All of us practicing magic publicly should probably be doing more evil-eye removal, uncrossing, and cursebreaking than we do. Protective wards and servitors are great, but even if we never leave our enchanted sanctuaries, some things will still get through. To that end, evolving variations of this spell have become a regular part of my magical protection and spiritual hygiene regimen.
I shared a super-concise version of this spell in the Hermetic House of Life discord not too long ago, at which point it belatedly occurred to me to add the SATOR square. The next weekend, I added the SATOR square. I was super pleased with the results, and felt moved to write this up immediately.
Bon appetit.
For the instructions below, I’ve included making your SATOR square, because it’s too short and easy to deserve a post of its own. I used a glass dip pen and consecrated ink to make my SATOR square, but that’s me being fancy. I used watercolor paper because it’s going to live on my altar and get spattered with oil and ash and god knows what and I want it to last. I have not included how to make your oil, because uncrossing and protection oils are readily available commercially and making it could be the subject of a whole book. (Several people have made their careers on such books.)
I do this ritual Saturday mornings, ideally during the first (Saturn) hour after dawn, but there is nothing inherently planetary about it and it can be done at any time. I also like to double-down on the ritual during the waning moon. Those timing elements make the ritual more effective, but aren’t necessary.
This ritual doesn’t pack as much oomph as some protection/uncrossing spells. It also doesn’t take as much oomph to get it off the ground. It’s meant as maintenance-level cleanup, not hazmat disposal. It does, though, also make a great first step in a heavier duty spiritual cleansing regimen when more is needed, and pairs well with a spiritual bath.
Materials
- Paper
- Pen and ink
- Ruler
- Candles (one per ritual; i use tea lights)
- A small mirror big enough for your candle to sit comfortably in the middle
- Anointing oil (I use uncrossing oil; you can use whatever seems most appropriate)
- Incense (I use a frankincense & myrrh blend; use can use whatever you want)
Making Your SATOR Square
Take your piece of paper and draw out a five by five grid somewhere in the middle; you want plenty of room on all sides. The two easiest ways to do this are to start off with graph paper, or to use a ruler straight edge. You can carefully measure centimeters or inches or whatever if you want, but I just use the ruler as the unit of measure: square the ruler against the paper, trace your line on one side and then the other. Repeat until you have six lines. Turn your paper 90 degrees and repeat to make your grid. Pencil in the letters:
SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS
If you’re not artistically inclined (or, even if you are), you may need to make multiple attempts to get a size and geometry you like. I made mine a little larger than my mirror.
When you are ready to do the ritual, bless and consecrate and awaken and enliven your paper, pen, and ink to the work of protection, cursebreaking, and uncrossing. Do not anoint your paper with oil, yet, it will impede the ink.
Ink your SATOR square. I inked mine in this order: grid outline; interior grid lines, letters, square outside the grid. Then I went back and inked over the letters several times. I promise it’s okay if it’s a little messy, as long as its legible. (It is word magic, after all, however inscrutable.)
The SATOR square is largely self-powering. Not much is needed to activate it. To give it extra oomph, though, I chanted the five words (Sator, Arepo, Tenet, Opera, Rotas) repeatedly as I inked my square, then suffumigated it with my incense and anointed the corners with my uncrossing oil. Invoking additional protective powers also always helps. Stop chanting and suffumigating when you know it’s done or when you lose focus, whichever comes first.
Your SATOR square is now ready to rock.
The Ritual
Gather your SATOR square, mirror, candle, and uncrossing oil.
Bless, consecrate, awaken, and enliven your materials with incense and prayer. If you literally just made your SATOR square (as I did the morning before I wrote this up), it is absolutely fine to use the same stick or lump of incense that you used to consecrate and suffumigate your SATOR square.
When you are ready, lay your hands over your SATOR square and chant the words (Sator, Arepo, Tenet, Opera, Rotas) three or five times.
Next, anoint your mirror with oil, spiraling counter clockwise from the center. Chant,
Uncross my conditions. Turn away the evil eye. Break any curses that have been laid upon me. Let the work of ignorance be undone. Let the work of jealousy be undone. Let the work of malice be undone. Let the work of my enemies be undone.
or something to the same effect in your own words. Then place the mirror on top of your SATOR square.
Anoint your candle, also counterclockwise, and repeat the chant. Then put the candle on top of the mirror.
Light the candle then anoint your hands with the oil, repeating the chant again. I also anoint my feet and my head.
Repeat the words of the SATOR square, again. At least once, but five times is more stylish.
Repeat the chant and the five words until you feel uncrossed and uncursesd or your attention wavers.
Witches who are particularly fire safety conscious will extinguish their candles, now. The rest of us will leave them burning on our altars that have been built to make that as safe as possible. In either event, turn your back on the uncrossing spell and try not to return to that room until the Hour of Saturn has ended (at a minimum); until after noon is better; until after sunset is best.