African & folk magic perspective of the Broom & Trees

The well known European aspects of the witch has the broom as an instrument of moving energy, performing marriage and the couple hopping over as a sign of fertility as an implement that contains both sexual polarities and some made of corn fiber. We should note flying ointments being placed on the handle and used internally for "shamanic" journeys, and the pole of the broom as an axis point or world tree.
Jumping the broom was also incorporated in African American folklore which has African roots of stick bundles and can be found in many cultures. It represented the home, change, and new beginnings. The broom represented being scattered and the handle represent God's hand that brings them together.

As the broom represents new beginnings, some buy a new broom for the new year as part of their new year or end of year house cleansings, for a more positive start to the new year, and to leave behind the bad energy

The broom could be made of several trees and plants such as birch for rebirth or cinnamon for love, good luck and prosperity, like a wand, different sacred woods could be used for various intentions as an extension and conduit of the practitioner.

 In neopagan aspects the broom could be used to open and close the threshold and portal of the magic circle depending on the direction and by raising or chasing away energy.

These aspects certainly did collide with other indigenous ideas in the new world. Sweeping and repetitive tasks do lend to a meditative state where the mind wanders or daydreams into a psychic or receptive state to receive messages. When cleaning the house spiritually some tie a white or red cloth around the waist with cascarilla and wear a head wrap as not to be carried away from the spiritual energies being kicked up using song and prayer. The energy or ashe deposited during ceremony in ritual area is also deposited around and blessings are picked up when the spirits see you tending to the area in service.

Floor sweeps of powders and dried herbs are used along with this action to increase intent and cleanse the house of negativity or maintain sacred space in preparation for ritual. Herbs like eucalyptus remove unwanted energy and people from visiting swept from the back door or farthest point out the front door. Some sweep from east to west as the sun sets to chase energy away. A sweep to draw things in for prosperity is done the front door to the back of the house after mundane cleaning so that all the luck isn't swept out. Although there is variations depending on purpose and if one has a backdoor. Special care is taken to the front step and where tricks and powders might be laid against the house occupants.

A broom can be placed upside down behind the front door on the inside of the house to discourage visitors and unwanted people to the house. Some say this encourages poverty and uncleanliness. A broom was hung over the door for protection to sweep away bad energy upon entering, and still to this day by neopagans.

There are many superstitions or folklore about the usage of brooms such as not to sweep against someones feet, under someone or place on a bed, or carry someone else's broom into your home. When you move you need to leave your old broom behind or throw it out because it carries the negative energies such as poverty  from the past you do not want to bring to your new residence. If you move to a new place and see a old broom dispose of it right away. You must upright a fallen broom and watch the way it falls. Superstition from different cultures about brooms can contradict each other, such as not burning a broom.

A broom gathers energy such as deposited at the crossroads to take bits of trash or dirt, to control an area, or gather spirits at the graveyard. Typically then the handle or staff would be tied with a red cloth as it indicated it is now empowered by the dead or "hot". You may see this in Rara band processions in Haiti or against certain altars. The items gathered are then used or the spirit employed. These marching and dancing military-like musical bands are known for activism, popular protest, celebration, warfare as seen with congo aspects. Kalfou is associated with the broom, whip and whistle. As Legba opens the way for Rada and are in divisions of Lwa families, so does the Baron open the way for Ghede, or Kalfou to the Petro nations of Loases, as well as djabs or evil spirits.

Saint image for Kalfu, some use the crucified Jesus

Rara 

 The broom can be used to sweep away the bad much like energy healing movements and the use of herb bundles or brooms on the energy body. After a bunch of herbs is used to say, cleanse the house, the stalks are broken to break the bad energy, sometimes as an asperger to sprinkle solutions. Sometimes also florida water is poured over them on cement and lit on fire. The broom can be sprayed with different spiritual waters before use.

The broom is linked to the dead and spirits as much as the cauldron.
Our palo or baston de muerto is used for calling the dead from the earth by tapping the ground 9 times. This egun stick can be tied with 9 different color cloths for the clothes of the dead ancestors such as egungun dancing masquerade outfits. Many in Sanse also keep a ritual broom to clear the space before misa tied with 9 colored ribbons to indicate the dead. This also indicates the winds of the dead or air. Much like some of the fly whisks of some of the Orisha such as Oya, or whips to keep away unhealthy influences or gather energies. This is also much like the royal fans I wrote about that remove "bad airs" or sheild and protect against spirits. Such as the use of birds or feathers to also sweep away bad energy.

                                                                           Egungun

Legba has the cane for opening to the other Lwa which is tapped 3 times at specific areas which is tied with 7 different color ribbon for the families of Lwa of the higher spirits.
Legba Avrada is pictured with a broom and one is sometimes kept behind the front door for ritual purposes only. He is linked to the Gran Chemin or big road that the Lwa come down on. For this purpose he can be seen as clearing the way. I keep a palm frond bundled one. Legba Avrada who some use the saint Lazarus to depict is said to be a wanderer (which Lebga isnt?) but likely said so because the broom touches many or all places on earth. Some use the image of St Martin de Porres.

We gather dirts from different power areas to make a world/tree or use its powers in folk magic or Palo said to be 21 for the roads and also herbs or sticks/branches as roads or branches that make all possibilities. In Palo the Mpungo would be Lucero the road opener, whose number is 21.

 The palm is sacred to Lwa Mambo Ayizan among other Lwa as one of the possible world trees as brooms had/have wooden handles and palms are used to sweep the streets. The palms for her are shredded and are used to filter energies and protect in the temple. The sweeping end of the broom thus is corresponded to earth/dirt and roots/the dead. Palm fronds can be hung over the door like a sweeping car wash and are often used to cover and protect the new initiates face and with the straw hat in Haitian Vodou. A broom likewise can be hung over the front door for protection. Ayizan is associate with the house temple or Hounfort, the priesthood and initiations. She is Loko's wife who has an aspect also dealing with priests and healing leaves of the tree some see as an path of Legba, and an aspect of Ayizan as Legba's wife.

When I visited Cuba, I saw men sweeping the street with long palm fronds. This is done many areas of the world such as Spain and India.

Trees are viewed as one natural repository of Lwa along with stones and other features. 2 are often planted as a doorway near the entrance of the temples. The potomitan or central pillar in the temple is just that an axis mundi like a tree to also the upper realms in which the spirits travel the trunk to our world or as the ghede come from the ground. Each Lwa also has their favorite trees or are associated with them for where they are located, and Dhambalah a snake Lwa hangs on them.

Trees were natural meeting places and groves for spiritual work, along the Loases of the forest and maroon escaping slaves to the mountains for revolution and the Indios. Trees such as palms or Ceiba/Mapou/Iroko/Kapok silk cotton were viewed as access to ancestral realms. Often the forest was used as burial grounds. Old broom handles could be used to beat drums, again made from tree trunks. The trees were necessary for survival of medicine and foods, as well as the sticks and leaves of magic usage. Winds that rustle the tree leaves is one voice of the Mpungo Osayin. The Lwa Gran Bwa is our like spirit who is a tree that rules over all wild plants. Some brooms are made from long grasses in Africa.

Many other spirits use brooms such as the Lwa Filomez, and some spirit guides like gypsies and madamas for spiritual cleansing and as a spiritual tool.

The vueltas of St Lazarus are also associated with the purifying broom, the dead, earth and sweeping of dirt floors. He uses it to spread sesame seeds of diseases, to clean and remove conditions, but the ajon-joli are also used in prosperity work.

Much like Babaluaye (the king-father of earth)'s sacred costumes or Omulu's figure besides skeleton was covered completely with sweeping palm raffia to hide his disfiguring scars from disease and smallpox. Their dance in spinning sweeps and kicks up dirt and the dead. This spirit also known in different tribes as Sak/gpata is viewed as one of the oldest and ancestral Vodoun.

I once had a dream of him a skinny scarred old dark black man was watching me from a thatched hut In Africa, and I was cleaning the dirt temple yard with a bundle of scratching sticks tied into a makeshift broom. An apprentice then showed me a saint statue of St Lazarus that she was cleaning. There were women working in a small garden where I could make out cabbages.

                                                                                                  Sancista 7 Crossroads