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The Gardnerian Book of Shadows as such is, at least in America, a stan-dardized liturgical manual, and membership in the traditional Gardnerianlineages is decided in terms of whether initiations have been carried out ex-actly as specified in this book.The fact that Gardner was still revising theserituals as late as 1960 has caused both difficulties and controversies.Almost all of the British version of Gardner s Book of Shadows has nowbeen published several times.The American version of the Book of Shadowsis about three times the size of the British version, and almost none of thisnew material is publicly distributed and is not considered authoritative in anyway by British Gardnerians.See Also: Esbat; Introduction; Rite, Ritual; SabbatsFurther ReadingBell, Jessie W.The Grimoire of Lady Sheba.St.Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1972.Incorporates her earlier Lady Sheba s Book of Shadows.Gardner, Gerald B.High Magic s Aid.New York: Michael Houghton, 1949.Kelly, Aidan A.Crafting the Art of Magic, Book I: A History of Modern Witchcraft,1939 1964.St.Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1991.Valiente, Doreen.The Rebirth of Witchcraft.London: Robert Hale, 1989.BrigidBrigid, on February 1, is the midwinter Sabbat (coven meeting) of the Neo-pagan Witches.The holiday is named for both the Irish Goddess Brigid, pa-tron of poets and daughter of the Dagda, and the Catholic Saint Brigid, whowas obviously named after the goddess and came to share many of her quali-ties and attributes.Brigid is one of the eight Sabbats of the Wheel of theYear celebrated by Neopagan Witches in the United States, and it is one ofthe four Greater Sabbats the other three being Beltane (May 1), Lughnasad(August 1), and Samhain (better known as Hallowe en November 1).These are the traditional Celtic cross-quarter days and have always been saidin folklore to be days on which Witches meet.The Sabbat is usually devotedto celebrations of light, poetry, and the overflowing bowl.Another name for this holiday is Candlemas, a day on which candleswere blessed in order to be used for healing and in rituals during the rest ofthe year.Yet another name for this holiday is Groundhog Day folk beliefhas it that if a groundhog (or some other creature in other regions) wakes35 BROOMAn altar from a 1999 ritual at Circle Sanctuary.(Photo by Angie, Circle Sanctuary archives)from his hibernation, comes out of his burrow, and sees his shadow, there willbe six more weeks of winter.Of course, the season of winter does not officiallyend until March 21, and there normally are six more weeks of cold weatheruntil then.Observance of this day appears to be a relic of the Celtic midwin-ter festival of Brigid.See Also: Sabbat; Wheel of the YearFurther ReadingCampanelli, Pauline.Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life.St.Paul, MN:Llewellyn, 1989.Kelly, Aidan A.Religious Holidays and Calendars: An Encyclopedic Handbook.Detroit,MI: Omnigraphics, 1991.BroomThe broom is popularly known as a means of travel for Witches, who weretraditionally said to have ridden them through the air.The broom has a longand ambivalent symbolic history.Brooms are both a phallic symbol and asymbol of female domesticity.In ancient Rome sacred midwives used specialbrooms to sweep the threshold of the house after childbirth in order to repelevil influences away from mothers and their babies.In the Middle Ages, abroomstick propped outside the door of a house or pushed up the chimney36 BURNING TIMESwas a sign to neighbors and callers that the woman of the house was away.Witches were reported to be able to fly brooms up chimneys.As mostWitches were women, brooms became associated with the female gender.While a broom could be turned to a Witch s purpose by means of flyingointment, a broomstick placed across the threshold of a house was supposedto keep Witches out.In ancient Greece it was forbidden to step over abroom.This belief carried forward to England where Yorkshire folklore had itthat it was unlucky for an unmarried girl to step over a broomstick thismeant that she would be a mother before she was a wife.The wedding couplejumped back and forth across a broom in Gypsy wedding ceremonies in thefifteenth century.Pagans performed fertility rites to induce their crops to grow well.Theymounted brooms and pitchforks and rode them like hobbyhorses in the fields,dancing and leaping.Sexual symbols represented life itself, so it was naturalthat the broomstick be employed in such rites.Before Witches were recordedas riding on brooms, they were said to have danced with them, sometimesholding brooms up high in the air or dancing astride them.In addition to rid-ing brooms, sixteenth-century art portrays Witches riding fireplace pokers,benches, pitchforks, animals, and shovels through the air.Sorcerers (those who practice magic without the religious emphasis ofWitchcraft) also were said to fly on brooms, although more often they weredepicted as riding on pitchforks.Even the orientation of the Witch on thebroom was thought to convey meaning: Witches shown with the broombrush pointing at the Earth were said to be sweeping their tracks from thesky; Witches riding with the brush pointing at the sky often would be shownwith a candle amongst the bristles to light the way.Ringing church bells sup-posedly had the power to ground brooms and make Witches fall off them.In Neopagan Witchcraft, the broom is placed at the altar with other Witchestools.The broom is used symbolically to sweep away evil.See Also: Flying; Sorcery; Tools, WitchesFurther ReadingChevalier, Jean, and Alain Gheerbrant.The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols.London:Penguin, 1996.Valiente, Doreen.An ABC of Witchcraft: Past and Present.New York: St.Martin sPress, 1973.Burning TimesAmong Neopagan Witches, the phrase the Burning Times commonly refersto the period in European history when Witches were actively pursued,prosecuted, and executed.This period is also sometimes referred to as the In-quisition or the Witch hunts
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