The Besom

The besom is the ritual broom of the witch: a bundled-bristle sweeping tool used not for removing physical dust but for clearing the energetic and spiritual residue from a space, sweeping away negativity, stagnant energy, and unwanted presences before magickal work begins. The besom is one of the most recognisable symbols of the witch in popular imagery, and its practical use in ritual is as live and immediate as any other magickal tool.

The besom clears the way. Before a ritual, before casting a circle, after conflict or illness has visited a space, or simply as regular maintenance of a home’s energetic health, sweeping with the besom is a physical act that carries full magickal intention.

History and origins

The association of witches with brooms predates the flying broomstick image by centuries. In European folk practice, the broom held at the doorway had protective and purifying functions: a broom laid across a threshold was believed to prevent the entry of harmful influences, and the regular sweeping of a home was considered to maintain its spiritual as well as physical health. The broomstick as a vehicle for flight in witch mythology appears in early modern European imagery and accounts, but the ceremonial and domestic protective function of the broom is an older and more grounded tradition.

The traditional British besom is specifically a bundle of birch twigs bound to an ash or hazel handle by willow bindings. Each component carries its own correspondence: birch for purification and new beginnings, ash for strength and connection between worlds, hazel for wisdom and the craft itself. This specific construction is documented in British folk-craft and is still made by hand by practitioners who follow that tradition.

In contemporary Wicca, the besom is included among the standard ritual tools alongside the athame, the wand, the chalice, and the pentacle. It is associated with the element of Air, with Saturn (as a tool of boundaries and purification), and with the threshold between the ordinary world and sacred space.

Magickal uses

The primary use of the besom is purification: sweeping the space in which a ritual, spell, or sacred gathering will take place, clearing it of any accumulated or unwanted energy before the working begins. Sweeping is done with intention, not mechanically, and often begins at the perimeter of the space and moves inward, or begins at one end and sweeps in a consistent direction toward a doorway through which the cleared energy is sent out.

A besom laid across a threshold, inside or outside a front door, is a protective charm that prevents harmful energy and ill-intentioned presences from entering. This is one of the oldest recorded uses of the broom in folk magick.

In Wiccan handfasting ceremonies, the couple jumps the broom together as a symbol of crossing a threshold, leaving the old life behind and entering the new. This practice has both British folk precedent and a separate American tradition with roots in the enslaved community, where legal marriage was denied and jumping the broom became a community ceremony of commitment.

How to work with it

Sweep the space before ritual, moving the besom in long, deliberate strokes. Do not hurry. Sweep toward an open door or window, directing what you are clearing outward. Speak your intention as you sweep: what you are removing, what you are creating space for.

If you are consecrating a new besom, anoint the handle with a cleansing or protective oil, pass it through incense smoke, and speak its purpose into it before first use. Store it horizontally above a door or vertically with bristles up; stored with bristles down is considered to direct the protective energy into the floor rather than outward.