What to do with Your New Crystal Wand

A friend texted me a picture of her recent purchase. It was a really impressive magic wand, made of crystal, wrapped in copper with a piece of malachite, with feathers on one end and the crystal point on the other.

She confessed that she had spent an astronomical amount of money on this acquisition at her local new age shop after lusting after it on the shop’s shelf for more than a year.

She knew it was for her, and she knew she had to take it home, no matter the price.

The problem was, once she got it home, she had not a single idea what to use it for, or what to do with it.

I was introduced to magic wands when I first discovered the New Age. In the 1980s I mined crystals in Arkansas and fashioned some of them into wands. It seemed like a good thing to do at the time.

A crystal shop keeper wanted to buy some of my crystals but not any of my wands. He shared with me the same concern that my friend, the new crystal wand owner, seems to have.

“No one can tell me what a wand with a crystal, or made of a crystal, actually does,” he said to me. “Does the wand amplify the crystal, or direct the energy of the crystal? People are making beautiful wands, but we have no idea what to do with them.”

Back then we didn’t have all the wisdom in the world at our fingertips and in our pockets.

Most of us associate magic wands with Disney, or with Harry Potter, or Hitachi. A simple Google search brought up some amazing resources for the history of magic wands, as well as their uses.

As a tarot person, I associate magic wands with the suit of Wands in the Minor Arcana of tarot. In tarot, the suit of Wands is most often associated with the element of Fire. You can also find a few decks that associate Wands with the element of Air instead.

In elemental magic and Wiccan circles, the wand is used as a tool to summon and banish either the element of Air or Fire at the beginning and end of ceremony.

Crystal wands may be made of all crystal with metal, stone, or feathers attached, as is my friend’s. They may simply be a piece of crystal or stone, either intentional fashioned or naturally occurring. I have a natural selenite wand which I absolutely love. Some crystal wands have a crystal point affixed to a metal or wooden rod.

Magic wands do not always incorporate crystals or stones. Some are fashioned of wood or metal. I have a natural wood wand which was given to me by a friend. It still has its bark; the rough ends have been sanded down.

I once had a teacher tell me that, in the absence of a wand, you can use the index finger of your right hand to summon, focus and direct energy.

Wands like the one my friend has purchased may include intentionally selected wood, stones, and metals that can be used for specific purposes. For example, the malachite on her wand  makes it very good for working with the heart chakra. If one were making a wand for a specific purpose, one might carefully choose the type of wood, stone, metals and feathers. Yet, I think it is fair to say that, with proper intention, one could use any wand for any number of purposes. I even know serious young magicians who have purchased Harry Potter wands and consecrated them for magical uses.

Whether handmade, found in nature, or purchased, I have found many uses for wands in my own practice. The beautiful object d’art that my friend just had to have should be more than an expensive tchotchke on her coffee table.

Here are some ways I commonly use wands as a magical tool. There are countless others which you can find in books and on the internet.

First, as mentioned earlier, I use wands to summon the element of Fire or Air. Typically, I use my wood wand for Fire and my selenite wand for Air. I do this when creating a formal circle for healing or meditation. I also do it if I need a quick burst of energy, inspiration or clarity.

For example, if I need to have a difficult conversation, I may take my selenite wand and point it to my throat chakra and breathe with it for a moment, focusing on bringing energy to clear and activate my throat for positive and effective communication.

If I need to shake off feeling tired or drained, I might take my wood wand and point it at my solar plexus, breathing with it to ‘turn up the fire’ in my internal furnace.

We can use wands to clear and activate all the chakras. Sometimes when doing chakra healing, I feel inclined to move the wand over each chakra in a tight circle as a way of clearly, healing and activating. To me it feels as though I am stirring up the energy.

I also use wands as part of energetic cleansing and blessing. I will wave a wand, with focus and intention, over a new tarot deck as part of the dedication process. I will walk with a wand through my home, tracing the windows, doors, and walls, with a focus on cleansing and blessing.

When I work with a wand, I first ground myself to the earth and consciously raise my own energy. Then I send that energy down my arm and into the wand. I feel that the wand amplifies and focuses the energy I have raised. I can place a specific intention into that energy and use the wand to send the energy to its destiny.

When I first acquire a wand, I do a simple ceremony to bless it and consecrate it for my use. This usually includes anointing it with oil and speaking a dedication.

When I hold a wand, very often I feel like it is guiding me in how I should use it.

If this all sounds like a bunch of New Age mumbo-jumbo, well, maybe it is. Yet, consider that the use of magic wands predates the birth of Christ, and is evidenced in many early magical cultures around the world.

Why Didn’t My Cord-Cutting Ritual Work?

Why Didn’t My Cord-Cutting Ritual Work?

Of all of my many blog posts, one of the most popular has been my piece on how to perform a cord-cutting, from August of 2013. I receive emails about this topic at least a few times a month.

That tells me there are a whole lot of people out there trying to heal from broken relationships, break bad habits and survive dysfunctional families.

If you haven’t read the article, here’s the brief synopsis. A cord-cutting ritual is an easy bit of energy work you can do to release a dysfunctional relationship, be that a love relationship, a friendship or a toxic family situation. You can even do a cord-cutting to release your own unhealthy behavior or belief.

One thing I sometimes hear from people is that they have performed the cord-cutting ritual but still feel attached to the person or behavior they are trying to release. Another thing I hear are reports of unscrupulous psychic scammers taking advantage of people’s pain by performing cord-cutting rituals for exorbitant prices. These scammers often say (erroneously) that one cannot and should not perform these rituals for themselves.

If you have done a cord-cutting to release a friend, family member, lover or behavior, and haven’t yet received the results you wanted, here are some things to consider.

First, sometimes it takes more than one ritual to release the energy that binds you. This is especially true if the relationship is familial or lengthy. Don’t hesitate to do the ritual every day for seven days, or once a week for as many weeks as feels right.

Second, you need to do your part by refraining from re-engaging with this person or repeating your behaviors. Whatever energy you feed is the energy that will grow. If you keep speaking with a person you are trying to release, for example, your cord-cutting is like to be ineffectual.

Emotional habits take a while to break. If you are used to thinking about someone, or responding to their manipulation, over a long period of time, you will still have some desire to continue this pattern. The cord-cutting will ultimately help you wipe away this energy. While that energetic process begins the moment you perform the ceremony, you may not feel its effects right away. Be patient with the energy work and be patient with yourself.

Finally, cord-cutting cannot take the place of grief. Cord-cutting can give you the strength to move on and can help release an unhealthy compulsion. Yet, anything that has an energy strong enough to require cord-cutting will also require a grieving period. Do not confuse grief with the desire to reconnect. Grief expresses the disappointment that the person you cared about can’t be who and what you needed them to be. Grief is natural and necessary at the end of a relationship. We must move through grief rather than try to avoid it.

There is energy work that you can do to help you handle your grief. There are meditations, stones, herbs and oils that can help give you strength, remember your joy and find your grounding as you go through your process.

Unhealthy relationships usually have a lot of guilt associated with them. Never does that guilt feel as strong as when we decide to break away. We need to recognize guilt as part of the manipulation that made the relationship unhealthy. Guilt can also be borne of our unrealistic expectations of how we should be, or how our relationships should be.

While cord-cutting can’t relieve our grief, cord-cutting can be very effective at helping us release guilt and expectations. This allows us to move forward in our healing process.

If you have performed a cord-cutting and still feel attached to the person or behavior you are working to release, keep trying. Do it again and do it with the expectation that healing and release can take some time to accomplish. Do it with the belief in your own happy future. Do it with the belief in your ability to be free of what has trapped you.

Energetic Cures for Obnoxious Neighbors

Whether you live in an apartment or out in the country, there is always a chance that your peace at home will be disturbed by your neighbors.

Often, when usual attempts at resolution don’t work, folk remedies such as protection magick and Feng Shui become reasonable options, even for people who don't normally seek energetic fixes.

Tarot clients ask me, in desperation, what to do about their horrible neighbors. Often these problems can be solved on an energetic level, but we have to change our energy by changing our attitude about the problem, first.

Here are some suggestions that often work.

1.       Don’t give the problem the weight of your anger.
If you spend time and energy on moral outrage, you are adding fuel to the fire. Your outrage may be justified, but it doesn’t help. Recognize that the problems might stem from cultural differences, mental illness or a host of reasons more complex, and more deserving of compassion, than your neighbor simply and willfully being disrespectful.

2.       Install better barriers.
Robert Frost was correct when he said “good fences make good neighbors”. If you have the wherewithal to make some structural changes that will give you more privacy, security or peace, by all means do. When you do, do it with gratitude rather than resentment. Be grateful that you have the ability to make this change, rather than being angry that you found the change necessary.
This technique also has an internal component. The more internal barriers you have against your anger and frustration, the more quickly you will be able to resolve the situation.

3.       Discover the magickal properties of salt.
Whether you use black salt, pink salt, sea salt, kosher salt or a packet you saved from McDonald’s, salt is a great way to energetically discourage people from coming into your space. Sprinkle a line of salt in front of your doorsteps, and around the perimeter of your property. Do this regularly. As you do, think about how much you enjoy your home, and what you want the energy of your home to be.

4.       Install mirrors.
The idea is to reflect your neighbors' energy back at them, or, to cause them to see themselves as you see them. Install a mirror of any size, either outside your home facing the neighbor, or, inside, on the wall (or floor or ceiling) that faces the neighbor, with the mirror facing in, toward the neighbor. You can be creative about how you do this. The size of the mirror is not important, but a round or octagonal mirror is better than a square or rectangle.

5.       Manifest great things for your neighbor.
I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but when Jesus said “Love thine enemies” he may have known of this self-interested side effect of compassion. You want your neighbors to go away, or at least to desist certain irritating activities. Rather than wishing them ill in anger, wish them great fortune that will change their circumstances, and therefore yours. Cast a spell, say a prayer or set an intention that will help them, and you, at the same time! A great new promotion that causes an out-of-state move, or a whirlwind long distance romance that ends in marriage, might solve everyone’s problems.

Our relationships with other people always include an energetic component. When language and legalities fail to fix a problem, changing the energy around the situation often will.

Three Heinous Marketing Mistakes Made by Healers, Part One

This is the first in a three part series about marketing mistakes. Each week I will address one mistake in detail.

The specific type of marketing I am addressing is the marketing of businesspeople who could loosely be called “healers.” In that category I include medical professionals, psychologists, tarot readers, life coaches and energy healers, amongst others.

Basically, I am addressing practitioners of healing arts, either allopathic or alternative. I am doing this both to help my colleagues benefit from some of my experience as a successful practitioner, and also to warn against some marketing problems that could be devastating to a new business.

The first mistake, and the one I will cover in this post, is so simple it is surprise that it’s a problem at all.

The first marketing mistake, and one that most healers make, is to be shy about marketing, or to not put any energy in to marketing at all.

If we wanted to be marketers we would have majored in marketing in college and we would be working in that field now.

We are healers because we are called to be healers. The problem is, we may know very little about marketing. We may easily fall prey to expensive rah-rah networking schemes that don’t work. We may truly believe that if we burn enough candles and visualize hard enough our angels will direct our clients to us. We may be uncomfortable talking about ourselves. Marketing may make us feel boastful, insincere and impolite.

Here’s what healers need to do.

Be honest and direct in your marketing. Be clear about your purpose. You simply want to make people aware of who you are and what you can do for them.

Decide who your demographic is, and how to best reach them.

If there is something you don’t know how to do, or don’t understand, research it. Don’t be afraid of technology, and don’t be afraid of learning something new.

Don’t let high-pressure ad execs talk you into expensive media campaigns or unnecessary “SEO.”

Believe in yourself, your ability to help people, and your ability to be successful.

Do the research you need to do to learn the best ways to market your practice.

Learn the technology you need to know.

And, most importantly, don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. It’s not boastful to market. It is appropriate to make it easy for people who need your services to find you.

Next week, we will tackle the second heinous marketing mistake!