Silvered Backward is a cleansing mirror spell cast on the night the moon shows no face, when the glass holds only darkness — and darkness is the cleanest slate a witch can ask for. Rather than showing your reflection, this working turns the mirror against its nature, unwinding your image widdershins until the surface, and the self it once held, both come clean. It is an advanced water-and-moon rite for loosening whatever has fastened itself to you across a long and heavy year.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colours: white edged with light blue — purity carried on lunar calm
- Herbs: sage, rosemary, and hyssop, the old herbs of clearing and purification
- Crystal: selenite and clear quartz to cleanse, black tourmaline to catch what is loosed
- Day: Monday, the day of the Moon
- Planet: the Moon
- Element: Water
- Moon phase: the waning moon, to clear away, deepening into the dark of the new moon
For the full table of magical associations, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A mirror you can stand upright, ideally small enough to shroud with a cloth afterward
- A single white or pale-blue candle
- A dish of clean water — spring water or moon-charged water is ideal
- A dark cloth to cover the glass once the working is sealed
- Optional: a sprig of sage, rosemary, or hyssop to smoke-cleanse the mirror first
The Best Time to Cast
Cast on the new moon, the single night the moon shows no face — the darkest, emptiest slate for unmaking. Let the days of the waning moon beforehand do their quiet work of clearing away, so the rite falls at the very bottom of that downward curve. A Monday new moon is doubly potent, for Monday is the Moon’s own day and lends its cool, watery, cleansing current to the work.
The Working
- On the night of the new moon, set a mirror upright with a single candle beside it, never before it.
- Breathe upon the glass until it clouds, then wipe it once, clockwise, to empty it.
- Dip a fingertip in water and touch it to the mirror’s rim.
- Trace your finger backward — widdershins — around the glass, naming what you would loose with each slow circle.
- Make nine circles in all, wiping the water away as you go.
- When the glass is dry and dark once more, snuff the candle and cover the mirror with a cloth.
- Leave it shrouded until the moon shows its first thin light again.
The Incantation
Dark the moon and dark the glass,
backward now I bid it pass.
Widdershins my finger goes,
loosing all the old year froze.
Nothing shown and nothing kept,
clean the silver where I wept.
Turn and turn and turn away,
gone before the moon’s first ray.
Variations & Substitutions
- No standing mirror? Any mirror will serve. Darken the room instead and keep the candle well to one side, so the glass reflects nothing but shadow.
- Gentler water: use rainwater, gathered dew, or moon-charged spring water in place of tap water for a softer, more lunar charge.
- Deeper clearing: smoke-cleanse the glass with sage, rosemary, or hyssop before you begin, and set a piece of black tourmaline at the mirror’s foot to hold whatever you loose.
A Word on Intent
Cleansing magic is turned inward, upon yourself and your own space, and never upon another person without their asking. Name only what is yours to loose: your own grief, your own worn habits, the year’s residue clinging to your reflection. Worked this way the spell binds and harms no one, and frees you, in keeping with the Wiccan Rede — an it harm none, do what ye will.
Related Cleansing Spells
Return to the Grimoire for more workings, or record this rite in your own Book of Shadows.