While wizards are remembered mainly in the public consciousness today as men, the best examples we have from history for this type of staff were carried by women. Women held a very powerful role in the realm of magic in all Teutonic cultures, but it lingered on longer among the Norse due to their comparatively late conversion to Christianity.
Seeresses, called Völva (Völvur, plural), were essentially female shamanic wizards who wandered about offering their services to their communities. Not only have they been described in ancient sources as carrying magical staffs, but several of their staffs have been discovered on archaeological sites.
The Norse Völva is related to the Anglo-Saxon “Wicce,” (pronounced witch-uh), which is, of course, the origin of the modern word “witch.” This figure came in male and female form, with the male witches being called Wiccas (pronounced the same way, and not pronounced like the modern neo-pagan religion which appropriated the word).
I’ll be a bit repetitive here to avoid confusion. I’m not saying that European witches were shamans as such, but that they retained elements of shamanism that lingered on in their practice.
Just as the archetypal wizard uses his staff as his axis between the worlds, the witch archetype, as it has been passed down to us in the folk tradition, depicts the witch figure as tied closely to the hearth which was another axis, or portal, between the spiritual realms. The witch is also depicted strongly as associated with her broomstick, which is not unlike the wizard or völva’s staff.
The broom acts as the symbol of the world tree axis between the worlds and is therefore a gateway to inter-world travel. Just as the shaman goes into trance to spirit journey, the witch is depicted as mounting her broomstick for her own astral travels. Another key characteristic of shamanism, shape-shifting, also features prominently in witch trial accusations. - Carolyn Emerick
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