A while back, I conjured the genius loci of the forest behind my apartment complex, which also encompassed the nearby park and community.  It’s a friendly spirit, though kinda slow-moving (I suppose tame-and-manicured nature spirits tend to be).  It and I had a little chat, I learned its name and seal*, and so forth.  Turns out I had already met the spirit before on one of my first trips to the forest, but I didn’t know it was the spirit of the place.  Anyway, it was a nice time, save for the mosquito bites I got.

I was also in the market for a wand.  To be fair, I already have one wand, the one based on Trithemius’ design, but that wand is specific to conjuration rituals; it shouldn’t be used as a general all-purpose wand or symbol of fire, apparently.  So, since I needed something to craft on, I asked the genius loci of the forest if I could take a piece of wood from its environment for use as a wand.  It assented, and I got a vague sense of direction of where I might find it.  I didn’t look for it right then, since it was damp outside and the sky threatened to rain.

The next day, on the way home by bus (my car was out of commission again), I was contemplating a plan to find a piece of wood for a wand, how I might go about treating it or tempering it or finding supplies to augment it (a core, fluid condenser, crystal, etc.).  I’m walking home and getting to the edge of my apartment complex when I notice a large stick in the gutter.  It struck me as rather wand-like: dry, unblemished, mostly debarked, solid, uncracked, and with only a few nubs and stumps of twigs left on it.  It was about the right size, and felt fairly solid and heavy, which was comforting.  It felt real, and given the coincidence of finding a wand as I was thinking about it barely a day after asking for one, I figured it might be what I asked for.  Where I picked up the wand wasn’t too far off from the direction the genius loci pointed me in, though I didn’t think it be as far off; I was fairly deep in the woods, but this was off further away on the residential roads.

After spending a productive few hours whittling, shaving, sanding, and resanding, it came out fairly nice.  It’s about 21 1/2″ long, heavy, and a little curved.  It’s about the right size, from my elbow to middle finger, plus a little extra for the butt and tip of the wand.  Plus, it has its own kind of core: the wand has a dark dense wood “twig” running down the length, as if it was originally a much smaller branch but grew over itself with a pale lighter wood, and the tip of the wand had this core exposed.  I sharpened down the tip to a dull point, and it kinda looks like a pencil.

I haven’t quite decided how I want to use it, though, or how I want to engrave or decorate it.  I might use it as my elemental weapon of fire for my altar, or I might use it in another spiritual path for a different purpose.  I wish I knew what kind of wood it was, but there are only a few trees nearby that the wood could have come from, so I’ll probably take a look around.  We’ll see, I suppose.