Besom: What it is to me

600 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of witchcraft society

The Besoms general definition is a broom made of twigs tied around a stick. However in the world of Wiccan and Witchcraft the meaning of the Besom is much more than that, Magically speaking the Besom is a symbol of fertility and sexuality. The Besom represents both Feminine and Masculine aspects coming together many sources record the traditional construction of Besoms as a handle made of ash, a head made of birch twigs, with a binding made of willow. The Ash is said to represent Masculinity, protection, amorous love and is said to have command over the four elements, while the birch is a wood associated with femininity, cleansing, and is said to draw spirits to ones service Willow is sacred to the Goddess and binds all three together becoming a symbol of the unity of both Femininity and Masculinity. Besoms are often used in hand fasting ceremonies, hoping to bring in blessings of fertility upon the union of both parties this tradition is said to be borrowed from the Celtic Tradition also many stories talk of how people would take their Besoms out into the fields when it was time to start planting and ride them around jumping to show the crops how tall they should grow as a form of encouragement as if to guide the crops this is said to be the reason why the stories of witches riding brooms around had started from. Today witches use their brooms in many different ways from directing energy during a ritual to sweeping negativity out of the space or home as well as to sweep positivity in or whatever you are wishing for at the moment however it is said that one should never sweep negativity out the front door as it will leave take the prosperity of the family along with it. I believe I would like to use a besom in my practices and lif... ... middle of paper ... ... “Besom, besom, sacred broom Sweep out darkness, sweep out gloom Rid this sacred hallowed ground Of demons, imps and hell bent hounds; Then set ye down on Her green earth By running stream or Mistress' hearth, Till called once more on Sabbath night To cleanse once more this sacred site.” (Author unknown) A neat fact I found about the Besom is that when a few of the ancient brooms were discovered they had hidden compartments in the handle holding combinations of herbs, oils, feathers, and other things to add to the energy of the intent of the broom. Works Cited The Modern Pagan The Witch’s Besom Lyon Mercaent http://www.themodernpagan.net/?p=751 Controverscial,Tools of a Witch The Besom(Broom), http://www.controverscial.com/The%20Besom%20%28Broom%29.htm The Pagan Path, The History of the Broom, Spring Wolf, http://www.paganspath.com/magik/broom.htm

Show More
Related

  • The Devil In The Form Of A Woman By Carol Karlsen

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    . She claims that the proceeding force connected with lady as-witch in this combination creative ability handles the problem on the power that surpasses embellishment and design the particular discernment connected with witches and witchcraft throughout. Looking at these kind of queries could encourage selection that the mention of their imagination and prejudices attached to the particular "lady as-witch" idea that the current strain on females building in popularity can easily trigger anger these days. She slyly evaluates having less adequate traditional beliefs with regards to the part women performed inside creating our community, at a variety of instances.

    Read More

  • Beowolf, The Art of Courtly Love, and The Wife of Bath and

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    The term “Hero” has been in our civilization for centuries. On the surface, a hero is a person of honor, integrity, and the will to fight for what he or she believes in. Nearly every story that is told is centered around a character who in one way or another is a hero. They are a person whom the common people are supposed to strive to be; but does this icon truly exist?

    Read More

  • Essay On Beowulf's Superego

    417 Words  | 1 Pages

    implications. In a metaphorical sense, it is as if Beowulf exploited Grendel’s mother’s “private spot” and she was unsuccessful in thrusting her body against his. At this stage, Beowulf is learning to be more conventional in his efforts for long term betterment versus short term thrill.

    Read More

  • Apache Indians

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    which was made out of small pieces of wood that had small rope attached to them, and to start

    Read More

  • A look a "Pratical Magic"

    1809 Words  | 4 Pages

    Practical Magic was released October 16, 1998. The story is about two sisters who break a curse that had been placed on their family for over 200 years, by their ancestor Maria. Throughout the movie the theme is magic. Practical Magic helps to break the false images placed on witches and magic throughout time, but at times, the movie, still upholds some of the negative views of witches. There are many stereotypes that are set upon modern witchcraft and magic in today’s society that Hollywood has helped to maintain. In society there are people that are the selected voice of the general public in critiquing movies. I will be looking at Practical Magic’s use of magic to see how they break or perpetuate the following stereotypes: physical appearance of a witch, the witch as an outcast, and the types of magic and how they were shown throughout the movie.

    Read More

  • Where Did Halloween Originate: The Western History Of Halloween

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some of the foods in the history of Halloween are pumpkins, turnips, apples, cake, nuts and kale. Turnips actually used to be carved instead of pumpkins, until the first Irish immigrants arrived in America, and found the much larger pumpkin. Apples were used by the Celts in divining “games”, and were seen as very powerful divining tools, especially when it came finding out who a marriage partner would be. The modern game bobbing for apples comes directly from this Celtic tradition. Cake, as was previously mentioned, was used as a “treat” for the people who would come around door to door. The same soul cakes were also offered to the spirits of the dead, believing that it would appease and nourish them during their long journey to the otherworld. The Celtic people also believed that unless the spirits were fed, they would harm the living. Nuts, especially chestnuts and walnuts, were considered to be very powerful divining tools. Kale, as well as cabbage and leeks, were also used as divining tools for telling the future. The amount of dirt that stuck to the stalk of the vegetables indicated the amount of fortune that one could expect from a mate (“Halloween Food

    Read More

  • Bembo's Discourse on Love

    1517 Words  | 4 Pages

    The idea of the Renaissance Gentleman. Just as it is false to see the Renaissance as a simple and sharp contrast with the Middle Ages, as did Michelet and Burckhardt, neither should it be seen as all of one piece. After the age of civic humanism came the dominance of the Medici in Florence, and in those contacts made with eastern scholars when the Council of Florence was attempting the reconciliation of the Eastern and Western Churches (a last effort to stave off the menace of the Turk) Cosimo de'Medici had been attracted to the figure of Plato. So there came his patronage of Marsilio Ficino and the birth of the Platonic Academy. Ficino became the disciple of Plato, and an advocate of neo-Platonism. Perhaps coincidentally, but as befits a court, the contemplative ideal began once more to gain over the active one. It was transmitted potently to Europe by a book that mirrored one of the noblest of Italian courts, that of Urbino. This was Baldassar Castiglione's Il cortegiano/The Book of the Courtier). Published in 1528 (that is, after the Sack of Rome, 1527) it has a nostalgic vision of the civilisation nurtured in Urbino from the time of Federigo da Montefeltro, in one of the most beautiful of princely palaces. Apart from offering in its close the neoplatonic idea to Europe, it recommended not so much the status of the courtier, as the ideal of the gentleman. There is no other comparable book that encapsulated the ideals of the Italian Renaissance, and its European success ensured the diffusion of the message. (Penguin Hutchinson Reference Library Copyright (c) 1996 Helicon Publishing and Penguin Books Ltd)

    Read More

  • Berendt's Attitude in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    "The biggest challenge . . . is finding characters worth writing about, " says John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. "I found a mother lode in Savannah" (Anderson 18). Berendt conveys certain attitudes towards different characters and events. He takes the same explorative and open approach to each person and situation, but his final attitudes towards them are quite varied. He behaves very differently around Jim Williams than around Joe Odom and his crew, and differently from all of them when around Lee Adler. His reactions to the news of Williams's arrest and trials vary greatly from his reaction to the Lady Chablis' singular exit from "her" job.

    Read More

  • I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    Witchcraft is a term which sprouts many different meanings. As stated above, it is attributed to witches. But what is a witch? Probably an evil haggish-like women who has signed a pact with the devil if we think of it in the English sense. So witchcraft must be evil doings; putting curses on people to make their life miserable, using wicked spells to transform humans to frogs etc. But does this hold true to everyone's idea of what witchcraft is.People's believes on the subject of witchcraft might differ between different cultures.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Runes and Magic in Beowulf and in Anglo-Saxon England

    1434 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Old English poem Beowulf we see the mention of runes, which were used with connotations of magic or charms. Examining evidence from historic times, we find that early Englishmen were fully conversant with the Germanic runic alphabet and that runes did have special connotations.

    Read More

  • Good vs. Evil in "Beowulf"

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    Christian symbolism in Beowulf is extremely obvious and prominent throughout the entirety of the poem. The author utilizes the Christian religion to symbolize the elements of good and evil and Heaven and Hell to help the spread of understanding of the religion throughout time.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Beowulf's Motivations

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    “It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle,” Norman Schwarzkopf. In the epic poem, Beowulf, an epic hero from Geats travels far out of his way to help the Danes with their fight against the nasty Grendel. However, in the story Beowulf encounters three monsters that he takes into his own hands and defeats them all. In doing so, Beowulf is rewarded greatly and becomes king and is looked up to by all. In his last battle, Beowulf defeats the dragon but dies soon afterwards, he is given an honorable burial. This poem was told throughout the era of the Vikings and was later written down as the first actually hard copy of the story. It was Burton

    Read More

  • The Significance of the Beowulf Poem

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    to have been composed between 700 and 750.  "No one knows who composed Beowulf ,

    Read More

  • Witchcraft, Magic and Rationality

    2268 Words  | 5 Pages

    By contrast, self-proclaimed witches still have a function in some societies today, mainly in the developing world. Magic, however, is often a word used to describe certain people’s modes of divination, mainly those in the developing world.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • Witchcraft in Contemporary African Society

    2504 Words  | 6 Pages

    Belief in witchcraft is the traditional way of explaining the ultimate cause of evil, misfortune or death.” The African worldview is holistic. In this perception, things do not just happen. What happens, either good or bad, is traced back to human action, including “ancestors who can intervene by blessing or cursing the living.” Witches, on the other hand, harm because they want to destroy life.

    Read More

More about Besom: What it is to me

Open Document