In addition to our readings, we also craft sacred druidic and shamanic ritual tools such as talking sticks, rattles, drums, or divination tools such as ogham staves or rune stones. The crafting of our ritual and divination tools follows a deeply shamanic and archetypal process that seeks to align with the spirits of the natural world, the elements, and the movement of the earth. The process is informed by druidic, shamanic, and other spiritual traditions, and we seek to deeply observe holidays and deities relevant to the tool we are crafting. See some of our past projects below and check our Etsy shop for current offerings.
The process
Harvesting. All of our tools are of natural materials. This means that we must take them from nature, and in doing so, we work with the spirits and in considerations of modern ecological knowledge. The harvesting takes different forms, but always is in deep observance of the spirits of nature. Usually the harvest is natural and takes materials that have already fallen, such as branches or leaves, asking for permission and clarity from the spirits of place. When we do remove something from a living entity (such as for cedar smudge bundles), we always commune with the spirit of that entity, asking permission and following instructions of what to take and from where. We then make votive offerings of thanks to that spirit.
Sitting. We usually sit with the harvested materials for some time. This involves also allowing it to sit with us. After smudging and prayer, We will place it on our altar or some other meaningful place and allow it to come to rest. This part of the process allows us to also rest, and detach from our intentions and beliefs on what the piece should become. In this place of stillness, we can become aware instead of the piece’s own intentions on what it wants to become. There is no set time for this, it sometimes happens very quickly, other pieces have taken several months.
Dialogue. After this period, we begin a more active dialogue with the piece. This might include some initial working such as whittling or sanding, or just sitting while holding the piece, examining it and listening for the spirit in it. This begins the hollow bone creativity in which we more consciously abandon our intentions and hands, surrendering them to the spirit. Jung called this form of creativity visionary creativity.
Creation. The piece is then finished in a process of continued dialogue and hollow bone creativity.
Both of us work on the piece, in different parts of the process, as called by spirit. Throughout the process, the piece is smudged and charged, and accompanied by prayer and meditation.
Visit our Etsy shop to browse what we currently have in stock: The Druid Eye Etsy Shop
Past offerings include:
Ogham Staves
Tree of Life Standing Stone Altar Piece
Norse Runes
Samhain Ancestor Masks
Ritual Box
Crane's Tongue Talking Stick
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Ogham Staves
we have made different sets of Ogham staves for use in divination and ritual. -
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Tree of Life Standing Stone Altar Piece
This miniature standing stone was crafted using a stone I found near one of the few remaining stone circles in Celtic Germany. Many are not aware but there was a very strong Celtic presence in ancient Germany - massive burial mounds have been found, such as the one at Glauburg, and there are many Celtic archaeological sites exist. With the stone I found, I used decoupage for the tree of life. This makes a wonderful altar and ritual piece, reminding us of the connection and interdependence of all that is. -
Norse Runes
A rustic set of runes, woodburned onto birch slices, with the bark left on. According to the lore, Odin recieved the runes after hanging on the world tree, Yggdrasili, for nine days and nights. On the ninth night (Walpurgis), Odin sacrificed himself to gain the wisdom of the runes to save the world from Ragnarok. Accordingly, these were crafted on Walpurgis Night after a ritual and meditation to Odin. -
Samhain Ancestor Masks
Honoring the ancestors at your samhain ritual, and all through the year. -
Ritual Box
A small pine box, woodburned with Huginn and Muginne and decorated with ogham and runes. Perfect for votive offerings or smudge bundles. -
Crane's Tongue Talking Stick
This sacred object is intended as a talking stick in council. The shape of a naturally harvested piece of wood seemed ideal for some kind of carved ceremonial tool, and so began the work of whittling and sanding. It took a few weeks to get a sense of what it was the piece of wood wanted to become; ritual and quiet contemplation in places of natural beauty and inspiration helped facilitate the process. The main place that seemed to speak to the intent of this piece was the nemeton of Brighid’s Cross / Crane’s Cauldron, and other events of synchronicity that summer further reinforced the connection between the piece being formed to cranes/herons. Since we work mainly within an Irish Celtic-focused practice (with contributions from other Celtic and North Sea cultures), the Irish word chosen was ‘corr‘ (unaccented), said ‘cahr‘ (comparable to the English ‘o’ in its “short” vowel form such as in the word ‘hot’) and meaning ‘crane/heron’, seemed appropriate for part of the naming and carved themes for it. Other, more physical aspects of the wood piece were reminiscent of cranes/herons also. The upward curve in the middle suggested at a head with a long, spear-like beak, complete with a small knot of wood where the eye would likely be, and the long handle covered in bark seemed to differentiate from the head as perhaps a neck or the lithe body with its long legs. A strong resonance to the body and spirit of crane- or heron-like birds was definitely forming by this point. Because myths give flesh to a culture’s skeleton of cosmology, the next important step for us in the creative process was to ground these intuitions within the myths of our practice. In this search we found that cranes appear often in Celtic and Gaulish myth, several times in 3’s. For example, in the Irish book of Leinster, Midir, one of the Tuatha De Danann, has 3 cranes guarding his castle that rob any attackers of their will to fight. The Welsh Underworld, called Annwn (said ah-noon), is guarded at the entrance by 3 cranes. Also, the Trier stone and a carving in Paris both represent a bull with 3 cranes perched upon it (two on the back and one over the head in the photo to the left). Other prominent Celtic mythological references to cranes include the sea god Manannan mac Lir’s famous crane-bag, Fionn MacCumhail’s grandmother transforming into a crane to save the child hero from his father’s killers, and the four sons of the hag goddess, the Cailleach, being turned into cranes and only able to be restored by blood from a sacrificial bull. Cranes are often recognized for their ‘dancing’. After watching several videos of Sandhill Cranes, having chosen this species for its summer presence here in Michigan, there seemed to me to be 3 main positions to these dances: crouch/arch/coil, leap/spring/jump, and bow/dip/plunge. This discernment also aligned nicely with the mythological depictions of cranes in 3’s. Out of curiosity I searched for analogous words to these dancing positions in Irish. For crouching, coiling, or arching I thought the closest Irish translation would be ina stua for ‘arching’ in Irish, said approximately the way it is spelled. Jumping, springing, or leaping had a fairly straight forward translation as léim in Irish, said ‘lame’. The bowing, dipping, or plunging maneuver of the dance most closely appear to match the word tumadh in Irish, said ‘tuh-muh’. To add the symbols and decoration to the wood itself, we decided on using a wood burning tool kit. Other symbols that we used in addition to the cranes were the Awen, the Tree of Life / World Tree, stars and flames, spirals, and The Twins. We briefly considered adding many attachments such as feathers and beads and whatnot, but we settled for keeping things relatively simple and limited to natural materials such as metal, cloth, and stone as much as possible. In keeping with the theme of 3’s, we obtained three smoothed, spherical beads: one of Blue Kyanite for the ‘element’ of Sky, one of mixed Red and Green Garnet for Land, and one of Lapis Lazuli for Sea. Braiding together red (Land), black (Sea), and white (Sky) threads from sage bundles we had purchased and subsequently burned, we repurposed the threads to tie the beads to the wood and also to protect the edges of the bark from being too badly damaged by handling. The final piece added was a small chain repurposed from a bracelet with a metal fish with a spiral on each of its sides, a couple small beads, and a metal four-looped cross, to represent the Salmon of Wisdom referred to in both Welsh (story of Taliesin) and Irish (stories of Fionn MacCumhail) myth. All this having been done, the name still did not feel complete nor the purpose of this beautiful new tool established, so it was back to the myths and intuitions we went for guidance. Cranes were associated with messages and warnings; guardians, particularly of the Underworld/Otherworld; grandmothers, crones, and hags; and the druidic wisdom mysteries, all shown in Celtic myths and wider Celtic culture, so we finally settled on its main purpose to therefor be a talking stick to be used either with groups for discussion or for solitary contemplation of Mystery. The full name then was chosen to be ‘Corr Teanga’, said ‘cahr chahn-guh’ and meaning ‘language’ or the physical ‘tongue’, or Crane’s Tongue, and carved into the wood in Ogham letters. The whole process began some time in April 2014 and came to a close some time in August 2014. -
ABOUT OUR WORK
it is our hope that all of our work helps to bring our customers into better alignment with the will of their soul, their connection to the web of existence that is the anima mundi.
All of our work, whether readings or crafting ritual tools, is done jointly. In this way the sacred feminine and the sacred masculine infuses all we do. This is the world soul in action, a balancing of energy, and is the path to healing and soul retrieval and integration.