To Hallow & Animate a Token or Effigy for a Land Spirit or Familiar

Set your space with: your token or effigy (a statue, a bone, a stone, etc.), a cord or thread, a candle, water from a spring or other natural source, earth from a space associated with the spirit (or from a threshold), an offering, incense appropriate for your practice and the entity, and a thorn. Arrange the objects and light the candle.

Sprinkle the token or effigy with water and dust it with earth, saying:

By stream and stone, by ash and rain,
Be cleansed of dust, of death, of stain.
Hollow art thou, yet soon to wake—
A home for spirit, bond to make.

Pass the token through the smoke of incense and over flame, saying:

By flame and fume, by breath and fire,
Be stirred with life, with spirit’s ire.
Let no dead shell nor idle husk remain—
But vessel now for witch’s kin.

If the spirit is known or previously met, speak its name or epithets. If unknown, speak to the spirit of the land, the hedge, or the hidden one who stirs in the chosen form. Place the cord in a circle around the object. Say:

Spirit of field, of hollow, of flame—
I call thee now, by kenning and name.
Come if you will, take up this form,
And be to me a guide, a storm,
A whisperer in leaf and root,
A walker beside my witch’s foot.

Tie the cord firmly around the object and say:

Bound not by force, but by accord,
By breath and will, by witch’s word.
If you will dwell, then dwell in peace.
If you would flee, then take your ease.
But if you stay, let this be known:
You are not mine—but of your own.

Place the offering beside the token or effigy. Touch it with your right hand and breathe upon it gently three times. Say:

Take now this gift, this flame, this food.
Be welcome in this hallowed wood.
Speak in sign, in dream, in spark—
By crow at dawn, by hound at dark.

Listen. Watch the candle. Note any shift of air, chill, sound, or flicker—these may be signs of acceptance. Touch the token with the thorn. Gently prick or scratch the surface (or symbolically gesture) and say:

This mark I make to open the gate.
This bond is struck by will, not fate.
Spirit, familiar, one who walks—
I greet thee now between the stalks.

Ring a bell, knock three times, or stamp your foot to stir the waking. Say:

As hedge is crossed and root runs deep,
Let no false bond disturb your sleep.
Dwell if you will. Aid as you may.
The pact is done. Here may you stay.