How to · 3 min · 17 October 2026
"So Mote It Be": Older Than Wicca
Many witches close a ritual with four words: "so mote it be". The phrase did not start in a coven. It comes from a poem written for English stonemasons around 1390, and it reached modern witchcraft through the Freemasons.
Many witches close a ritual with four words: "so mote it be". The phrase did not start in a coven. It comes from a poem written for English stonemasons around 1390, and it reached modern witchcraft through the Freemasons. Here is how a builders' amen became the last line of a candle ritual.
What it means
Mote is an old English word for "may" or "must". It comes from the Old English mōtan, and survives today only in this phrase. "So mote it be" means "so may it be", or simply: let it be so. It is an amen in older words.
The stonemasons' poem
In the British Library lies a small parchment manuscript, catalogued as Royal MS 17 A I and known as the Regius poem. It is usually dated to around 1390. In rhyming Middle English it sets out the rules of the masons' craft: how a master treats his apprentices, how a mason behaves at the table, how he keeps his word. The poem ends with a prayer and the lines:
Amen! amen! so mote hyt be!
Say we so alle per charyté.
For centuries it was filed in the royal library as a poem of moral duties, and no one saw what it was. In 1840 the scholar James Orchard Halliwell published it, and the Freemasons recognised it as the oldest document of their craft.
From the lodge to the altar
Freemasons still close their prayers with "so mote it be" instead of amen. In the 1940s and 1950s Gerald Gardner, who had moved in Masonic and occult circles, wrote the rituals that became Wicca, and the phrase came with him. From there it spread through the books of the 1970s and 1980s into almost every modern tradition of witchcraft. Today you will find it on candles, altar cloths, journals and the last line of countless spells.
So when you say it, you are not quoting a secret formula. You are using the same words a mason used six hundred years ago, at the end of a long day's work, to say: this is done.
How people use it today
The phrase marks the moment a ritual is finished. You have set your intention, lit the candle, written it down. Now you close. Some say it aloud, some write it at the bottom of the page, some only think it. Others prefer "and so it is" or "blessed be". There is no rule. What matters is that the ritual has an end.
A closing for your next ritual
- Finish the work. Write your last line, let the incense rest on its dish.
- Sit with the candle for a moment. Read back what you wrote.
- Ring a bell once, if you have one. One ring to begin, one to end.
- Close the journal and say: "so mote it be."
- Put the candle out with a snuffer, or let it burn down while you stay in the room.
Safety
- Never leave a burning candle alone.
- Put out candles with a snuffer rather than blowing, so the wax does not spatter.
Small Altar Bell · Flower of Life
Frequently asked questions
What does "so mote it be" mean?
"So may it be." *Mote* is an old English word for may or must.
Where does "so mote it be" come from?
From the Regius poem, a verse rulebook for English stonemasons written around 1390. The Freemasons kept it, and Wicca took it over in the 1950s.
Is "so mote it be" Wiccan?
It is used in Wicca, but it is much older. It came into witchcraft through Freemasonry.
Do I have to say it?
No. It is one way to close a ritual. "And so it is" or a moment of silence work just as well.
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