Notes on Utilizing Spinning & Weaving in Old-Style Traditional Witchcraft

Fibrecraft and textile craft have always been a part of folklore and witchcraft. Many witches and witch-adjacent folkloric figures are portrayed in proximity to crafts such as needlework, spinning, and weaving. These crafts also appear as recurring themes in fairy tales and folk stories as magical actions or as impossible tasks. In contemporary magical practice, spinning and weaving can also be useful ways to expand on the familiar foundations of knot magic and to elongate knot-centered magical working for use in more complex ritual or magic that requires trance. They can give the practitioner more control over the form their magical action takes—and, by extension, more control over the end result—by going beyond tying, untying, and cutting into the full process of twisting, weaving, stitching, binding, and even picking apart.

Direction in Weaving & Spinning
One of the ways that using slower, more immersive fibrecraft methods in magical workings opens new dimensions for designing ritual around handicraft is that it allows us to be intentional about the direction in which we weave and spin. At its most basic, we might think of spinning as a magical act intended to exert one’s will and control over a situation, or of weaving as a means to build up and design our desired outcome. We can also imagine the use of “unweaving” (picking our fabric apart) as a way to break something (or someone) down, and “unspinning” (unwinding spun thread or picking apart its fibers) as an action that can be used to deconstruct something beyond recognition or repair.

Directionality can add another layer to this. Depending on one’s folklore and beliefs, the practitioner might consider the use of weaving from right to left to weave blessings, weave protection, or otherwise build something out of nothing. Weaving from left to right, on the other hand, might be used to weave resistance, opposition, and strife into the fabric of someone else’s life (especially when paired with the incorporation of hair or other taglocks from a target). Moving one’s spindle clockwise can have the same impact as we associate with sunwise movement in other types of magic, while creating thread from roving while moving the spindle anti-clockwise can have the same effects as working widdershins.

Where physical ability and non-dominant hand dexterity allow, this can also be applied to which hand one uses to weave, spin, and stitch. Traditionally, the “left hand” in magic is associated with sorcerous or malefic workings, reversals, and undoings, while the “right hand” would be the hand used for all other workings. However, there are also many people who approach this belief in terms of dominant vs. non-dominant hands.

Weaving for Building and Binding
Weaving is a useful magical action for workings in which something should be constructed and maintained over time. A woven piece creates a stable field where all the individual threads of a working are held firmly in place, the shape maintained by each element’s relationship to the rest.

For protective works, tightly woven structures with consistent tension are ideal. They can be used to create barriers and wards that resist intrusion. Incorporating protective symbols into the pattern, or even just repeating specific prayers or charms with each pass of the weft, reinforces and strengthens this. Once finished, the resulting fabric can be worn, hung, or wrapped around an object to guard it.

Weaving is also wonderful for relationship magic. Two or more threads (with each representing a person, influence, or condition) can be brought together into a fabric or design that binds them in the desired state of relationship. Their crossings, tensions, and placements can become a direct repetition of how the elements and targets involved in a spell or working are meant to interact.

Layering, Additions & Inclusion
One of the strengths of weaving as a magical action is how easily it allows for additions to an ongoing working. Threads can be doubled, replaced, or supplemented mid-work, which can be useful for practitioners who need a working to be responsive to shifting circumstances or in weavings intended to represent a desired timeline or progression of events. Taglocks can be spun directly into yarn or even passed through the shed on the shuttle to make full use of the contagion aspect of traditional magic. Herbs, hair, fibers from a target’s clothing, or even written petitions can also be tucked or enclosed between layers and threads. This allows for highly personalized workings.

Unweaving and Dismantling
The act of undoing in magic is just as important as the act of doing. Picking apart a woven piece (whether slowly picking out the weft with an iron nail or cutting through the warp in one fell swoop) can be used as a magical action to dismantle conditions, relationships, situations, or other influences. Where weaving binds things to the practitioner’s will and magic, unweaving returns them to separation and disorder.

This can be done by removing a few threads at a time while working toward the weakening of the target, or all at once for a more abrupt, more disastrous ending. Whichever method is chosen should reflect the desired outcome and the impact it should have on the target. Threads removed during this process can be disposed of in whatever way a practitioner normally dispatches the bits and pieces that are left over from a working, or in a way more specific to the working’s desired outcome.

Spinning and Charm Work
Because spinning is continuous and rhythmic, it is especially well-suited for trance and repetition-heavy charm work. A practitioner might dedicate an entire spinning session to a single intention, saying charms and prayers or singing songs that empower the thread and fiber in whatever way they need.