Some forms of love arrive slowly. Others must first be called from a distance.
Perhaps the person you long for is absent, divided from you by roads, silence or circumstance. Perhaps no face has yet appeared, but an empty place beside you has begun to feel like a presence of its own.
The Leaves of the Laurus spell gives that longing a voice.
Two laurel leaves are cast into fire or boiling water. As they crackle in flame or turn beneath the rising steam, the original words are spoken. The fragrance of the leaves becomes the incense of the working, carrying the call beyond the room and into the unseen paths where love approaches.
Laurus and the Hidden Name of Laurel
Laurus is another name for bay laurel—the dark, aromatic leaves often simply called bay leaves.
Even when dried, laurel keeps its shape and fragrance. It appears almost unchanged by time, making it a fitting vessel for a wish that has survived separation or a hope that has not yet found its answer.
Within this spell, laurel represents love called across distance.
The leaf is placed into an element that cannot remain still. Fire transforms it into smoke. Water turns its fragrance into steam. In either form, the intention rises and travels beyond sight.
What This Love Spell Calls
The original charm may be used in two ways.
It can call to a beloved who is absent from your side, awakening the invisible connection that remains between you.
It may also call a new love whose name and face are still unknown. In this form, the spell is sent outward without a destination, trusting the answering heart to recognize it.
Decide which form you intend before beginning.
If calling an absent love, hold the feeling of their presence in your thoughts.
If calling new love, imagine only the atmosphere you wish them to bring: warmth, desire, companionship and the strange familiarity of meeting someone who seems to have stepped out of an old dream.
When to Perform the Spell
Perform the spell shortly after sunset, when the visible world begins to withdraw and distant things feel nearer.
Friday gives the ritual a romantic current. A waxing moon favors love drawing closer, while a full moon gives the call brightness and intensity.
If the spell is meant to reach someone across a long distance, begin when the moon first becomes visible in the evening sky. If it is intended to summon new love, begin when the first stars appear.
The guide to moon phases in Wicca can help you choose the most fitting night.
What You Will Need
Gather:
- Two dried laurel or bay leaves
- A bonfire or ritual flame
or - A pot of boiling water
Nothing else is necessary.
The fire and water versions are two paths through the same ritual. Choose the one whose atmosphere best matches your intention.
Fire calls boldly. Water calls quietly.
Choosing the Two Laurel Leaves
Select two whole leaves.
The first represents your own heart—the place from which the call is sent.
The second represents the answering heart. It may belong to someone already known or to a stranger still concealed by time.
Hold one leaf in each hand.
Look at the leaf in your left hand and say:
This is the heart that waits.
Look at the leaf in your right hand and say:
This is the heart that hears.
Bring your hands together, placing one leaf over the other.
For a few moments, imagine no distance between them.
Preparing the Call
Sit before the unlit fire or the still pot of water.
Close your eyes and listen to the silence around you. Beneath the ordinary sounds of the room, imagine another silence answering from far away.
If you are calling someone known, remember the sound of their voice rather than the details of their face. Let that voice appear once, then fade.
If you are calling new love, imagine footsteps approaching along a road hidden by darkness. Do not decide who walks there. Let the figure remain beyond sight.
Hold the two leaves against your heart and whisper:
What is distant may draw near.
What is hidden still may hear.
You are now ready to awaken the Laurus.
The Fire Ritual
Light the bonfire or ritual flame.
Watch until the fire becomes steady. Hold the two laurel leaves before it so their edges catch the moving light.
The leaves have separate meanings, but they must enter the fire together. One carries the call; the other carries the possibility of an answer.
Say:
One heart calls.
One heart hears.
Let the road between them open.
Cast both leaves into the flame.
As they catch fire and begin to crackle, speak the original incantation.
The Original Leaves of the Laurus Incantation
The original words remain unchanged:
Leaves of the Laurus,
That burn in flames,
Let my love
Summon before me!
Speak the charm with your eyes upon the leaves.
Repeat it as they darken and curl. Let their fragrance rise through the smoke, carrying the words with it.
When the leaves can no longer be distinguished from the flame, say:
The leaves are gone.
The call remains.
Allow the fire to continue until the ritual feels complete.
The Boiling Water Ritual
For the water form of the spell, fill a pot and bring the water to a boil.
Stand before the rising steam with one laurel leaf in each hand. Remember which leaf represents the waiting heart and which represents the answering heart.
Hold them above the pot and say:
Across the water, beneath the sky,
hear the heart that calls tonight.
Drop the two leaves into the boiling water together.
Watch them disappear beneath the surface and rise again. As the water moves around them, recite the original charm:
Leaves of the Laurus,
That burn in flames,
Let my love
Summon before me!
Though no visible flame touches them, the heat beneath the water carries the same transforming force. The steam becomes their messenger.
Repeat the incantation three times while the leaves turn within the water.
Then say:
By water below and mist above,
carry my voice and return with love.
Remove the pot from the heat and allow the leaves to remain within it as the water grows still.
Reading the Flame
In the fire ritual, the movement of the leaves may offer signs.
A leaf that catches immediately suggests a call moving swiftly.
If both leaves ignite together, the path between the two hearts is clear.
If one burns while the other remains visible, the call may travel through a longer silence before it is answered.
A sudden bright flame gives the spell passion. A slow red glow speaks of affection that approaches quietly.
Record anything unusual in your Book of Shadows, but do not force every spark to become an omen. Sometimes the answer is revealed later, through events rather than fire.
The guide to candle magic and reading flames explores these signs in greater depth.
Reading the Water
In the water ritual, watch how the leaves move as the boiling begins to soften.
Leaves that drift together suggest two paths beginning to converge.
If they circle one another, the approaching love may already be near, though neither person has recognized it.
A leaf that remains beneath the surface speaks of a feeling still hidden.
When the water finally becomes still, notice where the two leaves rest. The distance between them reflects the distance that remains after the call has been sent.
Completing the Fire Spell
When the flame has faded, gather a small amount of the cooled laurel ash.
Carry it to the threshold of your home.
Stand facing outward and scatter the ash beyond the door while saying:
Laurus carried upon the night,
guide the answering footsteps right.
Close the door and leave the threshold undisturbed until morning.
The ash has departed, but the call remains outside, moving through the world.
Completing the Water Spell
When the laurel water has cooled, carry the pot to your doorway at dusk.
Remove the two leaves and place them together beneath the earth near the entrance.
Pour the water over the place where they are buried.
Say:
Beneath this earth the leaves now lie.
Above them waits the open sky.
What heard my voice beyond the night
may find its path by morning light.
Return inside without looking back at the buried leaves.
After Calling Love
For the next three nights, place no name upon the spell.
Allow the call to travel without being pulled back by impatience. Notice dreams, unexpected messages and unfamiliar people who seem strangely easy to speak with.
The answer may first appear as a change in your own presence. You may feel less isolated, more visible or newly willing to enter places where love might encounter you.
If you wish to continue drawing romantic energy while the Laurus call travels, the bottle of love spell may be kept nearby as a quieter companion charm.
When the Call Is Answered
The spell does not always announce its completion.
Sometimes the answer is a message after a long silence. Sometimes it is a meeting that appears ordinary until remembered later. Sometimes a stranger enters your life carrying a quality you spoke only to the dark.
When this occurs, take one fresh laurel leaf outside at sunset.
Hold it beneath the sky and say:
The hidden road has opened.
The distant voice has heard.
Love came without a summons twice.
The spell has found its word.
Place the leaf beneath a stone and leave it there.
The call is complete.
The Fragrance That Remains
The laurel leaves vanish into flame or sink beneath dark water.
Their shapes are lost, but their fragrance remains a little longer. It passes through the room, crosses the threshold and disappears into the evening.
Somewhere beyond sight, another heart may pause.
Perhaps it hears only a whisper.
Perhaps that is enough.