The old lore holds that no single spring can carry every burden, and so the wise gathered water from nine places and made of them one tide. Under the full moon, the mingled waters remember every name spoken over them.
This incantation reaches toward the burdens that have no single source — the accumulated silt of a whole year, drawn from as many quarters as it settled in. To name a grievance over each water and pour them into one is to gather the scattered weight and give it, all at once, a single road out.
The Working
- Across the days before the full moon, gather water from nine sources — rain, river, well, tap, dew, and whatever else offers itself.
- On the night of the full moon, set the nine vessels in a row before an empty bowl.
- Ring the bell once to open the working.
- Lift each water in turn, speak a name over it — a burden, a grief, a thing you would be rid of — and pour it into the waiting bowl.
- When all nine are mingled, hold the bowl up to the moonlight and speak the incantation over the whole.
- Carry the bowl to the threshold and pour the mingled tide out upon the ground, away from the door.
- Ring the bell once more to close the working, then rinse the bowl clean.
The Incantation
Nine waters gathered, nine names told,
rain and river, well and cold.
Each a burden, each a weight,
poured together, given fate.
Moon above and earth below,
take the nine and let them go.
Mingled tide, run swift and far,
leave me lighter than you are.
The working is sealed as the last of the water sinks into the earth, and released when the empty bowl is rinsed and set to dry in the moonlight.