The Witch's Broom: The Craft, Lore & Magick of Broomsticks

By Deborah Blake

Take a magickal flight into the history, tradition, and modern uses of broomsticks. Whether sweeping the floors or helping with spells, rituals, and crafts, the broom is a more versatile tool than you ever imagined.

Join Deborah Blake on a journey through the ages, exploring why broomsticks and witches have always been an inseparable pair. Enjoy broom lore, insights from well-known witchy authors, and instructions for buying or making your own for special occasions. From besoms to broomcorn, The Witch's Broom is the perfect guide for adding a new facet to your magickal practice. Have a nice flight!

Praise:
"[A] clear, lucid, and ethical guide to the art of the broom."—Judika Illes, author of The Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells

• Language: English
• Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
• Release date: Apr 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9780738739748

Deborah Blake

Deborah Blake is the author of over a dozen books on modern Witchcraft, including The Eclectic Witch’s Book of Shadows, The Little Book of Cat Magic and The Everyday Witch's Coven, as well as the acclaimed Everyday Witch Tarot and Oracle decks. She has also written three paranormal romance and urban fantasy series for Berkley, and as well as a cozy mystery series about a run-down pet rescue. Deborah lives in a 130 year old farmhouse in upstate New York with numerous cats who supervise all her activities, both magical and mundane. She can be found at DeborahBlakeAuthor.com.

Book preview

broom lore

do not sweep toward the front door

or you will sweep out your good luck

Photo by Bobbie Hodges

Deborah Blake has published numerous articles in Pagan publications, including Llewellyn annuals, and has an ongoing column in Witches & Pagans magazine. Her award-winning short story, Dead and (Mostly) Gone, is included in the Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction: 13 Prize Winning Tales (Llewellyn, 2008). This is her seventh book published by Llewellyn. She has been interviewed on television, radio, and podcast, and can be found online on Facebook, Twitter, and deborahblakeauthor.com. When not writing, Deborah runs the Artisans’ Guild, a cooperative shop she founded with a friend in 1999, and also works as a jewelry maker. She lives in a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural upstate New York with five cats who supervise all her activities, both magickal and mundane.

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

The Witch’s Broom: The Craft, Lore & Magick of Broomsticks © 2014 by Deborah Blake.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition © 2014

E-book ISBN: 9780738739748

Book design by Rebecca Zins

Cover design by Lisa Novak

Cover illustration by John Kachik/Lindgren & Smith, Inc.

Interior illustrations by Mickie Mueller

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

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Llewellyn Publications

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2143 Wooddale Drive

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www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

for my grandmother ... who proved that love was the greatest magic of all.

Contents

Introduction: A Witch and Her Broom

Chapter 1: Brooms in History, Tradition, and Lore

Chapter 2: The Witch’s Broom in Popular Culture

Chapter 3: Broom Basics

Chapter 4: A Broom of Your Own

Chapter 5: Fast and Easy Spells, Charms, Crafts, and More

Chapter 6: Specialty Brooms

Chapter 7: Brooms for Special Occasions

Chapter 8: Brooms in Ritual Use

Chapter 9: For the Young Witch

Conclusion: A Broom for Every Witch

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Runes

Recommended Reading

introduction

A Witch and Her Broom

If you ask most people to describe their idea of the typical witch, they will probably mention a tall pointy hat, long flowing robes or a dark cape, a bubbling cauldron, a black cat or two…and a broom. Whether the witch in question is the Wicked Witch of the West, with her long, crooked nose and green face, or the cheerful, blond Samantha from Bewitched, almost every one of them is shown with a broom.

There’s a reason for this. Brooms have been associated with witches and magick since the very beginning. Maybe this is because most early witches were women, and brooms were a woman’s tool. Maybe it is because there is something about the idea of flying that captures the imagination and excites the spirit.

Either way, you’ll rarely see a picture of a Halloween witch without her faithful broom, and where would Harry Potter have been without his Quidditch team, all of them zooming around on their brooms and chasing the elusive snitch? Brooms and witches go together in fiction, but they also go together in fact.

Today’s modern witch may have a vacuum for her floors, but with any luck, she will also have a broom or two for magickal use as well. Traditionally, the broom is most widely used to sweep negativity out of a ritual circle before beginning a rite or as part of a Pagan handfasting (marriage) ceremony. But its usefulness goes far beyond these common basics.

Broomstick magick can be used for cleansing, protection, preventing nightmares, bringing in love, and sweeping away illness. If you believe in the old legends, it can even be used to make rain or get rid of unwanted guests! In truth, the broom is a much more versatile and useful tool than you ever might have suspected.

Some witches have only two brooms in their houses: one for mundane housecleaning and the other for magickal work. Others may have many, from small, decorative brooms hung in the kitchen or bedroom to larger ones dedicated to particular magickal tasks. They may buy a broom and customize it with anointing oils and decorations, or they may craft one from scratch using carefully chosen supplies that each serve a purpose.

broom lore

for protection, cross two brooms

and hang them on a wall

or nail them to a door

Whether you want to add a new facet to your magickal practice, make a unique gift for one of your witchy friends, or simply explore the role of brooms in Witchcraft past and present, I hope that this book will be both fun and educational.

Have a nice flight!

[contents]

chapter

1

Brooms in History,

Tradition, and Lore

No one knows who invented the first broom—probably some poor woman whose Neanderthal husband dragged in a dead prehistoric bird, leaving a trail of feathers and blood all over her nice clean cave. Either way, bundles of twigs, plant stalks, and other natural fibers have been used since ancient times to sweep floors and hearths. Brooms were even mentioned in the Bible (although not in conjunction with witches).

The earliest brooms were known as besoms. They were often made of birch twigs tied to a stick of hazel or chestnut wood. Twigs or straw were bound to the shaft with strips of pliable willow bark or rope. As you might imagine, these types of brooms wore out rapidly and made almost as much mess as they were trying to clean up.

A birch twig besom tied to a stick and bound with strips of willow bark

In Anglo-Saxon England, broom making was a specialty of besom squires, but for the most part, people made their own brooms out of whatever materials were available and replaced them as often as necessary.

In the late 1700s, Benjamin Franklin introduced a new plant to the United States: broomcorn. Not actually a member of the corn family, although it can be mistaken for it at a distance, broomcorn is actually an upright grass of the sorghum species (Sorghum vulgare or Sorghum bicolor variety techicum for you science geeks). The stalk of the plant can grow up to fifteen feet high and was the part used to create the brooms that were the precursors of the ones we use today.

It is thought that broomcorn first originated in Africa, then spread to the Mediterranean. Benjamin Franklin was said to have found a single seed on a whiskbroom given to him by a friend. He planted it, and, for a time, it became a garden novelty in Philadelphia and the surrounding area. Then, in 1797, a Massachusetts farmer named Levi Dickinson began to make brooms out of his crop by tying a round bunch of broomcorn to a stick and weaving it into place. His creations caught on, and by 1800, Dickinson and his sons were selling their new brooms across the Northeast.

The next big shift came after the Shakers, a Christian religious sect, figured out a way to make the broom flat and used wire to fasten the broomcorn fiber more securely to the staff. That flat broom is no doubt nearly identical to the one you have in your kitchen today.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that broomcorn will grow almost anywhere and is very drought-resistant, harvesting it for brooms is very labor intensive. More than half of the broomcorn used to manufacture mass-market brooms now comes from Mexico.

However, it is possible to find locally grown and crafted brooms; there are a couple of craftsmen in my area who do it, and the art of broom making is demonstrated every summer at the Farmers’ Museum in nearby Cooperstown, New York.

When looking for a broom to clean your floors, it probably doesn’t matter where it came from or who made it as long as it does a good job. For magickal work, however, it may be worth the effort it takes to seek out one created by hand or make one yourself, either with broomcorn or something else. But don’t worry—I don’t expect you to grow a field of broomcorn!

Brooms have been associated with marriage throughout history, probably because they are a tool that is so tied to the hearth and home. Couples have been jumping the broom during handfastings and weddings in various cultures for centuries. During the expansion of the American frontier, when ordained clergymen were scarce, it was common to make a marriage official by jumping the broom in front of witnesses. Likewise, African American slaves, who weren’t allowed by their masters to legally marry, carried forward the folk practices of their homelands and jumped over a broom instead.

Broom magick for cleansing and purification is an obvious purpose that crosses over all cultural lines, and the broom is widely used for protection as well. But these basics are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the lore and uses associated with the common, everyday broom.

You may never look at one the same way again.

real witches,

real brooms:

C. S. MacCath

the common broom and the common rush served similar functions in the pre-modern European home. The broom could be bundled and used for sweeping, while the rush could either be strewn on the floor to keep it clean or bundled and used for a variety of household purposes. So it stands to reason that rituals inspired by these mundane tools would also be similar and centered on themes of cleansing and regeneration.

My favorite of these historical rituals is an Irish threshold rite honoring Brigid at Imbolc, a time of renewal. In County Wexford as late as the nineteenth century, the man of the house would go out after sunset on the eve of St. Brigid’s Day and gather rushes while a feast was prepared inside.

When the feast was ready, he would take the bundled rushes on a sunwise circuit around the house, stopping at the door to say, Go down on your knees, open your eyes, and let St. Brigid in. In reply, those inside would do as he commanded and say, She is welcome. She is welcome.

Twice more he would take the rushes around the house, and twice more the same call and response would occur at the door. When this part of the ritual was complete, he would bring the rushes inside, put them under the table, and feast with his family.

Afterward, the rushes were used to make Brigid’s crosses, which were hung in every room of the home as a blessing for the coming year.

Many elements of this rite are quite old in Celtic spirituality: the sunwise circuit around the house three times, the crossing of liminal space the threshold represents, the hospitality offered to a saint or god/dess, and, of course, the use of rushes to represent the holy guest. Further, while the context of the historical ritual is Christian, its bones are not, and it easily could be modernized into an Imbolc broomstick rite for two or more people. Here’s an example:

An Imbolc Broomstick Rite for Two or More

After sunset on Imbolc Eve (January 31), one celebrant should go outside, gather twigs and branches, and craft a simple broom while the others prepare a meal inside.

Once the two tasks are complete, the person outside should take the broom sunwise around the house once, stop at the front door, and knock, saying, The Lady Brigid knocks!

Those inside should answer, She is welcome! She is welcome!

This sunwise circuit around the house and the call and response should be repeated twice more, and then the broom-bearer should come in, place the broom under the table, and feast with the other celebrants. Afterward, they should all take the broom apart and make Brigid’s crosses to hang in their homes as representations of the goddess and as blessings for the coming year.

C. S. MacCath

poet and author • www.csmaccath.com

Broom Lore, Traditions, and Superstitions

As you might expect from something that has been around for centuries and can be found in almost all homes—and that has been associated with witches and magick to boot—there are plenty of superstitions, old wives’ tales, traditions, and sayings associated with the common broom. Some of these make a certain amount of sense, some are just plain silly, and a few of them contradict each other. Here are a couple of my favorites from the ones I gathered in my travels. There are others scattered throughout the book just for fun.

General Broom Lore

If you drop a broom, you’ll get company soon.

It is bad luck to move an old broom into a new house. Always buy a new one, and leave the old one behind. (This only applies to regular cleaning brooms, not ones used for magickal work.)

Placing a small broom under your pillow will keep away nightmares.

Alternately, you can sweep away nightmares by hanging a broom on the bedroom door and placing garlic under your pillow. (This one might chase away your sleeping partner, too!)

To bring rain, stand outside and swing a broom in the air over your head.

Lightning is attracted to brooms, so you can use them as lightning rods to protect your home.

It is unlucky to buy a broom in August.

Brooms bought in May sweep family away.

Brooms should be placed bristle-up (to make them last longer, but also for good luck).

Sweep toward the fireplace, if you have one.

If a family moves, it is bad luck to leave the broom behind, even if it is old. (I told you that some of

Reviews for The Witch's Broom

[Eryk Adish · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

While I think the topic has value it’s been presented here really poorly. A lot of old ideas that are now debunked are present and because the book doesn’t provide sources to support it’s content it’s impossible to sort the good information from the bad here.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

2.5/5 stars. I deducted half a star because this book is a bit padded, imo. For example, the chapter on witch's brooms in the media wasn't necessary. But when you get to the meat of the book, that is the spellcasting, then it becomes worth it. There are plenty of rituals for making your own brooms and for using them.

(Provided by publisher)