The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More - Arin Murphy-Hiscock 2017
Make a Broom
Create and Craft Green Witch Magic
Walking the Green Path
In Chapter 2 you learned how to use a broom to purify an area. Finding a natural-bristle broom can be a challenge. But there’s no need to despair. Making her own tools is a time-honored practice for a witch of any kind, and making a broom is particularly easy.
CREATE A TWIG BROOM
Gather twigs and a longer stick from below the trees where you live so your broom is a tool tied in to the energy of your particular geographic location. Mixed with your own personal energy, this natural energy will create a broom vibrating with green witch power! Try to identify the trees from which you gather your twigs. The more you know about your supplies, the more tuned in to their energy you’ll be.
If you have trees on your own land, save twigs and a long stick during your annual pruning. Otherwise, you can usually walk residential streets in the fall and gather twigs from the piles of pruned material lying on the curbside for rubbish pickup. Ask the resident’s permission to take the branches and twigs if they’re lying on private property. If the wood you pick up is wet, allow it to dry in a protected, ventilated space, such as a garage or your basement, for a couple of weeks.
When making a broom, it is important to wind the leather tightly around the twigs. The tension is part of what keeps the twigs on the end of the broom.
✵ Work gloves (optional)
✵ Newspaper
✵ 1 stout stick, approximately 5 feet long, between 3/4 and 1 inch in diameter
✵ Saw (optional)
✵ Sandpaper
✵ Twigs approximately 18 inches long, no thicker than 1/4 inch each (enough to make a 3-inch pile when you gather them together in your hands)
✵ Wood glue
✵ Leather strip or cord, 5 feet long, at least 3/4 inch wide
✵ 4 finishing nails
✵ Hammer
1. Cover your work area with newspaper.
2. Take the 5-foot stick and decide which end will be the top of the handle and which end will be the sweeping end. If the stick has bark on it, decide whether you wish to strip it off or keep it on. If you’re using a branch broken off a tree, you may wish to saw the top end flat. Sand the top end of the handle so that no sharp edges or splinters remain.
3. Sort through the pile of smaller sticks and cut or break off any that have other twigs sticking out at odd angles. With the saw, trim them all to roughly 18 inches long.
4. Take one of the thicker twigs and set it against the bottom end of the broom’s handle. Overlap the ends of the twig and the broom handle so that approximately 5-6 inches of the twig is lying against the bottom 5 inches of the broom. (The twig will extend about a foot past the end of the broom.) Dot wood glue along those overlapping 5 inches and press the twig against the broom. Laying one end of the leather strip across the twig, add a drop of wood glue to secure it to the wood. Holding it together firmly, hammer one of the finishing nails through the leather strip and the twig into the broom.
5. Spread a thin layer of glue around the bottom 5 inches of the broom and begin to add additional 18-inch twigs, overlapping the top 5-6 inches of each twig against the bottom 5 inches of the broom. Place the second twig over the leather strip, then the next twig under it. Make sure you maintain a consistent tension on the leather strip.
6. When you reach the first twig again, dot some more glue along the top 5 inches of the first layer of twigs and continue adding more twigs, still alternating the leather strip above and below twigs. Remember to keep the twigs wrapped tight. Don’t worry about making sure the ends of the twigs are perfectly even. This is a handmade broom and a tool of magic designed to sweep air and energy, not an even floor. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
7. When you have reached the halfway point of the second layer, opposite where you started, hold the leather taut and hammer a second finishing nail through it and the twig into the first layer of twigs and the handle below. Continue adding twigs.
8. Continue adding the twigs to the broom, dotting more wood glue along the tops of the twigs as you begin another layer. Keep winding the leather over and under the twigs.
9. When you are satisfied with the thickness of the twig end of the broom, or when you come to the end of your pile of twigs, hammer another nail into the leather and the twigs through to the broom handle. Dot more glue along the inside of the rest of the leather strip and wrap the leather around and around the twigs. Pull it tight. Secure the end of the leather with a final dot of glue and one final nail.
10. Allow the broom to rest flat (not dangling) on a table or floor for at least thirty-six hours, or until the glue has completely dried. If you wish to further decorate your broom by winding leather around the handle, adding feathers or shells or stones, or by carving it, do so when the glue is dry.
11. Before you use your new magical broom for the first time, empower it by holding it in your hands and visualizing a sparkling white light glowing around it. See the sparkling energy being absorbed into the broom. If you like, you may further bless it with the four elements (see the Elemental Blessing in this chapter).