The Stang

The witches in folklore and on old woodcuts did not only rid on the broom, when they flow through the night. But also on the stang.

The stang is a pole of wood with an crotch on top of it. It looks like a pitchfork. Some believe this stangs were distaffs, other thinks they were stove forks.

But the stang is not so strongly connected with our modern archetype of the witch, here the broom is on top. But in the old days, the stang was seen as a witchcraft tool.

What the broom is for me in my home and garden, the stang is for me when i am out and about.

And many traditional witches today, have reclaimed the stang for their witchcraft as a working tool.

You can find much informations about the stang and the symbolism of it online, because many traditions and solitary witches are using it in their workings today again. Here i will write about my own symbolism.

For me the stang is a very similar to the broom, like the broom the stang is a all-round working tool. Everything i wrote about the broom, fits also for the stang.

I have two stangs, one that i use as a walking stick, the other is a kind of ward in my ritual room and stands next to the protective broom on my hearth shrine.

I use the broom in my rites and workings that i make in my home or my garden. When i go out into the fields and forests, i take with me my stang. I use it as as walking stick. When i am walking through the land I do store the life energy in it and i use it for rites and workings in the woods and fields, in the same way I use the broom in my home.

For me it is not only a symbol of the world tree, but a symbol for the crossroads, the meeting place of the witches, the threshold between the worlds and the sacred threeway of the Goddess Hekate (and on the magical table of Pergamom- a Y shaped rune was used as special symbol for Hekate- it looked like the stang). And at the same time the stang is for me a symbol for the Horned Lord of the sabbath, the two ends of the stang are symbols for his horns. And if you put a lantern or a candle between the two ends, it gets a symbol for the fire of the God.

The broom and the stang are for me symols of the axis mundi, the world tree that connects all worlds with each other (material world, etheric world and empyrean world). Hekates sacred oak tree, entwined with her snakes, the twigs in the heaven and the roots deep in the underworld.

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The Broom

The Broom is one of the main attributes of the archetypical witch. On Halloween no witch comes out without her broom. In Folklore the witches fly on  brooms through the night sky, or to the the sabbath.

And in folklore and folk magic the broom is surrounded by much lore.

Brooms can be used to protect the home against thieves an evil spirits, it can be used to bless, to banish negative energies or troublesome spirits. A broom that is standing before the front door is a protective amulet and something like a sign for modern witches: Hey in this house lives a witch.

But why is the broom so much connected to witches in folklore and in our modern witch archetype?

In old times a broom made from brush (and later from straw) was an everyday thing. Every household had a broom. The broom was (and is) a tool to clean the home. And the broom got a symbol for the home in general over time. But at the same time the broom is made from things that grew outside of the home, in the hedges or in the woods. So the broom is a ambivalent symbol, made from the things outside of the home (and outside the man made world) and at the same time a tool that got a symbol for the home and domestic life. The broom was also a symbol for a threshold, because with the broom the dirt was cast out of the home over the threshold. The broom stood in many homes near the hearth- another symbol strongly connected to witchcraft in folklore and the hearth had the same symbolism. It represents the home and the spirit of the home, but at the same time it is a meeting place, a doorway to the spirit world, a threshold to the world outside of the home (and a gate to the realms outside of the man made world).

And the witch herself is strongly weaved into this symbolism. She is is connected to the thresholds, between the worlds of humans and spirits, between the man made world and nature, between the village and the wilderness between life and death. So for me the Witch Queen (Goddess of witchcraft) is strongly connecteod to the broom, too. She is the mistress of all thresholds, mediating between the worlds.

On old woodcuts witches were depicted riding on brooms in their flight, but they used also other things like stangs, pitchforks or animals.

In modern witchcraft the broom can be a all-round working tool. It can be used to clean the home from negative energies and spirits, to weave protective magic around the home, to direct energies (like the wand is used in ceremonial magic), as a focal point for familiar spirits and the good spirits of the home, as a tool to evoke spirits (like the wand is used by magicians), as a tool to bless the home and to draw the witch circle (as a threshold between the worlds).

And as a tool in witches flights (the leaving of the body in mental-, astral- or etheric projections of the spirit) you can ride the astral reflection of the broom on your flights. The broom can be seen as the world tree, or as a symbol of the witches hedge. Because the broom is made from things that grew in the hedge (a symbol of the threshold between the worlds). And it can be a very protective tool in the otherworld, if you use the astral reflection of it in your flights and journeys.

I have several brooms. One broom for rites, spells and witcheries. This broom is my working tool. For me this broom has a spirit of her own, because of this i write about this broom as her- not as it. Her handle is made from alder tree, her brush is made from apple twigs, willow and birch. I use this broom in my magic, i ride her astral reflection when i leave my body, i use her as weapon in my otherworld journeys and with her i cast my witch circles. For me the broom is my main working tool when i am in my home or my garden.

Then i have a broom made from birch that stands before our front door. This broom is a amulet to protect our home and the threshold. And i have a third broom that stands near my hearth shrine in my ritual room. It is made from willow wood and willow twigs and the twigs of dogwood. I have worked the skull of a fox into this broom, twigs of thorny hedge roses, snake skin and runes. This broom protects the threshold between the mundane and spiritual realms and is a focus point of the spirits i work with. And I have several straw brooms that I use for mundane cleansing in my home.

The Tools And Symbols Of The Witch Archetype

Every child knows which tools witches are using.

Witches have brooms to fly in moonlit nights through the sky.

They have big cauldrons in wich they make potions from herbs.

They use flying ointment to leave the earth, through the chimney of the hearth.

They have black cats as pets, or toads. And the witches do wear the black pointy hats.

They have imps and familiar spirits that do their bidding.

They live outside of the village, in their scary houses, near dark woods filled with wonders and horrible creatures.

All these symbols are rooted in our modern witch archetype.

But many modern witches use the elemental weapons from ceremonial magic in their rites, the athame, chalice, pentacle and wand. Many think that the archetypical witch tools are just fantasy equipment. But if you look closer to this tools and symbols, they tell you stories of the past and of their way to use them as modern witchcraft tools.

I will look at these tools and symbols in the next days to tell you the stories behind them.

The cauldron and the hearth

The broom

The stang

Other tools Of the craft

The witches hat

The witches flight

Familiar spirits and witchcraft animals

The outcast witch

The witches woods