Finishing a Spell: Burn, Bury, or Disperse

Your spell is complete. Perhaps the candle has extinguished, leaving behind a dried puddle of wax dotted with bits of herbs and crystal shards. Or maybe you're left with a bowl of ashes and rose petals. A written petition, a photograph, a length of twine: leaving used spell ingredients to sit where you left them or immediately tossing them in the trash feels not only like a waste of leftover energy but also almost... insulting to those items?

Some pre-written spells will tell you burn your ingredients. Some will say bury. Others suggest you get them as far away from you as possible or hide them away. Not only should you understand the purpose behind the action in every spell you do, but how do you decide the best course when the spell book simply doesn't say or you wrote the spell yourself?

Below, let's cover the most popular ways of finalizing a spell and when each might be most appropriate. While I'm covering the most popular methods, this is by no means a comprehensive list.

As always, your craft is entirely your own and rarely do two practices look alike. While I hope to offer many options and reasons for those options, that doesn't necessarily mean every explanation will make sense within the context of your particular craft. And as usual, don't overthink it. One method might symbolize two contrasting ideas, but don't get hung up on that. Following your instincts is the best way to go about making this choice.

Also, if you follow a tradition, your ending action might be tradition-specific so I recommend asking a mentor or looking into resources created for your path in order to discover the best course of action. Or, if you are petitioning a particular deity, spirit, or entity they may have preferences which you should look into.

Burning

A common thread in all of these, and throughout all spellwork, is that the intention behind the action is ultimately the most important factor. Therefore, depending on your intention when you light ingredients to burn them, you may be banishing or you may be igniting to bring to life. You may be cleansing with fire or committing destruction. Symbolizing the warmth of love or the solidifying flames of a forge. These examples can go on and on.

Fire also requires fuel to burn. The act of burning takes your ingredients--the symbols of your intention--and converts them into an energy source. Symbolically, this could also be viewed from the perspective that they are also being consumed. Also consider that while a flame can catch quick, it will burn quick too. Some practitioners therefore only use burning for spells that they want to manifest quickly but do not need maintained for long (the opposite is said to be true of burying, as I will cover in a moment).

Another thing to factor in with burning is what does the smoke symbolize to you? For many, it can lift your intention and carry it out to the Universe, Spirit, or its intended destination. However, others feel it is merely a cast-off, a shadow of the spell performed and it has no effect.

If you work with elemental magick, fire is good for creativity, passion, desire and love, transformation, inner strength, willpower, purification, and courage.

Speaking practically, fire may not always be the best choice if you're working with items that are not safe or are too big to burn. You'll also still want to consider what to do with the ashes when all is said and done, if they are still considered ingredients once that transformation is complete.

Note that for any of these methods, if the practical side gets in the way, don't feel discouraged. Just find the next best alternative.

Burying

What does one bury? Caskets and yet also seeds. Burial may mean death or birth, and any of the variations that sit between: rebirth, growth, renewal, manifestation, decay, decomposition for the sake of new growth, release, secrecy, solitude, grounding, liminal space.

The good thing about an item, such as a jar or railroad spike for example, being buried is that barring an earthquake or landslide, the item will likely stay exactly where you put it. While it is there, it can consistently be fueled by the energy of the earth. This makes burying an optimal choice for something like a home ward. Additionally, just like burying a seed, it may take a while longer to see the results but the ground can provide a stable foundation and suitable living space for long-lasting results and ongoing growth--quite the opposite of the quick-burning and manifesting flame.

Finally, some feel that what you take from the earth should always be returned after use.

If you work with elemental magick, earth is good for stability, natural instincts/intuition, prosperity, fertility, wisdom, introspection, security, and dependability.

Burying may not always be the best choice if you are working with items which carry a scent that may attract pests or dangerous wild animals (although burying in a pot of soil inside your home is always an option). Also consider that it isn't ideal to bury anything that, were you to forget about it or exactly where it's located, you wouldn't want a beloved family pet or a child digging up years down the line. Finally, if you're burying outside, please consider only doing so with natural and biodegradable ingredients unless you only intend for the burial to be for a specific duration of time. I encourage you to always find ways to cast your magick without littering. However, if you're burying in a plant pot, do whatever the hell you please.

Wind Dispersal

Thinking of both wind in a boat's sails or a pollen being carried on a breeze, wind can facilitate movement and travel. Air makes music when flowing through wind instruments and moving wind chimes. Taking light ingredients such as ashes or petals and releasing them into the wind can carry them far and wide and in a sometimes unpredictable direction. Consider breath which gives us life as well as the wind that sweeps up seeds and distributes them to grow in new locations. Air movement is also intrinsically tied to weather patterns.

If you work with the natural elements, air is used for intelligence/intellect, logic, communication, travel, freedom, harmony, imagination, and dreams.

Water Dispersal

Water is yet another mode of transportation and movement. It could carry a message or encourage smooth movement, travel, or communication. It's cleansing and clarifying, we need it to survive and yet it can also sink ships and drown swimmers. All life needs it for nourishment and survival. Water can also wear away at the toughest of surfaces, over time developing a canyon or dripping on a stone long enough to wear a hole straight through it.

Although moving water used for ending a spell is in liquid form, water always hold the ability to roll with its environment and change to liquid or steam and that essence of adaptability. You may also want to consider the implications of using fresh versus salt water for dispersal as well as the differences between using a river, stream, waterfall, or ocean. However, while you should try to be as specific as possible, don't fret if you live in a landlocked region and are doing a spell that would be best finished off with the sea. In a pinch, your local stream will work just fine.

If you work with the natural elements, water is used for healing, understanding, emotional release, flexibility, spirit communication, cleansing, and change.

Throw Away

Whether it gets dispensed in the trash or flushed down the toilet, ridding yourself of your ingredients quickly and with little fanfare is often recommended in cleansing, banishing, and when any baneful magick is used. Leftover items can be heavily charged with negative energy and you don't want to keep it hanging around your person or space. In regards to symbolism, if you are performing a cleansing or banishing, the purpose of the spell is the get something or someone away from you, so you should perform that same act on the ingredients.

I also find that there is a certain petty eloquence to flushing items down the toilet in baneful magick. If you are casting a curse on someone, you are finishing it off by saying that they are as low as everything else that gets flushed down the toilet on a regular basis.

Hide Away

Hiding an object or collection of ingredients away can be done in the back of a rarely used cupboard or by burying it in your yard and marking the spot with a brick. However, hiding away versus "getting rid of" in any way would be done so one has access to those ingredients in the future or because they need to secretly work on an ongoing basis near the spell's intended target.

A common reason to hide the ingredients rather than stick them on a commonly used shelf is so that you don't constantly dwell on the spell and waiting for its results to manifest, and instead can simply "set it and forget it". Why one would want to do this can be dependent upon their practice or tradition and some practitioners disagree with it entirely, finding that it is better to think of the spell often so that one is consistently adding energy to it.

A final note: In regards to any solutions that result in the ingredients being destroyed or lost forever, some practitioners do not ever go these routes. The concern is that if they ever need to reverse the spell that was cast, it will be more difficult (difficult, but not impossible) to do without the items used to cast it originally. On the other hand, who needs a month, year, or lifetime's worth of used spell ingredients cluttering up their space? At the end of the day, to each their own. I just felt it was worthy of noting that some may want to keep this in mind, particularly for some spells more than others.