Paying the Place Spirits
Once all is done and the supplies are cleaned up, I find it helpful and respectful to make a final payment to the place spirits before leaving. This is entirely optional, but it is something I have worked into my own practice over much trial and error. To do so, stand at the heart of the place where your work was performed and make a final payment as a gesture of thanks. Press a final offering into the earth, a crack in stone, the hollow of a tree, or the dark mouth of water. Remember to ensure that all offerings or items left behind are suitable and safe for the wildlife and ecosystem there. Consider offerings of honey, water, berries, biodegradable effigies, seeds, etc. As you do, say:
Spirits who watched, spirits who heard,
Spirits who stirred at whispered word,
By root and rock, by leaf and flame,
I leave this gift in honored name.
Not for debt and not for due,
But for the paths Iβve walked with you.
Gift for shadow, gift for kin,
A witchβs toll for where Iβve been.
Take this token, fair and free,
And let no ill remain with me.
No chain to pull, no thread to bind.
What was given, now is thine.