Ogham Tuesday: Broom/nGetal

Cleansing, Sweeping, Healing

Broom/nGetal is the 13th letter of the Ogham alphabet.

Representing the 13^th letter of the ogham alphabet, nGetal/Broom, is a tough one to explain phonetically. The sound itself doesn’t occur in English. I could give you all the linguistic information to explain that, but it’s not especially helpful for divination purposes, so let’s just leave it that.

Fortunately, its divination meaning is much easier to get at. I mean, BROOM, right? You sweep with it. You tidy up messes and maintain sanitation with it. And that about explains it. Broom occurs in a reading to tell you something needs a tidy-up or a cleansing. Obviously, for divination purposes, the attention to the mess could very well be figurative, but don’t overlook the blessing bestowed by clearing out a physical space.

Broom is for all things cleansing and healing, two things which we often see in tandem. Even the word oghams speak to broom’s being a tool of physicians. Broom is a practical tool for sweeping, dusting, and removing debris, but the plant is often mentioned in herbals as having beneficial properties. (This is the staff at 9F, absolutely NOT recommending any plant remedy whatsoever for any ailment whatsoever, forever and ever, bíodh sé amhlaidh.) Brooms or besoms are also used by practitioners of witchcraft for clearing a ritual space before working.

So whenever Broom pops up in a reading, it’s time to tend to task-y sorts of things—chores, basic self-care, or psychic and emotional cleansing. It’s all about taking steps towards getting your house in order, literally or figuratively.