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Posted Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:27 am...
Magical Herbal Brooms
by Raven Kaldera & Tannin Schwartzstein
~from Llewellyn's Herbal Almanac 2004
For centuries, traces of ancient Pagan religions could be found in ordinary household customs. And such customs helped give rise to the enduring tradition of kitchen witchery.
The broom, that most ubiquitous of old-fashioned household implements, became a common symbol of witchcraft over the last few centuries. Brooms have been used magically for all kinds of purposes, and they can be made by anyone with access to woods and an herb garden.
Reasons to Make A Broom
There are many different modern reasons why one would build a magical broom. One, of course, is for weddings - many Pagan weddings use the symbolism of jumping over a broom, so it has become common to create something unique and magical by and for the ceremony. Another sort of broom can be a protective fetish that creates good fortune for the household. Still another can be an actual practical floor-sweeper, used for house purification rituals. You can also make a broom to honor your ancestors who worked the land, and possibly to honor those foremothers and forefathers who were wrongly accused of witchcraft and executed for it.
Ancestor brooms honor the peasants who eked out a living in the dirt so that we might survive. They are generally hung in the kitchen, or heart of the home, and the brush can be made of traditional Witch's herbs such as mugwort, wormwood (both sacred to the Moon goddess), yarrow, vervain, mullein, or elder twigs. They are especially appropriate for a Samhain altar.
Broom Plants
The traditional plant for broom brushes is the broom plant, Cytisis scoparius. Broom plants are easy to grow in the back of the herb garden. They grow as tall as five feet, so give them lots of space. The American equivalent is broomcorn (Panicum miliaceum), which looks like a tall maze plant with a seeded brush instead of ears. This can be grown pretty much like food corn, although do not grow broomcorn together with food corn, as they may end up cross-pollinating.
Either broom brush or broomcorn are traditional for protective brooms. For the brush of your broom, you can also use twigs of the trees that provided the stick-handle.
Making the Broom
The simplest brooms consist of two parts: a stick-handle and bundles of plant matter as a brush. The wood of the handle should be a sort that corresponds to the purpose of the broom. For instance, wedding broomsticks should be made from fruit-wood, such as apple, pear, or cherry; from "love" woods, such as maple or hawthorn; from flowering woods, such as lilac or myrtle; or from birch, which symbolizes beginnings.
Protective broomsticks, meanwhile, are made from woods such as oak, ash, or hickory. Broomsticks for purification are best made of oak and pine. Brooms for honoring ancestors have sticks of elder, aspen, cypress, or sycamore.
Broom brushes can be made off grasses, twigs, or fresh dried herbs - all depending on their eventual purpose. For brooms that are actually going to be used for sweeping, leafy stuff is a hindrance, and so all leaves should be stripped off. For magical brooms that will be hung over doorways or used ceremonially to brush negativity our of someone's aura, it is preferred that you make the brush of herbs. You can wrap the brush while the plants are still green or after they are dried.
To wrap the brush onto your broom-handle, make sure that the plant matter has long stems, and divide this material into an odd number of bundles, Using strong, rough twine, or cord (which can be a color appropriate to the occasion), tie the bundles evenly to one end of the stick, just enough to hold them in place. Then wind the string over one bundle and under the next, and so on around the broom. With an odd number of bundles, the lashes should alternate in a spiral several times around, until you reach the end of the stick, at which time you tie it off.
Wedding brooms are ceremonial, and don't need to be sturdy enough to sweep floors with, unless they are to be used in a purification spell for a couple's new home. Here, the brush is often made of wheat, or of sheaves of some other grain - in order to evoke fertility of body and spirit. Another nice option is to let the couple gather long grasses from some place that has special meaning to them, and use those for the brush.
Some good love herbs to add into wedding brooms include: lemon balm, lemon verbena, agastache, cilantro, summer or winter savory, heliotrope, lavender or rosemary. Use large sprigs of these herbs, incorporating them carefully into the brush.
In practice, the wedding broom is usually help up by two volunteers so that the couple can jump over it. It can also be placed along the doorstep during the ceremony.
Afterward, the broom is usually hung on the wall, as a spell for marital harmony. It can also be used as a ceremonial purification broom before the wedding ceremony, bringing the energy of love and banishing any evil spirits. If there are children at the wedding, here is a good job for them - have them rush about with the magical broom making loud noises and shouting loudly, "Away, evil spirits! Away!" Make sure an adult is supervising them so they don't knock things off shelves or end up in areas that are off-limits to them.
Some protective herbs to add to a "door broom" are tarragon, vervain, agrimony, hyssop, and thistle. If you don't intend to handle it very much, the brush can be made of thorny plants such as raspberry brambles; this is especially good for hanging over a doorway as a spell to keep intruders out.
Herbal brooms with the leaves still attached can be used to sweep the floor. They will strew fragrant bits around rather like the medieval custom of strewing sweet herbs in the floor rushes for ambient perfume.
A broom that is actually going to sweep the floor and make it clean has to be made differently than a simple ritual broom. You can make a traditional-style floor broom, but it has better have strong twigs that will not continually break off and make more of a mess than it cleans up. If you use broom plant of broomcorn, strip our all the seeds first. The fuller the broom brush, the better it will work. Another sort of handmade broom is made with wood and cornhusks. First, find your broomstick - which should be a straight, smooth pole rather than a bumpy sapling - and cut a twelve by four-inch piece of wood to a length of eighteen inches. Drill two-inch wide holes i tow or three rows down the length of this board, and then make bundles of green cornhusks. Fold them in half around a loop of cord and pull each bundle through a hole; its folded top should just protrude.
Tie all the cords together on top, drill a hole through it at a slant, and glue the handle. This will make a floor broom suitable for sweeping. You can also use bundles of green twigs or stems; willow works well and is associated with the Moon and is associated with women's mysteries. With this broom, it's better to insert the plant material while green and let it dry in place. Thicker twigs are better than thinner ones that will become brittle. When a broom bundle wears our, it can be untied and replaced. This cornhusk broom sounds too fragile to use. but mine lasted for more than two years with no problems.
Ceremonial purification brooms are used by shaking them at the walls, floors, windows, doors, and so on, It is actually good if this sort of broom is noisy and rattles or rustles loudly. Encourage this by leaving the tails of your plant material for the brush extra long. Your purification should begin with a thorough space-cleansing - as it is likely this broom will be too fragile to do any real cleaning. It helps to visualize the space in your mind while you're cleaning. Afterward, go around the room with the purification broom, swiping in the same direction as you cleaned. Aim the broom up and down corners, around the ceiling and the floor, Circle windows and doors. Pick a window or door to sweep the energy out. You can also sweep around someone's aura as a pre-ritual cleansing.
You can grind dried herbs to a powder with mortar and pestle (or a coffee grinder if you're a bit lazy) for a purification dust. Sprinkle it around on the floor, and then sweep it out the door with your ceremonial broom. Some people use a filler to bind and stretch the mixture; sawdust is good, but don't use flour as it sticks to everything. This is a good use too for used herbal teabags; empty the contents onto a tray and leave them in the Sun to dry. It's also a good use for old bunches of herbs that you want to get rid of as you turn over your yearly supply. Herbs that are easily powdered include: flower petals, basil, tarragon, and parsley. Dried commercial kitchen herbs are acceptable for this purpose as well.
Of course, none of these brooms will stand up to getting wet. For that, you want a more conventional broom or mop. Herbal floor washes can be made from strong tea or essential oil dissolved in water. (For the latter type, measure a teaspoon of oil per gallon of water, and make sure that you shake it up well or it will separate.)
You may want to take some time to experiment first, because some essential oils are gooey and won't mix at all. Teas are cheaper and easier, especially if you have an herb garden. Some suggestions for this include using mint tea for money, chamomile tea for peace and quiet, rosewater for love, or cinnamon-nutmeg-clove tea for prosperity. Good protection washes can utilize vetivert oil, bay leaf tea, or tarragon tea.
If you're in a first-floor room with a non-carpeted floor and a door to the outside, you can finish your floor-washing the old fashioned way. Sweep all the suds and dirt out the door. While you're doing it, imagine the psychic "dirt" in the house being swept outside. This ritual works the same way with a dry floor and a magical broom.
by Raven Kaldera & Tannin Schwartzstein
~from Llewellyn's Herbal Almanac 2004
For centuries, traces of ancient Pagan religions could be found in ordinary household customs. And such customs helped give rise to the enduring tradition of kitchen witchery.
The broom, that most ubiquitous of old-fashioned household implements, became a common symbol of witchcraft over the last few centuries. Brooms have been used magically for all kinds of purposes, and they can be made by anyone with access to woods and an herb garden.
Reasons to Make A Broom
There are many different modern reasons why one would build a magical broom. One, of course, is for weddings - many Pagan weddings use the symbolism of jumping over a broom, so it has become common to create something unique and magical by and for the ceremony. Another sort of broom can be a protective fetish that creates good fortune for the household. Still another can be an actual practical floor-sweeper, used for house purification rituals. You can also make a broom to honor your ancestors who worked the land, and possibly to honor those foremothers and forefathers who were wrongly accused of witchcraft and executed for it.
Ancestor brooms honor the peasants who eked out a living in the dirt so that we might survive. They are generally hung in the kitchen, or heart of the home, and the brush can be made of traditional Witch's herbs such as mugwort, wormwood (both sacred to the Moon goddess), yarrow, vervain, mullein, or elder twigs. They are especially appropriate for a Samhain altar.
Broom Plants
The traditional plant for broom brushes is the broom plant, Cytisis scoparius. Broom plants are easy to grow in the back of the herb garden. They grow as tall as five feet, so give them lots of space. The American equivalent is broomcorn (Panicum miliaceum), which looks like a tall maze plant with a seeded brush instead of ears. This can be grown pretty much like food corn, although do not grow broomcorn together with food corn, as they may end up cross-pollinating.
Either broom brush or broomcorn are traditional for protective brooms. For the brush of your broom, you can also use twigs of the trees that provided the stick-handle.
Making the Broom
The simplest brooms consist of two parts: a stick-handle and bundles of plant matter as a brush. The wood of the handle should be a sort that corresponds to the purpose of the broom. For instance, wedding broomsticks should be made from fruit-wood, such as apple, pear, or cherry; from "love" woods, such as maple or hawthorn; from flowering woods, such as lilac or myrtle; or from birch, which symbolizes beginnings.
Protective broomsticks, meanwhile, are made from woods such as oak, ash, or hickory. Broomsticks for purification are best made of oak and pine. Brooms for honoring ancestors have sticks of elder, aspen, cypress, or sycamore.
Broom brushes can be made off grasses, twigs, or fresh dried herbs - all depending on their eventual purpose. For brooms that are actually going to be used for sweeping, leafy stuff is a hindrance, and so all leaves should be stripped off. For magical brooms that will be hung over doorways or used ceremonially to brush negativity our of someone's aura, it is preferred that you make the brush of herbs. You can wrap the brush while the plants are still green or after they are dried.
To wrap the brush onto your broom-handle, make sure that the plant matter has long stems, and divide this material into an odd number of bundles, Using strong, rough twine, or cord (which can be a color appropriate to the occasion), tie the bundles evenly to one end of the stick, just enough to hold them in place. Then wind the string over one bundle and under the next, and so on around the broom. With an odd number of bundles, the lashes should alternate in a spiral several times around, until you reach the end of the stick, at which time you tie it off.
Wedding brooms are ceremonial, and don't need to be sturdy enough to sweep floors with, unless they are to be used in a purification spell for a couple's new home. Here, the brush is often made of wheat, or of sheaves of some other grain - in order to evoke fertility of body and spirit. Another nice option is to let the couple gather long grasses from some place that has special meaning to them, and use those for the brush.
Some good love herbs to add into wedding brooms include: lemon balm, lemon verbena, agastache, cilantro, summer or winter savory, heliotrope, lavender or rosemary. Use large sprigs of these herbs, incorporating them carefully into the brush.
In practice, the wedding broom is usually help up by two volunteers so that the couple can jump over it. It can also be placed along the doorstep during the ceremony.
Afterward, the broom is usually hung on the wall, as a spell for marital harmony. It can also be used as a ceremonial purification broom before the wedding ceremony, bringing the energy of love and banishing any evil spirits. If there are children at the wedding, here is a good job for them - have them rush about with the magical broom making loud noises and shouting loudly, "Away, evil spirits! Away!" Make sure an adult is supervising them so they don't knock things off shelves or end up in areas that are off-limits to them.
Some protective herbs to add to a "door broom" are tarragon, vervain, agrimony, hyssop, and thistle. If you don't intend to handle it very much, the brush can be made of thorny plants such as raspberry brambles; this is especially good for hanging over a doorway as a spell to keep intruders out.
Herbal brooms with the leaves still attached can be used to sweep the floor. They will strew fragrant bits around rather like the medieval custom of strewing sweet herbs in the floor rushes for ambient perfume.
A broom that is actually going to sweep the floor and make it clean has to be made differently than a simple ritual broom. You can make a traditional-style floor broom, but it has better have strong twigs that will not continually break off and make more of a mess than it cleans up. If you use broom plant of broomcorn, strip our all the seeds first. The fuller the broom brush, the better it will work. Another sort of handmade broom is made with wood and cornhusks. First, find your broomstick - which should be a straight, smooth pole rather than a bumpy sapling - and cut a twelve by four-inch piece of wood to a length of eighteen inches. Drill two-inch wide holes i tow or three rows down the length of this board, and then make bundles of green cornhusks. Fold them in half around a loop of cord and pull each bundle through a hole; its folded top should just protrude.
Tie all the cords together on top, drill a hole through it at a slant, and glue the handle. This will make a floor broom suitable for sweeping. You can also use bundles of green twigs or stems; willow works well and is associated with the Moon and is associated with women's mysteries. With this broom, it's better to insert the plant material while green and let it dry in place. Thicker twigs are better than thinner ones that will become brittle. When a broom bundle wears our, it can be untied and replaced. This cornhusk broom sounds too fragile to use. but mine lasted for more than two years with no problems.
Ceremonial purification brooms are used by shaking them at the walls, floors, windows, doors, and so on, It is actually good if this sort of broom is noisy and rattles or rustles loudly. Encourage this by leaving the tails of your plant material for the brush extra long. Your purification should begin with a thorough space-cleansing - as it is likely this broom will be too fragile to do any real cleaning. It helps to visualize the space in your mind while you're cleaning. Afterward, go around the room with the purification broom, swiping in the same direction as you cleaned. Aim the broom up and down corners, around the ceiling and the floor, Circle windows and doors. Pick a window or door to sweep the energy out. You can also sweep around someone's aura as a pre-ritual cleansing.
You can grind dried herbs to a powder with mortar and pestle (or a coffee grinder if you're a bit lazy) for a purification dust. Sprinkle it around on the floor, and then sweep it out the door with your ceremonial broom. Some people use a filler to bind and stretch the mixture; sawdust is good, but don't use flour as it sticks to everything. This is a good use too for used herbal teabags; empty the contents onto a tray and leave them in the Sun to dry. It's also a good use for old bunches of herbs that you want to get rid of as you turn over your yearly supply. Herbs that are easily powdered include: flower petals, basil, tarragon, and parsley. Dried commercial kitchen herbs are acceptable for this purpose as well.
Of course, none of these brooms will stand up to getting wet. For that, you want a more conventional broom or mop. Herbal floor washes can be made from strong tea or essential oil dissolved in water. (For the latter type, measure a teaspoon of oil per gallon of water, and make sure that you shake it up well or it will separate.)
You may want to take some time to experiment first, because some essential oils are gooey and won't mix at all. Teas are cheaper and easier, especially if you have an herb garden. Some suggestions for this include using mint tea for money, chamomile tea for peace and quiet, rosewater for love, or cinnamon-nutmeg-clove tea for prosperity. Good protection washes can utilize vetivert oil, bay leaf tea, or tarragon tea.
If you're in a first-floor room with a non-carpeted floor and a door to the outside, you can finish your floor-washing the old fashioned way. Sweep all the suds and dirt out the door. While you're doing it, imagine the psychic "dirt" in the house being swept outside. This ritual works the same way with a dry floor and a magical broom.
If you cant explain it simply, you dont understand it well enough.-- Albert Einstein
Blessings Bright and Dark,
