To the Celts, ash was a wood of balance, containing energy from which wands of personal power were crafted. This is because ash is strong, and even its most slender limbs are hard to break.

To make your wand, begin your search for an ash limb with which to make your wand well before the Ash Moon. When you find one, sand away its bark and dress it with a light coat of purifying olive oil. Once the oil is absorbed, you may decorate the wand to personal taste. To seal the wand as a tool of personal power, one representing the center point of all creation, dedicate it to its task under the full Ash Moon. Visualize yourself at the center of the universe and ask the moon’s blessing upon the wand. Hold the wand high and see it as a conduit though which can pass all the energy that is, was, or ever will be must pass, so that you can use it in your magic and ritual.

Qualities associated with ash include wisdom and spiritual knowledge when meditated upon.

Oak, ash and thorn were called the Faerie Triad.

Ash is often used for the shaft of a witch’s broom stick.

When ash is cut, it releases a red sap resembling blood.

In Norse cosmology, the giant ash tree — Yggdrasil — was the axis point upon which the universe spun. Yggr was one of the many names of Odin, and the usual interpretation is 'Horse of Yggr', since Odin in a sense rode the tree when he hung upon it. The tree is repeatedly called 'the ash Yggdrasil', and a possible reason for the choice of an ash might be the bunches of 'keys' which hang from the branches like bodies of tiny men, recalling the practice of hanging sacrificial victims from trees.

The ash has also peculiarly wide-spreading roots, and in descriptions of the tree its roots are said to extend to various regions of the Underworld. The roots of Yggdrasil are said to extend into different realms. According to the poem Grímnismál, Hel, the abode of the dead, lay under one of them, Jotunheim, land of giants, beneath another, and the world of men under a third, implying that these realms lay side by side, while that of the gods was above, in the sky.

The Ash was a sacred chieftain tree, believed to "court the flash" since it was prone to be struck by lightning. The wood of the Ash was thought to be enchanted and was used by the Druids to fashion wands and spears. Its twigs were placed in circles as a protection from snakes, while witches would use the timber as handles for their broomsticks. Children would be passed through the branches of an Ash in order that they might be protected and to cure them from illness. Ash leaves were placed under pillows to induce prophetic dreams or placed in bowls of water to ward off ailments. The Celts believed that the Ash originated in the Great Deep or the Undersea Land of Tethys. It belongs to the trilogy of sacred Irish trees (the other two being the Oak and the Hawthorn) and is said to offer particular protection from death by drowning. The seeds of the Ash have long been used in love divination. If the seeds did not appear on a certain tree, then its owner was thought to have been unlucky in love or a future venture would be unsuccessful. In Northern England, it was once believed that if a woman placed an Ash leaf in her left shoe, then she would be fortunate enough to immediately meet her future spouse.