Earth-Friendly Disposal of Spell Ingredients

After your spell or ritual, you sometimes need to do away with the leftover bits. While there are some tried-and-true ways to do this, we know that taking care of the earth is a significant responsibility we all share in the modern world. So, let’s explore earth-friendly ways to dispose of your ritual items that are also magickally sound!

Throwing Away Spell Ingredients

If you’re working a return-to-sender or banishment spell that you don’t want lingering in your home, throwing certain items away is perfectly fine. If something is recyclable, toss it in the recycle bin. Should you be throwing away a glass jar (the horror!!!), rinse it out first and then recycle it. If you really don’t want to keep something around your home, consider throwing it out on garbage pickup day.

Please make sure all candles and incense are no longer smoldering and have cooled off before disposing of them!

Using Fire (and Air) to Dispose of Ritual Ingredients

If you have a fireplace or fire pit where you can safely dispose of spell items, it’s a great way to do so. The smoke and ash that travel into the air help carry the spell’s intentions when they burn, too. Talk about a bonus! Dream magick, sex magick, and spirit workings pair well with flames.

Using Water to Dispose of Ritual Ingredients

I was personally horrified when I saw instructions one day that called for the practitioner to wrap spell remnants up in aluminum foil and toss it into flowing water! IF you have biodegradable spell remnants and access to a stream, lake, or river, you can certainly dispose of ingredients in the water. Just be sure you adhere to local laws AND that you’re not on someone else’s property.

Using Earth to Dispose of Ritual Ingredients

Burying your remnants is another excellent way to do dispose of them. Protection, prosperity, abundance, and success spells work better when you bury them on your property or at a crossroads. If you want it to remain permanent, be sure to bury your spell items in a place where they will be undisturbed.

Also, have you ever heard the phrase, salt the earth? Don’t do that. Salt will kill the plant life and the ecosystem of the soil itself. You risk making it a place where nothing will grow, except maybe some stubborn weeds. So, go ahead and throw that salt away.

Reusable Spell Items

Rocks, gemstones, crystals, and metal items can be cleansed and recharged easily. After all, your crystals have probably been around for millions of years and have been around a lot of energy.

Also, be sure to hang onto all your blessed altar tools: athame, chalice, offering bowls, and beyond, unless using one of the items would be distracting in later magick. You wouldn’t want to be reminded of a particularly significant cord-cutting every time you use your athame. It could bleed over into your current spell.

Sometimes Reusable Spell Items

Depending on the spell you cast – and your personal preferences – you can always recycle candles, bottles, spell bags, altar art, and poppets.

Spell Items You Should Throw Out

If you use anything organic, like herbs, oils, or food, they need to be disposed of properly (see above for ideas). Ashes, paper, and salt are usually good candidates for the trash unless you’re intentionally creating black salt or another spell ingredient.

Remember, everything should be done with intention. So even if you toss items in the trash can, do so mindfully and as part of the spell itself.