Luna Ignis Oak wand Belenos

This wand is approximately 12.5 inches in length.

Sacred to the sun and therefore ALL solar gods! The sun brings health, wealth success and prosperity! In pagan lore also the Oak is king of the forest and summer! A strong and mighty tree!

Of all the trees in Britain and Ireland the oak is considered king. Famed for its endurance and longevity, even today it is synonymous with strength and steadfastness in the popular mind. John Evelyn in his Sylva, Or a Discourse of Forest-Trees, calls it the ‘pride and glory of the forest’, and in The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, Evans-Wenze proclaims that ‘the oak is pre-eminently the holy tree of Europe’. In the Classical world, it was regarded as the Tree of Life as its deep roots penetrate as deep into the Underworld as its branches soar to the sky, and it was held sacred to Zeus and Jupiter. In Scandinavia, the oak was the tree of the Thunder-God, Thor, as it was to his Finnish counterpart, Jumala.

We can never know for sure whether the Druids of the British Isles and Ireland practiced their religion in oak-groves like their continental cousins, but it seems likely. We know that the insular Celts worshipped in groves, or ‘nematon’, and the evidence from Ireland in particular makes it likely that these were oaks. Ireland was covered with oak trees, whose presence still echoes down the centuries in place names such as Derry, Derrylanan, Derrybawn (whiteoak), Derrykeighan and, of course, Londonderry, once Derry Calgagh, the oakwood of a fierce warrior of that name.

Early literature gives more evidence of the importance of the oak to pagan Celts. A great oak was one of the five sacred trees brought to Ireland by the strange being called Trefuilngid Tre-ochair who appeared suddenly at Tara on the day Christ was crucified; an emissary from the otherworld, he bore a branch on which were acorns, apples, nuts and berries which he shook onto the ground. These wondrous fruits were planted into five different parts of Ireland, and from them grew five great trees that oversaw each province until they were blown down by the disapproving winds of the Church in the 7th century. Among these was the great Oak of Mugna which stood in southern Kildare. This ‘bile’ or sacred tree was celebrated in the Edinburgh Dinnsenchas as:

Mughna’s oak-tree without blemish, Whereon were mast and fruit, Its top was as broad precisely, As the great plain without.

It was said to bear nine hundred bushels of acorns 3 times a year and red apples besides, making its Otherworldly origins clear. The moment the last acorn fell, the first blossom of the year appeared, reminding us of the perpetual cycle of death and rebirth.

There were also some places that show traces of pre-Christian groves, however faint. We hear of an oak-grove near Loch Siant in the Isle of Skye that was once held so sacred that no person would dare cut the smallest twig from the trees. Also in Scotland is the sacred oak on the island in Lock Maree. The local story goes that it was once ‘Eilean-a-Mhor-Righ’ (the island of the Great King) who was in fact a pagan god. And in England, the remains of ancient oaks were discovered near the Romano-British temple at Lydney, dedicated to the god Nodons.

Many early Christian churches were situated in oak-groves, probably because they were once pagan places of worship. Kildare, where St. Brigid founded her abbey, derives from ‘Cill-dara’, the Church of the Oak. Legend says she loved and blessed a great oak and held it so sacred that no-one dare harm a leaf of it. Under its shade she built her cell (This ties in neatly with pre-Christian tradition, as the pagan goddess Brigid was daughter to the Sun-God Dagda to whom the oak was sacred).

Paul and Pat’s Covenstead in Michigan AND the 6 acres of wooded land that Artes And Craft is built upon is home to many red and white oaks! Paul tries to preserve as much of the under bark as he can, its white, red and green details are gorgeous!

Each of Paul's wands are unique. There is no plan beforehand, the wand is allowed to manifest as it wills, Paul just helps it along.

Wood is of course a natural product. Paul works with the branch, interesting boles, cracks, are incorporated and left by design. Paul also never removes all the bark, as like skin it comes in many layers and some of the lower layers have their own gorgeous color and details!
Oiled with one of our award winning Luna Ignis brand range of anointing oils to protect the wood and make the grain pop!

Long before Paul was ever a blacksmith he carved and was a wandsmith. Before even Artes And Craft opened as a witchcraft store, Paul was making wands and selling them at pagan festivals and gifting them to friends. Being English, Paul would often cut wood when visiting England and return to the USA with some of the most famous classical Celtic magick woods of Ogham lore. In fact, this was one of the founding principles of Artes And Craft, was to bring beautiful ritual tools and goodies from the old world to pagans in the new world. Paul loves crafting heirloom quality unique ritual tools for pagans, druids, ceremonial magicians, Traditional witchcraft and wicca.