It gradually replaced the Old English word besom , though both terms appear to have been used until at least the 18th century. From the beginning, brooms and besoms were associated primarily with women, and this ubiquitous household object became a powerful symbol of female domesticity.
Despite this, the first witch to confess to riding a broom or besom was a man : Guillaume Edelin. Edelin was a priest from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris.
His confession came under torture, and he eventually repented, but was still imprisoned for life. In the two drawings, one woman soars through the air on a broom; the other flies aboard a plain white stick. Both wear head scarves that identify them as Waldensians, members of a Christian sect founded in the 12th century who were branded as heretics by the Catholic Church, partly because they allowed women to become priests.
Anthropologist Robin Skelton suggests the association between witches and brooms may have roots in a pagan fertility ritual, in which rural farmers would leap and dance astride poles, pitchforks or brooms in the light of the full moon to encourage the growth of their crops. Broomsticks were also thought to be the perfect vehicles for the special ointments and salves that witches brewed up to give themselves the ability to fly, among other depraved activities.
With the Protestant Reformation, some religious leaders established bans on drinking and dancing, brothels were closed and marriage was more strictly codified and controlled. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, images of witches riding up and out of chimneys start to dominate.
During this period, women also were more closely associated with domestic space than they were years earlier, Zika said.
At that time, too, brooms are depicted more and more often in relation to domestic work in art. Though the image of the broomstick stuck, early depictions in 15th- and 16th-century Europe show witches flying on a wide range of items, including stools, cupboards, wardrobes and two-pronged cooking forks, Zika said. But rarely are witches shown getting aloft on their own. Hundreds of years later, it can be tough to tease out what people and artists of the Renaissance actually believed about witches.
In any case, some brave, if ill-advised, modern accounts suggest witches' flying potions probably worked. Faces danced before my eyes which were at first terrible. Then I suddenly had the sensation of flying for miles through the air. The flight was repeatedly interrupted by great falls. My teeth were clenched, and a dizzied rage took possession of me … but I also know that I was permeated by a peculiar sense of well-being connected with the crazy sensation that my feet were growing lighter, expanding and breaking loose from my own body.
Each part of my body seemed to be going off on its own, and I was seized with the fear that I was falling apart. At the same time I experienced an intoxicating sensation of flying ….
I soared where my hallucinations—the clouds, the lowering sky, herds of beasts, falling leaves … billowing streamers of steam and rivers of molten metal—were swirling along. So there you have it, rye to flying brooms. But "witches" in the cultural imagination, of course, don't necessarily need re-purposed cleaning supplies to be accused of sorcery.
In , Linnda Caporael presented work suggesting that the Massachusetts of the late 17th century had been the unknowing victim of an outbreak of rye ergot.
Her work is the subject of continued debate, but has been substantiated by later scholars : The Massachusetts of likely did see an outbreak of the fungus that had contributed, in other contexts, to "witch's brew. The epicenter of the outbreak?
Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. A 17th-century wood engraving of a "witch" being prepared for "flight" Wellcome Institute, London, via John Mann.
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