Given to the Waning Dark is a banishing jar spell — a working that gathers an unwanted thing into salt and dark water, seals it in a jar, and gives it to the patient earth to keep. Some troubles cannot be argued with, only handed on: a habit that gnaws, a fear worn smooth from carrying, a name that keeps arriving unbidden. Cast as the moon thins, it borrows her nightly emptying to teach the oldest lesson of banishing — that what grows less can be made to leave entirely.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colour: black — for endings, removal, and the dark of the buried earth
- Herbs: sage, rosemary, and garlic (or a pinch of black pepper) for cleansing and driving off; this particular jar favours a bitter herb such as rue or wormwood
- Crystal: black obsidian (or black tourmaline) to absorb and hold what you release
- Day: Saturday
- Planet: Saturn — ruler of limits, endings, and firm boundaries
- Element: Fire, the classic banishing force of will, here grounded through salt, water, and earth
- Moon: waning moon — essential, so the working decreases as she does
For the full table of magical associations, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A plain bowl, kept for the purpose
- Water left out overnight beneath the open sky
- Salt — three pinches
- A single bitter herb: rue, wormwood, or whatever grows bitter near you
- A jar with a tight lid that you will not miss
- A patch of bare earth at the far edge of your ground
The Best Time to Cast
Work this on a waning moon, ideally on a Saturday, the day of Saturn. The waning moon is not decoration here but the engine of the spell: as her light empties night by night, she carries the buried trouble down with her. Saturn lends his authority over endings and boundaries, sealing what you set aside. Choose an evening when the horns of her are already thinning.
The Working
- At dusk, fill a plain bowl with water left out beneath the sky, and stir in three pinches of salt until you can no longer feel the grains.
- Speak the trouble plainly over the water, as many times as it takes for the words to go dull in your mouth.
- Lay a single bitter herb flat upon the surface, rue or wormwood or whatever grows bitter near you, and watch the water darken beneath it.
- Pour bowl and herb together into a jar you will not miss, and seal it while the moon is still thinning.
- Carry it from the house without setting it down, and dig a hollow at the far edge of your ground, past any door or window.
- Set the jar in the dark of the earth mouth-down, cover it over, and press the soil flat with your palm.
- Walk home by a different path than the one that brought you, and do not return to that corner until the trouble is forgotten.
The Incantation
Waning moon and darkening water,
take this weight I would not carry.
Salt to hold it, herb to bind,
earth to keep what I resign.
Down and under, out and gone,
lessened as the moon grows wan.
By thinning light I set it down,
and what the ground takes, the ground will keep.
Variations & Substitutions
- No rue or wormwood? Use dried sage, rosemary, garlic peel, or a pinch of black pepper — any cleansing or bitter herb that drives off will serve.
- If you cannot bury on your own land, seal the jar tightly and carry it well away from home to a crossroads or a bin you never pass — but never open it again.
- Drop a small piece of black obsidian or black tourmaline into the jar before sealing, to anchor the banishing and hold it fast in the earth.
A Word on Intent
Hold to the Wiccan Rede: an it harm none, do what ye will. This is a releasing spell, not a curse. You banish the trouble — the habit, the fear, the weight you would not carry — never the person who may have brought it. Name what you wish to be rid of in yourself and your own house, keep your intent defensive and freeing, and let the earth take only what is truly yours to give. By the time the moon has emptied and begun to fill again, your hands will be light.
Related Banishing Spells
Return this working to your wider practice through the Grimoire, and keep your notes and results in your Book of Shadows.