The town of Salem, Massachusetts, gets overrun by tourists every October, with more than 1.5 million people visiting the small community over the last few weeks. That's according to some guy I met outside of the Salem Polish Legion of American Veterans Club on Friday night. And this despite the fact that the infamous witch trials technically took place a few miles away in Danvers.
But the witchy happenings aren't just a seasonal affair. Downtown Salem is chock full of creepy museums and magic shops open all year round. With so many similar stores in one place, the owners have to do their best to differentiate themselves—which some of them strive to do through their highly wand collections.
As The Boston Globe explained in a recent article, there's no single, clear consensus on what constitutes a magic wand. Indeed, many of the magic shop proprietors in Salem have strongly differing opinions about wands and about each other. One modern witch, who goes by Raven the Wandmaker, told the Globe:
When he goes for a walk in the forest, he's hunting for a particular sensation, which he calls "the reveal." He'll find himself attracted to a particular piece of wood, and then he'll get hit with an image of a hand grasping that wood and using it to perform magic.
That's when he knows it's not just a piece of wood; it's a wand.
Others, such as Christian Day—who claims he's had "more chickens killed in my name than Frank Purdue, with all the witches that have put curses on" him—calls bullshit on this chicanery. Day's wands go for upwards of $500, and are typically decorated with crystals, inlays, and other intricate designs. But the actual magic part of the wand, he explained, comes from its creation:
While a wand made by a witch will come charged with magical intent, any wand — including a stick you find in the woods — can become magical if it's properly cleansed and charged with the energy of the person using it.
Similarly, there's Crow Haven Corner, the oldest wand shop in town, where wands made entirely of glass and crystal go for upwards of $5000—and where the owner, Lorelei "The Love Witch" Stathopoulos, seems to make no qualms about profiting off of idiot muggles.
Finally, there's Shane Bell, a woodworker who uses a lathe to create more affordable wands in the $30-50 range, which are sold by some Irish Catholic dude from South Boston. These wands are less about the magic and more about the craftsmanship, though Bell encourages buyers to do some sort of ritual or customization to make the wand into something special and unique to them.
Who knew the wand business was so complex and multifaceted?
Previously:
• Make a magic wand appear from thin air!
