The Turned Glass is a protection mirror spell — a defensive working that meets unwanted harm, ill will, or spiteful magic, turns it aside from you, and lets it go to ground. Nothing is sent back at anyone; the mirror shields, it does not strike. A ward makes no judgement and settles no account; it simply declines to be a place where harm can land. Using a smoke-blackened mirror, a ring of salt, and the fading light of the waning moon, you raise a threshold that simply refuses to hold what was never yours, and lets what was sent disperse harmlessly into the dark.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colours: black, to absorb and repel harm — embodied in the blackened glass itself — with white as an all-purpose ward.
- Herbs: rosemary, sage, and basil, burned as protective incense.
- Crystal: black tourmaline (or obsidian) to ground and absorb whatever the glass refuses.
- Day: Saturday, ruled by boundaries and banishing.
- Planet: Saturn, lord of limits, discipline, and the sealed threshold.
- Element: Earth, for grounding and the steadfast wall.
- Moon: the full moon marks peak protective power, but this warding mirror is worked on the waning moon, when what has been aimed at you ebbs away and dissolves.
For a deeper look at these matches, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A small mirror you can dedicate to this work — a black scrying mirror is ideal.
- A candle — black for repelling harm, or white as an all-purpose substitute — to blacken the glass with its smoke.
- Protective incense such as rosemary, sage, or basil.
- Salt for casting the encircling ring.
- A square of dark cloth to veil and store the finished mirror.
The Best Time to Cast
Cast The Turned Glass on the waning moon, ideally on a Saturday. As the moon’s light diminishes night by night, it carries away what no longer belongs to you — the perfect current for a working that lets ill-will thin out and disperse rather than drawing power in. Saturday’s rulership by Saturn lends the rite its hard boundary and its closed door. Where a full moon crowns the peak of raised protective power, this mirror is a releasing, dispersing working, and the fading moon is its truest hour.
The Working
- Blacken the face of a small mirror with candle-smoke until it holds no reflection but the dark itself.
- On the waning moon, stand the darkened glass upright, facing outward from your home.
- Ring it round with salt, then light incense and walk its boundary in slow, deliberate smoke.
- Fix in your mind the ill you wish to be free of, and name no living person.
- Turn the dark face toward the quarter the harm came from and speak the incantation.
- Let the candle burn down to nothing before the glass without disturbing it.
- Wrap the mirror in dark cloth and keep it turned to the wall until it is needed once more.
The Incantation
I keep no debt, I hold no hate,
I send no thing to any door.
The dark glass will not wear your work,
nor let it settle on my floor.
Salt to ring it, smoke to seal,
the ward is grown, the threshold known.
What was loosed finds no purchase here,
and goes to ground, and comes to none.
Variations & Substitutions
- No dedicated scrying mirror? Any small glass or a picture frame backed with dark paper will take the smoke-blackening just as well.
- If open flame is a concern, blacken the glass briefly, then work with incense smoke alone and let a sealed tealight or LED candle stand in for the slow burn-down.
- Use whatever protective herb you have to hand — dried rosemary, sage, or basil smouldered on charcoal carries the same warding virtue as stick incense.
A Word on Intent
The Wiccan Rede counsels, “an it harm none, do what ye will.” The Turned Glass honours that law: notice that the fourth step asks you to name no living person. This is not a curse and carries no hunger of its own — it neither seeks out nor wishes fresh harm on anyone. It only declines to hold ill will that was never yours, and lets each person meet the consequence of their own choices. Keep your intent purely defensive: you are closing a door, not throwing a stone.
Related Protection Spells
Return this rite to its place among the protective workings in the Grimoire, and record how it served you in your own Book of Shadows.