Ritual · Release
A Releasing Rite for the Waning Moon
A plain rite for setting something down. It works as well on a resentment as on a habit, and the useful part is the naming — being specific about what you are actually tired of carrying, which is harder and more revealing than it sounds.
You'll need
- Salt water in a shallow bowl
- A scrap of paper
- No special tools
The working
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Fill a shallow bowl with water and stir in a pinch of salt until it dissolves. Sit somewhere you can be uninterrupted, with the lights low.
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Write the thing you are setting down. Be specific and be plain — not "negativity" but the actual sentence you are tired of carrying. Vague wording gives you nothing to put down.
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Hold the paper over the bowl and say it aloud, once:
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I set this down. It is finished with me, and I am finished with it. By the waning of the moon, let it go.
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Drop the paper into the salt water and leave it overnight. Pour the water away at a drain — not on anything growing — and let the paper dry, then burn or bury it.
Variations & notes
Rainwater or sea water instead of salt water. If burning is impractical, tearing the paper does the same work; the gesture matters more than the medium. Some keep the ashes until the next full moon, others find that rather defeats the point.
Harm none. This is offered, not prescribed. Take what serves you, change what doesn't, and stop at any point it asks more of you than you want to give.
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