A broom used by Witches and Wiccans. Just as a broom is used to sweep dirt away, a besom is used to cleanse an area as a type of banishing. Traditionally, a besom is made of a fairly straight stick, often an ash wood branch, with many twigs, frequently of willow, tied to the end. Unlike a modern broom where the brush tends to be narrow and wide, the brush of a besom tends to be circular. The besom is also used in some handfasting rituals with the couple jumping over the besom.
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Rick de Yampert, author of the new Crows and Ravens.
I was gobsmacked the time I looked out my living room window at the woods behind my Palm Coast, Florida, home and saw a crow hanging upside-down in...