WTF Magic: Cord Cutting

Welcome back to the WTF Magic Series, where we take the witchy things people hear about online, side-eye in group chats, save to their camera roll, and then wonder, wait, what does this actually mean?

Today, we’re talking about cord cutting.

And before we go any further, let’s clear something up right away. Cord cutting is not only for exes and shitty people who fucked around with your emotions.

Yes, it can be used after a breakup. Yes, it can be deeply helpful when you’re trying to release emotional attachment to someone who still has a weird little folding chair set up in the back of your mind. Cord cutting can absolutely support you when you’re done letting a person, memory, pattern, or situation tug at your energy like a cursed marionette string. But cord cutting isn’t just dramatic candle wax breakup theater.

Cord cutting is the magical practice of releasing an energetic attachment that no longer serves you. We are magically cutting that energy out of your life (that’s right, fuck off for good, Brad!).

That attachment you are severing might be connected to a person. It might be connected to an old version of yourself. It might be connected to guilt, shame, fear, people-pleasing, comparison, a job, a habit, a place, a belief, a season, or a story you’ve been carrying for so long that it started pretending to be part of your personality.

Cord cutting is not about pretending something never mattered. It’s most definitely not being delusional in saying, ‘you don’t matter!’ and then buring it beneath your ability to overcome the emotional turmoil. We are not about erasing your past or punishing yourself for caring.

Cord cutting, in a simple sense, is about choosing what no longer gets access to you. You are putting up a boundary of sorts, and you are saying, ‘I’m done allowing you to have access to me.’

In magical language, a cord is an energetic connection. That sounds mystical, but it is also very human.

Think about the people, places, stories, worries, and patterns that still pull on you. The person you haven’t spoken to in years, but somehow one memory can still hijack your whole afternoon. The old shame story that shows up every time you try to be visible. The obligation that makes your stomach tighten before you even say yes. The comparison spiral that yanks you away from your own path. The version of you who learned survival by staying small, pleasing everyone, and never needing too much.

That pull is the cord.

Try not to think of a cord as something evil to snatch out of your life. It’s not negative energy someone is sending you through a candlelit ritual they are performing in their basement. Sometimes, and honestly, more often, a cord is formed through love, habit, fear, repitition, grief, intimacy, trauma, responsibility, shared history, or the very ordinary human experience of caring about things.

Some cords are healthy and we are not out here cutting every connection like an emotionally unavailable goblin with scissors. Connection is sacred. Love is sacred. Community is sacred. Care is sacred. We are meant to be connected so keep in mind that you don’t need to cut every single cord when things feel a bit funky.

Cord cutting is not about becoming isolated or untouchable. It is about releasing the connections that drain you, distort you, pull you backward, or keep demanding energy long after the relationship, pattern, or season has ended.

Cord cutting is useful when something keeps pulling on your energy even though you know it is time to release it.

It can help when you keep replaying an old conversation over and over again without being able to find the pause button. Or when you feel emotionally attached to someone who is no longer good for you like an ex, a past friendship, a family memeber. Sometimes we continue to carry the guilt that belongs to an older version of your life. We allow those old stories to decide what you are allowed to want now.

Cutting a cord can support you when you are ending a pattern.

A cord can be attached to anything that keeps saying, come back here, when your spirit is trying to move forward.

Cord cutting is not a substitute for safety, boundaries, communication, therapy, legal support, medical care, or actual real-world action.

We do practical magic here, babes. We also go to therapy, we communicate, and we practice self love and self care.

If someone is harming you, harassing you, threatening you, stalking you, manipulating you, or making you feel unsafe, cord cutting can be part of your spiritual support, but it should not be the whole plan. You still deserve tangible help, protection, documentation, community support, and real-world boundaries.

Cord cutting also does not mean you have failed if you still think about the person or pattern afterward. This is a very important part to understand.

A lot of people think a cord cutting “didn’t work” because they still feel something the next day. But cord cutting is not emotional amnesia. You’re a person, not a hard drive with a delete button (as cool as it would be at times to truly have an option like in Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind).

Feelings may still come up. Memories may still appear. Grief may still move through you without your permission. The pattern may still try to tug at you. That does not mean the ritual failed. Know that with any new routine or rhythm you need to practice the movements. The cord cutting is your mental focus and intention to making that change and cutting ties to that energy. Your follow through means your body and spirit will then need to learn how to stop answering the pull.

Sometimes the cord is cut in one ritual. Sometimes it has to be cut in layers.

Sometimes you cut the cord, and then you have to stop retying it every time you check their page, reread the message, rehearse the argument, say yes when you mean no, or feed the old story again.

Yes, I am saying this with love and a little candlelit eyebrow raise. After a cord cutting, the next steps are up to you. Do you lean back into it, or step forward and away?

Here is another part I think matters a lot: not every cord needs to be cut.

I know. Very rude of me to bring nuance into the room when we already had the sharpest of scissors out. But this note is important.

Sometimes the thing pulling on your energy doesn’t need to be severed from your mind and spirit. Sometimes it needs to be understood, shifted, transformed, composted, softened, redirected, or given a new shape.

That is where transmutation can be a better option.

Cord cutting says: this attachment no longer gets access to me.

Transmutation says: this energy is real, and I’m going to change what it becomes.

Those are different spells.

If you are dealing with an ex, an old friendship, a toxic pattern, a guilt spiral, a version of yourself you’re truly ready to release, or a connection that keeps draining you, cord cutting may be exactly the right medicine.

But if the energy is something you still need to work with, cord cutting might not be the best tool.

For example, maybe your anger doesn’t need to be cut away. Maybe it needs to become action. Maybe your grief doesn’t need to be severed. Maybe it needs to become devotion, memory, tenderness, or a ritual of care. Maybe your fear doesn’t need to be banished. Maybe it needs to become preparation. Maybe your resentment doesn’t need to be ignored or sliced off like rotten fruit. Maybe it needs to become a boundary.

Sometimes the cord is not the problem but rather the shape of the energy. This is where transmutation really become powerful and becomes a more useful and helpful tool in your spiritual tookbox than cord cutting. .

This is also why I don’t love using cord cutting as the only answer for every hard feeling. We aren’t trying to become emotionally unavailable little hedge goblins with ceremonial scissors. We’re trying to build discernment.

Ask yourself:

Do I need to release this connection, or do I need to change my relationship to this energy?

Is this attachment draining me, or is this feeling asking to become something useful?

Am I trying to cut this because it is complete, or because I don’t want to feel it?

That last question can be a little spicy. Proceed with snacks, dranks, and handfuls of delicious chocolate.

Cord cutting can be powerful, but it is not always the first or best step. Sometimes the real magic is not cutting the cord. Maybe instead, the real magic is taking the energy that has been burning, aching, or looping inside you and giving it somewhere better to go.

If that feels closer to what you need, I wrote a full WTF Magic post on transmutation and how to work with energy that needs to change form instead of disappear. You can read that here:

WTF Magic: Transmutation

·

Jul 7

Welcome back to the WTF Magic Series, where we take the witchy things that sound dramatic, confusing, or like they require a candlelit cave and make them practical, usable, and actually relevant to real life.

Cord cutting and boundaries are related, but they are also not exactly the same.

A boundary says, this is the access you have to me now.

Cord cutting says, this attachment no longer gets to pull my energy.

You may need both.

For example, if someone is still in your life, you may not be cutting them out completely (for example maybe there is a family memember or an in-law that is driving you nutes. You can’t cut them out persay, but maybe instead you need a boundary). In that case, cord cutting is less about “you are banished forever into the fog” and more about releasing the unhealthy energetic attachment, guilt, resentment, fear, or emotional over-responsibility tied to them.

You can still have a boundary with someone you see often and you can still cut the cord to the part of the dynamic that drains you.

That is subtle magic, but it is powerful. The goal is not always total removal. Sometimes the goal is disentanglement from energy that drags you under.

Banishing removes energy, influence, or presence from a space, situation, or pattern.

Cord cutting releases attachment.

If warding is locking the door, and banishing is telling the unwanted energy to get out, cord cutting is removing the emotional string that keeps dragging you back to the door to check if it is still standing there.

Very technical. Very scholarly. Very gotchic velvet wearing witch talk here.

Cord cutting is especially helpful when you notice that the thing is not physically present anymore, but it still has energetic access to you. Like it keeps swirling around you mind like a song lyric you can’t seem to stop repeating.

The relationship ended, but the guilt remains. The job is over, but the anxiety remains. The argument is done, but the replay loop remains.

Cord cutting says: we are done feeding that connection.

Cord cutting can be useful when you feel ready to release, or at least ready to stop being ruled by the attachment.

You do not have to be completely healed first. If we all waited until we were fully healed to do magic, we would be sitting around for 900 years with excellent journals and no spells.

But you do want to be honest. Are you ready to release the attachment, or are you still trying to use magic to make someone miss you, apologize, come back, suffer, understand, or finally become the person you needed them to be? No judgment. That is human but it’s not cord cutting. Cord cutting is not control magic. This isn’t black magic hexing or vengeful rage coming out.

Cord cutting works best when your intention is clear:

I am ready to call my energy back.
I am ready to stop feeding this attachment.
I am ready to release the pull.
I am ready to belong to myself again.

That is the heart of cord cutting.

The classic cord cutting image is two candles with a string between them, burning until the string breaks. That is dramatic, cinematic, and, depending on your setup, possibly a tiny fire hazard gremlin in a velvet hat so let’s practice safe candle burning, babes!

You do not have to burn a cord to cut it. It might not be as dramatic, but you can absolutely use string and scissors. You can use paper and tear it or you can use water and wash your hands. You can also just mimick that movement of cutting an invisible string.

As always, the tool matter way less than the intention and the follow-through of the rituals purpose. After the ritual, you are deciding to live differently. That is where the spell becomes real.

Tomorrow afternoon at 2pm PST, I’ll be doing a little Lion’s Gate portal cord-cutting ritual. We are going to be cutting the energy that has been pulling us back into old habits, the retrograde residue, the mental spirals, and emotional static.

This Saturday, Aug 8th at 2pm PST // 5pm EST we’ll be doing the 🦁8️⃣8️⃣🦁LIONSGATE PORTAL🦁8️⃣8️⃣🦁 Ritual LIVE on both Substack and Tiktok.

The Substack link will be through my account here, and the TIKTOK link will be through Kristina // Fire&Alchemy account. Here’s the details of what will be needed for this Cord Cutting Threshold ritual:

✨2 candles: chime candles or tealights are perfect

One candle represents the chaos / the retrograde residue / the tether

One candle represents you / your power / your restored energy

✨2 candle holders, or heat-safe jars/bowls with salt or sand to secure them

✨A pinch of salt

✨String, thread, or yarn, about 12 inches

✨Matches or lighter Fire-safe dish or bowl

✨A bowl of water or favorite drink

✨Something crown-like: a crown, headband, scarf, jewelry, or just your hands

✨Optional: pen and paper

Strongly recommended: water nearby, fire extinguisher nearby, and not a single curtain flirting with your flame!

LIONSGATE PORTAL LIVE STREAM LINK

If you want something incredibly simple for cord cutting, use water.

This is perfect for attachments that feel sticky, emotional, or hard to name.

Step into the shower and imagine the water moving over every place the attachment has been clinging to you.

Say:

“What is mine stays.
What is not mine washes away.
Every cord that drains me loosens.
Every pull that weakens me releases.”

Place your hand over your heart and say:

“My energy returns to me.”

As the water runs down the drain, say:

“This connection no longer feeds from me.”

When you step out, put on clean clothes or an item that feels like yours. A robe, a sweater, jewelry, perfume, oil, whatever helps you feel back inside your own energy. Glamor magic is perfect to use here to replenish the light and joy in your spirit.

This ritual is simple, but it can be deeply powerful if you put your focus and intention into it. Water knows how to release.

After a cord cutting, you may feel relief, grief, clarity, emptiness, anger, calm, or absolutely nothing dramatic at all. All of that is normal.

Sometimes the shift is immediate and you feel it intensely like dropping a huge weight of your shoulders. Sometimes it’s quiet and you barely feel it. I can say from experience, the biggest magic is not always a lightning bolt, but the next time the attachment tugs, you’ll realize you don’t have to answer.

Afterward, be gentle with yourself. A little self care and relaxation will go a long way to put your mind, body, and nervous system at ease.

And then protect the release. Don’t immediately reattach the cord by feeding the same pattern you just snipped away. If you cut the cord to comparison, don’t spend the next hour stalking the person who makes you feel behind. If you cut the cord to an ex, don’t check their page “just to see.”

Again, I say this with all the love, don’t give into the energy you just said goodbye to. We are all chaos creatures with thumbs and Wi-Fi but protect the release. That is also part of the spell.

Cord cutting is not about becoming cold to the past or cold in your emotions. We aren’t here to deny love, grief, history, or complexity. We also aren’t going to pretend something didn’t matter. Something can be remember, can matter, and still be complete and set down.

A person can have shaped you and still no longer get access to your peace. A pattern can have protected you once and still be released now because it no longer serves you in your current life. That is the heart of cord cutting. Not destruction but return.

You are saying: This no longer gets all of me.

So if something has been pulling on your spirit, let this be your invitation to pause and ask:

What cord is ready to be cut?
What part of my energy is ready to come home?
What no longer gets access to me?

Then light the candle. Hold the string. Take the breath. Cut the cord.

And say:

I honor what was.
I release what is complete.
My energy returns to me.

WTF Magic: Warding

·

Jun 29

Welcome back to the WTF Magic Series, where we take the witchy things that sound mysterious, intimidating, or slightly like something whispered in a candlelit basement, and make them practical, understandable, and usable in real life.