Road opening spells are one of those cornerstone pieces of magic that every witch should be using on a regular basis. Unfortunately, this is one type of magic that is not taught to many beginners when they are starting out in the craft. It’s a very common form of magic, especially in more conjure and rootwork-based practices, but in the world of modern witchcraft, it’s often left out of the conversation. There’s much more of a focus on the spiritual and religious aspects of the craft, along with spells for accomplishing specific goals.
Road opening is a kind of general spell that helps to enhance all of the other work you do, both in your craft and your mundane life. If you are not using road opening spells, it’s time for you to start! Let’s take a look at what road opening spells are, why you should use them, and how you can get started with this incredible form of magic today.
What Is Road Opening?
Road opening is a form of magic that is used to clear obstacles, to open pathways to new opportunities, attracting the things that you want into your life, to enhance general good luck and synchronicity in your life, and to remove stagnant energy or anything that is blocking you from accomplishing your goals. This is why road opening magick is so useful. Even casting a general road opening spell will help make all of your other magic more effective, as well as making all of the actions that you take in your mundane life towards your goals more effective. It helps to align the external world to your goals and remove anything that is opposing what you are trying to accomplish.
Road opening is generally considered the more gentle version of this kind of magic. It is removing blocks and helping to clear the way for you in a generally non-disruptive fashion. If you are up against major sticking points, if you have huge hurdles between you and what you want, or if you want to use a much more aggressive form of block removal, you would need something like a blockbuster spell. My recommendation is to always start with road opening, and if, after a few weeks, you are not starting to see shifts, then consider moving onto a blockbuster if your life can tolerate the additional chaos that a blockbuster will bring. We are going to assume that you are starting here with the road opening spell and save blockbusting for another time.
Now, road opening spells on their own don’t necessarily attract anything, create anything, or draw anything to you. They are designed to remove obstacles, so while they can get you to your end goal without additional supporting spell work, I always recommend layering your spell work together.
Let’s say you are trying to get a new job. A road opening spell is an incredible addition to a job campaign, but you would also want to cast more specific job spells, maybe glamour magic to make yourself a more appealing candidate in interviews, money spells, as well as, of course, taking mundane action to position yourself as best as possible to receive the job that you want. Road opening, in this example, simply removes any obstacles that might otherwise prevent your mundane and magical efforts from working. This can speed up your getting the results that you want, and it can also make the difference between your magical campaign working really well or not working at all if you’re facing serious obstacles.
If you are wondering if you should be using a road-opening spell for your particular goals, the answer is yes, you should!
The reality is that this kind of spell serves as a kind of supportive scaffolding for all of the other magic that you do. There is rarely any kind of drawback to adding road-opening to whatever magic you are doing. My recommendation is to use a road-opening spell, even just a general road-opening spell with no specific end goal, to open your paths to opportunities, to luck, and to remove blocks and obstacles in your life at least once a month. If you really want to see a substantial transformation in your life, use this spell every week.
The best time to do a road-opening ritual is on a Wednesday during an hour of Mercury because the planet Mercury rules over roads and this kind of magic, but you are welcome to use any variety of magical timing that you like. If you prefer to work with the moon phases, this spell can be done during both the waxing moon and the waning moon since it serves to clear away obstacles and create a greater capacity for attracting what you want into your life.
Now, the road-opening spell that I’m going to teach you below calls on Hermes, because Hermes is a deity that I personally work with quite a bit. However, if you do not want to work with Hermes, you are welcome to use this exact same spell, but substitute the prayers for a road-opening spirit that you are more aligned with. You could work with the planet Mercury if you like planetary magic or if you’re not a particularly religious witch. You could work with Hecate, since she is associated with crossroads. You could work with High John the Conqueror, or with local crossroads spirits; there are many, many spirits and deities that you could reach out to for this kind of magic. Feel free to adjust the spirits that you work with to suit you and your practice.
I’m going to be teaching you a road opening spell using candle magic, but this is certainly not the only kind of road opening spell out there. You can also perform road opening magic with lamp magic, with a road opening bath, or a road opening floor wash. You can make a road opener oil or a road opening powder to be deployed around your home, your workplace, dusted on resumes, or anywhere else you might want to open your roads. There are many, many different ways that this kind of magic can be applied to your life and to your magical campaigns. So, take this as a starting point, but feel free to expand your practice outside of that and find the formats and methods of working that suit your practice and your life the best.
The Road Opening Spell
You Will Need:
- 5 tealights or chime candles with holders – keep the burn time of your candles in mind, we will be burning them completely!
- road opening oil
- 4 keys
- a slip of paper and a pen
- incense
- matches or a lighter
The first thing you want to do is write your petition. I want you to think about what it is that you want to open your roads to. Is this a general road opener? Is there a specific obstacle you need removed? Are you opening your roads to success, money, love, new friends, travel? What are you trying to call into your life right now? Is there an area of your life where you need to clear out a run of bad luck? Take your paper and pen and write down your petition. You don’t need to worry about the phrasing and getting it just right; it can be something simple, “I open my roads to…” and then whatever it is that you’re trying to draw into your life.
Place your petition on the altar or table in front of you.
Next, we’re going to enchant a candle to represent you. This candle goes right in the center on top of your petition. Oil your candle, drawing the oil from the base to the wick towards you. Place this candle in a candle holder on top of your petition.
Arrange the keys in a cross pattern like a plus sign, with this central candle right in the middle. So one key above, one below, and one each to the right and the left of the center candle. Make sure that the teeth of the keys are facing outward, away from the center candle, with the handle of each key closest to the center candle. We are opening our roads. If you were closing your roads to something, you would reverse the keys, but for this spell, we are going to have them open, facing outward.
Next, we want to repeat this process of dressing the remaining 4 candles one by one and place them at the ends of each of your keys. Dress them in the exact same way as the center candle and place them in their holders in that cross pattern, with one at the end of each key.
Light each of your candles, starting with the center candle and then working your way around the outside in a clockwise fashion. Light your incense as well.
And now we are going to call on Hermes using the Orphic Hymn to Mercury. Again, if there’s another spirit you would prefer to call on, you can replace this with a prayer of your choice.
The Orphic Hymn To Mercury
Hermes, draw near, and to my pray’r incline,
Angel of Jove, and Maia’s son divine;
Prefect of contest, ruler of mankind,
With heart almighty, and a prudent mind.
Celestial messenger of various skill,
Whose pow’rful arts could watchful Argus kill.
With winged feet ’tis thine thro’ air to course,
O friend of man, and prophet of discourse;
Great life-supporter, to rejoice is thine
In arts gymnastic, and in fraud divine.
With pow’r endu’d all language to explain,
Of care the loos’ner, and the source of gain.
Whose hand contains of blameless peace the rod,
Corucian, blessed, profitable God.
Of various speech, whose aid in works we find,
And in necessities to mortals kind.
Dire weapon of the tongue, which men revere,
Be present, Hermes, and thy suppliant hear;
Assist my works, conclude my life with peace,
Give graceful speech, and memory’s increase.
Now, allow these candles to burn themselves out. You’re welcome to take this time to speak to the spirits, meditate, journal, or whatever additional ritual work you would like to do. When your candles have burned out, close your ritual in your preferred way and thank the spirits.
Struggling with your magic?
Take the Quiz to Discover Your #1 Witchcraft Obstacle
Updated on September 10, 2025 by Avery Hart
