Stang-Do you use one?

[Desert_Witch]

Hi all. I am making my first Stang and was wondering if anyone on here was using one now. If so, want to tell us about it?

[Xirian]

I do not use one.

[Nitefalle]

I don't, but not for lack of wanting. I've always thought it would be interesting to try it out, and I would love to decorate it. I've heard that you should never cut one, that it should be found on the ground, but then I've heard the opposite of that, too. It would be great as a representation of the World Tree (which I use).

[Philosophia]

I don't use a stang because I haven't found one yet...

[Zephyrstorm]

I have one drying out in the corner of my bedroom as we speak. :) I can't wait to start decorating it. I found it on a walk after Hurricane Rita.

Like Nitefalle, the World Tree is very important to me, and I'm really looking forward to having a Stang to symbolize it. :) Right now my staff serves.

[Desert_Witch]

Hi y'all:wave:

I am in the process of ataching a large set of Deer Antlers to a six foot staff. When I get room this will one day be my perminent outdoor Stang. I also want to make a walingstick size one out of a single piece I find someplace. I also have a walkingstick that I am working on now that I found at a River near here that my Wife and I go to. Both to perform Ritual and to just commune with powerful Earth energies. This Walkingstick has a deep depression in the top that is perfect for a Crystal, like it was meant to be there. Still have to find the right Crystal though.:)

I am doing all this because at this time I am compleatly overhauling my Personal Practice. Essentialy I am clearing over ten years of spiritual clutter in order to hone my personal Path. I have been heavily involved in my Native culture for thirteen years, the Craft for ten and my Trad for five. My beliefs are a synthisis of all of that! Part of this ovrhaul is a new set of Tools specific to me and my Path that will say "Desert Witch, Witchcraft" when I look at them.



I am including the wedgie guys just because they are funny and I like them._wedgie_ :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Desert_Witch]

I have one drying out in the corner of my bedroom as we speak. :) I can't wait to start decorating it. I found it on a walk after Hurricane Rita.

Like Nitefalle, the World Tree is very important to me, and I'm really looking forward to having a Stang to symbolize it. :) Right now my staff serves.


Cool way to find your Stang! The energies it must contain are undoubtedly awesome!

I am just getting to know the World Tree as it is a part of my Heratage I have neglected until now. (My Personal Path is likly to be as eclectic as my ancestry:lol: )

[Oddzilla]

Well..I have to ask.
What the heck is a stang?

[StormVixen]

i have one (a forked ash branch) but i dont use it... if you search MW U Should find the answer to "what is a stang?"

[Ben Gruagach]

There is an interesting article about the Stang and its various meanings at http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usxx&c=words&id=7544

Personally I tend to think of it as a symbol of horned gods (whichever one you prefer to choose!) but it does make a lot of sense to connect it to the World Tree concept as well. That ties in nicely with the central pole used in Voudou, and staves or poles as a magickal connection between the worlds as used in shamanism.

[Desert_Witch]

There is an interesting article about the Stang and its various meanings at http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usxx&c=words&id=7544

Personally I tend to think of it as a symbol of horned gods (whichever one you prefer to choose!) but it does make a lot of sense to connect it to the World Tree concept as well. That ties in nicely with the central pole used in Voudou, and staves or poles as a magickal connection between the worlds as used in shamanism.

Good move Ben! I was looking for the page you recomended again to post it here, but i am 'puter challenged and was unable to find it. (I do not think i even looked in Witch Vox:lol: )

[Desert_Witch]

Like Ben i am drawn to the Stang because of the Horned God connotations, but the more I am getting to know Stang the more the other correspondences are begining to speak to my heart. I have not studied the World Tree much but lately...I feel compelled to.

[~Owl~]

Well..I have to ask.
What the heck is a stang?

Well, since I'm sure you know by now what one is, yes, I have one, and I do use it.

It's like SV's, a forked ash staff, that was literally found by me one morning right in my front yard some years ago. It was perfectly shaped. A little sanding here and there, and some linseed oil, and that was all there was to it.

I consider it a sacred gift. Perhaps if I find a pic of it I took one day, I'll put it up as an attchmt.

[Haruka2077]

I don't use one. I've never seen a point for one in my own personal practice. I've seen others who have very nice ones, though!

[Morgandria]

My stang comes from a place with deep attachment for me, and is hawthorn wood. I use it in a traditional manner for healing. I am currently searching for a blackthorn wood counterpart.

[Desert_Witch]

Well, since I'm sure you know by now what one is, yes, I have one, and I do use it.

It's like SV's, a forked ash staff, that was literally found by me one morning right in my front yard some years ago. It was perfectly shaped. A little sanding here and there, and some linseed oil, and that was all there was to it.

I consider it a sacred gift. Perhaps if I find a pic of it I took one day, I'll put it up as an attchmt.

How your Stang came to you is very cool.:fpraise:

[Faelon_Moon_Hawk]

Hi all. I am making my first Stang and was wondering if anyone on here was using one now. If so, want to tell us about it?

I don't use one...yet *grin* but i do have plans to make one. I have a potentially suitable candidate stang sitting idly in my closet..it's waited in the woods for me for literally years so i figure it can wait a bit longer in my closet, lol.

[Sacredsin]

I don't use a stang, as I live in my parents home and they would be very much against an act (they're devout Christian and it would deeply bother them). I would however love to do more research on Stangs though. Lol. *scurries off to do research* :)

[Stang]

Like Ben i am drawn to the Stang because of the Horned God connotations, but the more I am getting to know Stang the more the other correspondences are begining to speak to my heart. I have not studied the World Tree much but lately...I feel compelled to.

A lot of contemporary thinking about the use of a stang in witchcraft has been shaped by a book called "Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed" by Evan Jones, with an introduction by Doreen Valiente. Jones worked within the tradition that was transmitted (invented, in many people's opinion) by Roy Bowers, who used the Craft name Robert Cochrane. In his book, Jones discussed his ideas on decorating and using the stang. And its associations with the World Tree and the Horned God are fairly obvious. However, if you continue to trust your instincts, you'll no doubt continue to discover multiple levels of meaning, some of which aren't in print anywhere. Which is generally the case with traditional Craft symbols. It's all a question of how deep you want to go.

[Autumn-Forest]

I used to have a stang, but it broke before I got to use it. :(

It would have been an awesome tool because I just found it the way it was supposed to be. With the two twigs and such.

blessed be-
Autumn-Forest

[Lolair]

I have a small (2.5 foot) thorn stang. There are different forked tools, most are only familiar with Cochrane's stang, the ash forked staff or a pole with a goat or stag skull on top decorated with arrows and an iron nail driven in the base. This was specific to his tradition. I found it strange when a local Wiccan coven took to using a stang, but exactly how Cochrane used and decorated it... I've heard of a couple local witches using a forked staff to simply carry their ritual tools out to a site. Cochrane's either turning in his grave or laughing his skeletal ass off...

Other stangs/ forked staffs include the blasting rod, a traditional tool of a forked blackthorn stick used for blasting/cursing or other spell work. A cunning person's blackthorn walking stick was thought to be used for the same purposes as well. There is also a forked tool used in Scottish witchcraft, it was a forked staff, sometimes with the end carved into a phallus and it was ridden like a broom stick in order to get into a trance state, or simply for ritual dancing. There are a few old woodcuts out there of this practice. Of course there are those who think this tool was rubbed with a flying ointment and ridden in a different way, but we'd have to go back in time to ask those witches what they were up to....

Slainte!
Lolair

[wtfidka]

Yes I use a stang, it serves as a representation of the horned one, an alter and a staff! In fact it is one of the few tools I do use apart from a very sharp knife. Before I made this one I used a pitchfork for the purpose ( an old country alternative).

[Nitefalle]

I just found a stick up at Bear Mountain this past weekend I was thinking of using as a stang - it was driftwood that washed up and I really like it. It's got quite the wide fork, with one arm "straighter" in an up-down sense than the other. Kinda cattywompass but I like it.

[brymble]

i feel very drawn to the horned god, so it's something i've been considering.

[mucgwyrt]

I have a stang. I basically use it as my "alter"; I hang bundles of herbs from it, charms, crystals etc. I also have a few permenent features on it, i.e. a string of white goose feathers (goose is my animal totem).

I've had it ohhh five (six?) years now. It's ash; I found it beneath an ash tree perfectly formed, newly fallen - I just cut of some of the splintered wood and gently sanded the moss off. One of the 'points' is shorter than the other which lends to its quirkiness and individuality. I had planned to attach a crystal to it, but after so long I doubt I ever will!

I picked it up when I began on a traditional witchcraft path, but still use it even though I've moved more towards anglo-saxon heathenry. I do have an iron nail in the foot, to help earth it, but no skull!

[aluokaloo]

I voted what the heck is a stang? it soundslike some noise making torture device, that really hurts your ears. But seriously what it is?

[mucgwyrt]

I voted what the heck is a stang? it soundslike some noise making torture device, that really hurts your ears. But seriously what it is?
Basically? A tall, forked stick :)

[Seren_]

Basically? A tall, forked stick :)

Yup. Which looks like a 'Y'...A stang is basically like a portable altar. You can hang the things you want on your altar off it, instead of having them on a flat surface, so it's useful for outdoors or whatever. The stang also doubles as a staff, which is effectively (to generalise vastly) a large wand - you can use it to invoke things.

[Tanya]

I just got one for my birthday... haven't had a play with it yet though... but i love it

[Nitefalle]

Let us know how it works out for you in ritual, Tanya, if you try it. I'd love to hear your experiences.

[Singing Wolf]

I might someday be interested in working with one, but so far I have not used one.

[Libris]

I do. Mine is made of curly willow. I picked out the tree and planted it when I still lived with my parents. Being a willow, it grew quickly and five years later it was an impressive tree. Sadly, it was damaged during an ice storm. Even though I stayed outside with it and tried to knock the ice off, it still lost a large branch (I hate calling such a beautiful organism -it-, but the tree is both male and female so...). I took the branch and fashioned it into my stang. I loved that tree and I'm so glad I still have a piece of it with me.

I'm thinking of asking the new residents of the house for a cutting to plant in my yard though :D

[electricpeppers]

I would like one, but there's no point having once since it would arouse too many questions. I prefer working with less tools and the like.

[brymble]

I am very much called by Pan, and so I'm very drawn to the use of the stang. We have a mid-sized one guarding the threshold, it hasn't been decorated yet. I am searching for a staff-sized stang I can use at festivals, and a smaller one for a double-tipped wand.

I'm staying at my friend's house, and he lives near the Kaaterskill creek, which has lots of waterfalls and tons of river-driftwood thrown up on the rocks. I've set it as my goal for the day to find a stang and a wand down by the creek. Already found some interesting twisty driftwood staves and wands, but they're not forked, which is what I want.