http://www.BackOnTheBroomstick.com/

Back on the Broomstick, PO Box 106, Salem, MA (2025)

09/24/2025

Thank you to everyone who has sent us mail!! The absolute joy and honor of reading your messages is one of our FAVORITE things to do. You all have shared your thoughts, your dreams, your love of the podcast (and your witchy Aunties!!), your magick, as well as your fears and sorrows, on paper and sent it to our magickal little box in Salem. And my gods do we love you for it!!

If Chelle is having a bad day, looking through old letters or getting new ones from the Post Office is a powerful mood lifter. As you know, Laylla loves few things more in the world than the written word; and Chelle makes sure she gets to see every letter as they come in!

This past week we had the opportunity to spend enough time together to do A LOT of magick, crafting, and of course workshops at CNY Pagan Pride. One of our favorite projects was making collages and a scrapbook from the mail you have sent us. When I say we read and re-read your letters it's not an exaggeration! These very meaningful, very gorgeous, very magickal mementos will hang in our offices until we someday get a studio together.

Thank you a million times! We love and appreciate you all from the bottom of our pointy toed boots to the top of our witchy hats!!

09/22/2025

Blessed Autumn Equinox and welcome to the Season of the Witch!! Ok, all seasons are witchy, but we have a special place in our hearts for Mabon; the Autumn Equinox. Equal day and equal night. The sacred pause where we find balance within and without. It's also the Witches’ Thanksgiving, a time to celebrate, enjoy and give thanks for the blessings of the season and prepare for the descent into the darker half of the year.

Chelle was in town over the weekend to spend time with Laylla and get up to all sorts of witchy antics! Not only did the witches get to the CNY Pagan Pride day but they spent time on the land, celebrating the season and honoring the land spirits. An altar of flowers, herbs, weeds and plants sprung up from the bounty of Laylla’s land and offerings from a local farm stand.

Despite Chelle’s ability to burn even water, she and Laylla were able to bake a rustic loaf of bread, filling the kitchen with the kind of magic you can eat. Warm, home-baked carbs are a blessing to the spirits of hearth and harvest….and to our bellies!

The descent into the dark isn’t all cozy kitchens, warm sweaters, and pumpkin spice treats; there is also the element of preparing for the dark, the cold, and the sacrifices of winter. As we cross this tipping point into the dark, we should ask ourselves
What are you ready to lay down, to sacrifice? And what will you bury to over-winter, knowing it will bloom in the spring?

Blessings of the Second Harvest to you and yours and Happy Autumn!

09/21/2025

A wonderfully witchy time was had at Central New York Pagan Pride Day, hosted by the incredible organizers and volunteers from CNY Pagans and Church of the Greenwood!

From the opening snake dance and ritual, to the workshops, performances, vendors, and amazing people, to the final drumming and closing ritual, our hearts and witchy souls are full.

Chelle's workshop at noon was Herbal Cartomancy; throwing herbs, reading cards and having a witchy good time!

In Laylla's workshop, Walking the Winding Path, participants learned how to draw and create a full size labyrinth.

We are still smiling and full of happy energy from all the listeners who stopped by our tent, workshops, or found us walking around to say hi! We had a fantastic day meeting people, getting hugs, having great conversations, making connections, and feeling the magick of community!

Gathering in person, showing up and supporting each other is powerful magick, especially now. Events like this are a reminder that we’re here. Witches, pagans, druids, animists, heathens, spiritual seekers of all kinds are many and the community is beautiful!

Thank you to the organizers, the vendors, the speakers, the volunteers, and every single person who came out to celebrate!

09/20/2025

Central New York Pagan Pride Day is off to a sunny start!! Crystal City Circle and Back on the Broomstick are manning a community table and doing a couple of workshops for the event! Huge thanks to Church of the Greenwood, the volunteers, presenters, and vendors that make this happen! If you’re in the Syracuse NY area stop in today and say hi and celebrate the Equinox weekend with a very large group of your new best pagan friends!

09/12/2025

We apologize but this Friday’s episode will be a little delayed. For many Americans 9/11 brings a heaviness that even these two witches are feeling and trying to navigate. Between that and tech issues and life’s usual chaos, your witches need a moment to breathe. We're taking a few extra days to get this week's episode out to you so that we can center and ground and give you us at our witchy best!

09/01/2025

We honor Spirit on the fifth day of Sirius Rising; the unseen thread that weaves all the elements together, the mystery that moves through everything.

At Brushwood, the Spirit Shrine is a sacred place where memory, magick, and mystery meet. What began as a simple mound in a field for ancestor offerings has grown over the last 20+ years into a deeply moving and beautifully curated space. Now, it holds not just the Ancestor Shrine and Ritual, but also a Dragon Shrine made from the bones of the Spirit dragon puppet crafted by the Archers years ago and at its heart, the labyrinth. The labyrinth is a meditative space to walk by day; and at night after the Spirit ritual it is lovingly lit by lanterns and offers a path to walk your spirit into deeper knowing.

The Archers, Brushwood’s Spirit Tribe, are an eclectic group of self-described spiritual wanderers who walk many paths, but come together in service to the mystery. Since 2005 they’ve built and maintained the labyrinth at the center of the Spirit Shrine. They’ve even created three different spirit dragons over the years to help call Spirit home during the elemental cycle. (puppets sounds too small to describe what they create, think Jim Henson level fire breathing REAL dragons)

Spirit gathers just across the threshold of dusk. In the hush before the stars, footsteps circle the labyrinth. Lanterns flicker, the dragon sleeps, and the ancestors listen. Spirit is found here, in the sacred memory of Travelers we hold dear, in the magick of being present, and in creative transformation

08/29/2025

In the latest Elemental Magick Series episode on the Water Element, we mentioned the origins of Pagan Pride Day and our very first Pagan Pride event. These pictures are from Pagan Pride NYC in 2001, back when we were witchlings (and apparently BOTH had bright red hair!)

It’s wild to look back and see how far we’ve come together since then. Lots of adventures, many miles and many trials, and so much more yet to do!

Have you been to a Pagan Pride event? Planning to go this year?

08/22/2025

Can you hear the drums from the Roundhouse? A daytime walkthrough of Brushwood Folklore Center's beloved Faeyrie Garden. And if you think this is magickal (and oh, my darling IT IS) you should see it at night!

08/15/2025

Laylla and Chelle are celebrating The Season of the Witch with a giveaway!

As a thank you to our Benefactors and because we love getting mail so much, we've decided that every piece of mail we get that is postmarked August 8th to October 1st will be entered in a drawing to win a copy of the Seasons of the Witch Samhain Oracle!

And even better, all of our benefactors are automatically entered!

The drawing will be held on October 10th 2025 so we can get the Oracle deck to you before Samhain (outside the USA we make no guarantees!)

To enter send us a post card, a long letter, a short letter, a picture of your familiar, tell us how your cat is doing, whatever mail you send works! As long as it is postmarked by October 1st 2025, you will get an entry into the drawing! 1 entry per person unless you're a Benefactor, then you could possibly get two entries

This giveaway is open to all of our listeners, even those outside the USA. If we're allowed to ship it to you, you are allowed to enter!

Please make sure your name and address are included in the mail! We won't sign you up for anything, it will only be used for this giveaway if you are the one lucky winner!

Send a letter to:
Back on the Broomstick
PO Box 106
Salem MA 01970

08/14/2025

The fourth day of the Sirius Rising Festival brought us to the element of Earth; our grounding force, our bones and roots, the steady heartbeat beneath our feet. Earth reminds us of the sacred in all things, the stillness of stone, the fertility of soil, the strength of tradition, and the deep nourishment that comes when we care for what sustains us. Earth teaches us about patience, persistence, and the power of what grows slowly.

This year’s Earth ritual included a beautiful act of devotion: planting a young Ash Rowan at the Earth Shrine. It’s the first in what will one day become a circle of trees; a living legacy rooted in honor of the Rowan Clan, original stewards of this sacred space.

That same night, the Earth shrine was lit with sacred fire as the Alchemical Fire Ritual unfolded. Rain fell, fire burned, incense curled through the air and the elements met in mystery. For the second year, Laylla was honored to craft the ritual incenses, blending herbs and resins to invite transformation and call the sacred through smoke. A ritual of Change, grounded in Earth, kindled by spirit.

And no Earth day is complete without a visit to the Fairy Garden (during the day and again at night!) This perfectly magical corner of Brushwood is a glittering sanctuary lovingly tended by festival goers and the artist duo, Beth and Zeeb. With cedar paths, shimmering glass orbs, strands of crystals, flowers, and treasures tucked into every corner, it feels like stepping into the fae realm. Beth’s clay fairies peek out from under roots and leaves, have clandestine meetings behind stones, and dance on branches. During the day, it’s a charming and magickal spot; by night, it twinkles and glows with an otherworldly aura that proves fairies are real!

08/13/2025

Water is honored on the third day of Sirius Rising. The energy of Water is the sacred flow of emotion, healing, intuition, subconscious, and connection. Where Air brings hope and Fire fuels action, Water asks us to feel. To soften. To surrender. It’s the realm of dreams and deep knowing, of tears and tides, and all that moves beneath the surface.

The Water ritual was presented by the Water Tribe, also known as The Embassy. Held in two parts, it began with quiet intention and ended in luminous magic. We went on a midnight walk around the West Shrine pond, everything was lit by blue lights and felt full of mystery and magick. It was a ritual of reflection, one that invited us to move through shadow and emerge transformed, like mist rising off still water.

The camp altar (travel altars are a must wherever Chelle and Laylla find themselves!) transformed with every ritual. Adding charged ritual tokens each night as well as items collected throughout the day.

05/29/2025

On episode 116: Celebrating World Tarot Day (And Chelle's Birthday) Chelle introduced a Tarot spread she crafted called “Flowers of May – Where Will I Bloom?” Created to encourage self-reflection and harness the blooming energy of summer, this spread invites you to explore where you’ve been, where you stand now, and what’s beginning to take shape in your life.

It touches on your roots, your obstacles, your allies, and what’s about to blossom (plus an optional wish card added by Laylla). It works for birthday introspection or whenever you are ready to see where you're at on your path.

Flowers of May – Where Will I Bloom
1 The roots, your foundation
2 What holds you up? What nurtures you?
3 What sustains you?
4 What is holding you back? Holding you down?
5 What steps need to be taken towards your future?
6 Your truth. Who are you really?
7 From where do you draw your energy?
8 What are you drawing into your life?
9 What should you nurture going forward?
10 What is about to blossom in your life?
11 (optional) What wish could come true if you play your cards right? What is a hidden desire that you should be working towards?

Back on the Broomstick

09/24/2025

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09/01/2025

08/29/2025

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05/29/2025

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