In 1451, the French poet Martin Le Franc wrote a poem defending women accused of witchcraft. In the margins of that manuscript, an illustrator drew something that would become iconic: a woman astride a broom. The image was not born from folklore. It came from a specific accusation, a detail from a trial that had nothing to do with flight. The broom was a domestic tool, pulled into the realm of magic by the logic of the witch-hunters.
The witch’s broom, or besom, is a ritual tool made from a wooden handle and bristles, traditionally birch twigs bound with willow or hazel. Unlike the wand or athame, which direct energy, the broom is used for purification, sweeping away negative influences, and in some traditions, astral flight. To compare it with other magical tools is to see how a single object can carry multiple, often contradictory, meanings.
The First Image of a Flying Witch
The earliest known visual representation of a witch on a broom appears in the margin of Le Franc’s Le Champion des Dames (1451). The figure is a woman, her hair loose, riding a broomstick left to right. She is not flying through the air. She is shown in a static, almost equestrian pose. The context is a defense of women: the poet argues that these accusations are false, that the women are not at all what the church claims.
Thirty years later, the image hardened. In Ulrich Molitor’s De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus (1489), a woodcut shows a woman flying on a broom, with a demon behind her. The book was a legal treatise on witchcraft. The image gave the court a visual shorthand for the crime. The broom became evidence.
But the historical record suggests something else. The flying ointments used in folk practice contained belladonna, henbane, and mandrake. Applied to the skin, these plants produced vivid sensations of flight, often via the mucous membranes of the broomstick handle. The broom was not the vehicle. It was the applicator. That distinction matters.
Why the Broom, Not the Stool or the Fork?
The broom had a symbolic advantage over other household objects. It was already associated with the threshold. In rural Europe, the broom was kept outside the door, used to sweep the hearth and the yard. It was a tool of boundary maintenance. The witch-hunters saw that boundary-making as dangerous: a woman who swept the threshold might be sweeping away the protection of the church.
The broom also had a phallic shape, a detail that 19th and 20th century scholars emphasized perhaps too heavily. Margaret Murray, in The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921), argued that the broom was a symbol of the male principle, used in fertility rites. Modern scholarship is more cautious. The broom’s shape does not dominate its meaning. The broom is first and always a sweeper. Its sexual symbolism, when present, is secondary.
In contrast, the wand and the staff are explicitly phallic in many traditions, but they are never used for sweeping. The broom’s domestic function gives it a different kind of power: the power of the hearth, the home, the everyday.
The Besom in Practice
The word “besom” comes from Old English besma, meaning a bundle of twigs. In the Scottish Highlands, the besom was made from birch twigs bound with willow. The handle was often ash or rowan, woods associated with protection. The binding was done with hazel, a wood of wisdom. The tool was made at dawn, preferably on a Thursday, and consecrated with salt water.
In practice, the besom is used to sweep the ritual space before magic begins. It is not a showy tool. It does not cast a circle. It prepares the ground. The sweeping motion is slow, deliberate, inward. The bristles collect dust, dirt, and residual energy. The broom is then stored with the bristles up, to preserve its charge and to prevent it from sweeping away good fortune.
In the tradition of jumping the broom, a custom that crossed the Atlantic with enslaved Africans and merged with European folk practice, the broom becomes a symbol of union. The bride and groom leap over it to seal their marriage. The broom is laid on the ground, bristles pointing away from the couple. The jump is a threshold ritual. It is not a flight. It is a crossing.
Broom vs. Wand, Athame, and Cauldron
The wand is the most direct of magical tools. It is pointed, used for tracing symbols, directing energy, and casting spells. The wand is held in the dominant hand, extended, and its action is linear. The broom’s action is curved. The broom sweeps, gathers, collects. The wand projects. The broom receives and then releases.
The athame, a black-handled dagger, is used for cutting and directing. It is not a tool of purification. It is a tool of definition. The athame draws the boundary of the circle. The broom cleans the space inside it. They work together, but they are not interchangeable. The athame cuts cords. The broom sweeps away the dust of what was cut.
The cauldron is a vessel of transformation. It holds liquids, herbs, and fire. The broom is the opposite of a vessel. It is an open structure, designed to move things away. The cauldron contains. The broom disperses. Yet both are associated with the hearth. The cauldron sits in the fire. The broom leans beside it.
The broom’s closest relative among magical tools is the staff. Both are long, wooden, and used for support. But the staff stands upright. The broom is held at an angle. The staff is a walking aid, a symbol of authority. The broom is a tool of labor. The staff is the tool of the elder. The broom is the tool of the householder.
What the Broom Is Not
The broom is not a weapon. It is not used to harm, and it is not associated with cursing in traditional practice. The witch-hunters reversed this: they saw the broom as an instrument of the devil, a phallic mount for flight. That was their projection, not a folk belief.
The broom is not always a besom. A besom is a specific type of broom: round, tied, with a natural bristle. A modern flat broom is a different tool. Some practitioners use a flat broom for sweeping, but the besom is preferred for ritual because of its traditional construction.
The broom is not inherently sexual. The phallic reading is a 20th century scholarly fashion, not a universal symbol. In many cultures, the broom is a symbol of the feminine, the domestic, the hidden. It is a tool of the housewife, elevated to magical status precisely because it is so ordinary.
FAQ
Why do witches ride brooms in folklore?
The image comes from the use of flying ointments, which were applied to the skin using a broomstick handle. The hallucinogenic effects of belladonna and henbane produced sensations of flight. The broom became the visual shorthand for that experience.
Is a besom different from a witch’s broom?
Yes. A besom is a specific type of broom made from birch twigs bound to a handle with flexible wood. Not all brooms are besoms, but in ritual contexts, the two terms are often used interchangeably.
Can I use any broom for ritual sweeping?
You can, but a besom is preferred because of its traditional construction. The materials – birch, willow, hazel, ash – carry their own correspondences. A modern plastic broom does not have the same symbolic weight.
What is the broom’s significance in wedding traditions?
Jumping the broom is a threshold ritual that symbolizes the couple’s entry into a new life. It has roots in West African and European folk practices. The broom is laid on the ground, and the couple jumps over it together.
The broom is not the most glamorous tool in the magical kit. It is the one that sweeps the floor before the circle is cast. It is the tool that reminds us that magic begins in the home, in the dust, in the ordinary. To understand how the broom fits into the broader toolkit of magical instruments, see our guide to witchcraft tools and the glossary entry on besom. For a deeper look at the wand’s role, read our comparison of wand vs. athame.