By Frater S.C.F.V.

The Lightning Rod of Magical Power: A Brief Introduction to Wand Lore

As Joseph H. Peterson (2005) notes, Plato, in his Alcibiades (1.122), and his Classical Greek contemporaries saw magic (mageia) as referring to “the Magian lore of Zoroaster.” The baresman (Avestan) or barsom (Phl.) was the prototype to the Graeco-Egyptian singular wand, but unlike the one-piece wands found in the PGM, the baresman was composed of a “bundle of twigs,” traditionally made of sticks cut from the tamarisk tree (Peterson, 2005). Indeed, for the Zoroastrian Magi, the baresman was a ritual tool that enabled the channeling of Divine Power, the execution of divination, and the energetic communication between the material (getig) and spiritual (menog) realms (Peterson, 2005).

Zoroastrian Magi holding a baresman.

Peterson (2005) goes on to explain the Ancient origins and later grimoiric manifestations of the ‘wand principle’ in rich detail, revealing…