For all the Single Ladies!

photo by ana traina

The origin of Cinnamon was a highly guarded secret of the Arabs, who first brought cinnamon to the West. They concocted a number of magical myths to hide the location of the crops and enhance the mystique of this spice fit for a King. 

Herodotus III wrote of the large Phoenix bird gathering the priceless spice sticks. Gatherers would lure the bird with heavy pieces of meat which the bird would laboriously haul to their nest. As legend would have it, the weight of the meat would cause the nest to fall, allowing the valuable sticks to be harvested.

The Cinnamon Besom, while being a standard in housekeeping practices since ages long past, is actually quite more than just domestic hardware. Magically speaking, it is a symbol of fertility and sexuality. 

Stories can also be found of how people would take their besoms in days long past out into the fields at planting time and ride them around, “jumping” to show the crops how tall they should grow. This again, connects the besom to fertility rites, and it is also probably one of the places where the stories about witches riding around on brooms come from.  I also found one mention of brooms being anointed with the infamous “flying ointment” allowing witches to take to the night skies. This flying ointment we know of course was used not to literally fly around on full moons, but rather applied to the skin to induce astral projection for spiritual travel. 

Witches today use their besoms in a variety of ways. In ritual, it can be used for directing energy; much like the wand is used. Most often you will find the broom being used to sweep negativity away from the ritual space while it’s being prepared, a purifier if you will.

Since it is a purifier, the broom is linked with the powerful element of water.  Thus it is also used in all types of water spells, including those of LOVE. 

Traditional construction of besoms has a handle made of ash, a head made of birch twigs, with bindings made of willow. The ash according to Scott Cunningham is a wood associated with masculinity, fire and amorous love. The birch is a wood associated with femininity, protection and cleansing. The besom takes the two and becomes a symbol of their uniting as one.

While there are traditional materials used to make besoms there is no reason an artful witch couldn’t make a besom out of whatever herbs, flowers or any other materials she may desire, to tailor a specific magical purposes, such as sweeping a love spell with a broom fashioned out of roses for example. 

Besoms made out of real broom however will repel the fey when kept in a home in this manner, so if you are wishing to seek out and work with the fairies, best not to use real broom. Many people insist that one’s ritual besom should never be used daily within the home. 

There is a wives tale though about how you should never sweep dirt out through the front door or else you’ll sweep your family’s prosperity out with it. 

So now that you know all about besoms, but perhaps you are not such a crafty witch as others, where would you find one yourselves? Well, ‘tis the season for all things witchy, so you can walk into just about any store right now and find cinnamon besoms for sale. Yes, you can find them in the Halloween aisle.  In fact, I found this one at WHOLE FOODS –  This delightfully fragrant broom fills any space with the sweet scent of warm cinnamon. I use it to scent my closet but for all the Single Ladies out there here is a little LOVE SPELL to use as you wish on whomever you desire after you have swept your room.

TO WIN THE HEART OF THE ONE YOU LOVE

Write the name of the one you love on the base of an onion bulb. Plant it in the earth in a new pot. Place the pot on a windowsill, preferably facing the direction in which your sweetheart lives.  Over the bulbs, repeat the name of the one you desire morning, noon and night ( this might mean that you’ll have to take the bulb with you to work) until the bulb takes root, begins to shoot, and finally blooms. Do a little dance with your besom and say this incantation daily:

May its roots grow, May it leaves grow, May its flowers grow, And as it does so [ name the person]’s love grow.

Happy Besoming!