Midnight is the seam of the day, where one is spent and the next not yet begun, and a mark made there belongs to neither and both. In that hush, ink learns to keep a promise.
This sigil reaches toward constancy, a love that does not waver when the first sweetness cools. To draw it is to fix an intention past the reach of moods and moons, and to set it under weight so it cannot drift.
The Working
- Before midnight, distil your wish into a single sentence, then strike out every repeated letter until only a handful remain.
- From those letters, draw one bound mark on clean paper by the light of a single candle, letting the hand move slowly.
- As the hour turns, light a coal of incense and let the smoke rise in an unbroken thread.
- Pass the paper thrice through the smoke, sunwise, naming the vow aloud each time.
- Set a dark stone or a clear quartz upon the folded sigil to hold it steady and still.
- Let the candle burn down of its own accord, and do not pinch it.
- Keep the weighted sigil in a drawer that is opened seldom, and do not look at it again until you have need.
The Incantation
At the seam of midnight, mark and vow,
what I bind I bind here and now.
Smoke to carry, stone to keep,
a love that holds through the long and deep.
Not for the season, not for a day,
but steadfast still when the sweetness grays.
A vow set under stone at midnight does not need remembering, for it holds whether you watch it or no.