Any idea why witches were depicted as riding on brooms ..instead of having wings like angels?

Question

I wonder if witches astral traveled and some people saw them or experienced them and thought they came on brooms. Could they have just been regular people astral traveling?

Answer 1

dunno why, but i heard they upgraded from a broomstick to a top of the range Dyson

Answer 2

In folklore, witches use brooms or besoms (brooms made of bundled twigs) to fly through the air at high speed. In Renaissance and medieval times, "the belief that witches traveled by broom was more prevalent on the European continent than in the British Isles." Only once are brooms mentioned in English witch trials. Nonetheless, the image of a witch riding a broomstick has become a popular cultural stereotype. Several theories explain this association of brooms with witches.

Read the rest of the site, it has a lot more info!!! Hope that helps!!

Answer 3

The Besom, or Broom, fills a largely symbolic role in Wiccan practice. Derived from European witchcraft folklore of broom dancing and flying, the broom is used today for symbolic cleansing or purification. A typical besom ritual uses the broom to "sweep" negative energy from a home or other space. The besom/broom is also a focal point in Wiccan handfasting marriages, where it acts as a stand-in threshold, which newlyweds jump to cement their vows.

Answer 4

witches were thought to be in league with the Devil and would in no way be likened or compared to angels.  here's one theory of why they flew on brooms.

Answer 5

Apparently, people considered to be witches used to hide their wands by making them look like a broomstick. They would rub something on it that could make it fly.

Answer 6

it started back when wicca/paganism started in like the 1500's or something. people didnt like the people who followed this religion so they said somethink so other people thought they were weird.

Answer 7

Usually witches or wizzards need an object i.e. a rod staff want to pass their powers onto objects these were used to transport them i.e. fly them the same way.

Answer 8

Why would we want to give something to a cruel, mean-spirited witch, that we would associate with a pure, sent from God, angel?

Answer 9

Witches would sometimes straddle their brooms and jump over crops to make them grow. Historians feel that early Puritans saw this a time or two and thought they were trying to fly, so therefore the myth of us flying on brooms was born.

In magick the broom is a fertility symbol. Still today modern witches sometimes do this and this ritual practice is seen at some hand fastings.

Basic Wiccan besom history.

BB

Answer 10

The answer to that question has to do with the application of potions with psychoactive herbs such as mandrake, mushrooms etc. Wiccans would sometimes boil up a mind altering potion in a cauldron, let it cool a bit, and then apply it to each other with a broom for a trans-dermal delivery (like a nicotine patch). After painting each other with the potion they would experience the sensation of flying.