Tools In Folk Witchcraft - The Stang

 A stang in its most basic form is a forked stick set with its long end into the ground. shod with an iron nail on the base .

Traditional ash wood was used for a stang, but you can also use wood that is aligns with your own special intentions, if you are interested to make your own stang or stav.

Forked sticks or poles have been always associated with Witchcraft since early times as you see below

in a picture of Ulrich Molitor’s De Lamiis (1489)

The stang is simply an axis on which magick and witchcraft can turn,

A connection between the sky and the earth.

In the Norse tradition it symbolizes the holy tree Yggdrasil and is a symbol of the Völva, also called a Völvas Stav.

A völva is/was a woman who carries the staff for Nordic people.

The staff represents the wyrd, the history, traditions, healing, songs, stories, dances and rituals of Nordic culture.

The stav/stang was her most important tool.

She used it entering an altered state of consciousness, like a trance.

The stav/stang was beat against the ground to create a rhythm that could  "carrying her over the hedge". Once she was in trance, the stang was made to be symbolic of the World Tree- the bottom of the stang touched the roots of Yggdrasil and gave the volva the access she needed in order to divine and use the energy of Yggdrasil to accomplish this.

Witches are using a stang in very differnt ways  all over the world in differnt magic traditions such as a representation of the Horned One or masculine aspect of the craft,  in spirit flight, and directing energy in rituals.

The stang can also be used as an mobile altar, commonly placed in the northern direction on the ground adorned with seasonal symbolic elements like garlands of flowers or feathers or even bones.

I always recommend to find your own personal stav or stang on a walk in nature.

The best way is to find a branch naturally fell off a tree.

Before you take the branch home, make sure to give thanks to the spirits of the land by offering honey or milk.

If you like paint of even burn personal symbols of your personal craft to your stang like runes or a witches foot, a

pentagram or astrological signs..

Finally shod an iron nail on the foot of the stang to ground its energy.