Wait at the threshold for the hour when black turns grey and the world has not yet chosen its colors. This is the seam of the day, and seams are where things can be let out.
A doorway is neither in nor out, and dawn is neither night nor morning, and in that doubled threshold a burden can be shown the way to leave. This working uses the turning of the light itself as the current that carries weight over the sill. What crosses out at dawn does not ask to come back in.
The Working
- Before first light, sweep a clean line of salt across the inside of your threshold, from post to post.
- Set a lit candle and a coil of incense on the inner sill, take a small bell in your hand, and open the door to the dark.
- As you wait for the grey to come, name softly all that the night has left heavy in you.
- When the first grey light touches the sill, ring the bell three times and let the sound go out through the open door.
- Take up the candle and pass its flame once over the line of salt, then carry the light across the threshold and set it down outside, facing away from the house.
- Sweep the salt out over the sill with three strokes, following the burden into the growing light, then sprinkle clean water along the bare threshold to wash it after.
- Come back in, close the door softly, and let the candle burn itself out on the step.
The Incantation
Grey at the sill, and the night breaking open,
here is the door, and here the going-out.
Bell, ring it loose; salt, sweep it clear;
flame, light the road that leads away.
What the dark laid on me, I lay on the dawn;
go out, and do not turn at the step.
The salt scatters into the morning and the little flame keeps watch on the step until it gutters. The house is lighter by a night, and the day comes in clean.