Rosemary is the herb of remembrance, worn at partings and laid at gravesides so that nothing dear is wholly lost.
This sachet reaches toward memory held fast against the wearing of the days — a name, a vow, a lesson bought with pain that time would otherwise rub smooth. Some things must be kept green through every winter, and rosemary knows the keeping.
The Working
- As the moon fills toward the round, gather dried rosemary and a few sprigs of thyme into your palm.
- Add a pinch of salt, that what you keep be kept clean and unspoiled.
- On a small square of cloth lay the herbs, and speak once into them the thing you would not forget.
- Draw the corners up and bind them with thread, tying three knots — one for the mind, one for the heart, one for the hand.
- Speak the incantation over the little bundle.
- Lay it beneath your pillow or carry it near, and with each waxing moon renew the thread.
The Incantation
Rosemary, hold what I would keep,
green through winter, green through grief.
Bind it to mind and marrow both,
three knots tied and three made fast —
remember, remember, remember.
What is spoken into rosemary sleeps sweet and does not fade; keep the bundle until its charge is learned by heart, then loose the knots and give the herb back to the earth.