There was an article in, I think "Magic", although could be Genii or MUM (shows how much I pay attention, huh?), that showed many of these wands. If I haven't completely brain-farted, they are now in Mike Caveney's collection.

Somebody with their mags handy, help me through my senility.

BTW- I have some video of David Price's collection (actually shot by a friend), that shows much of this, including the secret room. Yowza!

It was MAGIC a few short months ago, September maybe. I don't subscribe but bought just that one issue because the wands were in there plus Jim Sisti gave me the nod with an old trick of mine he published in The Magic Menu and revised for publication in MAGIC. Im a Genii subscriber though.

-=tabman

Thanks Joe. I was glad to see you online and the see that you've expanded your great magician's wand book. I must order a copy of the expanded version soon. The first edition still commands an important place in my little library.

We're glad you're here. Take some time when you get a chance and join in some of the conversations. I think you'll enjoy it.

-=tabman

Well, nothing like arriving 3 years late to a thread, but since "everything old is new again..."

While I cannot pinpoint the originator of the black wand with white tips, I can second the notion that before 1900, wands came in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

If I had to guess, the black wand with white tips probably has ties to the Art Deco movement in the 1920's and 1930's (the sleek cylindrical shape and the stark contrast of black and white has a modern feel that is consistent with the art and fashion of the time).

Also, the Art Deco movement coincided with the closing of the Vaudeville era, which may explain how the black wand/white tips became such a pervasive image in magic. A stylish magician traveling a circuit and wielding his (or her) Art Deco wand could have spawned thousands of facsimiles.

Gregg Tobo

I don't know about Joe Lantiere's book (and thank you to Bill Palmer for mentioning it) but here are my notes on the history of the magic wand. It offers nice patter potentials.

The scepter is a symbol of royalty, power, fertility, and authority closely related to the magic wand, shepherd's staff, axis mundi, club, phallus, and thunderbolt. It denotes power conferred from on high - especially the power to rule and to judge. The color, shape, and substance of each scepter enriches its symbolism. Pharaoh's scepter bore the likeness of the evil Set to remind would-be enemies that this ruler was merciless in his punishment of disobedience. God breaks the scepters of the wicked, for a broken scepter is symbolic of the loss of a kingdom or power either through war or abdication (Isa 14:5).
Scepters are attributes of royal saints, Greco-Roman deities, archangels, judges, heralds, God the Father and His Son the King of Heaven and Earth.
Nowadays professional and patient centered organizations (most medical Associations around the world including the World Health Organization) use the "correct" and traditional symbol of medicine, the staff of Asclepius with a single serpent encircling a staff, classically a rough-hewn knotty tree limb. Asclepius (an ancient Greek physician deified as the god of medicine) is traditionally depicted as a bearded man wearing a robe that leaves his chest uncovered and holding a staff with his sacred single serpent coiled around it, symbolizing renewal of youth as the serpent casts off its skin. The single serpent staff also appears on a Sumerian vase of c. 2000 B.C. representing the healing god Ningishita, the prototype of the Greek Asklepios. However, there is a more practical origin postulated which makes sense.

Who was Asclepius? Asclepius was most probably a skilled physician who practised in Greece around 1200BC (and described in Homer's Iliad). Eventually through myth and legend he came to be worshipped as Asclepius, the (Greek) god of Healing.
Medical schools developed, which were usually connected to temples or shrines called Asclepions (Asclepieia) dedicated to Asclepius. The Asclepion became very important in Greek society. Patients believed they could be cured by sleeping in them. They would visit, offering gifts and sacrifices to the god, and be treated by priest healers (called the Asclepiadae), maintaining the belief with tricks described by Hero of Alexandria, a book which made it through the centuries. Thanks to these visible magic feats the worship of Asclepius spread to Rome and continued as late as the sixth century.

The Asclepiadae were a large order of priest physicians who controlled the sacred secrets of healing, which were passed from father to son. Harmless Aesculapian snakes were kept in the combination hospital-temples built by the ancient Greeks and, later, by the Romans in honor of the god. The snakes are found not only in their original range of southern Europe, but also in the various places in Germany and Austria where Roman “tricked” temples had been established. Escaped snakes survived and flourished.
Smooth, glossy, and slender on the back the snake's belly is whitish and has ridged scales that catch easily on rough surfaces, making it especially adapted for climbing trees. Scientific classification: The Aesculapian snake belongs to the family Colubridae. It is classified as Elaphe longissima.

The Myth: Asclepius is the god of Healing. He is the son of Apollo and the nymph, Coronis. While pregnant with Asclepius, Coronis secretly took a second, mortal lover. When Apollo found out, he sent Artemis to kill her. While burning on the funeral pyre, Apollo felt pity and rescued the unborn child from the corpse. Asclepius was taught about medicine and healing by the wise centaur, Cheiron (who would also teach Achilleus and other heroes), and became so skilled in it that he succeeded in bringing one of his patients back from the dead. Zeus however felt that the immortality of the Gods was threatened and killed the healer with a thunderbolt. At Apollo's request, Asclepius was placed among the stars as Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer.
Meditrine, Hygeia and Panacea: The children of Asclepius included his daughters Meditrina, Hygeia and Panacea who became symbols of medicine, hygiene and healing (literally, "all healing") respectively. Two of the sons of Asclepius appeared in Homer's Illiad as physicians in the Greek army (Machaon and Podalirius).
It is worth noting that the classic Hippocratice Oath is still sworn "by Apollo the physician, by Æsculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, …"

The likely medical origin of the single serpent around a rod: In ancient times the snake was a symbol of knowledge. Actually the original sin which brought God to send Adam and Eve away from the garden of Even was knowledge illustrated by the snake. Hence knowledge and science would always be symbolically attached to the snake. In parallel power has always been attached to either a stick or a staff. Under the Egyptians and then the Romans and then all along history, kings and emperors would always have a scepter. Thus the symbol of the staff encircled by a snake is symbolically clear. The magic of knowledge and the power it represents are to this day associated in the medical Caduceus. Originally it was associated to the mystery of life and the power to resuscitate.

The staff as a Medical symbol: From the early 16th century onwards, the staff of Asclepius with a single snake and the caduceus of Hermes with the double entwined snakes of Art and Science were widely used as printers’ marks especially as frontispieces to pharmacopoeias in the 17th and 18th centuries. Over time the rod and serpent (the Asclepian staff) emerged as an independent symbol of medicine.
Despite the unequivocal claim of the staff of Asclepius to represent medicine (and healing), the caduceus, a rod with two entwined serpents topped by a pair of wings (reminders of Hermes feet) appears to be the more popular symbol of medicine in the occidental world, probably due to simple confusion between the caduceus and the staff of Asclepius, the true symbol of medicine. Many people use the word caduceus to mean both of these emblems.


The Greek god Hermes messenger of the gods found his analogue in Egypt as the ancient Wisdom god Thoth, as Taaut of the Phoenicians and in Rome as the god Mercury (all linked with a magic rod with twin snakes).

The mythical origin of his magic twin serpent caduceus is described in the story of Tiresias, the blind magician. Poulenc, in "Les Mamelles de Tiresias" (The Tits of Tiresias) grouped the legends about Tiresias, the seer who tried to warn Oepidus that he was wearing the guilt he was seeking in others. After having seen a goddess n the nude (meaning having fully seen through the feminine nature) he was to be killed by the goddess but Zeus found another lighter punishment. Tiresias having found two snakes copulating, and to separate them having stuck his staff between them was immediately turned into a woman, and remained so for seven years, until he was changed back to male. The transformative power in this story, strong enough to completely reverse even physical polarities of male and female, rational and emotional knowledge, art and science, comes from the union of the two serpents, passed on by the wand symbolizing the power of the one who can master both. Tiresias' staff, complete with serpents, was later passed on to Hermes, the messenger of the gods...

Occult Hermetic Connection: An occult description of the Caduceus of Hermes (Mercury) is that the serpents may represent positive and negative kundalini as it moves through the chakras and around the spine (the staff) to the head where it communicates with MIND by intellection, the domain of Mercury [wings].
Caduceus Power Wand: Such wands are still sold at occult, new age & witchcraft stores such as Abaxion with descriptions such as "It's central phallic rod represents the potentiality of the masculine, and is intimately surrounded by the writhing, woven shakti energies of two coupling serpents. The rod also represents the spine [sushumna] while the serpents conduct spiritual currents [pranas] along the ida and pingala channels in a double helix pattern from the chakra at the base of the spine up to the pineal gland".

According to occultists, there are three principal nadis (Sanskrit for channel) in the human body. The sushumna (the spinal column through which the life-forces flow), by which means we enter and leave the body, the Ida (refreshment and stimulation of spirit), which is associated with the higher mind or manas and the Pingala, (reddish-brown), associated with kama or the force of desire. (G. de Purucker "Man in Evolution" ch. 15 & 16; and "Fountain-Source of Occultism", pp. 458-63).
Hermetic: There are few names to which more diverse persons and disciplines lay claim than the term "Hermetic". Alchemists have applied the adjective "Hermetic" to their art, while magicians (not our entertaining type) attach the name to their ceremonies of evocation and invocation. Followers of Meister Eckhart, Raymond Lull, Paracelsus, Jacob Boehme, and most recently Valentin Tomberg are joined by academic scholars of esoterica, all of whom attach the word "Hermetic" to their activities.

The most abiding impact of Hermeticism on Western culture came about by way of the heterodox mystical, or occult, tradition. Renaissance occultism, with its alchemy, astrology, ceremonial magic, and occult medicine, became saturated with the teachings of the Hermetic books. Despite Scott’s Discovery of Witchcraft, this content has remained a permanent part of the occult transmissions of the West, and, along with Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, represents the foundation of all the major Western occult currents. Hermetic elements are demonstrably present in the Rosicrucian and Theosophical movements.

The caduceus as a Medical symbol: The link between Hermes and his caduceus and medicine seems to have arisen by Hermes links with alchemy. Alchemists were referred to as the sons of Hermes, as Hermetists or Hermeticists and as "practitioners of the hermetic arts". By the end of the sixteenth century, the study of alchemy included not only medicine and pharmaceuticals but chemistry, mining and metallurgy. Despite learned opinion that it is the single snake staff of Asclepius that is the proper symbol of medicine, many medical groups have adopted the twin serpent caduceus of Hermes or Mercury as a medical symbol during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The split between the double serpent medical caduceus and the magicians’ single snake wand had however started earlier when the Jacob's staff was developed as a single pole device around the 1300s when the church-controlled universities decided to use the name Jacob’s staff in making astronomical measurements. It was first described by the Jewish mathematician Levi ben Gerson of Provence. However, its invention was likely due to Jacob ben Makir who also lived in Provence in the same period. May states that its origins can be traced to the Chaldeans around 400 BC. Its heritage from Pharaoh and then the team Moses-Aaron, symbolism however brings such statements in perspective.

Although it has become argued by scientists that Levi ben Gerson first described cruciform Jacob's staff, there is ample evidence that the Song Dynasty Chinese scientist Shen Kuo (1031–1095), in his Dream Pool Essays of 1088, described Jacob's staff. Shen was an antiquarian interested in ancient objects; after he unearthed an ancient crossbow-like device from a home's garden in Jiangsu, he realized it had a sight with a graduated scale that could be used to measure the heights of distant mountains, likening it to how mathematicians measure heights by using right-angle triangles. He wrote that when one viewed the whole breadth of a mountain with it, the distance on the instrument was long; when viewing a small part of the mountainside, the distance was short; this, he wrote, was due to the cross piece that had to be pushed further away from the eye, while the graduation started from the further end.

In an attempt to benefit from the Jacob’s staff aura of power, life, science and art, the charlatans of the Middle Age, pulling teeth in the fairs, playing the cups and balls to gather crowds, and cutting the purses of by-standers, adopted it under the cute name of “little Jacob’s staff”. It turned out to be convenient to convey a natural look to their loaded hand. To this day, pick pocketing remains associated with magic as an art. They chose however not to borrow the cruciform symbol of rudimentary science which was now using the name of Jacob’s Staff. The cross had replaced the fish, an earlier symbol of the Catholic. Christian universities controlling knowledge, and priests were conveniently accusing magicians of demoniac deeds, a good advertisement but not to be provoked by using their own symbol. Naturally the price to pay was to have a few of them tortured and burned for witchcraft from time to time, but this remained a rare enough occurrence. It was more used by powerful lords as an excuse for atrociously killing political opponents which could only be eliminated for witchcraft having done nothing illegal. Magicians therefore prudently didn’t choose the new cruciform shape of the Jacob’s staff of knowledge but rather its medical ancestor with more magical content, and conveniently placed themselves under the protection of Hermes. To this very day, Hermes with his winged feet, is known as the God of merchants, doctors, magicians and thieves. This is how the Jacob’s staff kept its name until the first quarter of the XXth century when the “magic wand” which had appeared with scientists in the middle of the XIXth century progressively took precedence. The first victim was the snake coiled around the wand, which doctors replaced with Hermes’ double snake of Art and Science reviving the name of Caduceus. Old beliefs however were no longer fashionable and the “Little Jacob’s staff” was abandoned as a name by magicians. The “little staff” role however remained, freed from any religious aspects and from the snake symbolizing its mysterious but potentially dangerous knowledge. It seems that the last magician having used it was the knowledgeable Canadian Ross Bertram who had a very nice magic wand with a snake coiled around it. Ross Bertram in his cups and balls was rotating it between his fingers to create the extracting visual Archimedes screw illusion offered by the coiled snake.

Here at the ranch Lucy and I have built a rehearsal theater. Over the outside front door is a 3-D coat of arms about 2 feet square that Lucy made. It is a huge heart that has a top hat with a rabbit jumping out. A magic wand is crossed over that.

Once we had a Hollywood actress from the days of black and white movies visiting. She is among the most formal and "proper" ladies you'll ever meet. She stared for a while at the work and then asked with the greatest degree of respect one can imagine, "Is that a real magic wand?"

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

It's not quite that simple. While such sources as Modern Magic indicate that there are basically unlimited permutations of wand designs, you can see that there is a tendency toward the white tipped wand as early as the late 1890's, a couple of decades before the beginning of the Art Deco movement. The 1895 Willmann catalogue lists plain wooden wands, wands with white tips, wands with bone tips, wands with ivory tips. Willmann's catalogue alone lists 23 different types of wand.

Hoffmann's description indicates a wand of 3/4" diameter or larger! Charles Bertram's wand, which is visible in several photos in The Modern Conjuror is a dark wooden stick which has white tips, but ONLY the very tip of the wand, i.e. the end of the stick itself, is white. It's just the end surface, not a ferrule such as the ones used on many of the modern wands.

P&L may have been responsible in a way for some of the standardization. They issued their famous vanishing wand, which came with either white or chrome-plated tips, in the early 1920's. Those were later copied by Rings and Things, who also issued a walnut wand with brass tips. But a black wand with either chrome plated or white tips was fairly much the standard for the duration of the 20th century. Some of these even appeared in early magic sets that were made by P&L for various companies.

A direct connection between Art Deco and this wand style is dubious at best. For one thing, Art Deco actually started prior to WW I. It reached its peak during the period from 1925 - 1930, long after the Willmann wands and the P&L wands had made their appearances. Few art movements start and end abruptly. You don't see the Art Police running around Paris, London, Vienna and New York issuing citations to people who produced Art Deco in, say, 1932.

I believe the black wand with white tips was popularized by Edwin Sachs. In "Sleight of Hand" he writes, "For the present all the learner has to do is procure a round stick of ebony, about 18 inches long, fitted with ivory, silver or brass ferrules (not caps) countersunk at each end, and to trust me for its being necessary." If the stick is made of ebony and the ends ivory it would fit the description of the traditional wand with white tips. With a publication date of 1877 that would put it at around the time the black wand with white tips began to become popular. I don't think we should overlook the importance of Sachs "Sleight of Hand" to the conjurers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. David Devant both spoke highly of the book and Harry Kellar called it "the best work of its kind ever published."

P.S. To Bill, the ends of Bertram's wand were real diamonds!

These posts are fascinating. Now I have the urge to make my own wand. Getting and turning the wood is no problem, but does anyone know a source for the ferrules, tips, etc.? Thanks! Jim

Rnt II sells brass ferrules. They are 3/8 of an inch in diameter. If you do a countersunk end, you can make your own. Just turn a section of a contrasting color of wood or metal so that it has a tenon on the end, and make a hole that size in the end of the center section of the wand. A little glue, and you are done.

You mean they had the internet back then too...? No, wait I missed the part about not hurling fireballs.

Seriously, there is an excellent series of articles on the history of the wand at:
http://www.secretartjournal.com under the history section.

I have a trick for kids in which I tell a fabricated story of how people always wonder if the magic is in the white tips or the black body of the wand. I answer the question by taking out a wand which I've used so much most of the magic is gone. You can tell because white spots are showing through the black body. I then "recharge" the wand back to its black body. I have put a (I'm afraid very poor quality) video of it on YouTube which is virtually impossible to find. If anyone is interested you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8US3gKrXDiA . I'm going to remove the video in a few more weeks. The idea, I think, is new and free to anyone in the Café who can make use of it.

This information is taken from the first edition of Joe Lantiere's book. The new edition is now out.

Using a staff is difficult in many performance setting. Here is one of mine showing full, center and top features.

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss76/funsway/001-2.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss76/funsway/002-1.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss76/funsway/003-2.jpg

all natural pieces

Very nice!

I noticed there are a number of wands available for sale right now on the Café'

Well, funsway, that news is a little late for me!

Let me see...

Mini lathe - $349
Gouge tool- $69
Skew tool- $59
Cocobola wood- $26
Sandpaper- 6
Enjoyment- priceless

If I ever get an actual wand out of this...

There is a discussion at
http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/rowan.htm
about the Rowan tree which I believe is the source of the wood used to make wands.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Hazel is also popular for wands. If you read some of the ancient texts on the craft, the actual wood was not as important as the time of day that it was harvested and the implement that was used for that purpose.