Book Review: Wandlore, by Alferian Gwydion MacLir

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Wandlore: The Art of Crafting the Ultimate Magical Tool is Dr. Alferian Gwydion MacLir's definitive guide to wand crafting.  It incorporates just about anything that needs to be known about the craft, and has been tremendously useful to me as a maker of wands.  He is well read, and makes use of many sources, both modern and ancient in helping his readers to understand the history of wands, their use, and their creation.  For today's crowd, he even uses J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series as references in a few places, and includes a segment on her concept of wand cores. 

Though he at one point commits the scholarly faux pas of citing wikipedia, this hardly matters, as his book has more than shown its value, and at any rate, to the magically minded excessive intellectualism can be a hindrance to working practice.  MacLir provides a good mix of "UPG" (Unverified Personal Gnosis), always labelled appropriately, along with fact and historical detail.  UPG, to those unfamiliar with the term, refers to a kind of "personal truth," usually regarding magical or mythical subjects, that while true to the possessor of it, makes no claims of being true to anyone else.  It is not based in researched facts, but stems through personal experience and intuition.  His chapters on the qualities of various woods, stones, and crystals contain a sizable dose of MacLir's UPG.  These sections must be examined by the reader individually to determine their value.  Personally, I think he typically provides very thoughtful and valuable UPG insights, and simply find the occasional tidbit to selectively ignore.

Alferian MacLir is a druid, but his book does not focus exclusively on "druidic" wands or practice.  It is a broad and universally applicable book, and applies just as well to the Wiccan, Eclectic Pagan, or New Ager.  And the portions regarding the process are useful to those whose interest in wand crafting is purely artistic in nature, without a dram of the occult.  He takes care of a wide range of readers.

The book is peppered with images.  Some of these are photographic, while others are sketches of his wands.  These all serve to provide visual reference to his style and techniques.  They provide an insight into the kind of art and statement he makes with his wands, and many are directly helpful visual aids in the crafting process, detailing how to prepare, carve, and file the wand, how to mount stones and crystals, and so forth. 

Wandlore has been a major influence on my wands, and I recommend it to all wand makers.