Three-Step Complete Banishing

Originally posted March 25, 2026, on Ko-Fi.

This is a modular banishing method that can be made more or less aggressive depending on the need. It can work to banish a person or unwanted spirits, but it can also be used to remove a curse or other baneful magics. This post assumes that the impacted party has already ruled out mundane causes for their issues and has concluded, confidently, that the culprit is a curse or spirit.

Note that this is what I consider a “standard” practice for these situations. Every curse and every haunting is unique, and no two will have the exact same solution. This is just a sort of baseline for where I start in getting rid of an unwanted presence or baneful influence.

Note also that the phrasing I’m using is specific to my practice and beliefs. You can and should adjust whatever you need to in order to make this work for you, if you’re going to use the method.

This is a three-step process: Cut, Push, and Ward.

Step One: Cut

The purpose of this first step is to sever connections between the presence/spell and the target. It’s useful to have a catalog of pain points and problems you’ve been having that are due to the unwanted presence or spell. These help to identify the spots where the presence or spell is connected to you. However, it’s not absolutely required to know exactly where you’re aiming; you can always take a blanket approach.

Depending on the source and target, you might want to do this a couple different ways.

For a curse or presence that’s directly tied to a particular person, I’d suggest an internal solution. Food makes a good spell vessel for this. A personal favorite is pickles, charmed for dissolving any hooks or knots connected to the target and consumed by the target themselves. Something like lemonade or tea would make a quick and effective option. A spicy or vinegar-forward meal might also suit the purpose. For especially severe situations, you may have to repeat this for a few days.

For something tied to a space, room, or home, I would make a bond-dissolving wash and use it anywhere the problem persists. This might look like washing doors and windows, spritzing with a spray bottle, wiping down tables, or flicking droplets with my fingers in any problem areas. Or, if you want to add whimsy to the moment, a powerful bubble bazooka works extremely well. Be thorough. Think of the spell or entity’s connection like mold: If you leave a little bit behind, it’ll just spread again, and you’ll have to do this all over.

For a presence or spell tied to something more nebulous, like a concept or spirit, or an area that’s much larger, a symbolic approach might be best. Take a length of string or twine and tie several loops into it. The number should reflect the source of the problems in some way. For example, if there are twenty rooms in a cursed building, you should tie twenty loops. Then, using a pair of scissors or a knife (carefully!), sever every single loop with much gravity. Burn the remains.

A more “standard” cord cutting with two candles and a length of twine would also work just fine. As long as it includes the concept of cutting away all connecting points between the target and source, it should work fine.

Step Two: Push

Now that you’ve severed the connections, you may sense that the entity or spell has backed off or lessened in severity. However, it may still be lingering. Given enough time and motivation, it might reattach itself. To prevent this, we must now push the source away. This is the banishing step. Be specific about what you’re pushing away, in order to prevent accidentally pushing out friendly spirits or fully scouring your space of all energy. Either create exceptions for or otherwise shield the spirits and energies you want to keep around.

For folks of the energy work persuasion, this could be as simple as creating a bubble of energy at your core and allowing it to expand to fill the space entirely. Give it a hard push. It should be strong enough to create a sort of reverb or shockwave that shoves away everything that doesn’t belong here.

I’m a fan of using the breath in the push step. Burn a blend of banishing herbs in a fire-safe dish and blow the smoke wherever needed to fill the space, expand outwards, and physically push out anything that doesn’t belong in the space.

If you’re dealing with a particularly strong or stubborn problem, you may have to choose something that’s a lot more aggressive. In this case, it’s even more important to warn your allies about your intentions; again, you don’t want your friends catching strays.

Step Three: Ward

Yes, even if you already have wards up. Either redo them completely, patch and fortify the existing ones, or create them if you don’t have any yet. Account specifically for the spell or entity that invaded in the first place. Even if you don’t think it’ll return or be recast, if it got through the first time, another of its kind could get through, too.

For a personal, portable ward, charm a piece of jewelry or a bandanna for protection in your preferred flavor. Then, wear it. It isn’t enough to just have it. Gotta wear it for it to work.

Warding a space could look like energy work to build solid walls around your work area or home. Sprinkle a bit of egg shell mixed with herbs of your choice at doors and windows to create a physical barrier. Employ or create spirits to patrol and bounce anybody and anything that doesn’t have a green light to enter.

I’m a big fan of the labyrinth-type ward. Essentially, you create a never-ending labyrinth around your chosen space, ideally with something patrolling inside minotaur-style to snap up interlopers. Anyone or anything that doesn’t know the way already will become hopelessly lost. Spells peter out within the labyrinth, wasting their energies without lasting effect.

Beware over-warding, but if you’re under active threat, I’m of the opinion that it’s better to be safe than sorry. Similarly, don’t be afraid of putting retaliatory measures in place. If someone or something tries to aggressively break your wards to harm you, you’re well within rights to bounce it back at them (three-fold, perhaps) or add a bit of bad luck. Become an unattractive target.

Bonus Step: Retaliate

In situations where the perpetrator of the curse/presence is particularly aggressive, it might be smart to cast a binding on them. Think The Craft — “I bind you from doing harm,” and so forth. The idea is to prevent them from performing a particular action. For spirits, binding them from entering your space or binding them to a specific location may do the trick.

If it’s a witch casting nasty spells at you, you could bind them from cursing or hexing. Be aware that the witch in question probably has wards of their own and may be able to tell something’s been done to them. It’s important to become the unattractive, difficult target before retaliating.

I am a notorious counter-curser. I won’t just send your curse back to you, I’ll be sending along a little extra something for the trouble. A streak of bad luck, perhaps. My personal favorite is to cause the “loss of means” to perform whatever bullshit they’re sending at me. Impotence, poor performance, a bout of illness, loss of spirit support… whatever’s easiest to target and remove. I won’t suggest that you do this, but… well, if someone’s earned it… you get the gist.

Final Thoughts:

Last year, I helped someone end a nasty haunting, which was the original inspiration for this post. I resurrected it a couple weeks ago after letting it languish in my drafts for months, because I had not one, not two, but three individuals ask me for help and advice — all within a few weeks of each other. All advice given followed this general protocol, all with extra steps according to the need.

Thus, I felt like it was time to bring this post out of the box and shake my dust off. I have a lot more to say on ending curses in particular and identifying curses (versus mundane problems). Generally, in my experience, the cut-push-ward is plenty for most situations. More extreme measures are abnormal.

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