The besom is used to sympathetically sweep an area that requires purification. It can also be placed alongside your body to facilitate astral projection. The contemporary scholarship of folklore about the besom is that its knob or handle was used to apply a hallucinogenic topical into the mucous membranes of the vagina to facilitate an altered state of consciousness - hence "flying" on the broom. Though this claims has lots of academic backing, it has no direct scholarship. It is nonetheless asserted by many modern pagans as fact and is becoming understood by many folklorists as history.
Another use is to ride the broom like a hobby horse during fertility rituals. Hereditary witches claim that jumping while astride the besom has been an element of spring fertility rituals since the dark ages. The idea is that you show the grain how high to grow with the height of your jump.
When building a besom, you can choose to go after the traditional woods. Traditionally the stick is made of ash, the bristles are made of birch and the binding is made of willow. You may find birch branches at a larger floral shop or garden center for use in making wreaths. I got mine from my back yard. Willow is the same wood as wicker, so you might find the binding in a store that supplies basket-weavers. Good luck on the ash. I'm told that some home improvement stores sell ash dowels, but they are turned to be smooth and don't have the natural look of a branch. I prefer my broom to have a scraggled, rustic and homemade look rather than a neat, organized, and manufactured appearance. Ultimately, your tool is only as powerful as your belief in it. So don't stress out if you can't find the specific woods.
When I make mine, I use a birch branch because that's what came down with the bristles. The best bristles are those with some sap still in them. That means the branch recently fell and hasn't dried out, or the bristles have been factory cured so they are not brittle. If you just pick up twigs from the ground, you will likely have brittle twigs that will break apart when the pressure of the binding pushes on them. For the binding, I use cotton cord or some other strong natural twine like jute or hemp. Don't be afraid to break with tradition and make it your own.
First you must trim all of your twigs from the branches. Trim the twigs at the base of every fork so you get long, straight twigs. The best way to keep them from getting all over and ensure that they all stack at the same level is to put them into a coffee can as you cut them. When you have cut enough you can apply them to your broom stick. I like to start by gathering up the bundle and tying a loose string around it to corral them together.
You will apply the bristles to the small end of the broom stick. This seems incorrect because of the liklihood that the bristles would slide off. But if you make your stick correctly and tie the bristles tightly, they will not slide off. The large end of the broom stick should be rounded into a knob. The short end of the broom stick should be trimmed so that a side-branch remains to act as a projection. Trim off the side branch, but leave a sort stump. If you are lucky, your branch will have a natural bulge in it.
Withdraw your bristle from their keeper can and surround the small end of the broom stick and the small branch stump. Don't take the temporary string off just yet and try to keep all of the cut ends at the same level. Make sure your stick goes into the center of the bundle so that there aren't parts of the stick showing through the branches. Once the stick is surrounded by twigs, tightly tie the twigs above the branch stump. Leave a couple of inches of the twig bundle above the tie. Now you can tie the bristles below the broomstick to bring them all into order. Your bristles should generally point the same direction (more or less) and have a little bulge between the bindings.When using your broom, you should also use visualization. You can imagine that the broom bristles are giving off a white smoke that fills the space with purity, much like a huge smudge stick. Another option is to imagine the space filled with a dark smoke or dust that the broom clears away when you symbolically sweep the space. Remember that you need not actually touch the floor with your broom if you don't want. The act of using the broom, coupled with your visualization, will bring about the purity of space you desire.
