The waning moon is a patient thief, taking a little more of itself away each night until nothing aches in the sky at all. What it works above, you may ask it to work within.
This bath reaches toward release rather than repair, the letting-go of a pain that has long outstayed its welcome. As the water cools and the salt draws, the hurt is coaxed from where it has lodged, given somewhere lower to travel, and carried off on the turning of the drain.
The Working
- Draw a warm bath as the moon rises thin and waning.
- Cast three handfuls of salt into the water and stir them widdershins until they dissolve.
- Scatter a fistful of soothing herbs across the surface and let them steep.
- Ring a bell once above the water to wake it, then step in and lie still.
- As the warmth fades, cup the cooling water and pour it over the aching place, again and again.
- When the bath has gone cold, pull the plug and stay seated until the last of it has drained away beneath you.
- Ring the bell a final time to close the working.
The Incantation
Waning water, thinning moon,
take this ache and take it soon,
what the salt has drawn from me,
carry down and set it free.
As you empty, so do I,
lighter than the dwindling sky.
The spell empties with the tub and closes on the bell’s second voice. Rise from the cold water lighter than you lay down in it.