My magic wand

“The wand chooses the wizard”

This workshop was born with the purpose of recognizing the right importance to the magical thinking in the child.
What for us adults is only an evasive mechanism in the face of a reality impossible to deal with in the child takes instead a necessary and dual value.
While on the one hand it certainly constitutes a defense from a still alien and fearsome world on the other in the weaving of children’s fantastic stories there is a creative and courageous act that should not be belittled or punished but rather welcomed and respected.
It is in this perspective that it is possible to understand the attraction of children to the magical world of fairy tales in which the success of the protagonists makes use of spells and other fabulous gimmicks.
Among the most significant elements of this narrative is certainly the magic object par excellence: the wand. It is that stick that symbolizes and encloses the resolving force against any opponent, the sign of the magician’s supernatural power.
From Merlin to Harry Potter, each of them has its own unique and personal magic wand, as well as each child is endowed with an exclusive and extraordinary inner strength to resort to face all the challenges that arise.

Performance

1) Introduction to magic

The workshop opens with a first introductory phase on the magical world, especially on the most famous magicians and the magic wand tool.
With simplicity and delicacy we will bring attention to the symbolic elements such as the type of wood it is made of, the size or the decorations so as to arrange in children a creative alphabet to express during the subsequent realization of their personal wand.
Finally, before moving on to the practical phase, we will also focus on the meaning and importance of the magic formula and the gestures associated with each spell as a psychomagical act necessary to evoke the supernatural forces that will support the magician in his enterprise against threatening opponents and invincible fears.

2) The magic wand

The second phase of the workshop takes place, possibly, outdoors and consists in the search for the wooden stick that will become the magic wand.
In this phase we will observe the nature with particular attention to the trees researching the names of the plants and the magical properties of the type of wood according to the saga of Harry Potter.
Once the stick is chosen, we proceed with the selection of materials with which we will decorate it: leather ribbons for the handle, mineral stones to be set, feathers made with wool or paper, beads and shells, etc.
Linked to the importance of the magic formula, during this phase children will also be invited to find the spell to channel their magical powers against what scares them most.

3) The spell

Once the wands are completed, we will all sit in a circle and each child will take turns describing his personal fear and staging the spell he invented to neutralize it.
Protected by the comforting banks of magical thinking, children will find space to express and better manage their emotional instances and to develop the premises conducive to a harmonious transition to rational logical thinking.