Magical Tools

Making magical tools, ritual items and various related items has long been a passion of mine. In fact, it may very well be one of the most fun aspects of the Craft for me. In my early days, there wasn't much available to purchase, so one had to be resourceful. Yard sales and thrift shops are a good source, and I have found many an item there over the years. I also recall buying several brass items at Pier One Imports as a baby Pagan.

To my mind, though, nothing beats a handmade ritual tool. Today, there are many, many skilled artisans who make sell stock items and take custom orders (myself included). We have Pagan and metaphysical shops in most larger towns and cities, many of whom carry both handmade and mass produced items. What a thing! In my lifetime, we've gone from nothing to mass production. I didn't see that one coming!

We also have historical re-enactment groups from whom to purchase items. Some of these will be specifically Pagan-related, some are just overlapping interests. For example, artisans in the Society for Creative Anachronism make mead horns, which they wear to be historically accurate when portraying northern european personas. But a heathen may use one for ritual purposes. Know your local Renaissance faire and re-enactment group, is what I'm saying. There's a lot of overlap in the community members too, but that's another post.

That's all fantastic, but if you have some gumption, you can make your own magical tools. From many years of experience, here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Start small. Try an easy project like a simple altar cloth before busting into a full-scale pair of beaded moccasins, for example.
2. Know and cater to your strengths. Are you great a knitting? Knit yourself a capelet to wear to rituals! Great with computers? Make your designs online, print them out and transfer them to the object in question. Good at woodworking, but not painting? Make that altar and have a friend paint it for you.
3. Make it to fit YOU. Symbolism works best when it resonates for you - that is far more important than any rule or book. Consult your guides, ask the Divine, meditate, use divination - do whatever works for you to access your internal wisdom. (Protip: when using symbolism from a book or other source, be SURE you know what it means)
4. Sharpies are good for marking and embellishing a variety of surfaces, and they take less skill than a paintbrush.
5. Go out in Nature to find inspiration and materials. Always ask permission to take something and leave an offering in return.
6. Above all, just get started. Make a realistic goal, and start experimenting. Making anything takes practice, and you'll never get anywhere if you don't try!

Lately I have been on a roll with making magical tools. Here are a few examples of my recent work. Have questions? I'd be happy to answer them and help out!

Elkhide frame drum & mountain laurel beater

Holly wood runes

Hawk & deer archery armguard

Travel egg rattle

Traveling Spiritual Supplies

What spiritual tools do you carry with you when you travel? When I'm in town or near home, it tends to be a priestessing kit. I'll have the ingredients for home cleansing, simple ritual and divination. When I'm away from home, it's more of a spiritual practice kit. This of course changes depending on the type of trip, and may at some point expand to include both general spiritual practice and priestessing work. Right now I have to keep it pretty tight as the bag I have at the moment will only hold so much.

Perhaps at some point I'll get a slightly larger bag, or maybe a small hard sided suitcase type of thing. We shall see! It does amuse me how I just don't seem to be able to travel so light as I once did. This kit allows me to do personal divination, my daily gratitude practice, devotionals and meditation. Plus healing work, which is 24/7/365 for me.

So here we go! This is what I typically carry with me on trips:

(Left to right in the photo)

• Tarot cards & book
• Earphones for meditation in noisy places
• Sandalwood mala
• Wooden shaker
• Medicine bag
• Pagan prayer beads
• Pendulum
• Incense
• Crystal attuned for healing work
• Pashmina (instant altar cloth, ritual vestment, or for meditating in cool places)
• Journal
• Gratitude journal

Of course, if I'm really being complete, I would also mention the pile of Yoga gear which accompanies this kit. I haven't travelled without it in some time now. That adds on a Yoga mat, blanket, bolster and the sheepskin shown in the photo above. And my native flute, which is a daily practice as well.

Agh, so much stuff! But I tell you this: the continuity of being able to perform the same practices each day…it is delightful. I feel it has truly strengthened my overall spiritual practice in recent years. It doesn't matter where I go, I pray, meditate and practice Yoga every day. To me, this is witchcraft and this is shamanism. The heart of my practice is self-discovery, devotion and spiritual exploration. I have created the support I need to truly live my faith, not just on Sabbat or Esbat days, but every day. 

To me, this is right. Magic is here and now, all around us and within us, all the time. There really IS no mundanity. Everything and every moment is sacred.

Medicine Shields

Medicine shields are used by shamanic practitioners to represent their spiritual protection and their essential self, or their medicine, as indigenous peoples would say. It can be a literal shield suitable for carrying in to battle, or more of a spiritual representation that can be displayed on an altar. This tool is infinitely varied because of the extremely personal nature of it. In general, people will paint or otherwise represent power animals and any other spirit guides that they work with on a round plaque or animal hide stretched on a hoop frame.

Witchcraft is a form of shamanism, and it uses ritual tools as well. Generally, the pentacle or peyton represents the element of Earth, and has protective connotations. To me, it seems logical that the medicine shield is equivalent.

Native tradition tells us that seekers should go on a vision quest and pray to their guides, ancestors and allies, then create the shield themselves based on their vision. I agree with this. How can anyone else truly understand what this shield needs to look like? Also, I personally think there is a lot of power in obtaining materials to make the shield from the natural world and through magical means.

Right now, I'm constructing a shield for myself. As a recovering empath exercising hard-won boundary skills, I'm at a place where I need to manifest my spiritual team and protection system in material form. It's the first time I've really had a team, or felt supported and protected.

I began my shield at the Earthskills Gathering, with a woods wander that netted me a flexible hawthorn branch. I formed it into an egg shaped hoop. I have some lovely turquoise suede which will be laced on to the frame.

My rough draft of the skin began with my personal symbol in the middle. I wanted some way to divide the shield into quarters, to represent the four directions. My power animals corresponding with the elements would be in the appropriate direction. Then I was going to hang some feathers, mirrors, crystals, etc. on the bottom of the frame.

At this point I got bogged down. I couldn't get my animal designs to look like they do with my inner vision. It wasn't flowing.

Then, in typical synchronistic fashion, my bestie gave me a stag's head pendant. Immediately I flashed to the idea of attaching it to the shield. This led me to consider adding something similar for the other animals. But one or more of them would be nearly impossible to find.

Stuck again.

Then it hit me - animal guides are only one component of my spiritual team. What if I took this more top level and added items to represent my other sources of support? Namely, ancestry, my faith, community, family and spiritual allies. I'd initially had a vague idea of representing these entities, but hadn't decided where to put them.

Suddenly it was flowing again. Turns out that I have spare beads, parts from broken jewelry and pendants I never wear that can work for each group/entity. Best of all, this means that nearly all of the materials in this shield will be ones that I gathered from nature or have personal connections with. Some were gifts. Some items I have had for many years. This is just the sort of "magical means" of

acquisition that add so much power to our tools.

Call me old fashioned, but I believe that making or at least personalizing your own ritual tools gives them much more power and meaning. The proliferation of spiritual and Pagan supply shops is a double edged sword in this regard. On the one hand, some things are difficult to make without specialized skills or equipment. On the other, it can make us lazy and overly attached to fancy material items. Having that finely crafted etched crystal goblet to use for your chalice in no way makes you a better or more powerful practitioner.

To me, nothing store bought beats the feeling of rightness that comes from birthing a personal ritual tool. Going through the process of inspiration, imagination, design, limitations of tools/skills, re-design, intentional crafting and eventual perfect imperfection...this is how the tool comes alive. This is how it becomes tuned to my energy, my intent, my lessons, my needs.

The act of constructing these items is one of the ways in which I practice devotion. Many are the late nights I have spent hunched over my workbench, manifesting my vision in full-on altered ritual consciousness. Sometimes I even remember to cast a circle. Mostly though, being caught up in one of these projects is like having a sore tooth, or poison ivy. It nags at me, occupies my mind and won't let me get a moment's rest until I get it done.

Tonight, I breathe deeply and trust in the Divine. I let go and allow this process to flow. Blessed be!



NOTE: All of the images in this post are examples pulled from the web.