Nine Bitter Waters is a banishing potion spell — a wash of cold water and bitter herbs poured across your threshold at dusk to escort an unwanted presence, habit, or influence back out of your home. Dusk is the hour of turning, when the day withdraws and the road out of your life stands briefly open, and this potion sends what lingers running at your feet.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colour: black — for endings and the clean removal of what no longer belongs
- Herbs: sage, rosemary and garlic (or black pepper) are the classic banishing herbs; this working leans on their bitter cousins — wormwood, rue and agrimony
- Crystal: black obsidian (or black tourmaline), to absorb and ground what you send away
- Day: Saturday
- Planet: Saturn — ruler of limits, closings and firm boundaries
- Element: Fire — the driving force of banishing, carried here in the heat of the steaming water
- Moon: the waning moon, essential — cast as the light decreases so the presence decreases with it
For the full table of magical associations, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A wide bowl, dark or plain, kept for banishing work
- Cold running water — stream-carried if you can, or tap water run cold and wild for a while first
- Nine bitter herbs — wormwood, rue, agrimony and their kin, fresh or dried
- Banishing oil (a Saturn-ruled blend, or olive oil dressed with black pepper)
- Optional: a black candle and a piece of black obsidian to anchor the working
The Best Time to Cast
Cast at dusk on a Saturday, under a waning moon. Dusk is the threshold hour, when the day withdraws and the road out stands briefly open, while Saturday belongs to Saturn, planet of endings and boundaries. Most important of all, work as the moon wanes: as its light shrinks night by night, so should the presence you are sending away.
The Working
- In the failing light of dusk, fill a wide bowl with cold running water — carried from a stream if you can, or let the tap run cold and wild for a while first.
- Steep nine bitter things into it — wormwood, rue, agrimony, and their kin — one leaf or sprig at a time, counting each aloud.
- As the water darkens, draw three drops of banishing oil across its surface and watch the ring spread and break.
- Bend close and name the presence you would be rid of, once, plainly, into the bowl.
- Stir the wash nine turns against the sun, feeling the current pull the name loose from your house.
- Speak the incantation low over the bitter, steaming water.
- Carry the bowl to your threshold and pour it out in a single unbroken line across the doorstep, then step back inside without once looking after it.
The Incantation
Nine bitter waters, cold and low,
gather the guest that will not go.
By dusk’s grey door I pour you out,
by rue and wormwood, root and drought.
Back down the road your feet once came,
back to the dark that keeps your name.
Cross this line and you are gone —
and my house wakes with you withdrawn.
Variations & Substitutions
- No wormwood or rue? Any nine bitter or astringent herbs will serve — dandelion leaf, yarrow, mugwort, even strong black tea or lemon rind — so long as the tongue recoils from them.
- If the doorstep is not yours to pour on (a shared or rented threshold), pour the wash at a crossroads or the far edge of your property line instead, and walk home without looking back.
- In place of a bought banishing oil, steep a little olive oil with crushed black pepper and a pinch of salt, and use three drops of that.
A Word on Intent
Banishing is not cursing. Under the Wiccan Rede — “an it harm none, do what ye will” — this potion is worded to release and to close a door, never to wound the one departing. Name what you would be rid of, whether a lingering grief, an intrusive habit, or an influence that drains your home, and send it out, not down. You are clearing your own threshold, which is always your right; you are not reaching into anyone else’s life.
Related Banishing Spells
Return to this wash whenever a presence overstays its welcome, and explore more workings in the Grimoire and Book of Shadows.