when it’s impossible to walk in a wood or explore a forest without feeling the burgeoning new life and energy of the season.

his is the time when our trees are considered to be at their most powerful and influential. The new young trees bursting with vitality and the rising sap in the mature trees renewing their lifecycle and reinvigorating their ancient knowledge and power. T

Spring is a time when Druids focus upon the energy and verve of the renewed life force that nature provides for us in abundance and one of the most important workings of this season is those involving ‘Living Wands,’ one of the most influential and vital spiritual instruments available to us at this time of the year.

To fully understand the importance of the Living Wand we must first focus upon exactly how these powerful devices achieve their purpose.

In Druidic lore, the Living Wand has three specific functions:

1.It acts as a conduit to channel the intention of the user. 2.It amplifies the intention of the user. 3.It adds its own influences to the intention of the user and enhances its effect.

In order to achieve these outcomes, it is imperative that the wand not only maintains the attributes and virtues of the tree from which it is harvested but also that it is used while these virtues of fresh and vibrant. And to do this, the wand must be used while it is still a living entity, even though it has been separated from its host tree. When a branch is newly harvested to be used as a wand, it not only maintains the original attributes of the host tree, but it also retains the vitality or life-energy of the host in its sap and living physical structure. The first of the functions mentioned above is the wand’s ability to act as a conduit for the intention of the user. (Other traditions may prefer to refer to the intention as the spell or incantation). Like any other conduit, the wand must have a center core that acts as the channeling path together with a barrier that maintains the integrity of what is being channeled.

It may help to consider the wand (the conduit) to be similar to an electrical cable, with the central cooper wire carrying the energy while the outer insulating covering

prevents it from dispersing or being contaminated by external forces. In the same way, the living heartwood of the wand is the channeling pathway, while the outer bark acts as the insulating encasement that prevents its diffusion or contamination.

By directing and impelling the intention through the living wand it becomes intensified, and its power is increased. By concentration and targeting the intention through this living conduit, its energy is amplified and directed specifically at its target.

The channeling of the intention through the living conduit of the wand means that it is directly and powerfully influenced by the attributes and virtues of the wood from which the wand is crafted and as the wand is still a living, vibrant entity, its’ effects are efficiently absorbed into the energies of the intention. With all this in mind, it is not difficult to see just why the Druidic tradition maintains that these super-powerful wands MUST be crafted and used from newly harvested, living wood. Hence their title of ‘Living Wands. It is their living life-force that gives them their exceptional power and allows their natural attributes to be absorbed into the express desires of the intention and induce extraordinary effectiveness.

Having explained the philosophy of the ‘Living Wand’ we can now explore how we harvest and craft these powerful devices. Firstly, we must identify the perfect donor tree for our Living Wand. There is not sufficient space here to explore all the various attributes of the trees we may choose from, so I can only direct the reader to the many other information sources available on this subject so that you may identify the most suitable tree species for your purpose. Once you have identified the specific tree that will give you the attribute you are looking for, be it Oak, Wych Elm, Yew, or similar, it is best to find an individual tree of that species that is best located for your harvesting.

Bear in mind when selecting your individual tree that it will inevitably be influenced by its surrounding botanicals and its general terroir, or growing environment. Examples of these natural influences may be, for example, if the tree is covered in Ivy or mistletoe, these botanicals will have their individual influence upon the tree and its wood. If the tree has grown next to water, again, the water will influence the attributes of the tree.

With this in mind, it remains the responsibility of the reader to identify these external influences and incorporate the same into their objectives.

Once the individual donor tree has been identified and located, the next consideration is the time of harvesting. If the branch is harvested during the Spring, its power will be in the ascendance, full of vitality and virtue, if harvested during the winter it will be more subdued but will have the advantage of maturity and may well be more suited to more profound, thoughtful workings.

Chose your harvesting season accordingly. With regard to the time of day/ night of the harvesting, early morning harvesting will endow the wood with additional potential, whilst harvesting at noon will empower the wood with maximum sun-originated energy. Similarly, harvesting at night will empower the wood with the additional virtues of the moon and her energies.

The final consideration is when the harvester actually intends to use the wand they are harvesting. It is imperative that the wand is harvested as close as possible to the intended use and not kept for any longer than is necessary.

It is of great importance that the harvester meditates on all these aspects and variants and prepares a suitable plan of action before embarking on harvesting whatever Living Wand best suits their objectives. Having harvested the branch, and most people find it quite an emotional experience, it is important to trim away all the leaves, small sprouting branches, etc. at the

Having identified their donor tree and decided upon their preferred time of harvesting, the actual harvesting if a simple process. Locate a suitable branch and cut it from the host tree as precisely as possible. One quick cut is best.

The selected branch should be cut to a length at least as long as the distance between the user’s elbow and the tips of their finger as this will be the final length of the finished Living Wand.