| Do Pagans and Witches really fly on brooms? This is | | | | they were expected to bring their symbol of position |
| the question most often asked by younger children | | | | - the broom. Upon arrival at a meeting, they would |
| who I have met. With the advent of "The Harry | | | | display the "staff of office" (the broom) and turn the |
| Potter" series showing the wizards flying across the | | | | broom like a hobby horse and enter the sacred |
| fields in a "Quidditch" match, one can understand the | | | | space ridding their brooms. So yes, Pagans and |
| question. What amazes me is the many Pagans and | | | | Witches do ride upon brooms - just not as most |
| Wiccan's that do not know the symbolic meaning of | | | | would think. Even today the hobbyhorse toys are |
| the broom from the Old Religion. | | | | derived from these very rituals. |
| In the Old Religion, as in organizations like the Masons, | | | | But this was only one of the two parts that the |
| the use of ordinary working items were used as | | | | simple straw broom played in our origin. The second |
| symbolism in many rituals and meetings. Probably, | | | | use of the broom as a symbol was during the |
| without a doubt, the most least understood, yet | | | | "harvest" ritual when the women would hold it over |
| most well known, is that of the broom. From ancient | | | | their crops and implore the deities to make the crops |
| times the broom was a symbol of domestic order | | | | grow to the height of the broom. |
| and domestic bliss. It was a powerful symbol as the | | | | Other than those two important symbolic uses, the |
| woman's preeminence at the time was still in the fore | | | | broom has no other history in Paganism or Wiccan. |
| front. It was expected that when women would | | | | Although, there is nothing magical about a straw |
| arrive at their meetings (now called Sabbats or | | | | broom, the symbolic meaning remains true with many |
| rituals) they would be expected to carry the symbol | | | | that follow the Old Religion. In many homes you will |
| of their position - the broom. | | | | find a straw broom of some sort hanging upon a wall |
| When women went to any meeting of any sort, | | | | representing the domestic bliss they pray for each |
| regardless of whether it was a ceremony or not, | | | | day. |