Th Besom Part 2: The broom that binds us

 The Besom Part Two:

Jumping the Broom: A Ritual of Commitment, Liberation, and 

Ancestral Power

“A few years ago now my husband John and I got Handfasting in the stone circle of Avebury. As is tradition in some cultures such a witches and pagans , we jumped the broomstick with our hands tied together to symbolise us crossing over into a new chapter of our lives as a married couple.

We decorated our besom specifically for the occasion and took it with us to Avebury. Having your own besom that you have decorated yourself makes it far more personal. “ CAG

“Jumping the broom” is one of the most enduring and emotionally charged rituals in both European folk magic and African-American tradition. At its heart it is simple: a couple, hand in hand, leaps together over a consecrated besom (ritual broom) laid on the ground. In that single jump they cross a threshold – from single life to married life, from oppression to freedom, from the old world to the new.

There”’s an old British saying that used to be used when talking about a couple who where living together but not legally married. They were said to be “living over the brush”. This helped the organised Christians and Catholic communities effectively embarrass or convince couples that the traditional Handfasting was somehow immoral. Yet the Handfasting was a rite that predated the wedding and actually influenced how they’re performed!

There are two major historical strands of the custom, and modern couples often weave both together.

The Older European Roots (Britain & Romani Traditions)

•  Found across Wales, England, Scotland, and among Romani communities from at least the 1700s (probably much earlier).

•  It was a “broomstick wedding” or “besom wedding” – a legally unofficial but community-recognised marriage when church or state marriage was impossible or undesirable (too expensive, mixed faith, travelling people, etc.).

•  The broom was laid in a doorway or across a threshold. Jumping forward into the house symbolised entering a new home together. Jumping outward (in some regions) symbolised leaving the single life behind.

•  To dissolve the marriage, the couple simply jumped backward over the broom in front of the same witnesses – an early form of no-fault divorce.

•  The besom was usually decorated with flowers, ribbons, or herbs of love and fertility (rosemary, lavender, rose petals, yarrow).

Old Welsh saying:

“Jump high, jump clean,

Over the besom and love ever keen.”

African-American Tradition (Born of Enslavement)

•  During slavery in the United States, enslaved people were not permitted legal marriage. White enslavers often broke up families at will.

•  Jumping the broom became a sacred act of self-marriage, witnessed by the community and the ancestors. It was the couple saying: “The state may not recognise us, but the spirits do, our people do, and we do.”

•  The ritual was performed at the end of the wedding ceremony, often after an exchange of vows and rings (if rings were possible).

•  After emancipation, many African-American couples abandoned the practice because it reminded them of slavery. In the 1970s, with the rise of Black pride and the landmark 1994 broadcast of Alex Haley’s Roots (in which Kunta Kinte and Belle jump the broom), the ritual was reclaimed as an act of cultural strength and ancestral honour rather than shame.

•  Today it is one of the most popular African-American wedding traditions, performed by couples of every background who wish to honour resilience and community recognition of love.

Typical elements in the African-American version:

•  The broom is beautifully decorated – often with cowrie shells, ribbons in African colours (red, black, green), lace, flowers, and satin.

•  An elder or officiant explains the history so guests understand the weight of the act.

•  The couple jumps forward (never backward – that would symbolise divorce).

•  Everyone cheers and throws rice, birdseed, or flower petals as they land on the “married” side.

Modern Pagan & Witchcraft Versions

Today’s witches, Wiccans, and eclectic Pagans have revived and expanded the ritual:

•  The besom is crafted or decorated by the couple themselves, often with crystals, charms, and herbs corresponding to their intentions.

•  It is cleansed and consecrated before the wedding (smoke of sage, rosemary, or mugwort; sprinkled with salted water or moon water).

•  Some covens have the couple jump three times: once for the past (honouring ancestors), once for the present (choosing each other), once for the future (leaping into shared life).

•  After the wedding, the besom is kept in the couple’s home – usually hung above the bed or over the front door – as a protective talisman for the marriage.

How to Perform a Jumping the Broom Ceremony Today

1.  Choose or make a special besom (it should not be your everyday cleaning broom).

2.  Decorate it according to your heritage or intention.

3.  During the ceremony, an officiant or elder explains the meaning so guests feel the depth of the moment.

4.  Lay the broom flat on the ground.

5.  The couple holds hands (sometimes their wrists are lightly bound with a cord first – another handfasting echo).

6.  At the call of “On three – one, two, three – JUMP!” they leap together over the besom, landing on the other side as married/partners for life.

7.  Loud cheering, bells, drums, or clapping greet them.

8.  The broom is later displayed in the home; many believe stepping over it accidentally afterward brings bad luck to the marriage, so it is kept high or horizontal.

Whether you trace your lineage to Welsh hedgerows, West African villages, Romani caravans, or the quarters of American plantations, jumping the broom is ultimately the same powerful declaration:

“We choose each other.

The ancestors see us.

The community holds us.

With this leap, we begin.”

And in that single bound, the besom once again proves itself the most magical of tools – a bridge between worlds, a marker of sacred passage, and a witness to love that refuses to be denied.

The Besom or broom serves us in so many ways and is very much part of our lives and family.

At a Handfasting it is the entity that binds us as we cross over the threshold from single life to your lives as a loving couple. 

For more information on Handfasting you can read our forthcoming article on the subject.

Your Besom Buddy: The broomstick part 1

 Your Besom Buddy

The Witch’s Broomstock

In this two part series we take a look at the Besom or witch’s broomstick. We will look at the symbolism and purpose of the Besom and why it’s so important to witches.

Part One: The Besom: The Witch’s Broom, Staff of Flight and Sacred Tool of Power

Long before the image of a black-hatted crone cackling across a full moon became Halloween kitsch, the witch’s broom – properly called a besom – was one of the most potent and multifaceted tools in European folk magic. It was never merely something to ride through the night sky (though that legend has delicious roots). The besom is a threshold guardian, a purifier, a fertility charm, a wand, a staff, and yes, sometimes a vehicle of astral flight. Its power lies in its humble materials and its liminal nature: it sweeps between worlds as easily as it sweeps a hearth.

Ancient Origins: From Hearth to Hedge

The besom predates modern witchcraft by millennia. Archaeological evidence shows that bundled birch or heather twigs tied to an ash or hazel stave were used across northern Europe as early as the Iron Age for ritual cleansing. In Anglo-Saxon and Old High German, the word besom (besma, besen) simply meant “broom,” but the materials were never random.

•  Ash staves were chosen because ash is the World Tree in Norse myth, a conduit between the nine realms.

•  Birch twigs symbolize new beginnings and purification (still used to make sauna whisks in Finland for the same reason).

•  Hazel, sacred to Mercury and the underworld, carries knowledge and poetic inspiration.

“The besom will be yours for life. It will bind to you and you will become one with it. Care for and cherish it.”CAG

The besom is very much a part of a witch’s life. It becomes part of the family and will be with you in good times and bad. It hears you and learns from you.

The importance of the besom is never important than when it is a key part in a Handfasting Ritual, when two people dedicate their lives to each other as they jump over the besom. It marks a change from single life to married life . The besom joins them together as they pursue their new lives as one.

“John and I jumped over our beloved besom as part of our Handfasting Ritual. It travelled all the way to Avebury with us and the ritual will forever be within the memory of our besom” Carrie Grove.

These were the same woods used for wands and staffs. The besom, then, is a wand writ large: a great sweeping wand that clears both physical and metaphysical space.

In agrarian communities, jumping the besom was part of handfasting (marriage) ceremonies: the couple leapt over the broom for luck and fertility, a custom carried by enslaved Africans to the American South, where “jumping the broom” became a wedding ritual when legal marriage was denied. The besom thus binds love, home, and the ancestors.

Let your besom tell people if they welcome or not

Your besom can be a very visible symbol to whether you want someone around you or in your home;

Bristles down: welcome friend!

Bristles down:! Please go away

The Cleansing Power: “Sweep Away Evil”

“Sweep, sweep, sweep the ground,

All evil spirits must be bound.

With this besom, old and wise,

I banish all that creeps and flies.”

Every traditional witch knows never to use an ordinary household broom for magic. The besom is consecrated separately. Before any circle is cast, the witch walks the perimeter deosil (sunwise) with the besom held low, brushing the ground to remove stagnant energy and malevolent spirits. The bristles never truly touch the earth in high ritual; the sweeping is energetic, symbolic, psychic.

Old lore claims that laying a besom across a doorway prevents anything harmful from crossing the threshold, because spirits cannot step over running water or fresh broom bristles – both are moving, “alive” things.

The Legend of Flight

So how did the humble broom become a flying steed?

The answer is deliciously psychoactive.

In medieval and early modern Europe, many of the ointments used by cunning folk and witches contained powerful tropane alkaloids: henbane, belladonna, mandrake, and datura. These “witching herbs” were boiled in lard or oil with soot and sometimes baby fat (yes, the grimoires are that disturbing) into a substance called unguentum sabbati – the Sabbath ointment.

Because the skin of the vulva and armpits is thin and highly absorbent, women applied the ointment with a wooden staff or forked stick, essentially rubbing it into mucous membranes for fastest effect. An alternative method was to straddle the greased staff (your broom handle) and “ride” it, allowing the alkaloids to enter the bloodstream.

The result? Vivid hallucinations of flight, wild rides through the sky, meetings with the Devil or the Fairy Queen, and ecstatic dancing at the Sabbat. When inquisitors later asked how witches flew to the Sabbat, the accused – still half-remembering their visions – pointed to the household besom. The clergy, already terrified of women’s secret herbal knowledge, seized on the image. Thus the flying witch was born.

The broom became the perfect symbol: a common household object that concealed extraordinary power, just like the wise woman herself.

The Besom in Modern Witchcraft

Today’s witches still craft their own besoms at significant times – often at Beltane or Samhain – binding the twigs with red thread (for protection) or willow withes (for moon magic). Many decorate the handle with runes, ogham, or ribbons in the colors of their intent.

To make your own:

1.  Cut a straight ash, hazel, or rowan stave roughly your height.

2.  Gather birch twigs for cleansing, heather for luck, or willow for lunar work.

3.  Bind the bristles tightly with natural cord while speaking your intention.

4.  Consecrate under a full moon with smoke (mugwort is traditional) and salted water.

5.  Never let it touch the ground once consecrated, except when actively cleansing.

Hang it bristle-up by the front door to protect the house, or keep it beside the altar as your primary tool of purification and power.

Looking after your besom 

Keep it dry and clean . Cleanse it regularly by smudging. Remember to connect with your besom often to increase your bond. Decorating beams for special occasions is very common too. Don’t let anyone else use your besom . It’s for you only!

The besom reminds us that the greatest magic is often hidden in plain sight. It is the tool of the hedgewitch, the cunning woman, the wild grandmother who knows how to sweep a floor and, with the same motion, sweep away sorrow, illness, and the restless dead.

So the next time you see a witch on her broom beneath the moon, remember: she is not merely flying.

She is cleansing the sky itself.