“Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember…” – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Every Journey gives you tools.  Famous Journeys usually create famous tools:

Ruby Slippers
Light Saber
Harry Potter’s Wand from Olivander’s
The Sword from the Stone: Excalibur

The tools you get for your Journey may never become as emblematic as those I listed above, but you will never know until you undertake your own Journey.

In the classic stories, a mentor or ally provides the hero with a magical tool that will help her on her Journey.  But what if your mentor hasn’t given you a light saber to use? What can you do?

1.  Ask your mentor/allies for a tool.  Mentors can get busy.  All of that wisdom can be time-consuming to sort through.  Ask her for a tool to help you.  Ask all of your allies for help. Your allies will love to help.  Tell them what you are doing and that you need a magical tool to help you on your Hero’s Journey.  You may get more than one tool this way.  And it will be the best girlfriends’ dinner you all ever had.
2.  Look around for a tool right where you are.  My favorite technique is to voice, “I’ll never find the tool I need!”  I stomp a bit in frustration, but then, it’s like I can hear the universe sigh, and she kicks a tool right into my path.  Look around you. The tools are there.  Your biggest challenge is to let go of what you think your tool should be.
3.  Make your own tool. You know the first magic wand was provided by a tree–not a store.  You can do the same thing.  See YouTube for assistance. You can make your own cape, your own diadem, your own ring.  You can bedazzle your own shoes or decorate your own mirror.  The best feature of making your own tool is you put your intentions and self into the object (skin, sweat, tears, etc…) while you are making it.  It is then uniquely yours.

The most important factor for your magical tool is it’s never really about the tool.  It’s the power, person and intention wielding the tool. Our characters didn’t learn that until the very end of their tale.  I’m reminding you now so you go into your Journey knowing it. Don’t ever forget it.

Photo by Natalya Letunova on Unsplash