A candle is burning down somewhere toward its last blue inch of flame.
In another room a length of red thread lies knotted in a drawer, dark and patient, waiting for a day that has not yet come.
Beneath a doorstep, sealed under cold wax, a jar keeps its own counsel all winter and says nothing at all.
Wiccan spells are not all worked in the same way.
Some burn. Some are tied into knots and put away. Some are shut inside glass, or set down in ink, or dissolved in warm water, or carried in a coat pocket until the lining wears thin.
The form is not decoration. It decides how an intention is held, how it is let go, and how long the work stays alive.
Six kinds cover almost every spell of magic a Wiccan is likely to work.
Each has its own hour, its own material, and its own way of ending.
The Six Forms a Spell May Take
These are the six shapes an intention is usually given.
- Candle spells. An intention handed to flame and released as the wax goes down, across one evening or a handful of nights.
- Cord and knot spells. An intention bound into thread and laid in the dark until the day it is needed.
- Bottle and jar spells. An intention shut in glass, sealed, then buried or hidden and left to its long silence.
- Written spells. An intention fixed in ink, then burned, buried, folded small or kept.
- Bath spells. An intention carried by warm water across the skin, to take away rather than to bring.
- Charms and talismans. An intention charged into a small object that goes out into the day with you.
Nearly everything else is a variation, or two of these braided together. A bag of dried herbs is a charm. A honey jar closed with wax is a bottle spell.
Candle Spells
The candle is the most common vessel in Wiccan practice, and the most talkative. It leans, it gutters, it flares when a door opens somewhere down the hall.
A candle spell is used when you wish to send an intention outward and watch it act.
Flame gives the working a visible life and an ending that arrives on its own.
When the wax is gone the spell is finished. Nothing needs to be undone, and nothing is left standing in the room to remember it. That is why beginners are usually pointed here first.
Color is chosen to suit the purpose. White will stand in for any color.
The wider practice, including the dressing of the wax and the carving of it, is set out in candle magic.
How a Candle Spell Is Worked
Wipe the candle clean before anything else is done, until the surface is cool and bare under the thumb.
Dress it with a little oil, stroking in one steady direction rather than back and forth, so that a faint shine runs the whole length of it.
Traditions differ over which direction draws and which sends. Keep to the one you were taught.
Carve a word, a symbol or a rune into the wax with a pin. The shavings curl away pale and soft against the table.
Light the wick. Speak the intention once, with the eyes resting on the flame until nothing else in the room is quite in focus.
Small light, carry this wish past the walls of this room. Burn until it is answered.
Let it burn out in one sitting, or snuff it and relight it across several nights, each night finding it lower in the holder.
Use a snuffer or wet fingers. The breath is avoided in most traditions.
Watch how it burns. A clean tall flame and a guttering one are not read the same way.
Cord and Knot Spells
A cord spell stores what a candle spends.
This kind is used when you wish to raise an intention now and release it later.
Energy is worked into a length of cord, ribbon or wool, one knot at a time, until the thread sits heavier in the hand than its weight explains.
The cord is then kept whole until the moment of need arrives.
Untying is the release. Nine knots give nine separate releases, nine small doors that open one at a time.
This is old and very plain work, described further under knot magic.
It suits a crowded life, since the difficult part is done well in advance, on some quiet evening chosen for it.
How a Cord Spell Is Worked
Cut a cord to a comfortable length, often measured against the body.
Tie nine knots in a set order, usually working from the two ends inward.
Give each knot a breath, a word and a held image, and draw it closed slowly enough to feel the thread tighten under the fingers.
By knot of one, the work is begun. By knot of two, the way comes true.
Wrap the finished cord in cloth. Keep it somewhere dark and dry, where nothing will trouble it.
When the need comes, loosen a single knot and speak the intention again.
Burn or bury the cord once the last knot has been opened.
Bottle and Jar Spells
A bottle spell is the most patient kind of all. It works in the dark and without hurry, the way frost works.
It is used when you wish a condition to hold steady across a long season.
Protection for a house, steady work, quiet sleep, a settled temper. The jar is filled, sealed with wax, and then left completely alone.
Nothing is opened or handled afterward. The seal is the whole of the method.
A bottle opened out of curiosity has been ended rather than tested.
Filling and Sealing a Bottle
The contents are chosen so that they all say the same thing.
- Something sharp for turning away harm: pins, needles, thorns.
- Something sweet for welcome and warmth: honey, sugar, dried fruit.
- Something dry for keeping: salt, grain, earth, ash.
- Something personal: a hair, a written line, a small coin.
Add each item by hand, slowly, naming the purpose over it as it goes in, so that the glass fills to the sound of your own voice.
Fill the jar near to the top, so that little rattles inside.
Held and sealed, kept and still. What is inside stays inside.
Close the lid, then run candle wax around the rim until the seam disappears and the glass looks as though it had never been opened.
Where a Sealed Bottle Is Kept
House bottles are buried at the edge of the property, or set beneath the doorstep where feet cross over them every day.
Where digging is not possible, the back of a high cupboard will serve.
The jar is not moved often, and it is never shaken. Glass that cracks by itself is usually taken as the end of the work.
When the season has passed, unseal the jar, empty it, and return the contents to the ground.
Wash it or bury it whole. It is not reused for a different purpose.
Written Spells
Some intentions stay shapeless until they are set down in ink and can be looked at in daylight.
A written spell is used when the wish is complicated, or when the exact words matter most.
Paper is cheap, and precision is the whole of the method. Vague wording produces vague work.
Write in the present tense, keep the sentence short, and phrase it as something positive. Say what is wanted, rather than what is to be avoided.
Ink, paper and pen may be chosen to match the purpose. Plain paper is enough.
How a Written Spell Is Finished
What happens to the paper decides what happens to the spell.
- Burned, for something that should be sent out at once.
- Buried, for something that should grow slowly.
- Folded and carried, for something that should stay close.
- Dissolved in water, for something that is being let go.
Fold toward the body to draw a thing near, and away from the body to send it off.
Written once and meant once. Now it is given to the fire.
Copy the wording, the moon phase and the materials into your Book of Shadows, where the ink will wait for you.
A spell that came out clumsy the first time can be written cleanly the second.
Bath Spells
A bath spell works on the person rather than on the situation.
It is used when you wish to clear away what has collected on you.
Dull moods, borrowed worry, the grey residue of a hard week.
Water takes things off. That is its plain nature, long before any magic is added to it.
Salt, herbs and a few drops of oil go in while the tub is filling and the steam climbs the cold wall. Candles stand along the edge, and the room stays quiet enough to hear the water settle.
A shower will do, with salt held in the hand instead.
How a Bath Spell Is Worked
Sit down and let the surface of the water go still, until it holds the candlelight without breaking it.
Wash downward, from the crown of the head to the feet, and never upward.
Speak the words once the body has calmed.
Water, take what is not mine. Let it leave with you, and leave me clear.
Pull the plug while still sitting in the tub, and stay there until the water has gone and the cold of the enamel comes up against the skin.
Watching it drain is the working. Standing up early cuts it short.
Dry in the air where possible, or use a cloth kept only for this.
Follow with a grounding meditation, since a long bath can leave the mind loose and floating somewhere above the floor.
Charms, Talismans and Amulets
A charm is a spell that goes with you into the street.
It is used when the need is constant rather than occasional.
A stone worn smooth, a ring, a knot of thread, a bag of dried herbs, a coin darkened by pockets.
An amulet turns things away. A talisman draws things toward you.
The making is much the same for both, and the difference lies in the intention.
Charms are the quietest kind, since nothing about them looks unusual to anyone else.
Charging and Retiring a Charm
Cleanse the object first, in salt, in smoke, or under running water.
Hold it until it warms in the hand and no longer feels like a thing taken down from a shelf, and name the single task it is given.
You are made for one thing only. Hold it, and do not let it slip.
Give it one task, not three. A charm asked for everything holds nothing.
Recharge it now and then, on a windowsill under the full moon, or beside a lit candle while the house sleeps.
A charm carried through a hard event is often retired rather than reused. Thank it, take it apart, and bury whatever will rot.
Choosing the Kind That Fits the Work
The question is not which kind is strongest.
The question is how long the intention has to stay alive.
- An evening, or a single night: a candle.
- Until some unknown future day: a cord.
- Months or years in the dark: a bottle or a charm.
- A wish that needs exact wording: a written spell.
- Something to be taken off rather than gained: a bath.
Matching the form to the duration removes most of the trouble beginners have.
None of the six is turned toward the will of another person.
A candle is not burned to make someone call, and a cord is not tied around a name.
Timing and the Moon
The kind of spell and the phase of the moon are chosen together.
Waxing light suits drawing work: candles, charms, and jars for steady money.
Waning light suits release: baths, untying, and the burning of paper.
The dark moon suits beginnings that are not yet visible. The full moon suits the charging of anything that will be carried.
The phases are set out one by one in moon phases.
A spell worked at the wrong hour is not ruined, only swimming against the current.
What Every Kind of Spell Has in Common
The materials differ. The bones do not.
- The space is cleaned and the mind is settled.
- A circle is cast, if the tradition asks for one.
- The intention is stated once, plainly, and out loud.
- Energy is raised and given to the vessel: wax, cord, glass, paper, water or stone.
- The vessel is released, sealed, worn or drained.
- The circle is closed, and the body is grounded.
Working inside a magic circle keeps the first and last steps from being skipped.
Skipping them is the usual reason a spell afterward feels flat, like a room where the music has stopped and nobody has noticed.
Beginning with One Kind
A new practice does not need all six at once. Choose one, and work it until the shape of it has become familiar in your hands.
The candle is the usual starting place, because it is short and ends by itself.
Cord and bottle come next, once patience has been learned.
Bath and written spells suit anyone who thinks in words and moods.
Write down every attempt, including the ones that seemed to do nothing at all. Those pages are often the ones you come back to by lamplight, years later.
Made with care, kept with care, and remembered as it was made.
The record is what turns six kinds of spell into a practice of your own.