The Witch's Broom: The Craft, Lore & Magick of Broomsticks

Filled with lore, spells, articles, tips and crafts The Witch's Broom by Deborah Blake is a wonderful mini-compendium of information about brooms for today's witch.  The Witch's Broom is organized in an easy to follow and easy to read manner, with the reader being able to jump back and forth between chapters.  The chapters start with an introduction to the subject, such as brooms in popular culture, brooms for special occasions or brooms in ritual use.  The chapters then go into the meat of the chapter with crafts, tips, spells and so forth.  They then finish out with articles by various authors such as Heather Long, Michelle Sky and Kenny Klein.  The Witch's Broom also includes a very well come table of contents and recommended reading list.

My favorite chapter has to be chapter 5, which is Fast and Easy Spells, Charms, Crafts and More.  This is quite a meaty chapter with a wealth of ideas that one can adapt for their own personal lifestyle, witchcraft and/or pagan practice and home organization and decoration style.  Blake includes ideas for things such as using a broom to "sweep away" nightmares, how to bless a new household broom and a simple cleansing spell.  In terms of actual crafts Blake describes how to turn a broom into a birdfeeder and a dream catcher.   Further in the book there are rituals such as one for sweeping away illnesses, a Samhain ritual, a nightmare prevention ritual and many, many more. bBlake has also included a chapter on the history of using brooms.These references can really help one to understand not only why brooms are used in the ways they are but also can help one to appreciate the broom itself as well as the traditions we all unconsciously engage in.

For anyone who lives a Pagan lifestyle and/or includes witchcraft in their day to day life The Witch's Broom definitely includes many ideas, tips, lore and crafts that one can use to enhance their practice. It's written in such a way that anyone at any level of experience can utilize the information included using easy to understand words and lingo.    This is a book which I highly recommend for anyone interested.

~Review By: Jessica Elizabeth

Author: Deborah Blake
2014; Llewellyn Publications
284ppg; $15.99