About The Magic Wand
By G. G. LAURENS
Quid lituus iste vester, quod clarissimum est yours, what is to be understood clearest from that symbol?) This short quotation from Cicero suffices to point out for what purpose wands were used during the last years that preceded the Christian era; it was selected at random, for the works of Cicero and of his contemporaries contain many references to magic wands.
Brief as this essay must be it is intended to show by reliable references, that the wand has beeu used as a symbol of Magic since times immemorial.
The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic sculptures represent the gods and demiurges of those periods holding lotus sticks and other symbols wherewith we are not concerned here, although those who rejoice in that study will tell you that all the other symbols allude also to Magic, and do really mean "wands." Other investigators who specialize in ancient Mexican, Aztec, Zaputec, Inca, and such relics, claim that their symbols mean exactly the same things.
Oldest Reference To Magic Wand
From Houdini Collection
Painted by N. Poussin - Engraved by G. Presbury
The rock which Moses smote is situated at Rephiditn on the West of Sini near the plain where Joshua discomfited the Amelekites
*Among written documents, the oldest reference to a magic wand is probably that contained in an ancient Egyptian papyrus, now in the British Museum, wherein it related, according to Wiedeman, that a magician named Thutia was made a military commander by Thutmosis III and was sent to subdue a land called Jappa. Thutia took with him the Pharaoh's magic rod, and it is further related how he treacherously killed therewith the prince of Jappa.
It would be needless to refer here to the rods of Moses and of Aaron, everyone knows the story, yet two striking facts accompany this record: 1st, Moses found water and caused it to flow; even at this day there are seers who locate underground springs by means of the divining rod; what is more science admits it; 2nd, it is certainly not sacrilege to point out that Mambres and Iannes, the magicians, who tried to rival Moses before King Pharaoh, performed Magic, when they changed their rods into snakes.
Wands Doing Real Magic
Space forbids enumerating all analogous biblical references, yet I shall quote a few:
In Gen. XXX-37, we see Jacob preparing hazel and chestnut rods in a peculiar way, for the purpose of causing sheep to conceive spotted lambs. in Gen. XLIX-10, we read Jacob's predictions to Judah, both the sceptre and the "staff of power" are mentioned. In Kings IV-29, we find Elijah loaning his staff to Gehazi, in a story which implies that the prophet was confident that he could thus transmit his healing power.
In Hosea IV-12, the rod and staff are referred to in an arcane meaning. In the Revelation, New Testament, XI-1, we read as follows: "And there was given me a reed like unto a rod."
(The reader should understand that "wands" have been considered "magical," irrespective of the dimensions that suited the fancies of those who wielded or possessed them, and that the croziers of Bishops, the Staffs of Pilgrims, or the batons of church bailifs are not less derivatives than the sceptres of Kings.)
To quote Homer, Plato, Virgil, Jamblicus and the many others from whose writings the ancient mythologies have been compiled, would be too lengthy, suffice it to call- to notice that these writers as well as the sculptors of that period represent most of their gods and demiurges with wands, and that in most cases these rods imply magical power. Thus Jove holds a SCEPTRUM, Hermes a CADUCEUM, Baechus a THYRSUS, Asklepius the NARTHEX, Circe a rod, etc., etc. So much for the poetic side of ancient myths, but let us not forget the prosaic practices: The Augurs, Pythonesses, Sybils and Vestals, used rods and called them LITUI, the wands of the Druids in ancient Britain were called: SLATAN-DRUI-ECHD, those of. the Magi: BARECMA, those of the ancient Persian (Parsee) priests: HIERALPHA, etc., but these gentry were not myths, as far as they are concerned they were expositors and exploiters of flesh and blood.
In order to make clear various points of this essay, I shall however quote an abbreviated sentence from Plutarch's book I.:
"They say too, that Romulus was very skilled in the art of divination and that, because of this he always carried a Lituus, which is a crooked rod wherewith the Soothsayers describe the quarters of the Heaven, etc" Plutarch further recounts that after Rome had burned to ruins, this very wand was recovered from among the ashes, unscathed.
All the above would lead to a belief that the Ancients were all highly superstitious. This is subject in order to prove it. This time I shall quote from book VII of the life of Alexander, by Quintus D. Curtius: "In that assembly there was present a certain Cobares, of Median origin and celebrated more as an expounder of the Magic art, than for his science (if that sort of art is not of the vainest and most ludicrous)."….. etc……
Let the reader draw his own deductions from that parenthesis.
Wand Wielding
That the rite of wielding a wand was followed by Pythagoras and his disciples is amply proven by their own writings; that all subsequent Alchemists used rods is self-evident, for how else could they stir their decoctions and inspissations?
Astrologers in pointing to stars and maps used sticks, of course, schoolmasters do so even today. If Seers and Necromancers of old and of later times claimed that the implement was essential in their ritualistic simulachres, so do we. Surely such a pretense is well nigh exploded, but who can deny the fascination a wand creates on the spectators ? Besides it is useful for direction, for misdirection and for executing the many illusions that have been based thereon. That the ancients knew about magnets, can be proven by the 23rd dictum of Pythagoras's "Turba," and even there reference is made to ancient Egypt, hence conveying the idea of "magnetic power" is as old as the wand itself.
In Christian Iconography, many saints and archangels are represented with rods, there are besides striking similitudes intra some legends of Christianity and paganism of old, such as for instance: St. Michael is represented as crushing the dragon with the butt end of a staff. Marduk, son of Hea, was thus described and pictured by ancient Chaldeans. Later the same tale was ascribed by ancient Egyptians to Horus and Serapis, we find it also in representations of St. George of Britain and St. Patrick of Hibernia. (In the latter case the dragon is a snake and the staff a crozier.)
Gruesome Conceptions
I cannot resist quoting some historical and legendary instances of the middle ages, for their conceptions were quaint even if practices resulted oft gruesomely.
Armida, the heroine and villainess of Tasso's, "Jerusalem restored," was represented as carrying a wand presented to her by Beelzebub himself. Doubtless, Tasso got his inspiration from the fable of "Calypso" in the Odessey, she, who, by a wave of the wand, converted the companions of Ulysses into swines. Shakespeare wrote "The Tempest." How quaintly does his wand wielding hero represent one form of the magical visions of his day?
Said Milton in "Comus":
"….If I wave this wand."
"Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster"
Said the writer of the "Great Grimoire," a medieval work on Sorcery:
"The magical rod must be one perfect beam of almond or hazel, cut at a single stroke with a golden sickle before the rising of the Sun at the time the tree is ready to blossom. It must be pierced through its whole length without splitting or breaking and a long needle of magnetized iron must fill its entire extent."
Four pages are devoted to such rot. And to think that I, in my ignorance, made one of a ⅜" dowel stick bought in a hardware store, and have used it for more than twenty years! I once heard one of our Ill. Compeers state in full performance that a chair wrung would do just as well!
The Detective Wand
In 1672, one Jacques Aymar, obtained notoriety in Lyons, France, by asserting that he could detect assassins, sorcerers and thieves, as well as locate hidden wealth by the use of the rod.
Many books have been published in praise of the rod, some mystic, others sarcastic, others historic. The rarest of these is "Jacobs Rod," translated by Thos. Welton, from a French publication that appeared in 1693.
Permit me to conclude with a translation of the introductory quatrains of the immortal Nostradamus. Therein are illustrated in the briefest possible language, the notions of ancient Druids and medioeval Gallic Necromancers:
"Midnight, and I in arcane rite entranced,
On a low tripod of brass, and seated alone,
By lone torch the awful darkness enhanced,
Thus doth the adept, his spell intone."
"The rod in hand, and held among the branches,
The hem of robe and one foot in a brook,
A hush, a voice, a quiver down to haunches,
Splendour divine, the god invoked does look."
What's in a Name?
What matters a name ? Throughout the world, whether called LA VERGE, LA BAGUETTE, DE KOKELSTOK, DER ZAUBERSTAB, MANTHRA, or any other name, the wand is a heraldic inheritance of far greater antiquity and imposing psychology than all the scepters of Kings or the escutcheons of nobles. Better than these, it has not yet lost its prestige and presumptions. Despite the once prevailing belief that it was the verendum of Baphomet, it is and will remain the VADE MECUM of the prestidigitateur, the SUMMUM BONUM of the illustionist. The Kings who first adopted sceptres were only aping the wonderworkers of their day. Some Kings do yet survive, their golden sceptres are obsolete; magicians survive by hundreds and their wands of mere wood or "phoney" are yet in full blast.
And it may not be out of place to mention here that the wand and not the sceptre nor the dove, is also the "ancient and accepted" emblem of peace. As such, the officials of European parliaments, and the bailiffs of courts carry it; as such it is honored and. displayed in Masonic dedications and in religious processionals.
