Category: Religion and Spirituality
Theme: World Spiritual Practices A to Z
Besom. Most of us have at least one in our homes. Some of us have several, though I wonder if many know the full use of this Pagan tool, usually associated with witches, good and bad, and, of course, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
A Besom is a broom; a primitive broom made of natural resources: The best would be a merging of Willow, Hawthorne and Birch. I have four Besoms. Two are not made of natural fiber, and probably completely synthetic, one for outside, one for inside. The third besom I purchased in Salem, Massachusetts at a wonderful metaphysical shop nearly 20 years ago. The fourth besom sits on my hearth, to brush away ashes, stray bark and negative energy.
Besom's are considered a witch's preferred method of transportation, many believe that a broom will assist one in astral travel! Folklore tells us that flying with one's broom was a hallucination brought on by the use of Belladonna, a hallucinogenic.
Witches would 'fly' around on their Besom, blessing crops, encouraging growth and high yield. Pagan practice really was to run and leap through the fields while straddling a broom. It was probably the non-pagan observers, sipping their whiskey, who thought there was flying happening.
Warlocks, male witches, apparently frowned on Besoms (brooms) and rode on pitchforks! Even Pagans had their idiosyncratic tendencies about tools (broom being a woman's tool, a pitchfork being more macho). Kind of like a Toyota Corolla or MiniVan being a good car for a woman and an obnoxiously loud diesel pick-up truck being a real-man's means of transportation.
Besoms are often hung above a doorway to prevent negative energy from entering a home or a room. My family places a broom in front of the house's entry to keep evil away. They are also used in hand-fasting ceremonies, jumping the broom in African-American weddings, left under the bed for protection, and sweeping away negative energies.
Warning: If you are trying to attract fairies into your home, do not hang the broom above your door. Hmm, makes one wonder about fairies intentions!
The Besom is used to clear an area of lingering energies, lurking entities and, yes, dust and crumbs, cleaning an area prior to performing a ceremony or ritual. Often, the broom is swept above the floor a couple of inches.
I would imagine that creating one's own besom is the best. It should, also, for strongest abilities be assembled on a new moon. After one gathers the wood for handle, twigs from birch (best), mugwort or thyme for bristles and lengths of willow for securing the bristles, the broom should be assembled with reverence and positive energy. Once complete, the besom is blessed.
A besom should be treated with respect. Some say a consecrated or blessed broom should not be used for everyday sweeping of floors, others say, use it! The more you use it and handle it, the more is added to it's positive energy and magic!
Sidenote: Never sweep dirt out your front door (what ever broom you use). It is believed that sweeping dirt out the front door sweeps out families prosperity with it! (Now they tell me!)
Le Befana, the Christmas Witch, also flies around the world on her broom delivering gifts to good children (ages before big guy in red suit wrangled reindeer into a harness).
“Sweep out evil, sweep out ill,
Where I do the Lady’s will.
Besom, besom, Lady’s Broom
Sweep out darkness, sweep out doom.”
Theme: World Spiritual Practices A to Z
Besom. Most of us have at least one in our homes. Some of us have several, though I wonder if many know the full use of this Pagan tool, usually associated with witches, good and bad, and, of course, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
A Besom is a broom; a primitive broom made of natural resources: The best would be a merging of Willow, Hawthorne and Birch. I have four Besoms. Two are not made of natural fiber, and probably completely synthetic, one for outside, one for inside. The third besom I purchased in Salem, Massachusetts at a wonderful metaphysical shop nearly 20 years ago. The fourth besom sits on my hearth, to brush away ashes, stray bark and negative energy.
Witches would 'fly' around on their Besom, blessing crops, encouraging growth and high yield. Pagan practice really was to run and leap through the fields while straddling a broom. It was probably the non-pagan observers, sipping their whiskey, who thought there was flying happening.
Warlocks, male witches, apparently frowned on Besoms (brooms) and rode on pitchforks! Even Pagans had their idiosyncratic tendencies about tools (broom being a woman's tool, a pitchfork being more macho). Kind of like a Toyota Corolla or MiniVan being a good car for a woman and an obnoxiously loud diesel pick-up truck being a real-man's means of transportation.
Besoms are often hung above a doorway to prevent negative energy from entering a home or a room. My family places a broom in front of the house's entry to keep evil away. They are also used in hand-fasting ceremonies, jumping the broom in African-American weddings, left under the bed for protection, and sweeping away negative energies.
Warning: If you are trying to attract fairies into your home, do not hang the broom above your door. Hmm, makes one wonder about fairies intentions!
The Besom is used to clear an area of lingering energies, lurking entities and, yes, dust and crumbs, cleaning an area prior to performing a ceremony or ritual. Often, the broom is swept above the floor a couple of inches.
A besom should be treated with respect. Some say a consecrated or blessed broom should not be used for everyday sweeping of floors, others say, use it! The more you use it and handle it, the more is added to it's positive energy and magic!
Sidenote: Never sweep dirt out your front door (what ever broom you use). It is believed that sweeping dirt out the front door sweeps out families prosperity with it! (Now they tell me!)
Le Befana, the Christmas Witch, also flies around the world on her broom delivering gifts to good children (ages before big guy in red suit wrangled reindeer into a harness).
“Sweep out evil, sweep out ill,
Where I do the Lady’s will.
Besom, besom, Lady’s Broom
Sweep out darkness, sweep out doom.”
I have a "cobweb broom" besom made of plaited straw with a wooden handle -- a real "witchy-looking" broom! I bought it in Winnipeg about 30 years ago and have cherished it ever since.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a cool besom. The one I picked up in Salem is very magical looking, too. The wood of the handle is quite twisted (kind of like me!)
DeleteI am loving this series! I wish I'd known about sweeping dirt out of the house years ago as I've done it many times. But not in this house, so I'll keep that in mind :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I had a good laugh with the fairies! How much do we really know about them? LOL
Doing the research for this series was really stimulating; got all the spiritual juices running. Made me realize how sheltered we are about world cultures.
DeleteThose fairies! Don't turn your back!