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In traditional craft brooms, or besoms, are symbolic of witches' night flight to the sabbat. They are sometimes used alongside or in place of the stang, which is a staff with a forked head. Traditionally a witch would smear him or herself with flying ointment (a psychoactive substance used in a shamanic context, not something that actually allows one to physically fly), and use the besom as a focus to cross into the Otherworld (astral travel). In this context the besom is seen like a World Tree, an axis mundi, used for accessing other planes of existence.
To make a traditional besom take a forked staff of ash wood and tie a small basalt stone between the forked branches. Use lengths of broom (Cytisus scoparius) for the brush and tie them on with lengths of thin, supple willow.
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