Tools of the
Five Processes

Witches have a variety of tools at their disposal. What can be used as an implement for magick isn’t limited to the five categories below—for example, I haven’t listed paper or candles—but I found it useful to analyse five common tools used by Western witches according to the Wǔxíng (五行), the Chinese system of Five Processes.

“Forbidden Colours” cover by YungAn

What are the Five Processes?

Diagram of the five processes: Tree, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Each emblem is coloured accordingly and has the Chinese character inked on it, with the English translation overlaid above it in a similar, brush-like script that expresses the particular qualities of each process. Painted arrows between the emblems illustrate the production and regulatory cycles.

Whereas elemental tradition breaks down individual things into fundamental, static components that can be combined to form more complex compounds, Chinese traditional thought is occupied by the dialectical, living motion of matter and energy: Wǔxíng sees the universe as a dynamic whole going through numerous energetic phases or processes, all of which act upon each other in a myriad of ways or cycles. Briefly:

PRODUCTION CYCLE

REGULATORY CYCLE

The processes aren’t limited to generation and regulating/overcoming. The phases can move in any “direction” and “intensity” to deplete, dominate, counteract.

For example, Tree can exhaust the Water which gives it life in the first place (depletion), Water can completely extinguish Fire (domination), and Fire can evaporate Water (counteraction). You can skip to the tools, but I encourage you to read over the three other cycles if you are not familiar with them.

OVERCONSUMPTION CYCLE

DOMINATION CYCLE

COUNTERACTING CYCLE

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Five Common Tools
and their Processes

ROD (EARTH)

The simple wooden stick is the progenitor of all tools, from the hammer, to the fishing rod, to the plough, to the windreed. The digging stick is one of humanity’s oldest tools, used to part the earth to gather edible roots, prepare a site for construction, and plough the land for cultivation. Larger rods served as beams, posts, and lintels for the frames for earthen dwellings. As an implement of the Earth process, the rod is associated with practicality, stability, rootedness, long-term planning, service and duty to others, hard work, honest, anxiety, and joy. Its colours are yellow, brown, beige, and orange.

Staves and poles are still used today to direct and lead people, carry their flags, and draw their attention to objects far off. The stylus, humanity’s first writing implement, evolved into pens, pencils, and brushes we use today. The magick practitioner’s wand does not have to be limited in form or function—it may be a shillelagh filled with molten lead or an inkbrush consecrated for magickal writing and illustration. The wand is thus used to hail, invite, create, plan, paint, and see ahead. It is perfect for drawing one’s intentions.

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BLADE (METAL)

Blades have existed since humans have existed. Chisels engrave and carve, scrapers prepared hides and wood, spear- and arrowheads gave humans the capacity to hunt larger prey, and knives are used to cut all sorts of materials. As an implment of the Metal process, the blade is associated with versatility, firmness, determination, strength, self-reliance, the practical considerations and application/manifestation of creativity, rationality, grief, and bravery. Its colour is white.

Knives in modern society are unfairly associated with blood and violence: chopping meat and stabbing others. But people today are simply divorced from the horticultural and creative applications of the blade: harvesting crops, tending plants, taking cuttings from plants to propagate them, leading thread (sewing needles can be thought of as very fine daggers!), and carving all sorts of art, including many of our first works of art. As a distinctly human creation, the blade is man’s most faithful tool. The blade is thus used as an extension of your intention whilst simultaneously broadening it, expanding the possibilities available to you. Blades may also be used for scrying and other forms of divination. The blade is not limited to the sole action of “cutting”.

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GLASS (WATER)

The first mirrors were simply basins full of water. The cup, chalice, and bowl are everyday objects that people have a hard time living without, because otherwise you’d have to carry all your liquids in your hands. Drinking tea, preparing a mixture, dyeing, bathing—these are all made much easier with some sort of vessel. As an implement of the Water process, the glass is associated with contemplation, quietude, wisdom, stored potential, fluidity, expectation, natural motion following contours, fear, and gentleness. Its colours are black and deep navy.

The mirror, formerly quite dark, before the invention of silver-backed glass, is known for its use for scrying, but can also collect energy, direct and amplify it, serve as active portals or windows between other planes, and deflect malevolence. As for the cup, it can be used in supplication to a spirit one works with, mark the seasons as in the traditional Chinese tea ceremony, and create and fortify bonds between others (corporeal or otherwise) as when one shares a drink from the same vessel. It is not necessary to limit oneself to just one glass. The ripples formed in a bowl of water as an object is dropped into it may also be used for divination—or even conjuration, as the object dropped may embody or be entwined with the spirit one wishes to work with. Various glasses can thus be used to examine, survey, and open gateways prior to enacting your intention, and collect, channel, and disperse (if so arranged) or share these energies as you cast your intention.

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BESOM (TREE)

The besom has been in use since humans needed to tidy up a space. Different types of besoms are used for different spaces—ceiling besoms to reach high nooks and crannies and cobwebs, whisk besoms to brush off clothes, hearth besoms to sweep the ashes of a fireplace. A kind of besom often neglected by modern witches is the bath besom. Softened by soaking and steam, these aromatic besoms are used for massage in a sauna or a hot, steamy bath. Depending on the medicinal plants used, the besom may relax, stimulate, or have other effects on the person receiving the massage. Most people today do not have access to bathhouses, fresh aromatic plants, the young saplings needed to make such a flexible besom, or the time to take a proper bath, so this isn’t a surprise. As an implement of the Tree process, the besom is associated with growth, vitality, cooperation, fecundity, optimism, strength and flexibility, spontaneity, the natural anger stemming from impatience and empathy, and kindness. Its colours are the spectra between blue and green.

The modern popular image of a witch riding a broom is the sanitised mediaeval Church stereotype of the wicked, antisocial cunning woman masturbating as she makes a pact with the devil. That’s one way one could use a besom, though the besom is more typically used to banish and ward off malevolent and destructive spirits and energies, not seduce them. Many find it helpful to dedicate a special besom for their altar. The domestic and medicinal character of the besom open it up to a wide range of cleansing, renewing, and regenerative applications. Thus, the besom can be used to prepare the practitioner for either the start of conclusion of a day’s labour, and to maintain the health and spirit of both themself and the home.

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CAULDRON (FIRE)

Any vessel used to contain fire to heat up its contents for consumption is included in my definition of “cauldron”. This includes giant conch shells, tightly woven cooking baskets, cooking rocks that hold heat well and evenly, and the samovar—almost the whole range of cookware. With the popular impression of Macbeth’s weird sisters, many may find my definition to be unacceptably broad, but humans were cooking and concocting things long before the invention of the cast iron pot, a rare item in many homes now. As an implement of the Fire process, the cauldron is associated with passion, warmth, enterprise, dynamism, enthusiasm, change between states, consumption, generation, confidence and the aggression associated with confidence, hate, and resolve. Its colour is red.

Very few people today own cast iron three-footed wide-bellied pots, but as long as one has something to cook with—even a microwave, as horrible as it is at evenly heating up water molecules—, it is possible to make one’s own medicines, poultices, and potions. One may obtain a miniature cast iron cauldron and use only that dedicated pot for magickal purposes, or one may imbue the meals one routinely cooks in their electric pressure cooker with the properties of selectively chosen herbs and other ingredients. Cauldrons are also useful for scrying and divination with oil, melted wax dripped into water, and loose tea leaves floating on the surface. The transformative power of the heat in a cauldron suit it for the extraction and activation of magickal properties and energies of items both edible and inedible.

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