Book Review of Shadows: The Witch’s Broom by Deborah Blake

🔮🔮🔮🔮/5!

“Take a magickal flight into the history, tradition, and modern uses of broomsticks. Whether sweeping the floors or helping with spells, rituals, and crafts, the broom is a more versatile tool than you ever imagined.

Join Deborah Blake on a journey through the ages, exploring why broomsticks and witches have always been an inseparable pair. Enjoy broom lore, insights from well-known witchy authors, and instructions for buying or making your own for special occasions. From besoms to broomcorn, The Witch’s Broom is the perfect guide for adding anew facet to your magickal practice. Have a nice flight!” – Goodreads.com

This is one of those great little books Llewellyn releases in a series, where they cover a large topic in a bunch of small books, all written by great witchy and pagan authors. Honestly? All of these are great. I’ve loved every “For Beginners” I’ve read, the Sabbat series was really excellent, and so far this Witch’s Tools series is too. The series covers everything from brooms to cauldrons, athames, mirrors, wands, you get the picture. This volume on brooms was written by Deborah Blake, the author of the “Everyday Witch” books and tarot deck.

I’m really glad I bought myself a copy of this book because brooms are a classical witch symbol and tool that I’ve always struggled to actually use in ritual. Now I find myself with multiple small brooms and 4 full-sized ones, and I had no idea what to do with them – until now! haha

The book covers everything about how brooms became associated with witches in the first place. The history and lore, and even traditional uses of brooms. Then it talks about the image of the witch on her broom, and how it featured in popular culture. Oh! Yes, a broom falling or being dropped DOES mean company’s coming, a la Practical Magic.

One of the coolest features through the book (and all the books in this series, it seems) is called “REAL WITCHES, REAL BROOMS” and is a short essay by a well-known pagan author about their favourite uses of brooms, or stories about how they use them in ritual. I loved how different they all were, and how many different kinds of witches have their own magickal broom. Tess Whitehurst talked about working with her regular sweeping broom and vacuum cleaner as a way to clear energy in her space and lift her mood. Mickie Mueller on the other hand, an author and really great visual artist, shared that she has multiple ritual and magickal brooms and that she decorates brooms for all sorts of occasions, almost like wreaths.

The book tells you how to acquire your own broom – either by making it yourself or buying one, offers suggestions about different woods and materials, and offers ideas for decorating. It goes into detail about how the broom is a common symbol of home and family, which is why it’s often given as a housewarming gift and jumped over at weddings! There are 2 whole chapters dedicated to spells and ritual uses for brooms, some of which I’d never heard or thought of.

Finally, the design of the book is awesome and cute. The first covers for this series were… cute but a little too cartoony. This new one matches the great hand-drawn brooms throughout the book that inspires you to decorate your broom, build one, or find some creative uses for it.

The reason I gave this book 4 crystal balls instead of 5 is just because as much as I like Deborah Blake’s style, I know that her very pagan perspective doesn’t appeal to a lot of new witches. Most fo the broom ideas are still very cottagey and rustic, which is great and I love it, but I was hoping for something a little different. I still absolutely 100% recommend it if you’re looking to use brooms, even if you already have some! I know I’ve already got a bunch of decorating and mounting ideas for some of my more decorative brooms that I’m excited to try.

Have you been following the #HowRealWitchesDo prompts for October? Check the whole tag on Instagram here.