the ritual

Start on a new moon because dark things, secret things need to be sheltered at first. Find a place away from the noise, away from the others, a lone clearing in the forest or the edge of the cliff at the end of your world and fill your cauldron to the brim with water. Don’t worry if it overflows. Everything spilled fuels the magic of the universe, an offering to the hidden gods. Let it rest for seven days and seven nights until the water has turned dark and silent, until it has become a mirror to the sky.

Then, lit the fire. A small one at first. You don’t want to boil the water just yet but to wake it up.

Now, it’s time for you to go on a walk. Don’t worry about the fire. It doesn’t matter if it dies, the important part is that it has been lit. The call has been made. You’ll have to find the ingredients and Nature… Well, Nature will provide. Your eye will scour over the path and you’ll know it’s what you need when you see it. 7 ingredients. Not one more. It might be rocks, it might be leaves, bones on the floor, it might even be blood spilled by your hand if the spell requires it. We never know what it will call for this time. Gather them all and come back.

Stock the fire. Your wake starts. From now on, the flames must be kept alight. A beacon in the mist. Then, every day at the witching hour, add one ingredient. No more, no less. Once the last of them is thrown into the water, calls.

They should appear in front of you, the doors of onyx and bones. You’ll know them by their ivy handle leaves of green and red and gold.

However, a warning, my child, if the ones that appear have a knob of iron… Run. No ones have ever come back from them.

the ritual by Alizé Gabaude is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0