The Broom & Sweeping:
(extract from `Introduction to Wicca’ 3-week Course (c) Mani Navasothy )
The broom is a magical tool, traditionally a phallic staff hidden inside a brush of twigs/thin branches. In some ways, it’s a symbol of male-female conjoined. (why people jump the broom in handfastings. It also marks a magical boundary, as it has the power to clear out energy (`good’ or `bad’) and thus create sacred space (empty).
The first act in a ritual is sweeping. It is where we totally trust the tool to do it’s work. The person sweeping simply visualises all energies being swept away from the designated space (only for duration of the ritual). For this duration, the group is merely `borrowing’ the space, to first create a energy-void, then fill it with selected energy to be used, then after ritual, ground all that energy, and return the space to it’s natural state.