The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

When most people think of a witch, three things usually come to mind: a pointed hat, a black cat, and a broom.



But the witch's broom — or besom, as the traditional broom is often called — has a history far more interesting than simply being supernatural transportation.



Long before witches supposedly took to the skies, the broom was an ordinary household tool. Traditional besoms were usually made from bundles of twigs or brushwood tied around a wooden handle. Birch, broom, hazel, ash, and willow are among the materials commonly associated with traditional broom-making.



And yet, somewhere along the way, this simple household object became one of the most recognizable symbols of witchcraft.






The broom has always been connected with cleaning, but in folklore and folk magic that idea could go far beyond removing dirt.



Sweeping could symbolically remove bad luck, illness, unwanted influences, or negative energy from a home. Because of this, brooms sometimes appeared in protective customs involving doors, hearths, and thresholds.



That makes the broom a particularly interesting magical symbol.






And witches have always had a certain reputation for being rather comfortable around boundaries.






By the late Middle Ages, European accounts and images were already showing alleged witches travelling through the air on sticks, poles, brooms, and other objects.



The famous broom was not always the vehicle of choice. Depending on the story, witches apparently travelled on staffs, forks, animals, benches, and assorted household objects.






Over time, however, the broom became the image that stuck.



Perhaps that is hardly surprising. A woman carrying a household broom was immediately recognizable, and once artists and storytellers connected it with night flights and the witches' sabbath, the image became almost impossible to separate from witchcraft.






Then things become considerably stranger.



Historical sources concerning witchcraft occasionally mention so-called flying ointments — mysterious salves supposedly used before magical journeys.



Some recipes associated with these stories contained plants such as henbane, belladonna, mandrake, or thornapple. These plants contain powerful tropane alkaloids capable of causing delirium, hallucinations, strange bodily sensations, and altered perceptions of movement.



This has led to a fascinating theory: perhaps some experiences described as magical flight were connected to the effects of psychoactive substances.



There is also a much more scandalous version of the story.



A popular modern claim says that flying ointments were applied to broomsticks or staffs and absorbed through sensitive areas of the body, possibly including genital tissue.






Before we get too excited, however, it is worth adding an important warning: while historical references to magical ointments certainly exist, the very specific story of witches regularly coating broom handles and using them for drug absorption is far less firmly documented than the internet often suggests.









Perhaps the most beautiful symbolism of the besom is the idea of transition.



A broom sweeps across thresholds.

It moves things from inside to outside.

It removes what no longer belongs.



For that reason, it has become associated in various magical traditions with purification, protection, endings, beginnings, and the crossing of boundaries.



A broom placed near an entrance can symbolically guard the home.

A ritual sweeping can clear a space before magical work.

And an old broom replaced by a new one can represent leaving something behind.









Brooms also appear in marriage traditions.



The phrase "jumping the broom" refers to customs in which a couple jumps over a broom as part of a wedding or union ceremony.



Different traditions have existed in different places and periods, including European folk customs and distinct African-American traditions. They should not all be treated as one single ancient witch ritual — tempting though that story may be.



Still, the symbolism is easy to understand.









Probably not like a polished racing broom from a fantasy film.



Traditional besoms are often rough, uneven, handmade things: crooked wooden handles, bundles of birch or brushwood, natural fibres, knots, and imperfections.



Which, frankly, makes them considerably more witchy.









The broom became a symbol of witchcraft because it sits at a strange intersection of the ordinary and the magical.



It is domestic, yet rebellious.

It cleans, but it also banishes.

It stands at the threshold between inside and outside.



And in folklore, it could carry its owner straight out of the ordinary world and into the night.



So perhaps the witch's broom was never really just transportation.