The Novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots was inspired by a German baroque icon featuring the Blessed Virgin Mary, surrounded by the heavenly host and under a dove representing the Holy Spirit, undoing knots while crushing the head of the serpent under her heel.
 
The knot is a good representation of the results of sin in our spiritual life: As we engage habitually in sin, it becomes harder and harder to return to virtue, just as a knot that is pulled tighter and tighter becomes harder to untie. God's grace, however, offered to us through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, can undo any knot and conquer any sin.