Mike Aporius

A witch craft

A workshop on how to make ceremonial brooms was held last weekend in advance of Samhain, the Celtic New Year, which is Sunday.

“Samhain is the time when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead is thinnest,” said workshop organizer Stacy Klassen. “A time of great change and of going onward... We are using the brooms in the ritual to sweep away negativity and that which no longer serves us.”

The brooms were made with herbs such as yarrow, goldenrod, sage and mugwort, as well as grasses, sticks and feathers. They were wrapped with leather, twine, ribbons and flowers onto a staff of oak, ash or hazel.

Klassen said Halloween images of witches dancing on brooms provide an opportunity to remind people witches were initially the village healers, elders, midwives and keepers of plant medicine and spiritual knowledge before they were persecuted, tortured and executed.

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