How to Do Witchcraft with Photos
Hi, my name is Amira Asmodea. Today I want to speak with you about one of the most intimate objects we can place upon an altar: a photograph.
A photograph seems like an ordinary thing. We keep them in drawers, frames, old boxes, wallets, and now inside our phones. Yet in magic, a photograph can become something more. It bears a face. It preserves a moment. It carries the likeness of a person who may be very far away from us.
This is why photographs have become such familiar tools in modern witchcraft.
Long before photography existed, practitioners used handwritten names, locks of hair, pieces of clothing, personal belongings, painted portraits, footprints, and other objects connected with the person for whom a ritual was intended. The photograph belongs to this same old principle: it gives the spell a focus.
When I place someone's photograph upon an altar, I do not think of it merely as paper and ink. During the ritual, it becomes the place where my attention rests. The face reminds me exactly whose path, heart, protection, or circumstances I am working with.
And this is where caution becomes important.
A photograph can be used for love, reconciliation, protection, blessing, remembrance, separation, binding, or more aggressive forms of magic. The object itself is neither white nor black. The intention placed upon it changes the nature of the work.
Let me show you several traditional ways photographs may be used.
INDEX
1 What does a photograph mean in witchcraft?
2 How to do witchcraft with photos
2.1 Love spell with two photographs
2.2 A photo ritual to remain in someone's thoughts
2.3 Photo spell for reconciliation
3 A separation working with photographs
4 A final word about love magic
A written name can do this.
So can a personal object.
A strand of hair is even more intimate because it once formed part of the body.
A photograph works differently, but beautifully: it carries the person's likeness.
This is especially useful when the person is absent. You can place the photograph beneath a candle, write upon it, turn it face down, join it to another image, wrap it with ribbon, place herbs around it, or keep it beneath an object of protection.
The important thing is not to treat the photograph carelessly once the ritual has begun.
From the moment you dedicate it to the work, regard it as part of the altar.
I prefer photographs in which the person's face is clearly visible and, when possible, where they appear alone. This keeps the focus of the ritual clean. If the photograph contains several people, there is simply more symbolism in the image than you need.
Some witches write the person's full name and date of birth on the back. Others leave the photograph untouched. Both methods can be used. What matters is that you know precisely whom the image represents.
There is another rule I have always considered important: do not spend the ritual jumping from one thought to another.
The candle may be perfect, the herbs expensive, the moon favorable—but if your mind is scattered, the working itself becomes scattered.
The photograph is there partly to prevent this.
Look at the face.
Remember the purpose.
Then begin.
A prosperity candle may simply call for abundance.
But when the heart is involved, there is very often a name and a face.
This makes photograph magic useful in workings for attraction, reconciliation, remembrance, strengthening an existing bond, or—when the practice becomes darker—binding, domination, jealousy, and separation.
Do not confuse all of these things merely because they use red candles and photographs.
Calling affection toward yourself is not quite the same work as attempting to command another person's thoughts. Reconciliation is not the same as breaking apart an existing couple.
The deeper the ritual interferes with another person's path, the heavier the work becomes.
That is something every witch must decide for herself before lighting the candle, not afterward.
There are two photographs.
There are two people.
And during the ritual, the two images are joined.
It is traditionally used when affection already exists—or when you wish to strengthen the possibility of love between yourself and another person.
Red is used here because it belongs to passion, attraction, desire, warmth, and the movement of the heart.
Before beginning, place both photographs in front of you.
Write the words “I love you” at the top of each photograph.
Then turn them over and write:
“You love me.”
Place the photographs face up beside one another.
Light the red candle.
Now comes the part that matters more than writing the words.
Be still.
Look at the two faces and imagine a moment of tenderness between you. Do not imagine a vague fantasy filled with a hundred impossible details. Choose one simple scene: sitting together, embracing, speaking peacefully, walking hand in hand, sharing a meal.
Something the heart can hold clearly.
When a little wax has melted, carefully allow several drops of red wax to fall upon the front of the photographs.
Press the two photographs together so that the wax joins them.
As you do this, repeat:
“There were two, and now they are one.
Together as the earth and the moon.”
Allow the wax to cool.
Then place the joined photographs beneath your pillow.
Traditionally, they are kept there while the working is allowed to unfold. Do not separate them unnecessarily, and do not allow other people to handle them.
A ritual that has been sealed should be given silence.
We have an unfortunate habit nowadays of performing magic and then examining it every hour to see whether it has worked.
Do your work.
Then let the candle grow quiet.
It belongs to those restless situations in which someone has entered your thoughts so completely that you begin wondering whether you ever enter theirs.
It is a spell of remembrance and attraction, traditionally intended to turn another person's thoughts toward you.
Because of this, it is more commanding than the previous working.
Place the photograph before the candle.
Light the red candle first and then the incense.
Let the smoke rise between you and the image for a moment.
Look into the person's face.
Do not merely repeat their name mechanically. Remember what you feel when they enter a room. Remember their voice. Remember what first drew you toward them.
Once your attention has settled completely upon the photograph, speak:
“I place this thought upon you:
feel what you awaken in me.
As I remember you by night and day,
may my memory awaken within you.”
Repeat the words slowly.
There is no need to shout at an altar.
Magic does not become stronger because the neighbors can hear it.
Let the incense finish safely and allow the candle to burn for as long as your practice permits.
Then keep the photograph somewhere private.
For such moments, photograph magic has traditionally been used in reconciliation workings.
This ritual is best approached not with desperation, but with the wish that a road between two people may open again if something living still remains between them.
The old version of this working is performed beneath the full moon.
I like that timing.
The full moon illuminates what has been hidden, and reconciliation often begins when two people finally see what pride would not allow them to see before.
On the white paper, write your former partner's full name three times.
Place the white candle to the left of the paper.
Place the red candle to the right.
Light the white candle first.
White is used to clear resentment, confusion, and what should no longer remain between you.
Then light the red candle.
Red carries what still lives in the heart.
Carefully bring the horizontal edges of the paper near the flame of the white candle so that they darken slightly.
Do not allow the paper to catch fire.
Then do the same with the vertical edges using the red candle.
This is symbolic work, not a test of how quickly you can burn your altar.
Place the paper and photograph together inside the black cloth.
Fold the cloth around them until you have formed a small packet.
Tie the packet closed with the red ribbon.
Hold it first near the red candle, without allowing it to burn.
Look at the photograph in your mind and repeat three times:
“O powers that guard what love has joined,
open again the road between us.”
Then move the packet toward the white candle and repeat the words again.
The red flame calls the affection.
The white flame clears the path.
When the ritual is finished, bury the packet in fresh soil.
The burial is important. What has been spoken at the altar is given to the earth rather than continually disturbed by anxious hands.
If reconciliation eventually occurs and you feel the working has reached its end, recover the packet if possible and release its contents according to your tradition. The older form of this ritual calls for taking it to moving water.
Never promise yourself that someone will return in three days, seven days, or by the next moon.
The heart is not a clock.
And a ritual should not become a prison in which you count the hours.
The following ritual does not seek reconciliation or attraction. It is a separation working: magic intended to divide two people.
Traditionally, this belongs to the darker and more coercive side of magical practice.
I will not disguise that by calling every ritual “white magic” simply because it appears in a book of spells.
If you perform work intended to break a relationship, understand what you are asking the ritual to do.
The black candle is used because this is a working of ending, severing, and banishment rather than attraction.
Carve the full names of both people into the candle.
Beside the names, carve:
“Goodbye.”
Dress the candle with rue oil.
Rue has a long reputation in protective and banishing work, and here it is used not to draw the couple together but to drive the connection apart.
Light the candle.
As the flame steadies, say three times:
“Goodbye.”
Allow the candle to burn approximately halfway.
Then, using the candle flame with great care, burn the photographs in a fireproof vessel.
This is the breaking of the shared image.
Take the two needles and pierce the candle above the carved names.
As you do so, speak:
“As I pierce this candle, I divide this road.
Let what was joined become separate.
Let each heart seek its own horizon,
and let two different paths be opened.”
Extinguish the candle safely.
When the wax has cooled, break the candle into pieces.
Gather the remains of the candle and the ashes of the photographs.
Traditionally, these remains are taken far away from the home and discarded there.
This final removal is not an insignificant detail.
When performing banishing or separation work, I do not like keeping the remains in the house. The ritual has asked something to leave. Its remains should leave as well.
You are not working with an anonymous symbol.
You are looking into someone's face.
For that reason, I advise you to know what you want before you begin.
Do you want affection?
Do you want reconciliation?
Do you want someone to remember you?
Or do you want control?
Those are not the same desire.
Sometimes people ask magic to give them a person when what they truly want is not that person at all, but the feeling of being wanted by them.
No candle can answer that question for you.
You must answer it before lighting the match.
And remember something else I have learned after many years around love magic: desperation is a poor companion at the altar.
If you perform a ritual and then spend every hour watching your phone, examining social media, interpreting every coincidence, and asking whether the spell has begun to work, you have not released the working.
You are still holding it tightly in your hands.
Give magic room to breathe.
Take care of yourself.
Dress well because it pleases you. Sleep. Eat. Speak with friends. Walk outside. Return to the parts of your life that existed before one person's face filled your thoughts.
The photograph belongs upon the altar.
It should not become the whole world.
If you wish to learn more about witchcraft, love workings, bindings, cleansing, and protection, continue exploring the guides on this site.
May your candles burn steadily, your intentions remain clear, and may you always understand what you are asking of a spell before you speak its final words.
A photograph seems like an ordinary thing. We keep them in drawers, frames, old boxes, wallets, and now inside our phones. Yet in magic, a photograph can become something more. It bears a face. It preserves a moment. It carries the likeness of a person who may be very far away from us.
This is why photographs have become such familiar tools in modern witchcraft.
Long before photography existed, practitioners used handwritten names, locks of hair, pieces of clothing, personal belongings, painted portraits, footprints, and other objects connected with the person for whom a ritual was intended. The photograph belongs to this same old principle: it gives the spell a focus.
When I place someone's photograph upon an altar, I do not think of it merely as paper and ink. During the ritual, it becomes the place where my attention rests. The face reminds me exactly whose path, heart, protection, or circumstances I am working with.
And this is where caution becomes important.
A photograph can be used for love, reconciliation, protection, blessing, remembrance, separation, binding, or more aggressive forms of magic. The object itself is neither white nor black. The intention placed upon it changes the nature of the work.
Let me show you several traditional ways photographs may be used.
INDEX
1 What does a photograph mean in witchcraft?
2 How to do witchcraft with photos
2.1 Love spell with two photographs
2.2 A photo ritual to remain in someone's thoughts
2.3 Photo spell for reconciliation
3 A separation working with photographs
4 A final word about love magic
What does a photograph mean in witchcraft?
In magical work, we often need something that points clearly toward the person at the center of the ritual.A written name can do this.
So can a personal object.
A strand of hair is even more intimate because it once formed part of the body.
A photograph works differently, but beautifully: it carries the person's likeness.
This is especially useful when the person is absent. You can place the photograph beneath a candle, write upon it, turn it face down, join it to another image, wrap it with ribbon, place herbs around it, or keep it beneath an object of protection.
The important thing is not to treat the photograph carelessly once the ritual has begun.
From the moment you dedicate it to the work, regard it as part of the altar.
I prefer photographs in which the person's face is clearly visible and, when possible, where they appear alone. This keeps the focus of the ritual clean. If the photograph contains several people, there is simply more symbolism in the image than you need.
Some witches write the person's full name and date of birth on the back. Others leave the photograph untouched. Both methods can be used. What matters is that you know precisely whom the image represents.
There is another rule I have always considered important: do not spend the ritual jumping from one thought to another.
The candle may be perfect, the herbs expensive, the moon favorable—but if your mind is scattered, the working itself becomes scattered.
The photograph is there partly to prevent this.
Look at the face.
Remember the purpose.
Then begin.
How to do witchcraft with photos
Photographs are especially common in love magic because love spells usually concern particular people rather than abstract circumstances.A prosperity candle may simply call for abundance.
But when the heart is involved, there is very often a name and a face.
This makes photograph magic useful in workings for attraction, reconciliation, remembrance, strengthening an existing bond, or—when the practice becomes darker—binding, domination, jealousy, and separation.
Do not confuse all of these things merely because they use red candles and photographs.
Calling affection toward yourself is not quite the same work as attempting to command another person's thoughts. Reconciliation is not the same as breaking apart an existing couple.
The deeper the ritual interferes with another person's path, the heavier the work becomes.
That is something every witch must decide for herself before lighting the candle, not afterward.
Love spell with two photographs
This is one of the simplest forms of photograph magic because the symbolism can be understood almost immediately.There are two photographs.
There are two people.
And during the ritual, the two images are joined.
It is traditionally used when affection already exists—or when you wish to strengthen the possibility of love between yourself and another person.
You will need
- A photograph of the person you love.
- A photograph of yourself.
- A red or black marker.
- One red candle.
Red is used here because it belongs to passion, attraction, desire, warmth, and the movement of the heart.
Before beginning, place both photographs in front of you.
Write the words “I love you” at the top of each photograph.
Then turn them over and write:
“You love me.”
Place the photographs face up beside one another.
Light the red candle.
Now comes the part that matters more than writing the words.
Be still.
Look at the two faces and imagine a moment of tenderness between you. Do not imagine a vague fantasy filled with a hundred impossible details. Choose one simple scene: sitting together, embracing, speaking peacefully, walking hand in hand, sharing a meal.
Something the heart can hold clearly.
When a little wax has melted, carefully allow several drops of red wax to fall upon the front of the photographs.
Press the two photographs together so that the wax joins them.
As you do this, repeat:
“There were two, and now they are one.
Together as the earth and the moon.”
Allow the wax to cool.
Then place the joined photographs beneath your pillow.
Traditionally, they are kept there while the working is allowed to unfold. Do not separate them unnecessarily, and do not allow other people to handle them.
A ritual that has been sealed should be given silence.
We have an unfortunate habit nowadays of performing magic and then examining it every hour to see whether it has worked.
Do your work.
Then let the candle grow quiet.
A photo ritual to remain in someone's thoughts
This next working is different.It belongs to those restless situations in which someone has entered your thoughts so completely that you begin wondering whether you ever enter theirs.
It is a spell of remembrance and attraction, traditionally intended to turn another person's thoughts toward you.
Because of this, it is more commanding than the previous working.
You will need
- One photograph of the person.
- Incense.
- One red candle.
Place the photograph before the candle.
Light the red candle first and then the incense.
Let the smoke rise between you and the image for a moment.
Look into the person's face.
Do not merely repeat their name mechanically. Remember what you feel when they enter a room. Remember their voice. Remember what first drew you toward them.
Once your attention has settled completely upon the photograph, speak:
“I place this thought upon you:
feel what you awaken in me.
As I remember you by night and day,
may my memory awaken within you.”
Repeat the words slowly.
There is no need to shout at an altar.
Magic does not become stronger because the neighbors can hear it.
Let the incense finish safely and allow the candle to burn for as long as your practice permits.
Then keep the photograph somewhere private.
Photo spell for reconciliation
There are times when love has not disappeared but has become buried beneath anger, pride, distance, misunderstanding, or old wounds.For such moments, photograph magic has traditionally been used in reconciliation workings.
This ritual is best approached not with desperation, but with the wish that a road between two people may open again if something living still remains between them.
The old version of this working is performed beneath the full moon.
I like that timing.
The full moon illuminates what has been hidden, and reconciliation often begins when two people finally see what pride would not allow them to see before.
You will need
- One sheet of white paper.
- One white candle.
- One red candle.
- One photograph of your former partner.
- A red or black marker.
- Red ribbon.
- Black cloth.
On the white paper, write your former partner's full name three times.
Place the white candle to the left of the paper.
Place the red candle to the right.
Light the white candle first.
White is used to clear resentment, confusion, and what should no longer remain between you.
Then light the red candle.
Red carries what still lives in the heart.
Carefully bring the horizontal edges of the paper near the flame of the white candle so that they darken slightly.
Do not allow the paper to catch fire.
Then do the same with the vertical edges using the red candle.
This is symbolic work, not a test of how quickly you can burn your altar.
Place the paper and photograph together inside the black cloth.
Fold the cloth around them until you have formed a small packet.
Tie the packet closed with the red ribbon.
Hold it first near the red candle, without allowing it to burn.
Look at the photograph in your mind and repeat three times:
“O powers that guard what love has joined,
open again the road between us.”
Then move the packet toward the white candle and repeat the words again.
The red flame calls the affection.
The white flame clears the path.
When the ritual is finished, bury the packet in fresh soil.
The burial is important. What has been spoken at the altar is given to the earth rather than continually disturbed by anxious hands.
If reconciliation eventually occurs and you feel the working has reached its end, recover the packet if possible and release its contents according to your tradition. The older form of this ritual calls for taking it to moving water.
Never promise yourself that someone will return in three days, seven days, or by the next moon.
The heart is not a clock.
And a ritual should not become a prison in which you count the hours.
A separation working with photographs
Now we cross into very different territory.The following ritual does not seek reconciliation or attraction. It is a separation working: magic intended to divide two people.
Traditionally, this belongs to the darker and more coercive side of magical practice.
I will not disguise that by calling every ritual “white magic” simply because it appears in a book of spells.
If you perform work intended to break a relationship, understand what you are asking the ritual to do.
Instruments used for this working
- A black candle.
- Photographs of both members of the couple.
- Rue oil.
- Two needles.
- Matches.
The black candle is used because this is a working of ending, severing, and banishment rather than attraction.
Carve the full names of both people into the candle.
Beside the names, carve:
“Goodbye.”
Dress the candle with rue oil.
Rue has a long reputation in protective and banishing work, and here it is used not to draw the couple together but to drive the connection apart.
Light the candle.
As the flame steadies, say three times:
“Goodbye.”
Allow the candle to burn approximately halfway.
Then, using the candle flame with great care, burn the photographs in a fireproof vessel.
This is the breaking of the shared image.
Take the two needles and pierce the candle above the carved names.
As you do so, speak:
“As I pierce this candle, I divide this road.
Let what was joined become separate.
Let each heart seek its own horizon,
and let two different paths be opened.”
Extinguish the candle safely.
When the wax has cooled, break the candle into pieces.
Gather the remains of the candle and the ashes of the photographs.
Traditionally, these remains are taken far away from the home and discarded there.
This final removal is not an insignificant detail.
When performing banishing or separation work, I do not like keeping the remains in the house. The ritual has asked something to leave. Its remains should leave as well.
A final word about love magic
Photograph magic can be powerful precisely because it feels personal.You are not working with an anonymous symbol.
You are looking into someone's face.
For that reason, I advise you to know what you want before you begin.
Do you want affection?
Do you want reconciliation?
Do you want someone to remember you?
Or do you want control?
Those are not the same desire.
Sometimes people ask magic to give them a person when what they truly want is not that person at all, but the feeling of being wanted by them.
No candle can answer that question for you.
You must answer it before lighting the match.
And remember something else I have learned after many years around love magic: desperation is a poor companion at the altar.
If you perform a ritual and then spend every hour watching your phone, examining social media, interpreting every coincidence, and asking whether the spell has begun to work, you have not released the working.
You are still holding it tightly in your hands.
Give magic room to breathe.
Take care of yourself.
Dress well because it pleases you. Sleep. Eat. Speak with friends. Walk outside. Return to the parts of your life that existed before one person's face filled your thoughts.
The photograph belongs upon the altar.
It should not become the whole world.
If you wish to learn more about witchcraft, love workings, bindings, cleansing, and protection, continue exploring the guides on this site.
May your candles burn steadily, your intentions remain clear, and may you always understand what you are asking of a spell before you speak its final words.
Bibliography
- Doreen Valiente. An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present. Robert Hale, an imprint of The Crowood Press, 1999. ISBN 9780719826917.
- Buckland, Raymond. Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft. Llewellyn Publications, 1986. ISBN 9780875420509. Source.
- Gerald Gardner. The Meaning of Witchcraft. Aquarian Press, 1982. ISBN 1950506789. Source.
- Gardner, Gerald. Witchcraft Today. Rider & Company, 1954. Source.
- Zambelli, Paola. White Magic, Black Magic in the European Renaissance: From Ficino, Pico, Della Porta to Trithemius, Agrippa, Bruno. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, vol. 125, Brill, 2007, x + 282 pp. ISBN 978-90-04-16098-9. Cambridge Core. Google Books.
- Scott Cunningham. Wicca: a guide for the solitary practitioner. Llewellyn Publications, 1993.
- Knight, Gareth. A History of White Magic. Skylight Press, 2011. ISBN 9781908011046. Google Books.
