Baneful Witch’s Ladder: Nighshade Knot Magick
This is a simple spell I’ve used a few times to bind poppets, but it stands on its own. It is my own work.
Materials
- Black Cord
- Nightshade Oil / Tincture
- Recommended: Gloves
- Optional: Physical Link to Target
- Optional: Belladonna Berries
- Optional: Datura Leaves
- Optional: Datura Pod
- Optional: Nightshade Seeds
Do not handle poisonous botanicals without care, or try to make your own if you are not already very experienced. Go through a reputable seller like Belladona’s Botanicals or Banefolk. Absolutely do not inhale or ingest nightshades, or apply them to mucous membranes.
Step One: Ritual
Gather your materials and set up a ritual space in accordance with your own practice, brining in spirits as you like. Cleanse, consecrate, and charge the cord. The consecration should involve anointing the cord with a tincture or oil of at least one nightshade, such as Datura, Belladonna, or Mandrake. I wouldn’t use Henbane. Ritualy declare that the cord is a baneful binding cord.
Step Two: Link
Hold the cord in your (preferably gloved) hand, and imprint it with thoughts and visualizations of the target suffering as if they had nightshade poisoning (the real kind, not the blue-mouth fantasy one from Wednesday).
Step Three: Bind
Starting from the middle of the cord and working your way out, begin tying knots while chanting this old folk rhyme about the symptoms of anticholinergic delirium:
Hot as a hare,
Red as a beet,
Dry as a bone,
Blind as a bat,
Mad as a hatter.
Use intention, emotion, and visualization. If you do have a physical link, work that into the last knot.
I haven’t done this, but you could thread each knot through a belladonna berry. I have threaded through yew berries and it is messy as hell so freeze the berries a bit in advance.
You could also thread them through datura leaves; Harold Roth believes that the flowers are more Venusian, while the leaves are more Martial (ideal for this spell).
Step Four: Close
This is the simple version, so bury it near the target, at a cemetery, a crossroads, or in the woods. Or, throw it into the fire, ideally with nightshade seeds. Optionally, encase it in a datura seed pod before burning or burying. You could do all kinds of things with the seed pod, like place it in a poppet or a hexing packet, if you wanted something more complex.
Thank any spirits involved and make offerings as you see fit. Cleanse and cordcut afterwards.
