The Cut the Tether Cold rite is a banishing knot spell that binds every unwanted attachment into a length of thread and severs it at the turning of the day. At midnight the world holds its breath between one day and the next, and a thing cut in that seam does not knit again. Every unwanted tie is a cord — to a memory, a grief, a person who will not release your sleeve. This working names the cord, gives it knot and length, and severs it in the hour that belongs to no day, so the loose ends drift and never again seek each other.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colour: black, for endings and clean removal
- Herbs: sage, rosemary, and garlic (or black pepper) to strengthen the severing
- Crystal: black obsidian, or black tourmaline, to absorb what is cut loose
- Day: Saturday, the day of boundaries and finished business
- Planet: Saturn, ruler of limits, endings, and hard partings
- Element: Fire, present in the burning of the dry half
- Moon: the waning moon — essential here, for what wanes takes the tie down with it
For a fuller table of these matches, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A length of grey or undyed thread, long enough to hold stretched between both hands
- A small bell with a clear, carrying tone
- Salt, to charge the water and hold what sinks
- A bowl of clean water
- A cold blade — a knife or shears kept apart from kitchen use
- Optional: a sprig of rosemary or sage, and a piece of black obsidian set nearby
The Best Time to Cast
Cast at midnight, ideally on a Saturday during the waning moon. Midnight is the hour that belongs to no day, the seam where the cut cannot be re-tied. Saturday carries Saturn’s authority over endings and severed ties, and the waning moon draws the working downward — as its light decreases, so does the hold the tether has on you.
The Working
- As the clock leans toward midnight, take a length of grey or undyed thread and hold it stretched between your two hands.
- For each thing binding you, tie a knot along the thread, naming it plainly aloud as you draw it tight.
- Set a bowl of salted water beneath the thread and ring a bell once over it, until the room grows still and listening.
- When the hour crosses into the new day, cut the thread clean between two knots with a cold blade.
- Drop one half into the salted water and watch it sink; keep the other half closed in your fist.
- Ring the bell a second time, sharp, to send the severed thing away on its road.
- In the morning, bury the wet half far from your door and burn the dry half to ash.
The Incantation
Knot by knot I named the weight,
thread by thread I marked the fate.
Now the midnight blade comes down —
what was bound is cut and gone.
Salt to keep and bell to send,
here the holding finds its end.
Drift apart and seek no more;
I close the loop, I close the door.
The bell’s echo fades and the cord lies in two, and neither end remembers the other. You are, from this midnight, untied.
Variations & Substitutions
- No bell? A struck singing bowl, a wind chime, or two coins rung together will carry the tone that sends the severed thing on its road.
- No cold blade? Sharp iron shears work as well; the point is a clean, decisive cut in a single stroke, never a saw or a tear.
- Cannot bury the wet half? Weight it with salt and cast it into moving water — a river or the sea — so the current carries it away, and still burn the dry half to ash.
A Word on Intent
Banishing under the Wiccan Rede — an it harm none, do what ye will — is release, not retaliation. This spell severs only what binds you: it cuts your side of the cord and closes your own door, and asks nothing to fall upon another person. Do not name a knot as a wish for someone’s harm. Name only the hold you are ready to be free of, and let the person walk their own road unburdened.
Related Banishing Spells
Return to the Grimoire for more workings, and record your own results in your Book of Shadows as the tether falls away.