Brooms and Witchcraft

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

Brooms

In folklore, witches use brooms or besoms (brooms made of bundled twigs) to fly through the air at high speed. In Renaissance and medieval times, "the belief that witches traveled by broom was more prevalent on the European continent than in the British Isles." Only once are brooms mentioned in English witch trials. Nonetheless, the image of a witch riding a broomstick has become a popular cultural stereotype. Several theories explain this association of brooms with witches.

1. Brooms are "a symbol of female domesticity, a tool of every woman, and most witches were women." Centuries ago, a woman would push her broom up the chimney or prop it outside the door to show to callers and neighbours that she was out of the house. "From there, it was an easy step to believe that witches, who purportedly could fly, would use their most common tool and soar up the chimney on it."
2. Many flying potions contained hallucinogenic ingredients. If a broomstick was rubbed with such potions and used for riding or masturbatory purposes, a sensation of flight would result.
3. The benandanti used stalks of sorghum in their battles against evil witches. Sorghum is a type of millet identified with brooms.
4. "The association between witches and brooms goes back to ancient times, when pagans performed fertility rites to induce their crops to grow high." These people mounted pitchforks, poles, and brooms, and rode them like horses in the fields, leaping high into the air and dancing.

The correlation between brooms and witches is not noticeable until the late 16^th and early 17^th centuries. Before then, witches were depicted astride shovels, sticks, forks, hurdles, and demon-animals. Eventually, witches were shown more on either demons in the forms of animals or on brooms.

At first, the brush end of a broom (or faggot), was pointed downwards so the witch could "sweep her tracks from the sky." This is the stereotypical image we still see on the verge of the 21^st century. Nevertheless, by the end of the 17^th century, the reverse was true. Witches often rode with the faggot-end up, with a candle in the faggot to light the way.

In some lore, the Devil dispensed brooms and flying ointment to weak witches who needed help. In other tales, all newly initiated witches were presented with the broom and ointment. The ointment typically consisted of toxic/hallucinogenic ingredients. If the witch was inside a house, she theoretically rose through the chimney, although in court, few witches ever acknowledged doing such a thing. Sorcerers flew on brooms as well as witches, but men were more often shown riding pitchforks.

According to lore, witches flew their brooms to the sabbats, sometimes carrying along demons or their familiars in the shapes of animals. They also rode their brooms to fly out to sea in order to raise up storms. Legend had it that novices sometimes fell off. On witch festival nights such as Walpurgisnacht, townspeople laid out hooks and scythes to kill any witches who fell off their brooms. The also rang church bells, which had the power to ground broomsticks and knock witches off them (Guiley 1989 37-38).

A famous Scottish witch of the 17^th century, Isobel Gowdie, claimed to have used her broom for an atypical reason. Instead of using it for travelling, she used it to deceive her husband. Before going to a sabbat, Isobel substituted her broom for herself in bed. She said he never knew the difference, "which might have been more of a comment on their marriage than a confession of witchcraft" (Guiley 1989 37-38).

Brooms were also used in weather magic. "In Hamburg, sailors, after long toiling against a contrary wind, on meeting another ship sailing in an opposite direction, throw an old broom before the vessel, believing thereby to reverse the wind" (Thiselton-Dyer 59).

As a Ward

In England and Germany, it was once believed that a witch could not step over a broom laid inside the threshold of a house. In Bohemia, "the young men collect for some weeks beforehand as many worn-out brooms as they can lay their hands on. These, after dipping in tar, they light--running with them from one bonfire to another--and when burnt out they are placed in the fields as charms against blight" (Thiselton-Dyer 60).

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Brooms and Witchcraft is copyright 1997-1998 to Shantell Powell.