Some endings ask for tears.
Others ask for mud, black thread and the ugliest toad you can draw.
When a lover has treated you badly and fled into the arms of another, grief may be joined by a colder desire: that the charm which once deceived you should deceive no one else.
The Turning into a Frog Spell gathers the betrayer’s image, an old piece of clothing and a handful of earth into a black-stitched bundle. A green toad is drawn upon its surface, and the finished curse is left beneath the full moon until morning.
By sunrise, the glamour surrounding the faithless lover has begun to decay. Others may finally see what was concealed beneath the handsome mask.
What the Frog Curse Does
The spell does not call the former lover back.
It does not repair the relationship or soften the memory of betrayal. Instead, it strips away the charm that allowed the ex-lover to appear more desirable than their actions deserved.
The frog becomes their hidden reflection.
Where others once saw beauty, confidence or mystery, they begin to notice vanity, dishonesty and an unpleasant hunger for attention. Compliments become rarer. New admirers lose interest. The same rejection once given to you begins to follow the betrayer.
The transformation starts beneath the full moon, but its echo may continue long after the bundle has been discarded.
When to Perform the Spell
The original ritual is performed at midnight during a full moon.
Begin gathering the materials before the moon reaches its highest point. At midnight, carry them to a quiet place where you will remain undisturbed.
The full moon illuminates what has been concealed. In this spell, its light does not beautify the former lover. It reveals the creature beneath their glamour.
Use the guide to moon phases in Wicca if you wish to choose the brightest night of the lunar cycle.
What You Will Need
Gather the original ingredients:
- A piece of cloth, preferably one of the ex-lover’s old T-shirts
- A large handful of sand, mud or dry earth
- A photograph or drawn image of the ex-lover
- A sewing needle
- Black thread
- Green paint or a green marker
The old T-shirt carries the strongest connection because it once rested against the person’s body. If none remains, use another plain piece of cloth.
The photograph may be printed, cut from another image or drawn by hand. It need only be recognizable to you.
The Meaning of the Cloth
Cloth remembers shape.
An old shirt has folded around the shoulders, chest and back of the person who wore it. Even when empty, it keeps something of that vanished outline.
Cut a square large enough to hold the earth and photograph. Lay it flat before you with the inside facing upward.
Run your hands across it and remember the last time you saw the former lover clearly.
Do not remember who you hoped they were.
Remember what they revealed themselves to be.
The Earth and Mud
The earth gives the spell weight.
Glamour belongs to appearances, promises and charming words. Mud belongs to what remains when those illusions collapse.
Take the handful of sand, mud or soil between both hands.
Say:
Earth that clings and earth that knows,
reveal the shape beneath fine clothes.
Where empty beauty once was seen,
let the hidden creature gleam.
Place the earth in the center of the cloth.
Spread it into a dark, uneven circle.
Preparing the Photograph
Take the photograph or drawing of the ex-lover.
Look into the pictured eyes and speak their name once.
Say:
I called you fair because I did not know.
I called you true because you hid the lie.
Beneath this moon, the borrowed beauty ends.
Beneath this moon, another face replies.
Place the image face upward upon the earth.
The soil should remain beneath it, separating the likeness from the cloth.
Folding the Cloth
Gather the four corners of the cloth above the photograph and earth.
Bring them together slowly until the materials disappear inside. The image of the former lover is now enclosed in darkness.
Hold the gathered bundle with one hand.
With the other, take the needle and black thread.
Before making the first stitch, say:
Cloth remember.
Earth conceal.
Black thread close
and moon reveal.
Sewing the Bundle with Black Thread
Sew the gathered ends together using the needle and black thread, following the original spell.
Each stitch closes another part of the old connection.
With the first stitches, remember the betrayal.
With the next, remember the moment when the relationship ended.
As the bundle begins to close, let those memories lose their color. They no longer belong to the room around you. They are being sewn inside with the photograph.
Repeat as you work:
Black thread crossing, black thread tight,
bind the glamour from this night.
Face of lover, false and fair,
lose the charm you used to wear.
Continue until the earth and image are completely enclosed.
Tie the thread with three knots.
The guide to knot magic explains how repeated knots contain and direct the force of a spell.
The Three Black Knots
Hold the first knot between your fingers.
Say:
By the first knot, the false smile fades.
Touch the second.
Say:
By the second knot, the mask is broken.
Touch the third.
Say:
By the third knot, the frog awakens.
Pull the final knot tight.
The bundle now carries the former lover’s hidden shape.
Drawing the Toad
Turn the bundle so one broad side faces you.
Using green paint or a green marker, draw the most disgusting toad you can imagine.
Give it a wide mouth that once spoke beautiful lies. Draw swollen eyes that watched for admiration. Add a crooked body crouched within the mud and grasping feet that hold nothing for long.
The drawing does not need to be skillful. Its ugliness carries the intention.
As you draw, say:
Green upon cloth and mud beneath,
show the creature behind the teeth.
Let every eye that turns your way
see what moonlight shows today.
Complete the toad before lifting the bundle.
Naming the Frog
Hold the finished bundle beneath the full moon.
Speak the ex-lover’s name, followed by a new magical name. It may be:
- Toad Beneath the Mask
- Prince of Empty Promises
- The Crooked One
- The Frog of the False Heart
- Mud-Tongue
- The Green Betrayer
- The Moonlit Toad
Choose only one.
Say:
You were called by one name beneath the sun.
Beneath the moon, another has begun.
What others praised shall now deceive no more.
The frog is waiting underneath the door.
Turn the painted toad toward the moonlight.
The Full Moon Incantation
Hold the bundle at the level of your face and recite:
Full moon above, white eye of night,
strip from this lover borrowed light.Mud below and black thread wound,
draw the hidden creature round.Where others saw a lover’s grace,
let them now behold the face
of one who fled when love was true—
a painted frog of sickly hue.Let shallow charm and falsehood fall.
Let empty promises lose their call.By earth, by thread, by moonlit bog,
reveal the lover as a frog.
Repeat the final four lines three times.
With each repetition, imagine the painted toad becoming darker and more distinct.
Leaving the Bundle Beneath the Moon
Place the bundle where the full moon can shine upon it throughout the night.
Turn the painted side upward.
The bundle must remain there from midnight until morning. As the moon crosses the sky, imagine its light entering the black stitches and passing through the photograph beneath them.
The ex-lover’s charm drains into the earth.
Their false beauty becomes pale.
The toad upon the cloth grows green.
Leave the bundle alone.
Dreams During the Transformation
After placing the spell beneath the moon, go inside and sleep.
Dreams may reveal the transformation beginning. You may see marshes, green water, black thread, an abandoned shirt or a frog sitting where a person once stood.
A croaking voice may attempt to speak familiar words, only for them to lose their meaning.
Record any such dream in your Book of Shadows after waking.
Do not return to the bundle before morning.
Discarding the Spell at Dawn
At sunrise, retrieve the bundle.
Do not open it or cut the black thread. The photograph, earth and old cloth must remain together.
Look once at the painted toad.
Say:
Moon has faded. Night is through.
Take the mask and falsehood too.
What was handsome, what was sweet,
now goes where discarded shadows meet.
Following the original ritual, throw the entire bundle into the trash.
Walk away without looking back.
The spell leaves your possession at the same moment the former lover’s glamour leaves your concern.
Signs the Frog Spell Is Working
The first sign may be a change in how others speak about the ex-lover.
Someone may suddenly recognize a lie. A new romance may lose its excitement. Admirers may notice habits that you once overlooked or excused.
The former lover may appear restless, dissatisfied or confused by the fading attention around them.
Dreams of frogs, mud or unraveling black thread may arise during the following lunar cycle.
Most importantly, the betrayer may begin to seem smaller in your own memory. The person who once held so much power becomes only a distant figure beside a discarded green bundle.
After the Curse
Once the bundle has been thrown away, remove any remaining pieces of the ex-lover’s clothing or photographs from the ritual space.
Write one sentence in your Book of Shadows:
The mask has followed its wearer. It no longer belongs to me.
If the old relationship continues to occupy your thoughts, follow the curse later with the spell for forgetting an old love. The frog ritual exposes what the former lover became; the forgetting bottle releases the final thread connecting them to you.
When the Prince Becomes a Frog
Fairy tales sometimes begin with a frog becoming a prince.
This spell walks in the opposite direction.
The fine clothes empty. The promises rot. The handsome reflection darkens until something green and graceless looks back from the water.
By morning, the bundle is gone.
Somewhere beyond your sight, the former lover continues along the road they chose.
But the moon has seen beneath the mask.
Soon, others may see it too.