Also called cord cutting spell, cutting the ties that bind, energy cord cutting
A modern ritual for letting go of an old attachment: a string joining two candles stands for the tie, and you burn or cut it to mark that you are taking your own energy back. It is a release of your own feelings, not something done to another person.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Candle flame and burning string can drop hot wax and sparks, so use a fireproof plate, keep water nearby and never leave it unattended. This is a release of your own feelings: never name, picture or target a real person. If an attachment involves abuse or feels unmanageable, talk to a counselor; in the US you can call or text 988.
The best-known written source for the idea. Krystal taught a guided visualization in which a person pictures a figure eight of light around themselves and the other party, then imagines the ties between them being cut, starting with people and moving on to habits and symbols. No candles or string are used.
Uses: a quiet room, guided visualization
Brennan, a former NASA physicist turned healer, described relationship cords running between people's energy centers in her popular healing manual. Later energy workers turned this into hands-on or visualized cord releasing, usually done by a practitioner with the client present.
The version given above, which turns the visualized cord into a literal piece of string between two candles. It works as sympathetic magic, the old idea that acting on a symbol acts on what it stands for. Some practitioners cut the string with scissors instead of letting it burn.
Uses: two candles, string, plate
Cord cutting has no medieval pedigree. The phrase and the method come mostly from the twentieth-century energy-healing world. Phyllis Krystal, a Californian therapist, published Cutting the Ties That Bind in 1982, teaching people to visualize and sever the ties that kept them tied to parents, partners, habits and fears. Barbara Ann Brennan's Hands of Light, published in 1987, gave many readers the image of cords of energy linking people's energy centers, which healers could clear.
Modern witches borrowed the idea and gave it a physical form, usually two candles joined by a thread that burns through. The method rests on sympathetic magic, a principle described by the anthropologist James Frazer in The Golden Bough, where a likeness stands in for the real thing. Today cord cutting is used after breakups, family estrangement or grief. Done well, it is about reclaiming your own attention, which is why it should never be aimed at a named person.
A gentle remembrance ritual for someone who has died, drawing on old mourning customs: stopping the clock, covering the mirror, telling the bees and giving the grief a voice. It is a way to honor loss, not to make it disappear.
A ritual to push unwanted energy, bad moods or a lingering sense of trouble out of yourself or your home. The best-known Western form is the Golden Dawn's Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram; the simple version below suits anyone.
A modern release rite: write down what you want to let go of and burn the paper in a fireproof bowl, usually at year's end. Popularised by Unity churches in the twentieth century, with older relatives in New Year fire customs.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
