The broom, also known as a “besom” and often made from tree branches, is a symbol of cleansing, protection, and a connection to nature and magic. It has been used in rituals and ceremonial contexts since ancient times, with ancient Egypt and Europe using brooms to sweep away negative energy and purify spaces. In modern witchcraft, brooms are used as ceremonial tools for cleansing and warding off evil spirits.
The broomstick is constructed from two parts: the handle is a phallic symbol, and the brush end is made from the broom herb (a feminine herb). Symbolically, brooms represent transformation and purification, often used to sweep away negativity in rituals. Modern witchcraft may employ brooms as ceremonial tools for cleansing and warding off evil spirits.
If a witch’s broom falls in front of your door, it means that you will have company. After the broom has fallen, do not walk over it. If you do happen to walk over the broom, it signifies that you will have company.
The association of besoms with witchcraft and magic can be traced back to the early modern period, when the persecution of witches was at its peak. Images of witches flying brooms, sitting on or side saddles like horses, can be seen flying through the air past the door. Brooms can also be a component of spells to reverse the history of witchcraft.
Most witches see brooms as a decorative way to honor the history of witchcraft, rather than anything practical or symbolic. The broomstick has a long history in magic and continues to be used by witches today.
📹 Why Do Witches Ride Brooms?
A popular icon of witchcraft, the witches’ broomstick has roots in pagan fertility rituals, broomstick dances, and accounts of witches …
Are brooms bad luck?
Moving should be avoided as it can bring bad luck. It is also advised not to step over a broom, even if it is necessary to pick it up. Some people place a broom across the door, especially on Halloween, to prevent witches from entering the house. However, this is not a valid reason as witches would already know that stepping over a broom brings good luck. A story from Judy Bastien, a journalist from South Louisiana, shows a man courting two sisters who store their brooms with the bristles up, demonstrating their frugality and tendency to keep it from wearing out.
What is witches broom symptom?
Witches’ brooms are an abnormal proliferation of twigs and branches in the crown of plants, typically growing from a central source and resembling a broom. These brooms can be small or large, and a single tree may have one or several. Symptoms include dense tangled twigs and side-shoots, disorganized growth, dwarfed, discolored, or disfigured leaves, and may appear on hornbeams or other plants.
What does a broom represent spiritually?
Jesus used the broom as a metaphor to explain the mysteries of redemption. He compared it to a woman who loses one silver coin and diligently searches for it, calling her friends and neighbors to rejoice. This metaphor exemplifies the joy of repentance and the angels of God over a sinner who repents. The rabbi, in this teaching, is the fretful woman who sweeps by lamplight, bringing forth dust and precious items from neglected corners. She throws a party to celebrate and memorialize an eminently forgettable occasion, showcasing the importance of repentance and the joy it brings to those who repent.
What is the significance of the broomstick?
Broomsticks, often associated with witchcraft, were once holy instruments used in ritual purification ceremonies to sweep out bad energy. In Japanese folklore, brooms were used to purify a room and could be seen sweeping away leaves on windy days. In the Antebellum period, slaves’ weddings often included the ritual, as they were not legally allowed to marry. In later years, African American couples continued the tradition of “jumping the broom”, which involves the couple jumping over a broom to symbolize a new beginning. The tradition began with slaves’ weddings during the Antebellum period and has continued to be practiced by African American couples today.
Why shouldn’t you broom at night?
In Hindu mythology, certain habits should be avoided during the night to gain blessings from Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and knowledge. These bad habits can make the goddess unhappy and cause financial problems. Gurudev Shrie Kashyap, founder/chairman of All India Institute of Occult Science and True Vastu, suggests several things to avoid during the night for prosperity.
- Sleep with open hair or wash or comb hair at night. Negative energies remain around us after sunset, making it more susceptible to negative energies. Sleeping with open hair is considered inauspicious.
- Keep unwashed utensils in the kitchen at night. Dirty utensils can cause poverty and permanent debt. To invite Goddess Lakshmi into your house, keep the kitchen neat and clean.
- Donate milk, curd, salt, and sugar (mainly white things) to Lakshmi, as this may enrage her and lead to financial issues and instability.
- Do not cut nails and hair at night. It is believed that Goddess Lakshmi enters the home at night, leaving dirt in the house, which is considered disrespectful.
- Do not clean your house during the night time. Morning broom sweeping is considered fortunate in Vastu Shastra.
- Do not wash or dry clothes at night. Negative energy enters clothing when it is spread out in the open sky after sunset. When clothes are dried in the sun, they lose their negative energy and gain a new, positive energy inside.
In conclusion, adhering to these practices can help bring blessings to oneself and others, ultimately benefiting both the family and the goddess.
Why are brooms associated with witches?
The method of riding was found to be highly efficacious, as it resulted in a sensation of lightness in the feet.
What is the folklore about brooms?
It is considered auspicious to place a broom on its handle, while placing it under a dining room table is thought to ensure a bountiful meal. Additionally, sweeping away bad dreams is believed to be beneficial, and standing a broom behind the door of a room is a traditional method of deterring overstaying guests.
What is the story of the little broomstick?
Mary Smith, a young British girl, is rescued by a mysterious black cat, Tib, who leads her to a strange flower in the woods. When she discovers a broomstick in her garden, she is astonished to feel it react to her. This book, published in 1972, is a blend of J. K. Rowlings’ Hogwarts school and Dracula’s castle, showcasing Mary Stewart’s mastery of suspense and unsettling moods. The book features a chase scene on broomsticks across the moonlit countryside, showcasing the terrifying and fascinating nature of magic.
Mary Smith is bored staying with her elderly aunt in the country while her parents are away for work in the US. Tib, a charming and mysterious cat, leads her to a patch of fly-by-night flowers in the woods. When the crushed pollen of the fly-by-night on her fingers touches a broomstick in her garden, Mary is transported into a world of magic and danger. The book is a magical and swift read that explores themes of magic, danger, and the dangers of everyday life.
Why are witches associated with brooms?
Anthologist Robin Skelton suggests that the association between witches and brooms may have originated from a pagan fertility ritual where rural farmers would dance astride poles, pitchforks, or brooms during the full moon to encourage crop growth. This “broomstick dance” became confused with accounts of witches flying through the night for orgies and illicit meetings. Broomsticks were also believed to be the perfect vehicles for witches to brew special ointments and salves to give themselves the ability to fly.
In 1324, when Lady Alice Kyteler was tried for sorcery and heresy, investigators found a pipe of ointment in her house. Pharmacologist David Kroll suggests that alleged witches in the Middle Ages concocted their brews from plants like Atropa belladonna, Hyoscyamus niger, Mandragora officinarum, and Datura stramonium, which would have produced hallucinogenic chemicals known as tropane alkaloids.
Is witches broom bad?
Witch’s broom, a dense bunch of twigs growing on a tree or shrub, is not harmful in most cases, according to Sharon Yiesla, plant knowledge specialist at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle. The term “witch’s broom” originated in the Middle Ages, when brooms were often made of twigs and thought to be caused by bad magic. However, it can result from various diseases or insects, and some trees are prone to them for different reasons.
Sycamores are typically affected by anthracnose fungal disease, while hackberry trees are affected by a powdery mildew fungus and a tiny worm-like mite. Roses are often affected by a virus that infects the plant with rose rosette disease.
What is witch broom?
Witches’ brooms are structural deformities often seen as disease symptoms in trees or woody plants, caused by various organisms such as nematodes, insects, mites, oomycetes, fungi, viruses, and phytoplasma. These deformities are typically observed in trees or woody plants. ScienceDirect uses cookies and holds copyright for all content, including text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies, under the Creative Commons licensing terms.
📹 Broomsticks – History and Use in Witchcraft║Witchcraft 101
See More ☾ Broomsticks have been engrained in culture as one of the most iconic symbols of the witch. But where did the idea of …
Interesting, that slavic witches fly not only on a broomsticks. They also use kocherga(device for raking burning wood in a stove and stirring coals), bread shovel, oven fork. Also the oldest Kievan witch fly to the sabath on the giant pestle. Baba Yaga(the lower goddess-witch) flies on giant iron mortar and uses pestle as rudder
Pls all people listen carefully, Firstly i make fun of the witch 🧹 broom culture .i thought its imaginery. But in Pakistan my cousin sis see a witch old wrinkled lady,sitting on a tree and than start flying with wooden stick. She suffer in this situation,for 2years But now she is ok .than i realised that those images of witch are not fake,its real kind of entity
Quick reminder for Mexicans and Chicanos who practice old ways. We had Earth/witch goddesses. Tlazolteotl and Toci. They too are represented by brooms. Malinalli is the grass used to construct them. Their time of year on the Aztec calendar is Ochpaniztli meaning “Sweeping” in Nahuatl. This is a powerful time of the Godess. It corresponds to September in the modern calendar. This time “sweeps” through preparing for the harvest time.
I sweep the floor with my broom before a ritual, I like having a tactile feeling of it. As for marriage here in Norway you have to get married before a judge and then you can have whatever religious ceremony you wish, many are trying to get all marriage that way to make it fair for all religions, but for now the big religions can still marry folks.
Thanks for your article, and talking responsibly about the flying ointments. I have experience with a few different psychedelics over my 50+ years, and this has never included deliriants like Datura (thorn-apple), so I am not talking about my own experience. The reason I am commenting is to check about how witches applied the ointments with the broomsticks? I had heard/read that they applied it internally, in a sexually heated way. The internal membranes are way more absorptive than the external skin, so this does make a lot of sense. It also gives a completely different angle to the witches (vigorously!) riding their broomsticks. The effects were IMO likely to be similar to the tales of Carlos Castaneda (I forget which medicine he used for this, but it could have been mescaline or devils root) and growing legs so gigantic that he could walk vast distances in a few steps. The concoctions of witches will be a whole different creation and process, but the effects likely to give them the power of inner flight.
the psychedelic ointments were most easily absorbed through an orifice. Because the mucus membrane of the vagina is a large easily accessible orifice, there are accounts of them rubbing the broomsticks with the ointment then riding it for faster absorption. There is some history not taught in school. The placement above, next to the door or under the bed for protection makes sense because that is where most weapons in the home would be keep for easy access. Being vertical with the handle down and bristles up would also be the way you would physically hold it as a weapon or light it as a torch if needed.
I know is out of topic but it does relates to the broom stick been searching all over the place but haven´t been succesful on it: When practicing you are responsible for your self and for others to harm no one ( I know sounds on the grey area ) but not every one follows our paths or have the same beliefs, with that said… How can you clear your space with the besom for other ppl that are moving into to your former home leaving it ready and free from all your magickal energy and for you being ready ” packed up energetically to move out “. If you find this question to personal I will understand, if ok with it BIG THANK YOU for answering it. Blessed be! =)
So, I don’t know if this is only our country thing, but in my country on 13th december which is Lucy name, All women named Lucy going from house to house in white clothes with white wings cleaning out all corners. Somebody is saying is because of St. Lucia and somebody is saying that Lucia was a witch. Can anyone tell me more about that? Funny thing is, I’m Lucy too, I always did that as “fun thing” when I was young. Grandparents was always happy when I did that in their houses. Nowadays, I found out, that I’m not only Lucy (who is for some christians a witch) I was also born on Imbolc.
Found this very informative. I was taught to sweep from back of house clock wisely going toward the front and out. And to clean the floors in the same way. There also was a use for single straws . Don’t remember now. As well as soaking the straw to rejuvenate it, bring life back to it. I think salt water. These were just old ways no mention of witch craft. Barring the way of a door.. so interesting.
This is a lovely article. Very informative! The only thing I would disagree with is that most modern people don’t have brooms in their homes. They do for the ease and quickness of it. The areas that can be covered, except for thick carpets, the lack of noise and expense. Vacuums have their place but by and large the broom still rules… Thanks again for sharing your article!