The Almanac · Calendars & tools
Rituals · Liber XXVIII · Solomonic Magic
Cutting the Wand and Staff of the Art
Key of Solomon, Book II ch. 8 (Mathers 1889)
The wand is taken from a hazel or nut tree and the staff from elder, cane or rosewood. In both cases the wood must be "virgin", a shoot of a single year's growth, and it is cut with one stroke of a new knife at sunrise on the day of Mercury. Characters shown in the manuscript figures are then written or engraved on the wood in the day and hour of Mercury. The finished pieces are perfumed with the incense of the Art and consecrated by a prayer addressed to God under the name ADONAI, asking that they receive virtue for the work. They are stored in a clean place and used only for the Art. Mathers notes the manuscripts differ slightly in their characters.
Purpose
The wand and staff are presented as instruments of authority over spirits, carried and pointed during the operations of the Art.
Timing
- Day
- Wednesday — the day of Mercury
- Planetary hour
- An hour of Mercury, reckoned from local sunrise and sunset
- Moon
- Waxing (increasing in light)
- Season / time
- At sunrise
Cut at sunrise on Wednesday (the first planetary hour of Wednesday belongs to Mercury); characters engraved in Mercury's day and hour. The Moon increasing follows the general rule of Book I ch. 2.
Materials
- hazel or nut-tree shoot of one year (wand)
- elder, cane or rosewood shoot (staff)
- incense of the Art
Tools
- new knife
- burin or pen for the characters