Wands 101: Making Wands

That said, as a tool that has helped you in your journey, there is nothing wrong with showing respect to it by recognizing how it has helped you on your way. Reflect on what he wand meant to you when you constructed it. What did it represent to you. What did you use it for and how did those events teach you new things. As you remove the decorations, wrappings, crystals, whatever you may have added to it spend time thinking about those components too. Qere they added for convenience? Because they represented some personal goal or task? Or just because they made it look pleasing/cool? (Nothing wrong with a wand being pretty, after all.)

Once it is apart and back to the individual pieces, consider what bits you might want to keep-be it for memories/nostalgia or to re-use elsewhere. Then if the wand is wood, and varnished, sand through the varnish to clean it off to bare wood then bury it. (Varnish isn't exactly eco-friendly) Or if you prefer you can place it into a campfire to burn and be released to the aether. Finally just properly dispose of the rest in the most responsible way you can.

From what I have found, the 'tree of heaven' is an aggressive grower, it's flowers emit an unpleasant smell, and its roots secrete ubstances into the soil that are toxic to other plants.

So with those qualities considered, the tree seems adapted towards protecting itself by repelling or pushing away potential dangers and competition to aggressively lay claim to its space. If that 'personality' (for lack of a better term) were to be translated into magical workings I would wager it would have a predisposition towards protections and other acts of sending away or repelling unwanted energies/beings.

As a final note, though, you could use the wand for any task or act of will you feel the need to. Don't feel like you -have- to pair or limit specific woods to specific tasks. It just means such synergies might be easier to work. ...There is a saying I like that I think applies. It was coined regarding astrology and horoscopes but I feel that the words have a much broader meaning;

''The stars incline. They do not compel.''

Likewise, the nature of the wand (along with other tools) is the same. They incline towards their nature only.

The wand is a representation of will. Particularly in the act of focusing your will (the intent of your action) and projecting it outward. If you are confident in the idea that you can speak your will, of even send your will outward with energy and visualization instead, then go for it. If you feel a much stronger focus and confidence by having something in your hand that is personally meaningful to your goal, then it will be useful to you.

Personally, I am of the opinion that if your path leads you to being ready for something, it will find its own way to you. I treated items like the wand, the chalice, etc more as representations of achievement/progress rather than something you went out to get in order to -have- achievement. Rather than going and getting a wand in order to be able to express will, I worked on applying will and awareness then as I grew my wand came to me. Synchronicity is a funny thing that way. Opportunity and impulse tend to conspire to bring you what you need .. but not until you actually need it- and are capable of using it.

For example my wand ca.e to me while out on a walk on a middle-of-the-city riverside path. I happened to look down, and there was a random stick that was casually floating by the shoreline, being lazily pulled along by the current. It had a clean, chewed off base, probably from a beaver, and the bark was cleanly and perfectly peeled off leaving the young wood practically shining. I could have gone ''huh, that's weird.'' then continued walking. Opportunity presented, but skipped. Not ready. Another chance will come later. But that day, on that chance, I was intrigued. What on any other time would have been an ordinary moment instead caught my attention. The alertness I had been working on building kicked I, and I chose to dip my hand into the water and grab. By the time I straightened up and got back to walking, my mind was excitedly constructing the image of the wand that odd little stick would become.

I guess the long, rambling, roundabout point is this; If you feel you want or need a wand, then have one. If you feel no desire or need, don't worry about it. And part two is if you - do - want a wand, worry less about how you will get one and instead consider what you would do with it, and trust it will come to you when the right moment matches with the right state of mind.