Moon and Broom Wall Hanging, 12" x 3 1/2"

Crescent moon and besom in pewter tone. The two most legible objects in witchcraft's visual vocabulary: the moon for the cycle, the broom for the sweeping.

Pentacle and moon charms hanging beneath. They move and catch the light, which gives the piece a small amount of life on a still wall.

An amethyst set into the piece. A real stone rather than a coloured resin, and the traditional stone for the work this object is hung to support.

Twelve inches by three and a half. Narrow. It fits the wall space most people actually have free rather than the wall space in the photograph.

• Dimensions: 12" x 3 1/2"
• Finish: Pewter tone
• Design: Crescent moon and besom, with hanging pentacle and moon charms
• Stone: Amethyst
• SKU: FWH8055

The besom is one of the oldest tools in the Craft and one of the most misunderstood. It does not sweep dirt. A ritual broom is used without touching the floor, passed above a space to move what has settled there in the way a physical broom moves dust, and the gesture is the whole of the tool. That is why the besom became the witch's emblem in the popular imagination: an ordinary domestic object that everyone owned, doing something that was not ordinary at all. It was a working tool that could sit in plain sight in a kitchen, which mattered a great deal to people who could not afford to be found with anything stranger.

The crescent pairs with it naturally. The moon is the clock the Craft runs on, and hanging it above a working space is a way of keeping the cycle in the room, so that you notice what phase you are in before you decide what to do.

An object like this is not itself a working. It is a marker. It says that this corner of the house is a place where you do something, which is a real function and does not need to be inflated into anything more.

1. Hang it where you actually work. Above the altar, beside the door, over the desk. The point is that you see it and remember what the space is for.
2. Hang it by a threshold if you prefer. Doors are the traditional home for protective imagery, and this piece is narrow enough for the wall beside one.
3. Cleanse it as you would any altar tool. Smoke or sound. Do not soak it; there is metal and a set stone.
4. Dust it, honestly. Hanging charms collect dust, and there is something faintly absurd about a besom under a layer of it.
5. Let it mark the season. Some practitioners move a piece like this to a different wall at the sabbats, which is a small ritual and costs nothing.

• Amethyst Tumbled Stones, 1 lb. The same stone that sits in the hanging, loose, for the altar it hangs over.
• Black Tourmaline Tumbled Chips, 1 lb. The mineral half of a threshold setup, set below where the piece hangs.
• Protection Herbal Votive Candle, Black. The candle for the working the wall piece marks the space for.
• Moonstone Tumbled Stones, 1 lb. For practitioners who want the lunar half of the imagery on the altar as well as the wall.
• Mistletoe Cut, 1 oz. The traditional hanging herb for a doorway, if the wall piece is going up beside one.

Is the amethyst a real stone? Yes, amethyst rather than coloured resin or glass.

What is a besom actually for? Ritual sweeping: passing the broom above a space rather than across the floor, to move what has settled there. It is not a cleaning implement, and it is not meant to touch the ground.

How does it hang? As a wall piece, twelve inches long and narrow, with charms suspended beneath.

Is it heavy? No. It is a light decorative piece, not a cast metal object, and it will hang from an ordinary picture hook.

Does the object do anything on its own? No, and we would rather say so. It marks a space as a working space. That is a genuine and useful function, and it does not need to be dressed up as more than it is.