Alferian Gwydion MacLir

I felt as if this book never quite found its focus. It's partly a guide to making your own wand, and MacLir has included helpful lists of the magical properties of trees and stones to help with this. This is the strongest part of the book—MacLir is a professional wandmaker, and this sounds like his true passion—but if this is what you're interested in, his first book, Wandlore: The Art of Crafting the Ultimate Magical Tool, probably goes into this in much more detail. The Witch's Wand also covers uses of wands in magic and ritual. I'm not sure who would get the most out of these sections, though. They assume some previous knowledge on the part of the reader, so they may not be all that helpful for beginners, but they're also overviews that may not have much new material for more experienced practitioners. And as several other reviewers have noted, the author's emphasis on the phallic symbolism of wands gets tiresome quickly.… (altro)