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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