What is braided is bound, and what is bound can be carried. Through the waxing nights you will plait a small charm that gathers your allure into three strands and a handful of knots.
Three threads for the three graces of a face — the softness, the brightness, the warmth — braided as the moon fills so that all three grow with it. Knotted and kept, it is a bloom you tie into being and take wherever you go.
The Working
- On the first waxing night, choose three threads: one rose-red, one gold, one the color of your own hair.
- Draw each through a little rose oil, end to end, naming softness, brightness, and warmth as you go.
- Knot them together at the top and begin to braid, working a little more each night as the moon grows.
- At every knot along the way, press a fingertip of dried rose petal into the twist and speak a line of the charm.
- Tie the final knot on the night before the full moon and ring a bell once over the finished cord.
- Wear it at the wrist or keep it in a pocket, and touch it whenever you wish the bloom to answer.
The Incantation
Three the strands and three the graces,
soft and bright and warm the faces.
Knot the rose and knot the gold,
bind the bloom this braid will hold.
As the moon climbs, so climbs my charm —
tied and kept and come to no harm.
Renew it at each waxing moon, and the little cord will keep your bloom tied fast and ready to your hand.