Talking Sticks and a bag to carry them in…
In an earlier blog on Talking Sticks, it was explained how it came to be that I began to make them. Each one is unique and we have some for sale too, mainly from the first picture.
To make your own though, now that is something else entirely. There are many ways to make them, you can of course go out find a stick in the woods and decorate it with some twine, some beads and a bit of fur if that is what you feel like doing. It will be fit for purpose as it is chosen for that purpose, and in a way it reveals itself to the person when it wants to be so used.
Then there is the way of connecting with the energy of the stick that you find, (and if you don’t want to wait for a piece you have seasoned yourself, you can go to a craft shop or online and you can get some all ready to decorate). I am in the way of believing that the right stick will find you.
It is then a case of understanding the Spirit of the stick and the energy that will come from working with that Spirit. You may be very surprised and not just a little bit delighted at what can come from this endeavour.
Even the mistakes, or should I say, perceived mistakes can be beautiful.
The new course will have pdf. downloads attached to it for more in depth (not too much though) information on Talking Sticks and their uses in modern society as well as their historical importance. It is a way of being totally ‘in time’ as your hands are busy and your conscious mind takes a bit of a back seat while you and the Spirit of the stick sit in congress. An experience in deep connection, farther even than mindfulness, I would say. For myself I find it so deeply satisfying, surprising and humbling: I cannot think of a better way to honour a fallen branch. Indeed, I cannot think of a better way to connect to Spirit. It is well known that the Art and Craft of making these tools and others like them for Spiritual work is deep and so very powerful. Shamans have been known for ‘smythies’ transfiguration and transmutation of so many things physical and non physical.
The great thing is to experience the moments. To be in complete concert with the object and your energy, remember this, your energy while you do this will become one with the item. A stick, a bone, a stone, a cloth, a lenght of thread or wool. What you put into it will manifest itself in what you put on it, the energies of both will become mingled.
This is how magic is made. This is how touchstones and lucky bits and bobs have power. It is infused into them, any that they hold in themselves is then magnified.
So when you go to work on something check your emotions and purposefully infuse positive and wonderful things into your chosen material.
Shamanism Scotland 