From "Bad-ass: Living & Spells" --- How To Make A Beautiful Besom...

How To Make Yourself A Beautiful Besom >>> This is easier than you might think... To make a witch’s broom or besom you’ll need to buy an old-fashioned straw broom. You can probably get one somewhere. Try a vintage-type general or hardware store. Straw brooms are still made, or you can get really creative and gather “rushes,” or long dried native decorative grasses. I bought a straw broom. I got mine at Walmart. Some folks even have dyed their broom straw with food coloring or fabric dyes to make positively stunning besoms with colored brushes. Get a fallen rather straight or slightly crooked branch. Don’t cut a branch from a live tree! That’s bad mojo, for you and for the tree! Oak, willow, popular and maple are especially magickal woods. But, plenty of others are too. Take the bark off it. Sand it, if you want. Varnish or oil it, if you want. I oiled mine with rose oil. Take apart the broom brush or gather the rushes together. I also added dried sprigs of lavender, yarrow and straw flowers. With twine or wire tie the straw brushes or rushes firmly to the handle, or stock, of your besom. You can upend your besom, after you’re finished with it, pouring white glue down through the straw, for extra firmness, as I did. Then, if you want, you can wind colored yarn or ribbons around the stock, covering the twine. If you are into Druid magick, you might use red, black and white yarn, for red, black and white are Druid colors. You can decorate your besom with bells, shells, crystals or carve or woodburn words or symbols into it. A staff is a tool that has connotations to the crone years in a witch’s life, being also used as a type of walking aid. Make a wand or staff by also finding a fallen branch. A friend of mine was exceptionally lucky to find a branch from a tree that was struck by lightning, adding the energy of the lightning bolt to her wand! She was positively delighted!!! Oak is, of course, known as being a very masculine tree, as willow is very feminine. Remove the bark from your branch and sand it smooth. I wood burned my wand with symbols and tied my birthstone to it. You can “paint” it with clear nail polish. Naturally, it would wonderful to put our wand, staff or besom out where the light of a full moon will shine on it, to cleanse and sanctify it. Use your besom to sweep away any negativity. I “sweep” from the top of a room on down by holding my besom by it stock and swirling it around the ceiling corners and to the middle of the ceiling, and then down, down, finishing with sweeping the floor. Then, I stand with my back to the open doorway and sweep the negativity, and probably the dust too, out through my legs. I say, --- “Negativity go away! Go away from here today!,” --- again and again and again, each time stronger than the previous, finally practically shouting. I finish the house cleansing by thoroughly smudging with white sage, lavender or rosemary. Here’s a simple spell you might use when you have a party guest who just won’t leave. You might want to keep your besom in your bedroom so you can always do this spell!... Go to your bedroom and, taking your besom, place it on the floor, pointing it’s bristles toward the unwanted guest, shut the door and return to the party. This encourages the unwanted guest to leave soon!