To Write a Letter to the Beloved Dead

In this manner the letter must be written: first, the ink prepared from soot mixed with pale wine; next, the pen made, shaped from a quill never before cut; then, the paper arranged on a table between two black candles. At the top of the paper this inscription should be set:

See now, thou who are mourned, the nature of this mourning: as thou knowest even now my sorrow, so on this paper do I doubly affirm it. I write thee my heart here, for thy sight and mine only - that we may be bound by such silent words even better than when our words were spoken. Receive, then, this document as sign and token of my commitment: not to forget thee, nor to cease mourning for thee, until my own life shall be ended.

Write down then the essence of your grief, the substance of your devotion, and such aspects of memory as you would fix forever. When this has been accomplished, fold the paper thrice and seal it, along with sweet herbs, in a small box which should then be buried in the ground, or burned in a fire of fragrant wood. The letter shall thus be received.

Source; Crone's Book of Magical Words