The Wayfaring Staff
Hazel Staffs for Wayfarers
The classic tool of a Wayfarer, a walking staff is a full logistical support solution, and a magic wand. Hazel staffs have been part of British walking culture forever. Some Wayfarers have been found buried with their staff!
Don’t clack about with Chinese aluminium, mined from the deep earth and manufactured in bleak factories. Carry a rod of pure accumulated sunshine, whose growth keeps British woodlands alive. Hazel staffs come from coppice woodlands, a wildlife-rich and ultra-sustainable method of managing woodlands which has been practiced for thousands of years, and has created the green and pleasant landscape we know as the British Isles.
Hazel is known as the tree of wisdom in old lore. Nightingales sang to it while it grew. It is the wood often used by dowsers to detect water and subtle energies. A staff will connect you to the earth despite your rubber soled shoes, and will let you tap hello to the great trees and stones you pass.
Keep your staff by the door, ready to walk out with. A staff is technology you can rely on, and an ally you can trust.
Cut your own Staff?
If you have access to coppice woodlands, or a hazel grove in your garden, you can cut and season your own. Be sure to cut the staff low to the base of the coppice stool, at an angle so water will drip away from the stool’s centre to prevent rot. It is not ideal for coppice rotations to cut a lone staff from a coppice woodland, because you’ll interfere with the patterns of shared regrowth.
Please, don’t go cutting someone else’s wood without permission. And even with human yea-say, ask the tree as well. Be willing to accept signs that say no. Make physical contact with your choice before applying the saw. Imagine holding this piece of wood for thousands of miles. Choose wisely.
Always cut your staff in the winter when the sap is down, and not in Spring when the tree is waking up. Be sure to check for nests in the branches above. If cutting your own staff causes harm to the environment, it’s an inauspicious start to your relationship with the tree of wisdom.
You may find it easier to buy a staff, cut from an ancient coppice by a lifetime woodsman, and seasoned for a few winters. I have some available…
Other wood than Hazel?
Hazel is not the only staff. Chestnut staffs are also good (for persistence), as is Blackthorn (for banishing ghouls and goblins). I have also used Oak (for durability), and Ash (for world magic), and even bamboo (for quickness). My favourite was a rod of Yew (for great change). But a river claimed this, and I wouldn’t cut a Yew tree if you paid me.
But the ‘go-to’ wood for walking staffs must be hazel, for its flexibility and strength, its linearity and the fact that the coppicing of Hazelwoods helps the trees live forever. With most other trees, a bough is a significant gift, but Hazel gives itself to the woodsman every 8 years as a natural part of its life-cycle.
Also, Hazel has a tremendous range of colour, from silver to red to blue-green. And it comes in a wide range of textures. Each staff is a micro-expression of its local terrain, a quiet story of the of soil and sunlight that made it.
I like to think that in ‘real’ terms, the staff you will carry has been growing toward you throughout its life. Its life’s destiny has always been to accompany your journeys. I also like to wonder: who is carrying who? Is the woodland taking you for a long walk, or are you taking the woodland? The answer, of course, is that you are co-creating a shared journey. It’s hard to feel anything similar about a metal hiking pole.
Staff decoration and accoutrements?
There are many traditions associated with walking staffs. You can deck them out with feathers and greenery found along the path. Carry a piece of twine to attach things if you like. Badges of sites visited were once a popular British tradition, nailed into the staff.
You can also carve designs onto your staff. Carry a small sharp knife, preferably with a fixed or locking blade (for safety). You may also want to strip off the bark from around the handle.
Some staffs are steam straightened, which makes them absolutely perfect in their linear form. Others prefer the staff to enjoy its natural idiosyncrasies, the small quirks that make each one unique.
Some people attach objects to the top of their staff. Horn is highly valued. A ferrule may also be fit on the base, a piece of metal to prevent the staff wearing down, and to add heft and balance to the staff (for various reasons). A ferrule can be made in all shapes and materials.
Some staffs are varnished, which brings out the colour and protects the wood.
Personally, I like a staff plain, the way it came from the woods. I would alwasy recommend regular champfering of a Hazel staff (trimming the edges of the base) to prevent the puffy ‘flowering’ of wood that may lead to a split, especially after prolonged use on tarmac.
The Benefits of a Staff…
1. Propel yourself
Walking mostly uses your legs and back. A walking staff adds arms and shoulders to this movement, making your walk a fuller body activity, increasing efficiency and strength. Be sure to change hands regularly - or carry two!
2. Get propped up
A backpack can be heavy, even if it is small. We are often not used to carrying weight on our upper bodies over long distances. This can cause a compensatory slumping of the neck and shoulders, by ‘leaning-in’ to the weight of our burden. A staff, offering a counter force from the front, by the prompt of its uprightness helps mitigate backpack slump, and ensures your walking posture is upright, healthy and strong.
3. Reach (forbidden) fruit
The dangled blessings of Autumn boughs are far easier to reach with the help of a few foot of wooden staff. Persuading the juiciest apple to leap from the branch is easier with a long-range tree-tickler. Be careful not to strike the fruit themselves, but tap the branch just above. And be ready to catch!
4. Better Balance
When the ground is slippery, sloping or uncertain, a walking staff becomes crucial health and safety equipment. An extra point of contact with the ground keeps you upright, widens your stance and dramatically improves your balance. This is especially useful when navigating the edge of deep puddles. It is also true for going low. Holding a staff offers the confidence to get closer to the ground more often, especially for older Wayfarers.
5. Identify as a Wayfarer/Pilgrim
The staff is a signal of deep peregrine intent. Nothing says ‘wayfarer/pilgrim’ like it. Like a theatrical prop, the staff upgrades your journey from stroll to significant journey. This allows others to recognise your walk and be inspired by its freedom. It also helps give people the confidence to approach you and enquire of your journey. This can lead to offers of accommodation, cups of tea, and advice on secret local good spots.
6. Keep your shelter up
If you carry a tarp (a lightweight alternative to a tent) as your shelter, you can use your staff as a fixing point to rig up your shelter securely, and keep you out of wind and rain.
7. Stop tumbles
It can be very easy to go over on an ankle and cause twists and wrenches, which may quickly end your journey and make a potentially dangerous situation. Carrying a staff has on countless occasions let me to prevent an ankle roll from going too far, and rescued me from potential injury by the swift emergency placement of my staff. You’ll deploy it before you even notice what you are doing. The body knows best…
8. Protection from wild beasts
There are not many boar and wolves on the footpaths of Britain these days. Or venomous snakes. But be reassured that you may enjoy protection if you are lucky enough to encounter animal threats. I have found that swooshing my stick through the air, or banging it on fence-posts, can help dissuade marauding cattle. I’m reticent to suggest the same thing works with human threats, because although many would-be aggressors will seek an easier victim than a person carrying a wooden staff, every stick has two ends.
9. Connect with Earth
Most of us walk in rubber soled shoes, which insulate us from connection with the earth. Yet many of us hope to achieve through walking a closer connection with nature. The staff can help, as it conducts electricity, allowing a constant connection with the energies of the path. Wooden rods – often hazel – are used by dowsers to detect water and subtle energies. Tap your staff on an electric fence, and you will feel the direct connection. To avoid floating ghost-like through the landscape, carry a staff. Be there more. Some folk speak of their staff leaving an invisible kinetic tattoo of their journey through the landscape.
10. Play combat games
One of my favourite staff combat games is called ankle-tap, an old game possibly played by native Britons when Saxon invaders forbade the carrying of weapons. Tap the ground three times each to start a bout, and always keep two hands on the staff, while each of you tries to tap the other between ankle and knee. Don’t go in too hard, as the more aggressive your lunge, the more open to counter-attack you will be. Tap the ground three times again to end.
11. Parts seas of nettles/brambles
Sometimes the way ahead is blocked. A staff helps you do a Moses, and part the thorny seas.
12. Test puddle depths
Before putting your foot in, is that a puddle or a lake? Going knee deep can soak your boots and potentially cause trouble with wet socks and blisters. A staff can explore the hidden depths before you stride boldly forward.
13. Spinning sacred circles
Once you find the balanced centre of your staff, you can make eternal circles with it. This technique is used in cultures around the world to greet the sun, at rising and setting, and to grow strength and flexibility. It is a meditative circus art that is deeply satisfying and beautifully complex. I recommend doing this on hilltops at sunset. You can spin a staff flatly, like a helicopter rotor, as well as vertically, from head to foot. Practice makes better! You can improve a staff’s spin quality by tying a sock to each end, which adds momentum.
14. Staff meetings
If you are walking with other people, having a ritualised call for closeness and feedback is very useful. If a bad feeling needs to be aired or felt fully, or if a concern has arisen which needs facing, I recommend the call of ‘staff meeting’. Face each other and place the ends of your staffs in contact in the middle. Then take turns to speak (ideally moving clockwise around the circle). When you are done, raise your staffs, still in contact, upward until they separate and point like a forest to the sky. It’s a good way to meet.
15. Choose your way forward
If you cannot be sure which turn to take, ask your staff to decide for you. Choose an end, and either spin the staff in the air above your head, or stand it perfectly straight with one end on the ground. Then let it fall, and follow the proffered direction.
16. Knock at great doors (and prevent them slamming shut)
When I am faced with a church door who may or may not be locked, I often like to knock first to help even the odds (‘knock and the door will be opened unto you’). This is a surprisingly effective technique. Having a staff to rap rap rap with is always better than a fleshy thump. Another sub-use is the prevention of slamming doors. Sliding your staff in the corner just before a heavy door slams prevents the possibility of squashing fingers, and also unseemly crashes.
17. Hit small objects
As a game to play when you are resting, if you find a nut or a small object (a dog’s tennis ball can be fun) practice the art of hitting. It’s like jedi baseball. This works best without a backpack on. When you achieve a connection, and the conkers soars toward infinity, you will feel like a legendary sportsperson. I usually find that the emptier my mind, the better the success. Also, simple mantra can help. But if I am trying to show off with this, I almost always fail. It’s a good ego checker.
18. Stretch deeply
Many arm, shoulder and back stretches become far easier with a rod of hazel to push against. I am particularly fond of ‘the Indian Stick Trick’, which opens up the back in unforeseen ways.
19. Resting Stances
As you chat with newly met strangers on the path, staff in hand, you will find quite unconsciously that your pose becomes ancient and classic. Bid farewell to standing around awkwardly, not knowing what to do with your hands. The staff creates new resting poses that are heroic and natural (and photogenic).
20. Covid distancing
A modern use, but a crucial one. Keep your regulated distance from folk coughing around you. If uncertainties arise about appropriate distance, your staff shall answer all questions. Try not to bop folk.
21. Help to rise (requesting and offering)
Sometimes, especially with a backpack on, you need help to rise from awkward spots. The staff is a perfect tool for this.
22. Malevolence avoidance.
In my experience, the spirits of random malevolence who roam the streets for victims, are more likely to look elsewhere if you wield a meter and a half of sturdy hazel. But be careful with signalling this too strongly, because as the saying goes, every stick has two ends. And carrying a staff with the intention of self-defence makes it an illegal weapon in the UK. So you might hold this sense of self-protection within, and cherish it, but do your very best not to ever use it.
23. Poo clearing
A civic duty for Wayfarers. Some dog owners leave their detritus in the path. If you step over and leave it behind, you become partly responsible. Instead, use the end of your staff to flick it into the bushes. You can clean your staff in grass and puddles afterward. Improve the way - but without getting too close! This long distance contact capacity of a staff is also useful for a range of other ‘touch but don’t touch’ scenarios - like jellyfish on the beach - and roadkill animals.
24. Walk in the dark
There is good reason that blind people use a stick for walking. It allows forewarning of obstacles when your eyes cannot be relied upon. At night, when the moon is dark, if you are walking, use your staff to prod and feel the ground ahead of you. This can prevent serious accidents! Best, of course, is to use a torch. But sometimes, this is not available or suitable. In which case, let your staff be your eyes!
25. Test electric fences
Because wood is a conductor, if you need to hop a fence (perhaps feeling pressure from livestock?) you might want to ensure the electric current is not on. An easy and safe way to do so is with your staff. It will allow the shock to be felt, but will also resist it, lessening the buzz.
26. Draw in the sand and mud
A staff allows the quick and easy leaving of artworks in soft ground. Draw symbols, names and images to your heart’s delight. Graffiti without impact, to leave a more beautiful path behind you.
27. Catch flyaway litter
Sometimes flying rubbish gets caught in the wind and zooms away. It can be nearly impossible to grab this with your body, but a staff can slam down at precisely the right spot to arrest that crisp packet or chocolate wrapper. On one very windy day, I once caught a flying road sign in London with my staff, which drew surprised applause from witnessing commuters. Don’t let rubbish get away.
28. Let it go
At the end of your journey, you may feel that your staff has become an extension of yourself, almost a part of your body. You’ll be able to recognise the feeling, weight and shape of your staff even blindfolded. So a good practice ‘can’ be to reach your destination, and let your staff go. This is advanced work, and certainly not for everyone. But it is a good rehearsal for the ultimate end of journey we all face, death, when the body we love will also have to be let go of. Perhaps trying it first with a staff (which can be replaced) is a good way to get used to the feeling of surrender and release?
Renewable ancient technology from the green heart of our land.
Get your staff today.
