The Draught of the Emptied Cup is a release potion spell — a moon-charged draught you steep, drink, and pour away to loosen your hold on something you are ready to set down. To empty the cup with intention is to rehearse the emptying of the hand and the heart. You brew it at the height of the full moon so that what you drink carries the moon’s brightness into you, and by morning the wanting has gone out of you like a tide.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colours: black and white, the twin shades of letting go
- Herbs: lavender, sage, and cypress
- Crystal: smoky quartz and black tourmaline
- Day: Saturday
- Planet: Saturn
- Element: Water
- Moon: waning moon, to release and diminish
For the meaning behind each of these, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A plain bowl in which to gather moon-charged water
- Clean spring or filtered water, set out to catch the moonlight
- Releasing herbs — lavender, sage, and cypress, or the gentle chamomile, linden, and lemon balm the working below calls for
- A smoky quartz or black tourmaline crystal, or a pale stone to lay beside the bowl and draw the light
- A single plain cup with its saucer
The Best Time to Cast
Cast at the full moon, ideally on a Saturday, the day of Saturn. The full moon is the peak from which the long waning begins: you drink at the brightest point precisely because the moon is about to start its own letting-go, and you drink to learn the same. Saturday and Saturn lend the working their quiet authority over endings, boundaries, and what must at last be released.
The Working
- On the afternoon before the full moon, set a bowl of clean water where the moon will find it after dark, and lay a pale stone beside it to draw the light.
- When the moon is high, steep in the water a small measure of soft, calming herbs such as chamomile, linden, and a leaf of lemon balm.
- Warm the draught gently, never to boiling, and pour it into a single plain cup.
- Hold the cup in both hands and name, once, the thing you wish to loosen your hold upon.
- Drink slowly, in unbroken sips, picturing your grip opening finger by finger with each swallow.
- When the cup is empty, turn it upside down upon its saucer and leave it so until morning.
- At dawn, rinse the cup in cold water and let the last of the working run away.
The Incantation
Moon at the full, and the tide of me turning,
pour your bright water down into the dark of me.
Cup in my hands, I drink you empty;
hand of me, learn to open.
What I held, I hold no longer;
the moon and I let go together.
Variations & Substitutions
- No cypress on hand? A pinch of dried rosemary or a single bay leaf gives the same clearing, cleansing note to the draught.
- If you cannot safely drink herbs — during pregnancy, or alongside medication — do not ingest the working. Steep the herbs, let the cup cool, and instead anoint your wrists and brow, then pour the draught away at dawn.
- Swap the pale drawing-stone for a smoky quartz set in the bowl overnight; rinse it clean and carry it afterward as a token of the release you have made.
A Word on Intent
This is a working of opening the hand, not closing it around another. An it harm none, do what ye will. Name only your own hold to loosen — a grief, a habit, an attachment that has outstayed its welcome — and never another person’s will or wellbeing. The cup is emptied of your own wanting; it is never turned against anyone.
Related Release Spells
Keep this draught in the Grimoire, and copy the verse into your own Book of Shadows so the words are ready the next time the moon comes full and you are ready to set something down.