They left, they look completely fine, and you are the one lying awake with it. A regret spell is two candle work set on one name: a black candle and a mirror turn what they did back toward them, so they feel the size of what they walked away from, and a cord is cut on your side so that what they took stops draining. It is not a curse. It sends nothing back but the truth, and it gives you your own attention back.
Nearly every one of these I cast is for someone who was discarded by a person who then went quiet and looked happy. So this is the long version: what the work does and where it stops, why the materials are a mirror and two candles and not one, which night to cast it, how I set it at my altar and how you can set it at your own table, how to read the two candles side by side, what you will notice first, and the handful of things that put the mirror face down.
If you did not come here to learn it but to have it done, I set this one at my altar the night your order comes in, for $19, and you get a photograph of both candles and a written report of the burn. That is here, and the rest of this page is still worth reading before you decide, because the second half of the work is about you, not them.
Does a regret spell work?
It works on two things, and only two. On their side, it sets what they did back in front of them, as it was, until they feel the weight of it. On your side, it cuts the cord that kept feeding them your attention. It does not bring anyone back and it does not add any suffering to what they already handed you.
Regret is a specific feeling, and it helps to be precise about it before you light anything. It is not hurt and it is not punishment. It is seeing clearly: what someone had, what they did with it, and what it cost. Most people who discard someone manage not to see that. They tell a version of the story where they were tired, or it was not working, or you were too much, and the version holds because nothing contradicts it. The mirror contradicts it. It puts the thing itself back in front of them, at the same weight it arrived at your door, and leaves them with it.
The second half is the part nearly every home version skips, and it is the half that changes your life more. When someone discards you, they keep something: your attention. You are still the one checking, replaying, drafting. The cord between you is still feeding them, and they do not even have to do anything to be fed. The cut stops that. It is done on your side, near your own candle, because the thing being cut is your end of it.
In the candles I burned this autumn, the white one told me more than the black one nearly every time. People order this work for the mirror. What they write back about, weeks later, is the quiet.
What it sends back, and what it does not
A regret working sends back exactly what was done, with nothing added. The lie, the leaving, the replacing, at the weight it arrived. If you add a wish for them to lose their job, their new person or their sleep, you have left regret work for something I do not cast and would not advise anyone to cast.
The line matters because the black candle burns whatever you give it. Write you lied for a year on the slip and the candle carries that back. Write may you lose everything and the candle carries that too, and now your name is on a petition that asks for harm, and the mirror is facing you as much as them. I have read enough of those burns, usually from people who cast at home first and came to me after, to know how they go. The flame lies down, the soot climbs the glass, and nothing on the white side moves at all. Harm is heavy to send and it keeps you in the fight.
There is a short list of what I will not set a mirror on, and I would ask you to keep to it as well. Nobody’s body or health. Nobody’s child, and nobody under eighteen. Nobody’s livelihood. And not on someone who asked you to leave them alone, because the mirror in that case is a way of staying in the room after you were asked to leave, and the candle will burn badly for exactly that reason.
Is a regret spell a curse?
No. A curse sends something at a person: loss, illness, bad luck, a wish. A regret spell sends nothing. The mirror shows someone what they did, and the cut takes back what was yours. If nothing leaves your table but the truth and your own attention, nothing can come back to you that was not already true.
People worry about this one more than any other working I offer, and the worry is fair, because the internet is full of regret spells that are revenge spells in a nicer font. The difference is not the color of the candle. It is what the petition asks for. A regret petition is past tense and plain: their name, and the thing they did. It never says what should happen next. The moment it says what should happen next, it is a wish, and a wish is the thing you carry.
This is also why the two candles never share a plate and why the mirror faces the black candle and never you. The black candle takes the weight of the deed. The white candle stays clean, with nothing on it but your name. If the two are too close, or the mirror catches your face, the work gets muddled and the person it muddles is you. I set them a hand’s width apart, and I check the mirror’s angle twice before I light anything.
Why a mirror, two candles and a cut cord
Every piece on the table does one job. Knowing the job is what lets you do the work rather than copy it.
The black candle holds what they did. Black takes in and ends things, which is why it is the candle for the deed and never for you. I carve their first name near the top and the deed near the base, so the flame meets the person first and sits with what they did last. That is the order regret arrives in for them as well: first the memory of you, then what they did with it.
The white candle is yours, and it is the same size as the black one, never bigger. This is not a contest, and equal candles let me read which one finishes first, which is one of the more useful things the burn tells me. Nothing goes on it but your name and a little rosemary if you have it, for a clear head.
The mirror returns. A small, cheap one, bought for this and used for nothing else, never one you have looked into. It stands behind the black candle facing the flame, so the candle sees itself. Nothing travels out from a mirror. That is the whole point of using one rather than a second black candle: a mirror cannot add, it can only give back.
The cord is your attention, made visible. Black if you want the cut clean, red if there was love in it, because the red brings the love back to your side with the cut rather than leaving it with them. It lies on the table between the two plates and touches neither. It is never in the flame.
The salt goes on your cut end, a pinch pressed into the fibres. Salt seals and keeps. Without it the cut grows back in a week, which is the thing people write to me about when they did a cutting at home and found themselves checking again by Friday.
The two petitions are on two slips, never the same paper. Theirs is folded away from you, twice, because folding away is how you send something off. Yours is folded toward you, twice, because that is how you draw something in. I write theirs in the plainest words I have, in the past tense, and I write yours in the present.
Dressing and carving go in opposite directions too. The black candle is dressed with a few drops of plain oil from the middle out toward both ends, strokes away from you. The white candle is dressed from the ends in toward the middle, strokes toward you. I carve the white candle first, so my hands begin with you. Then I rinse them in a cup of salt water and carve the black one. Nothing of what they did crosses over to your candle.
The scissors at my altar are a pair kept for cutting and nothing else. At home a kitchen pair is fine. Wipe the blades with salt water afterwards and put them away.
The night to cast it: Saturday, a waning moon, after dark
Saturday, after dark, on a waning moon. Saturday is the day for endings and boundaries, and a waning moon is for taking something away, which is what the cut does. If tonight is the night you can do it without crying through it, tonight is better than a perfect Saturday you keep not getting to.
The clock matters less than the shape you are in. Do not cast it the night you found out. Anger writes the petition then, and anger writes pages, and pages blur the work. Give it three days. Do not cast it after an hour on their profile, and do not cast it after wine. Shower, eat something, and sit down when the house is quiet. The candle reads what you bring to it, and what you want to bring is a clear sentence and steady hands.
At my altar the work is set the same day it comes in, whatever the calendar says, because a working done carefully tonight does more than one done perfectly next month. The moon helps, but it does not bar the door.
How to cast a regret spell at home
You need two candles, a small mirror, a cord, scissors, salt, paper and roughly two hours when nobody will walk in. What follows is my altar working in full, nothing skipped.
What you need
- One black chime candle for what they did. A chime candle burns down in about two hours, which is one sitting.
- One white chime candle for you, the same size as the black.
- A small mirror, a compact or a hand mirror, one you do not use for your face.
- A cord, black or red, about a forearm long, and scissors.
- Two slips of plain paper and a pen. Brown paper torn from a bag is traditional. Any unlined paper will do.
- A pinch of salt, a few drops of olive oil, and dried rosemary if you have it.
- Something to carve with: a pin, a nail, a toothpick.
- Two fireproof plates on a clear surface, a hand’s width apart, away from curtains, shelves, paper and pets.
1. Write the two petitions
On the first slip, their first name and what they did, in one plain past tense line: left without a word, lied for a year, replaced me in a month. Fold it away from you, twice. On the second slip, your own first name and this: what was taken comes back to me. Fold it toward you, twice. Two slips, never the same paper, and never more than one line on either.
2. Dress and carve the candles, yours first
Rub a few drops of oil on the white candle from the ends in toward the middle, strokes toward you, press the rosemary into it, and carve your first name. Rinse your hands in a cup of water with a pinch of salt in it. Then the black candle: oil from the middle out toward both ends, strokes away from you, and carve their first name near the top and the one or two words for the deed near the base.
3. Set the table
Black candle on its plate, with their folded slip under the plate. The mirror stands upright behind the black candle, facing the flame, so the candle will see itself. Check that it does not catch you or the white candle. The white candle goes on its own plate a hand’s width away, your slip under it. Lay the cord on the table between the plates with one end near each, touching neither, well clear of where the flames will be.
4. Light the black candle first, then the white
Light the black one and say, once: what you did comes back to you, as it was, nothing added. Then light the white one and say: what you took from me comes back to me. Then stop talking. Put the phone in another room and stay with the candles. The two hours are the reading, and you cannot read what you did not watch.
5. Cut the cord when the white candle is halfway down
Pick up the scissors and cut the cord close to your side, near the white candle, so the short end stays with you and the long end stays on theirs. Press a pinch of salt into your cut end. That is the moment the draining stops. If the black candle is fighting at that point, let it fight. The cut does not wait for it. Let both candles burn out. If you have to leave the room, snuff both, never blow, and relight the black one first when you are back. Never leave a flame alone.
6. The remains leave the house two ways
Their side goes out tonight: the black wax, their slip, the long end of the cord and the mirror wrapped face inward, into a bin that is not yours. Not your garden, not your own trash. Your side stays: the white wax, your slip and your short end of cord go into a drawer near where you sleep. When you notice one day that you have not thought about them in a while, throw those out too. That is the real end of the working.
Reading the two candles side by side
The black candle tells you about them, the white one tells you about you, and whichever finishes first tells you where the work landed. Note what each one did before you start deciding what it means. The full list of flames, soot and wax is in how to read a candle burn. These are the ones I see on regret work.
| What you see | What it tends to mean in regret work |
|---|---|
| Black candle burns fast and clean | The mirror turned easily. They had less armor than they showed you. |
| Black candle smokes early or soots the top | Guarded at the start. The weight lands, but slowly, and later in the cycle. |
| Black candle sputters or goes out | Something is holding it, and it is nearly always you, still looking. Relight it once. If it goes out again, leave it and do the cut again next week. |
| Black flame stands taller than the white | They are taking more of the room than they should. The cut matters more than the mirror here. |
| White candle burns tall and steady | Your attention is coming home quickly. |
| White candle low, flickering, struggling | You are more drained than you thought. Rest and a salt bath before any other working. |
| White candle finishes first | You are free before they feel it. The best order there is. |
| Black wax runs toward the white plate | They still pull at you. Cut again, with salt. |
| Both finish within minutes of each other | Clean on both sides. |
| Black candle tunnels and leaves a wall of wax | The deed was bigger than the word you carved. Name it properly next time. |
| White flame jumps or spits at the moment of the cut | Common, and good. The cut was felt. I write down the time. |
When a glass cracks on the black side at my altar I do not call it a sign. It is heat and thin glass more often than not, and the report says so. A tunnel on the black candle I let finish and then read the wall, because its shape usually tells me which word the person should have carved. And a white candle that will not stand is the one thing that makes me write rest before I write anything about the other person.
How long does it take for a regret spell to work?
Most people notice the first signs in the second or third week, and the first sign is on your side: the urge to check on them goes quiet. What they feel, you may never hear about, and you should not go looking. The whole of it, when it lands, lands within three lunar cycles.
Timing I take from the burn, not from the calendar, and I do not hand out dates. A white candle that burned tall and finished first points to a fast settling on your side, often inside the first week. A black candle with soot up the glass means the weight is landing slowly on theirs, and the news, if any comes, will come late in the cycle and sideways. A black candle that went out says they are not carrying it yet and the cut is the half to protect. All of these timelines stretch for the same reason: every time you look at them, you are not gone, and the cord you cut grows a thread back.
The report tells you which of those you have, so that you are not watching the wrong thing for a month.
What you will notice first, and what you will not
The first sign is never on their side. It is a change in you, and most people miss it because they are watching for theirs.
- The nights, days one to three. You sleep. The argument you have been having with them in your head stops replaying at two in the morning. That is the cut.
- The hand that does not reach, days three to seven. You catch yourself not having looked. Their name comes up and lands as information rather than as a blow.
- Your name in their mouth, three to six weeks. A friend mentions you were asked about. A careful question arrives through someone else. An old story of yours gets viewed by an account that has been silent.
- The message that is really an apology, weeks two to four. Hope you are doing well. A photo of a place you went together. A small admission about how things ended. This is the mirror. Do not answer it from the old place, and do not feel you have to answer it at all.
- The one you will miss. One day you realize you have not thought about them in days. That is the working finished, and it is the sign the report tells you to wait for.
What is not a sign: them posting happily, because people post what they want to be true. Them being with someone new, which does not mean the mirror failed, because regret and a new relationship live in the same person at once more often than not. A dream about them, which tells you about your own heart and nothing about theirs; there is more on that in dreaming about your ex.
The mistakes that put the mirror face down
Seen from the altar, in the order I see them.
- Writing harm into the petition. May he lose her too. Now the black candle carries a wish, the wish has your name on it, and the mirror faces both of you. Keep the slip to what they did, past tense, one line.
- Telling them. A text that says I did a spell on you turns the mirror into a message and gives them something to push against. The whole working depends on the weight arriving from inside their own head.
- Checking their profile during the cycle. This is how the cord grows back, and it is the reason a black candle goes out on the relight. Every look is a thread.
- Cutting the cord in the middle, or on their side. Then you keep the weight. The cut goes close to you, near the white candle, so the long end with everything on it stays with them.
- Casting regret and reconciliation in the same week. They pull in opposite directions and you get neither. If part of you wants them back, read should I get back with my ex before you light anything.
- Writing a page. Everything they did, in order, with dates. Anger does this. The candle cannot carry a page, and a muddy petition makes a muddy burn.
If you want them back, this is not it
Regret work and reconciliation work pull in opposite directions, and the one you choose depends on which outcome you could live with. If what you want underneath the anger is the relationship back, this is the wrong candle, and no amount of carving changes that.
| When what you want is | The right working |
|---|---|
| For them to feel the size of it, and your attention back | This one |
| For them to come back and for the door to reopen | Reconciliation spell, and read how to get your ex back first |
| To stop thinking about them, with no mirror at all | Cord cutting |
| To send back something you believe was sent at you | Return to sender |
| For the person they left you for to be out of the picture | Third party removal |
| To know whether they think of you at all before you spend a night on it | A brutally honest reading |
The same working fits a friend, a sibling or a business partner. The candles do not change. Only the line on their slip does, and it names what they did rather than what they were to you.
When I cast it for you
At my altar it is the working above, set the night your order comes in. Your white candle carved first, my hands rinsed in salt water, then the black one with their name and the deed. The mirror angled and checked twice. Both lit in order, the cord cut close to your side when the white candle is halfway, the salt pressed into your end, both candles watched to the finish. Ordered before 6 pm ET, it is on the altar the same night.
What comes back is a photograph of both candles after the burn, with the cut cord between them, and a written report: which candle finished first, where the soot sat, what the white flame did at the moment of the cut, what I read in all of it, what to do this week and what is not a sign. The report I wrote last week said rest before it said anything about the other person, because that is what the white candle asked for. If the black candle says they are already carrying it, I tell you that too. Write back with your questions and I answer.
- Single Candle if it is recent and you mostly want the cord cut on your side.
- Double Casting if they are still in your feed, your circle or your head. The first candle cuts, the second turns the mirror.
You send first names, yours and theirs. Nothing more is needed, no birth date and no chart, and the story only if you want it heard. If what you are really after is harm, I will refund you and we can part politely. Otherwise, re-cast or refund within thirty days if what comes back is not what I described here.
Choose your regret casting, or read the full listing first.
Paying someone else to do it? Read how to tell a real spell caster from a scam and what spell casting costs first, then compare it with the work I do by hand.
