Greetings!
>In the past couple days I've surfed across several posts from
>different web sites that offer accounts of why witches used
>brooms (and other tools whose handles were poles).
>
>The accounts have in common a practical association of ergot
>fungus, flying ointments, use of a pole as a masturbation aid,
>and the absorptive abilities of (female) genital tissues. The gist
>of the narrative amounts to herbalism and food distribution
>having some dangers, witchcraft posing dangers to community
>and Christianity, and men not really being anatomically able
>to take part in pole administered hallucinogenic flying ointments
>quite as well as women--hence, most witches were/are female.
>
I can offer a different narrative. The role of broom in folklore as
evinced in East Anglian and other broom dances and as a prop in Mummers
Plays.
Well developed accounts of broom magic can be found in that tremendous
repository of European folk magic that is hoodoo, as recorded by Hyatt
Folk magical practice can be construed as "witchcraft", especially when
it is a form of magical resistance by people against their masters.
My best wishes
Ben
--
Ben Fernee
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