An empty chair can be an accusation or an invitation, depending on how it is kept. The Chair Left Warm is a homecoming ritual spell that holds the place of someone long gone from your table — a wanderer, an estranged relative, a loved one whose road has led them far — keeping their setting laid and their candle lit until the world itself begins to expect their return. It is slow, stubborn magic: every laid setting and lit candle is a small gravity, and gravity, given time, is never denied.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colours: blue and warm brown — the shades of hearth and safe return.
- Herbs: rosemary for remembrance, comfrey for safe travel, and sage to cleanse the waiting place.
- Crystal: amber or hematite, both grounding stones that anchor the returning one to home.
- Day: Monday, the Moon’s own day.
- Planet: the Moon, ruler of longing, tides, and the pull toward home.
- Element: Earth, for the steadiness of a place kept faithfully.
- Moon phase: the waxing moon, whose growing light draws the absent home.
For more on how these align, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A chair — the one the absent person once favoured, set at its accustomed place.
- A bell to wake the empty place to its purpose.
- A bowl of clean water, set at the centre of their setting.
- A candle, blue or warm brown, to burn beside the place.
- A small measure of salt to circle the candle and keep the place pure.
- A full table setting — plate, cup, and cutlery — laid as though they might arrive at any hour.
The Best Time to Cast
This is an any-time working, begun whenever the longing is strongest and tended nightly thereafter. If you wish to open it under the most favourable sky, begin on a Monday — the Moon’s day — during the waxing moon, when the growing light lends its pull to draw the absent home. Because the rite is kept evening after evening, its power gathers slowly rather than striking all at once; the timing sets the tone, but faithfulness is what carries it.
The Working
- Choose the chair the wanderer once favoured, and set it at its accustomed place at your table.
- Lay a full setting before it as though they might arrive at any hour, and place a bowl of clean water at its centre.
- Ring a bell over the empty place to wake it to its purpose.
- Light a candle beside the setting and pour a small circle of salt around its base to keep the place pure.
- Speak the verse over the chair each evening as you tend your own meal, replacing the water whenever it clouds.
- Never sit in the chair yourself and never clear its setting; let the place stand ready night after night.
- When at last they come, seat them there first, pour the kept water at the threshold, and let the ritual close in gladness.
The Incantation
Chair kept warm and table set,
the place is yours, and waiting yet.
Water clear and candle bright,
salt to keep the seat aright.
However far your roads have run,
your place is held, your seat is one.
Come to the table, come and stay,
the door is open; find your way.
Variations & Substitutions
- No bell? A clear note serves as well — tap the rim of a wine glass or a metal bowl with a spoon to wake the place.
- Amber or hematite may be laid beside the water bowl to strengthen the grounding pull; a small token from the absent one’s belongings works too, if you have it.
- Personalise the setting by using their own favourite mug or plate, and tuck a sprig of rosemary or comfrey beneath the candle for remembrance and safe travel.
A Word on Intent
The Wiccan Rede counsels, “an it harm none, do what ye will.” A homecoming rite must never become a leash. This working holds a place open and makes home feel like home — it does not compel a free soul against their will, nor override another’s right to choose their own road. Keep your intent to welcome, not to bind: light the candle for the door left open, not for a hand forced. Cast it for those who may wish to return, and let their coming be their own choice.
Related Homecoming Spells
Explore more of the craft in the Grimoire, and keep a record of your own workings in the Book of Shadows.