Instead of touching the bristles to the floor, sweep slightly above it and move in a counterclockwise, circular pattern. Similar to how you cleanse your home with the witch’s broom, you can cleanse your sacred space before ritual. How to Cleanse Your Sacred Space with a Besom This absorbs and sweeps away evil spirits. Old English traditions call for salt to be laid down on the floor then swept up. According to Scott Cunningham, when you acquire a new broom, the first use should sweep something positive into your home. To dump or sweep dirt out the front door invites negative energy back in. Sweep any debris out the back door OR dump your dustpan out the back door. Sweep each room, moving in a counter-clockwise fashion from room-to-room, then ending at the back door where you started. To cleanse your home of negative energy, take your witch’s broom and start at the back door. ~ Scott Cunningham, The Magical Household How to Use the Witch’s Broom to Cleanse Your Home You should NEVER sweep on a Monday, else you sweep all your money away! Also, never sweep at night, lest you disturb the spirits who walk the floors while a home’s human inhabitants sleep. In addition, the witch’s besom will function as a wand and brings prosperity and peace in one’s home. The witch’s broom can be used to cleanse your space, your home, and even a person or object of negative energy. In American folk magic, the same broom is used for house cleaning AND purifying a space. Some traditions require a witch’s broom to be dedicated solely to magical cleansing, whereas another broom is used for house cleaning. Magically, we use brooms to sweep away negative energy in our home and sacred space. Physically, we use brooms to sweep away dirt and debris. Magical Uses for the Witch BroomĪside from flying ointments, the witch broom has one main magical purpose – to purify. The goddess Frigga riding a broomstick, early mural at Schleswig Cathedral. This is a tradition that was also common with slaves in the American South and is becoming a popular wedding tradition among African Americans and pagans today. In England, a common law marriage could be sealed by the couple jumping the broomstick. Some folks also jumped the broomstick on May Day to ensure fertility. In one town in England, a broomstick sat atop the Maypole, to be danced around on May Day ensuring fertility. The broom as a male and female symbol may also have given rise to it as a fertility symbol. This could also be the origin of the phrase getting “high”. This topical ointment contained hallucinogens which resulted in witches visions of “flying” or potential astral projection. And to have intercourse it was said you were “riding the broomstick.” Some traditions claim witches anointed their broomsticks with flying ointments and inserted the broomstick into their vaginas. Interestingly, a slang term for a dildo centuries ago was a “broomstick”. The stick is the male of which is inserted into the twigs/plant matter, which is representative of the female. The broom is indeed a phallic symbol, but according to Judika Illes, it’s both male and female. The infamous Scottish witch Isobel Gowdie confessed to using a broomstick in a clever way: she’d place it in the bed so as to trick her husband into thinking it was her while she was out and about at night. In addition to the idea of witches “flying” on their broomsticks, witches were said to also dance with them around the ritual fire. Guillame Adeline, a French male witch in the fifteenth century, confessed to flying on a broomstick to the witches’ sabbat. In Witch Trial documents, witches who “confessed” to witchcraft admitted to using their brooms to fly to their sabbaths. The earliest depiction of a witch flying on a broom is a mural of the goddess Frigga in the Cathedral Schleswig, Germany (pictured below) dating to the late thirteenth century. But why? In the Dark Ages, many women were accused of witchcraft…and a broom was a household tool women used on a daily basis. ![]() Why Do Witches Use Brooms? A Sweeping Historyįor as long as there have been witches, witches have used brooms. Here we discuss witch broom history, magical uses and how to make a besom yourself. ![]() Brooms, also called besoms, have a long history in magic and continue to be used by witches today. Witches are nearly always depicted with their trusty broomsticks.
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