The Cup of Kindled Wanting is a gentle, beginner-friendly love potion spell: a bowl of water steeped in full-moon light and warmed into a rosy brew you drink to rekindle your own capacity for love. This cup is not brewed to bend another’s will but to unbank the low fire in your own breast. A heart kept guarded and cold gives off no light; warmed and willing, it becomes a beacon that the beloved, wherever they wander, cannot help but steer toward.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colours: pink and rose for romantic love, green for lasting affection
- Herbs: rose, lavender, and jasmine
- Crystal: rose quartz (or emerald)
- Day: Friday
- Planet: Venus
- Element: Water
- Moon: the waxing moon, to draw love toward you
For the full table of magical associations, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A clear glass or ceramic bowl to catch the moonlight
- Fresh, clean water
- A handful of dried hibiscus and rosehip, plus a few leaves of damiana
- A piece of rose quartz
- A small heat source to warm the water gently, and your fairest cup to drink from
The Best Time to Cast
Cast this at the full moon, when her light is bright enough to pool in the bowl and lend the water its charge. A Friday is doubly fitting, for it is the day of Venus, goddess of love and the planet that rules this working. If you cannot wait for the full moon, the waxing moon will serve, since its swelling light draws love steadily toward you as it grows.
The Working
- Under the full moon, fill a bowl with fresh water and set it upon a sill or stone where the moonlight gathers in it.
- Scatter in a handful of dried hibiscus and rosehip and a few leaves of damiana, and let them steep as the moon climbs.
- Lay a rose quartz at the bowl’s edge, so its blush drinks the same light.
- When the water has gone the colour of a deep sunset, warm it gently over a low flame and pour it into your fairest cup.
- Bend close, breathe three slow breaths across its surface, and name the warmth you wish both to feel and to send out into the world.
- Drink in unhurried sips, following the heat as it travels from throat to heart, and pour the last mouthful at your doorstep as an open invitation.
The Incantation
Moon in the bowl and fire in the cup,
red as the dusk and warm as skin,
unbank the coal I banked too long
and let the wanting kindle in.
Let my heart burn a steady light,
come, beloved, and warm you here.
Variations & Substitutions
- No damiana on hand, or you would rather leave it out? Dried rose petals or a pinch of lavender make a softer, equally loving brew. Skip damiana entirely if you are pregnant.
- Swap the rose quartz for an emerald when you are asking for love that lasts rather than love that merely kindles.
- If you do not care to drink herbal infusions, brew the water as a scented wash instead: warm it, breathe your intent across it, and anoint your wrists and heart rather than drinking.
A Word on Intent
Work always by the Wiccan Rede — an it harm none, do what ye will. This potion warms your own heart and sends out an open invitation; it never names or binds a particular person against their will. Ask for the willing love that is meant for you, and trust it to arrive freely. To compel a specific someone is to override their choice, and love taken without consent is not love at all.
Related Love Spells
Find more brews, charms, and rites in the Grimoire, and keep your own workings safe in your Book of Shadows.