Broom Traditions, Folklore, and Fall Rituals: How to Clear Space for Good Energy

Hey guys welcome to the learn funct podcast where you'll Learn Feng Shui from a classical point of view taking out the myth and Superstition so if you're interested in learning fun Chinese astrology all things Chinese metaphysics as well as the superstitions and myths that connect it all you'll enjoy learning fun with me hey guys today we'll be uncovering the hidden power of brooms we're we going to look at the Traditions from across the world and explore the magic behind the everyday tool and how it can be used to transform your space hey guys welcome to Le fun podcast another episode here we're exploring the ancient art of fun and today we're talking about how it intersects with the spiritual practices and traditions from around the world I like to talk about that quite a bit and today we're covering brooms I did say brooms so I'm Candice Berlanga certified funu practitioner and red ribbon professional with the international funu Guild not just any broom we're actually going to be talking about the symbolic power that they hold across the cultures and how they've been used through a history to sweep away negativity misfortunate and stagnant energy in regards to space clearing and ceremony from sacred Builder rights of Western Traditions to the cleansing customs of the Chinese New Year and even protective Magic from from Southern folk practices brooms have been a tool for preparing our spaces for new beginnings and with fall just around the corner there's not really a better time to explore how these simple everyday objects can carry such profound purpose so as the leaves begin to change and turn we do prepare our homes for the cooler months ahead and there's no better time to learn how to use these simple everyday objects that can help us clear out the old and make room for the new you may be curious about how to incorporate these broom rituals into your own home or maybe you're just interested in these Global Traditions but either way the episode should be pretty interesting let's sweep away the old and invite the new in and uncover this Universal symbolism of brooms let's start first with a little bit of history and symbolic significance of brooms in this first segment we're going to explore the various cultures and uncover the deeper meanings behind their use starting off in creating places of Power by Nigel pinnick uh when I talked about Builder rights I did talk about the tradition of cleansing an area with the broom and that's actually what gave me the inspiration for today's episode so there is a section and it's a little bit more elaborate than I kind of covered on that episode but really I I'll read this here it says sweeping is an act of transformation conducted ceremon Al by a person dressed in a ritual disguise that emphasizes the role being performed and not the individual in European culture the broom is both revered and feared as a magical tool the traditional English bessom is made from three Woods the stick itself is made from Ashwood tied to it by ocers and Birch Twigs Birch symbolizes purification and the driving out of uncleanliness both physical and spiritual from a place like all ceremonial tools bessom are made also ceremonially and so I discovered in doing this that bessom is actually just an interchangeable word for broom sometimes it can be called that it does say here that Birch Twigs are cut and they're attached to the bessom and they should never be cut after and in England East anglian broom Squires sometimes would make the brush end of bessom from Heather trimmed at the end the L or Heather is Tied by spit ramble thongs and during ceremonial use the bessom is bed decked with red and green ribbons that denote the performance of a special event and the stick can be painted with a sunwise spiral of blue red green or yellow to distinguish it from the mundane broomsticks and again these were used to clear an area before building would start so that was is one way they would do it but ritual sweepings were also Al done by mapal broom dancers it says and performed before certain ceremonies ceremonial new brooms would be made each year in Germany and the New Broom would be made at the beginning of the new year on the 12th night it is made in the springtime in Switzerland when snow still lies in the ground and children are in the house while the adults leave to fetch a new broom and they sing a ritual song in a circle in Old Bohemia it was tradition to renew the broom in Easter in Austria on St George's day around April 23rd it is in auspicious in England to make a new broom of birch Twigs or a green broom during the 12 Days of Christmas or the merry month of May and the April 23rd date it really does remind me of I'll uh bring you back to the April date of bright and clear which is the Chinese tomb sweeping Festival it is kind of a mid spring ceremony that is performed to clean the the tombs and so literally you go and clean tombs and that's what tomb sweeping day is but there's a 15-day period called clear and bright that jet cycle that 15-day cycle in which these uh the ceremony can be performed it is said that you can use the broom in certain ways also in the British Isles custom demands that the dust should always be swept Inward and if the sweeper sweeps outward then you sweep away the luck of the house and this of course reminds me of the Chinese traditions of keeping the trash inside a home while celebrating the Chinese New Year it is customary to hold or not sweep not clean you hold on to your trash from the holidays from the presents and everything and then on a specific day of the Lunar New Year celebrations you do take the trash out and clean and it is said that they they believe that this holds in uh your abundance and so you don't want to do it before that so same thing there is certain Ates too it does say as a customary right that it's necessary to sweep on a certain day of the year and the ritual sweeping is fundamentally important aspect of the ceremony to re-empower a place in Derby Shire Central England is tradition that one sweeps one's doorstep on the first of March or the house will be infested with fleas and in lanen Shire it's customary to sweep the old year out and the New Year in so the right involves ceremonial sweepers a ritual disguise men women and children with faces blackened or masked go from house to house in the New Year's between 10 and 12 and have a customary right to enter a house of whoever's door is unlocked and without a word or song The sweepers enter the house and dust the living room and hearth I wouldn't mind someone breaking into my house and sweeping it that'd be fine with me when somebody passes away and Saxony it was customary to not sweep the house that the whole time the body remain there and once the coffin was taken to the cemetery A Bess was used to sweep the place where the coffin was in the threshold of any place where the wreath may have fallen at the house is cleansed with salt and swept Thrice then the Bess was abandoned and not used again and was left lying on a beam in a barn an ouse or alternatively taken to a churchard or field and left there according to Natural pinic a place must be ceremonially cleansed before being used this does come into play for agriculture cultural Customs as well as public Traditions like parades it says before mechanization of farm tools and stuff that it was tradition in Ireland to sweep the threshing floor ceremonial with a Heather broom before the Threshers began their work in the goad and so apparently I had to look this up and I had a little bit of a hard time finding because apparently this is you old englishy type thing but the thresher was actually the person that would knock the wheat off of the stocks and so they would go Thresh the the stalks there and then the threshing floor apparently was where they would separate all the Chafe or whatever they call it there and the goste was a division of the barn this was agricultural thing that they would do uh in the barn storage and so they would cleanse the barn before they would actually start harvesting which I think is pretty interesting in Scottish tradition geing sides have a broom man who first sweep the circle where the action then takes place apparently geing means like a dis skies and I think this is in reference to like a Halloween I suppose it would be where the Halloween Traditions are kind of taking place in the plow Monday traditions of Cambridge fins it's customary to have a man with a broom of some kind to sweep away mud snow and ice and bad luck from dancing grounds where Molly dancing or broom dancing is to be performed it's also a badge of Office of the bearer who carries the box to collect money from The Spectators in traditional Street parades the officials and participants are preceded by a ceremonial sweeper in the city of London it's customary that two wine Porters clad in new aprons and carrying new brooms should sweep the street in front of the official Ventures company and process to the Church of St James for their annual service in central European traditions in certain regions they have a man with a broom who sweeps the way for the parade and the path is thereby cleansed both physically and spiritual for the passage of the procession I'm not really sure how this kind of relates to the parades here in the US CU I feel like so much tradition has been lost so much of a Melting Pot that a lot of these ancient Traditions from our European ancestors um have kind of been phased out but one thing I can say is that behind the parade where the horses are there's always a street sweeper that will follow and uh clean up the H's mess I do think that's a nice little correlation to Modern Times And the parade in some traditions brooms are actually seen as a fertility symbol the broom's a traditional symbol of fertility and is said to be sacred to the goddess and God it is said to represents a balance of divine masculine energy represented by the phallic handle and The Feminine energy represented by the hairy bristles and is thought to promote fertility of people or land so which I wonder why if that's why they sweep the land sometimes before they would build and in fact it is said to be one of the reasons that witches may have been jumping around the broomsticks in their crops and Fields was to promote a good harvest I do have a little bit of tidbit on the witch stuff in just a second in ancient Rome Wise Women or midwives made special rooms meant to sweep away negative energies from a house where a baby had just been born and these women were thought to be possible precursors to idea of witches more superstitions concerning brooms are going to be more along the lines of sweeping a person's feet my mom always told me this in I guess the Hispanic Latino Traditions um she would say that she always heard if somebody sweeps your feet you're not going to get married so I'm not sure it's just supposed to be having bad luck but my husband always heard that if somebody sweeps your feet you're going to go to jail either way it's supposed to be bad luck to have a broom swept across your feet it does say uh I found a little tidbit here here I'm going to link everything in the show notes it says that if a person does sweep your feet that you're supposed to spit on the broom or risk going to jail or having the bad luck so I guess you got to spit on that broom either way you risk Misfortune if that happens even sweeping around or in front of a person has been known to cause a person bad luck I think the idea is supposed to be that you're sweeping away their good or positive energy another tradition says you're not supposed to sweep out of your house on Fridays or on New Year's Day you're not supposed to sweep under a sick person's bed or they'll have bad luck if you move you're not supposed to bring an old broom with you or you'll have bad luck and you're not supposed to step over a broom even if you have to cross over it to pick it up some people do place a broom across the door it says especially in Halloween to keep witches from entering the house not sure how practical that is because you just uh you could just kick it out of the way right I don't know but it's supposed to be bad luck to cross a broom and apparently witches no that and it will stop them from entering a home there are a lot of superstitions that abound in Chinese culture about rooms also I just think it's interesting that across our cultures even though we have many differences so many things can be very similar and I'll link this website in the show notes but it is about Chinese customs and beliefs and it says here that traditional Chinese culture holds that a broom is inhabited by a spirit thus explaining why it should not be used for games or playing Etc the broom should not be used for cleansing household gods or the altar as it is disrespectful these objects are cleaned with a cloth or a small special breast we discussed this earlier during the Spring Festival Chinese Customs prohibit the use of brooms for three days from the Chinese New Year and it's thought that it will sweep away the good luck that the new year brings beating a person with a broom is said to re bad luck upon that person for years and the curse can however be lifted by rubbing the parts of a body that were hit several times the room should never touch your head as this is very bad luck and in gambling the spirit of the room is sometimes invoked by threatening it until luck and gambling ensu so the broom is sometimes used also in Temple rituals here the person's whole body is swept with the broom in front of the deities and the broom then beaten so this functions to remove bad luck from Shamong County Historical society.com it does say here similar brooms have shown up around the world as a cleansing tool in parts of Asia of course we do recognize that tomb sweeping day in early April and this is a 2500 year old holiday that does involve a ritual cleansing as a sign of ancestral respect but another sweeping tradition does come from Africa where various cultures continue to sweep fcon areas in front of their homes as a proud sign of ownership they believe that having a well swept yard invites Goodwill and neighbors to visit and they in turn brought this tradition with them to the United States as they were enslaved they continued with this practice it was a tradition that easily fit into the warmer Southern parts of the US and sweeping did create an inviting space Outdoors for people and practically a swept yard just took the weeds out El eliminated the impracticality of a lawn which they didn't used to have back in the day patterns were left the dirt by sweeping and they looked cool but were also helpful in seeing if any pests or snakes had you know made their way towards the home so it's kind of a way to identify that and bringing that tradition into the southern folk magic one of them shows in the use of a cinnamon broom if you notice there is cinnamon brooms that come out around the fall I know every time I walk into a grocery store I smell cinnamon pine cones or I see cinnamon brooms so every year I'll usually pick up a new cinnamon broom and I'll hang it on my door it is supposed to be a protective charm and it is said that if a spirit comes by your door that it'll actually stop to count the bristles and some people believe you're supposed to put the broom upside down and prop it up against your door I just hang the little broom on the door no big deal and the cinnamon is supposed to be cleansing and also promote Prosperity but it is supposed to be a protective energy also other ways to use these brooms as a space clearing tool is to use them seasonally during transitions it is kind of crucial to help release the stagnant energy refresh the environment and really to set a positive new intention for the season ahead one thing you can do is to sweep out as we talked about that's a big thing that's mentioned in all these articles clearing negative energy by accumulating dirt and sweeping it out of your door of course I just mentioned the cinnamon broom laying a broom across an area for protection that might be more along the lines if you think you sense a spirit or something negative in your home maybe you'd want to do that really it doesn't just have to be a broom nowadays we have tools I think the most comical representation of this is in the movie Hocus Pocus when the three witches brooms get stolen and so they go to like the utility closet and one of the sisters has to ride a vacuum so vacuums can be used too you can definitely do some vacuuming sweeping just think of it as a clearing away there is spices you can use when you sweep that are supposed to help cleanse as I mentioned earlier salt of course is supposed to be a very big cleanser of negative energies there is certain spices that you're supposed to use to help promote this clearing cinnamon is a big one just like we mentioned with the cinnamon brooms I've also heard you can blow cinnamon into your door some people like to do it at the beginning of each month because cinnamon is supposed to promote a bunch and prosperity some people use it for business success but it is said to give you personal confidence also all spice is another good spice you can use and it's supposed to be good for stimulating conversation this article here says I like to vacuum with cinnamon and all spice sprinkle in the carpets before guests come over to encourage a warm friendly atmosphere um pine needles so this is supposed to be good for uncrossing and refreshing a home so this is not a kitchen spice obviously L of course but still easily accessible so do be careful don't vacuum up these pine needles because they can definitely mess things up because they do get gummy and instead of pine needles you can use pine saw anything pine scented is supposed to be good for that refreshing energy Rosemary is supposed to be pretty good so good for domestic Bliss as well as helping those who smell it focus on thinking clearly oregano might be pretty good it keeps metal some influences from interfering in your life and it makes a nice law keep away substitute and discourages nosy neighbors so guess if you're doing something illegal put the oregano out garlic skins is supposed to be something that kills off evil rose petals encourage love and passion when crumpled across a home and left for a bit before sweeping and vacuuming use rose essential oils and sprinkle that around when you clean we talked about salt which is good for clearing hexes or removing unwanted spiritual energy from your home home this article does say that they use baking soda sprinkled on the carpet to vacuum and absorb pesky curses and baking soda is a type of salt there's a method of preventing unwanted guests from returning which involves sweeping salt after they leave the house it says here's sugar but I'm not sure if I'd put sugar on the ground and it says a little bit will add sweetness to your home though make sure you don't get it all over or use too much a little sweetness is great but a lot of ants are not we talked about the pine saw as a alternative wash for the pine needles but it does say here that the commercial floor cleaner basically evolved out of hoodoo floor washes adding a little Van van to a bottle of pine Sal is a simple substitute for a Chinese wash I had to look it up and Van van is actually a blend of oils from lemongrass citrilla veir and gingergrass I don't know if too many of those are handy but I know I grow like lemongrass and citronella in my garden and I do like to actually put that in like water and I'll spray my my plants with it as a natural kind of pest repellent so maybe I should use that inside my home so I guess you could take garden herbs also and make a little bit of a tincture or oil or something out of those if you know how to do that uh lemon Pine Sal supposed to be good so lemon scented cleanser so lemons have a cut and clear effect on a space and have long been associated with destroying curses and breaking hexes and I know that that when I was attending like this um kind of alternative Church in my area one of the things that I used to do all the time I would do it on a weekly basis is a lemon ceremony and I would basically do Like a Prayer nine times I would cut a lemon and I would salt the lemon nine times and it was supposed to remove curses and I do think it worked so maybe I need to start doing that again I kind of fell away from doing that lemon does of course leave a really nice smell and fresh squeeze lemons can also work Ammon is supposed to be another floor wash you can add salt to that ammonia and it's supposed to be good for cleansing and protecting so it can neutralize almost anything thrown at you magically speaking plus you know it really does disinfect nicely and it doesn't smell great when you're using it but to me ammonia is the thing that will cut odors out of everything so ammonia works well not to just clean but to um Also spiritually cleanse your home so vinegar four thieves vinegar is supposed to be a counter curse wash and a protective mix in for mop water but really any vinegar helps get rid of unwanted energies and protect the home from Invaders and malicious forces if the scent is strong it may protect you from visitors alog together and the last one we're not going to want to do but just in case um urine so it's very traditional in hudo it says although much FR upon a modern use it has however been a long use as a cleaning agent and a little urine dut it in some mop water supposed to be powerful to quote unquote Mark your territory and protect the home it can also instill a sense of good luck in the place and ensure Fidelity in your mate and passion from your lover if they don't catch you doing it of course um yeah I'm not sure how I feel about that but I don't want to um dismiss any Traditions also I'd rather use maybe like ammonia or pinea and so again if you don't want to do the sweeping you can definitely do this is a very easy way to clear your home and cleanse it just using your mop water so I think that's a very very easy way so even just the act of sweeping a mopping of course is supposed to clear but putting a little bit of intention in it by putting some of those oils or some of those scents or those herbs into your mop water can definitely act as a little bit of a boost to help clear that energy all right guys I don't want to include a short folkal or Friday segment and this one will kick off our spooky season I love all things Halloween we're going to kick that off a little article called how did brooms become associated with witches from who and ham.com it's actually kind of a neat little website here it says broom or B symbolism and meaning how did brooms become associated with witches around Halloween we often see silly pictures of witches flying on broomsticks and the drawings are so familiar that we don't even question them anymore but if you had to stop and think about it there are they are a rather strange image where did the idea of magical mischievous flying women come from there is a rather interesting Theory to their Origins but first a little history when a clergyman confess to making a PCT with the devil and flying to the Sabbath on a broomstick the idea of a flying ointment a creamer Sal that which is used to fly also dates back around this time centuries ago women didn't have choices they have today and were generally considered second class citizens rarely did they have a job outside the home and when they did they had to hold several jobs just to make the same amount of money as a man for many women their main duties is consist of taking care of the children looking after the home working in the yard taking care of the animals and doing housework and cooking women were expected to tend to their husbands needs at all times keeping the home clean was a constant chore but also necessary because dirt would attract rodents which of sometimes bring deadly diseases as you might imagine life must have felt rather tedious and oppressive it was thought that the drudgery of everyday life for women along with two everyday household items broomsticks and bread came together in a rather unexpected way to create the idea of flying witches in the Middle Ages bread was often made out of Rye which would sometimes become infected with a fungus called Urgot if it was eaten in large quantities it could cause death but in smaller quantities it could produce hallucinations naturally when humans come across something that adds a little excitement to their lives they want to know more about it and people experimented with not just Urgot but with other plants that had hallucinogenic effects also the problem with these plants is that eating them would cause an unpleasant side effect like nausea vomiting or skin problems but they found that when they made an ointment of the plants and applied it to their skin they could have the same hallucinogenic effects without other problems they also discovered that the places where ointment seem to be most easily absorbed were the armpits and the thin mucous membranes of the genitals since women very likely had broomsticks in our house it makes sense that it would have made an easy and convenient tool for application of these ointments they would apply the ointment to the end of the broomstick and use it to apply it to their genitals and it does say here it's not recommended that you try this at home which I agree to a 15th century manuscript Theologian writes how the witches confess that they anoint the staff and ride on it to appointed places or anoint themselves under the arms and other hairy places so what about flying it was thought that after applying the ointment the women would straddle the broomstick and jump and dance around the Open Fields giving them the sensation of flying as the drugs took effect clergymen of the time debated as to whether the ointments actually allowed the witches to physically fly or if it was a delusion created by the devil or they're just hallucinating um if it it was a sort of outof Body Experience where the souls of the witches left the bodies and flew to the Sabbath it's not likely that the witches really went anywhere and the drugs probably just cause an alter State of Consciousness or transcendental experience where they believed they were somewhere else and some herbs used at the time like deadly nightshade Wolf's Bane or hen Bane are known to produce sensations of flying it is important to note that much of our knowledge today from the era of witch hunts is biased and unreliable mostly because it was written by inquisitors of the church or clergymen or taken from alleged witches who were tortured until they came up with a confession that satisfied their tormentors it's more likely that these women just enjoy getting high to escape the monotony of their daily lives of course I'll include the link to this article in the show note some of the other information I did Cover here using it as a fertility symbol and whatnot but I just thought that was interesting little tidbit that made for a fun little folklore Friday s all right guys well I hope you enjoyed this episode I'm covering some powerful symbolism of Broms across the cultures from The ancestral respect of Asia to the protective rituals of Southern folk magic so whether used to cleanse protect or invite positive energy rooms do remain a Timeless tool for creating sacred spaces so thanks for joining me today I'm excited again we won't have an episode next week but the 27th I'll be back and I'll be doing a short synopsis of the book move your stuff Change Your Life by Karen rash Carter so it should be interesting I'm excited to do this funu book series and really go through some of the books in my library that I haven't completely read through yet so that'll be fun to present that to you guys all right well if you need a energy mapping of your space or I do offer that little free just one room assessment you can definitely find that linked below all social medias linked below and you can find me at learnfengshui.com I'll catch you guys next time for a free energy mapping of your floor plan please check the link in the show notes to support today's podcast go to learnfengshui.com sign up for emails leave a review and share with your family and friends