Under a moon that is filling like a cup, gather the small green medicines of the old hedgerows. A sachet is a garden folded small — a whole warding wood carried against the heart.
This charm reaches toward the guardian spirit of the rowan, the quickbeam that witches feared and cottagers loved, its every berry marked with a five-pointed star. To sew is to bind, and to bind beneath the waxing moon is to ask that the protection grow as she grows. What you carry becomes a boundary no ill wish crosses.
The Working
- On a waxing evening, lay a square of red cloth open in a bowl and dress its centre with a scatter of salt to clear it.
- Add rowan berries, or their dried bark, first — the heartwood of the charm — then layer in mugwort for the roads and hyssop for the house.
- Add a sprig of nettle to bite whatever bites you, then draw the four corners up.
- Bind the mouth of the sachet with red thread, tying nine turns and a firm knot.
- Cup the bundle, breathe upon it thrice to wake it, and speak the verse below while passing it once round your body sunwise.
- Carry it near the skin, or hang it where the door opens; renew it when the berries lose their scent.
The Incantation
Rowan-tree and thread of red,
Guard the living, guard the bed.
Every knot a door made fast,
Every knot till danger’s passed.
Grow this shield as grows the moon —
Full my safety, and full soon.
The ninth knot seals it; the first breath of the following dawn releases it to its quiet work, and it guards until you unpick the thread yourself.