Nine Miles Home is a Wiccan love knot spell: a length of thread bound with nine knots, each one a milestone laid upon a homeward road, worked at dusk to draw a straying love gently back toward you. At dusk the roads grow long and every wanderer begins, at last, to think of home — and this cord is cut to call one such wanderer back down the darkening lane. It lights a window; it does not lock a door.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colours: pink and rose for romantic love, green for lasting affection — though this working favours a deep red thread for the warmth of the hearth it calls toward.
- Herbs: rose, lavender, and jasmine to sweeten the drawing, paired here with homing thyme and rosemary bound into the cord itself.
- Crystal: rose quartz, or emerald for an enduring bond.
- Day: Friday, the day of love.
- Planet: Venus.
- Element: Water.
- Moon: the waxing moon, to draw love toward you.
For a fuller table of magical associations, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A length of red or rose-coloured thread, cord, or yarn, long enough to carry nine knots.
- A small bell with a clear, carrying note.
- A drawing oil — rose oil, or a plain carrier oil warmed between the hands.
- Homing herbs such as thyme or hearth-rosemary, with a pinch of dried rose or lavender for tenderness.
- A threshold, hook, or nail where the finished cord can hang and stir in the evening draught.
The Best Time to Cast
Cast at dusk, the spell’s own hour, when the light draws down in the west and every traveller turns a thought toward home. Choose a Friday if you can, the day of Venus, planet of love; and time the working to the waxing moon, whose swelling light draws affection toward you rather than letting it ebb away. Dusk on a waxing Friday weds the spell’s homeward imagery to the rising tide of a love that is meant to grow.
The Working
- Draw a length of red thread through your fingers, anointing it end to end with oil until it warms against your skin.
- Bind a pinch of homing herbs — thyme, or the last of the hearth-rosemary — into the very first turn of the cord.
- Speak the beloved’s name and tie the first knot close to your heart, then eight more along the length, dusk-slow, spacing them like lamps set down a lane.
- At each knot ring the bell once, and see a single mile fall away behind the one who wanders.
- Hold the finished cord toward the west, where the light is going out, and breathe the incantation over it.
- Hang the cord at your threshold, where the evening draught can stir it in the night.
The Incantation
Nine the knots and nine the miles,
nine the lamps I light for you;
by thread and bell and dimming west,
turn your face from all that’s new.
Wanderer, the road runs short,
the door swings wide, the hearth burns true —
walk the long lane home to me,
as dusk calls every rover through.
Variations & Substitutions
- No bell? A struck glass, a tuning fork, or a single soft clap at each knot will mark the falling miles just as clearly.
- Swap the red thread for pink to soften the pull into gentle affection, or for green to strengthen a love already made lasting.
- If thyme and rosemary are out of reach, a pinch of dried rose or lavender carries the same tender, homeward intent.
A Word on Intent
Work always within the Wiccan Rede — “an it harm none, do what ye will.” A love spell should invite willing love, never compel a particular person against their own heart. Cast Nine Miles Home to open a door and light a window, not to bind one specific soul who has not chosen you. Where you feel unsure, name your desire as an open hope — “let the love that is right for me find its way home” — and trust the road to bring who it will.
Related Love Spells
Add Nine Miles Home to your practice, and wander further among the workings gathered in the Grimoire and the Book of Shadows.