Protection Magick

Today is Thursday, October 14. The moon is waxing gibbous and will be full in Aries, moving into Taurus next Wednesday, the 20th. So there’s a week from yesterday to get those intentions in order. I hope everyone is well and enjoying Autumn weather, unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, in which case, I hope you’re enjoying the spring weather. 

I mentioned this last week, but next month on Thanksgiving Thursday, I’ll be doing a question and answer episode where I read listener questions and answer them to the best of my ability. I have reached out to listeners who have submitted questions in the past to get permission to read them on that episode with the understanding that I will change names and details to protect privacy and I have heard back from almost everyone. So thank you for that. 

 

If you would like to submit a question specifically for that episode, please message me on my podcast platform Anchor, on Instagram @middleagedwitch, on Facebook again @middleagedwitch, or just send me a good old fashioned email at eli@middleagedwitch.com. I always respond directly to every message I receive, so if you have a question that you do NOT want me to share on an episode. Please send it in anyway and just mention that it’s a private question and I will happily respond privately. I’ll include my contact info in the show notes as well.

 

This week, I wanted to talk about protection magic, for a few reasons. First, coming off last week’s episode about hauntings (specifically my family’s personal haunting, because I really managed to make it all about me), it seems practical to go over ways to protect oneself from unwanted spirit activity. And secondly, because next week we are going to talk about baneful magic, curses, hexes, jinxes, etc. And you really don’t want to engage in that sort of magic without also protecting yourself. 

 

But mostly, protection magic is just a really important skill to practice and try to master, almost before any other kind of magic. You just need to be able to create a bubble around yourself, your loved ones, your home, your vehicle, your workspace, and your altar. We have to keep that nasty, funky, ugly energy off of us as much as we can. Now we can’t protect ourselves from everything, but it’s so important to practice good spiritual hygiene. Brushing your teeth twice a  day may not prevent every single tiny little cavity, but Jesus, imagine the state of your teeth if you never brushed them.

 

So with that in mind, we are going to tackle different kinds of protection magic and how, exactly, to use them. If you’re not familiar at all with this podcast, generally I don’t give specific step-by-step instructions because I think it’s more important for witches to hear the basics, and then experiment to make their magic more personalized. But with protection magic, I’m going to get into detail because I’d rather offer a firm foundation to start with, and then as your confidence and experience grow, you can start branching out and creating your own personal wards and charms.

 

First and foremost, before you ward yourself or your space, you need to cleanse it. Wards won’t kick things out; they’ll just prevent new things from getting in. So you’ll need to do a cleansing first, and then throw your wards to keep any new buggers from getting in. Cleansing can be done in a variety of ways for a variety of needs. Smoke cleansing is probably the way we’re most familiar with, and this just entails opening your windows and doors, lighting herbs or incense and wafting the smoke throughout your space, usually beginning from the back of the home and moving toward the front, while stating your intent firmly and clearly. You’ll want to waft your smoke up into the corners and in the closets. You don’t want to leave anywhere for the nasties to hide.

 

If smoke isn’t allowed or isn’t advised for any reason, you can also make a cleansing spray. First, make some moon water, which is as simple as filling a glass or a jar with some filtered water. In addition to your water, place some cleansing and purifying herbs in the jar as well. Herbs such as rosemary, basil, cedar, juniper, sage, thyme, and lavender work well. If you have other herbs that you’d like to add, especially if you feel prompted by Spirit or your own intuition, by all means add those as well.

 

You can add some cleansing stones to your water as well, as long as they’re water safe. Some of my favorites for this work are clear quartz, amethyst, agate, tiger’s eye and black obsidian. Again, if there are other stones you feel called to use, don’t let me stop you HOWEVER, please do a Google search and make sure that they’re safe to use in water. I also recommend adding some salt to this water as well. Not a lot, just a pinch. It’s so cleansing, and it can really kick up the power a notch.

 

That’s all there is to it; place your water outside or on a windowsill overnight in full view of the moon and it’ll be ready to use in the morning. Now, some witches will suggest doing this on the full moon so that you get the full power of the moon in your water. Others will suggest waiting for the new moon since you’re using the water for banishing. I say, either method is fine, just pick your favorite. Strain out your herbs and put the water into a spray bottle. You can leave the stones in there if you like, since they won’t get sucked up into the little spray mechanism. Then you’ll just proceed throughout your home as you would if you were using smoke; open the windows and just spritz the shit out of all the negative or oppressive freeloaders in your space.

 

If you can’t do this to your entire home for whatever reason, maybe you have roommates that don’t approve or maybe you’re still living with your parents, you can certainly do it to your own bedroom at least. What’s really great about the water method is that it’s so versatile, and it’s discreet. 

 

If you’re not so worried about roommates or parents, but you’re still not down with smoke or water, you can also just use your own energy to get rid of unwanted entities. By that I mean, raise a bunch of energy in your space and literally shout those bastards out of your house. Because as we constantly hear, the tools aren’t where the magic comes from; the magic comes from the witch. So turn on some music that raises your personal vibrations, turn it on good and loud. Start dancing. And I mean, really move your body. This isn’t going on youtube, so don’t worry about how it looks. Don’t even think about how you look. Just start calling in energy, get those muscles warm, when you’re really in the zone and you feel like you’re at the peak of that energy bubble, grab a bell or a drum or even just like a pot and a wooden spoon and just start banging the hell out of it. Make a ton of racket and start commanding those unwanted entities to LEAVE your space. 

 

Once you’ve cleansed the space, place sigils on your doors and windows. This can be any sigil you’ve made, it can be a preexisting, well-known symbol, like a pentacle or even a cross, if that resonates with you. To place the sigils, you can use the same moon water you already made, if that’s the method you used, you can use Florida water, holy water, if you happen to have some. I actually posted a recipe for Florida water on Instagram and Facebook in like mid-September, so look that up if you’re interested. It’s easy as hell to make. Anyway, dab some of the liquid of your choice on your fingertip and draw your sigils while repeating your protective mantra, whatever it may be. You can also use chalk, or you can just light incense and trace your sigil in the air a few inches from the windows or doors. 

 

So. Now your space is cleansed, your doors and windows have been sigilized, next we have to lock the building or room or space down tight and make sure none of those little beasties come back. For this, we are going to make and set wards. You can turn anything into a ward. Some of the wards around our home, just to give you an idea, are some metal wind chimes in the backyard, a set of witch bells at the front door, hag stones on several windowsills, crystals on several other windowsills, a spell jar that’s buried near the front walkway, a large metal coin that I keep in my car, a jar of black salt in my office at work, and some iron railroad spikes buried at the four corners of our property. And that’s not even all of them. A ward can be made of almost anything. It’s purpose is just to house the protective energy that you put into it and to release that energy over a period of time to protect your space.

 

So to make some object into a ward, first, choose your object. It can be a cool stone you find, it can be a handful of acorns from your morning walk through the park, it can be something you’ve bought, like a wind chime. I find that some objects are better at housing energy than others; natural materials seem to hold energy longer and work a bit better, but your experience may vary. Especially if the object you’ve chosen has special sentimental value, like maybe it’s a teddy bear that your dearly departed grandmother gave to you. This is where you as the witch need to make the judgment call for yourself.

 

So, cleanse your ward the same way you cleansed your space. Smoke, water, whatever you choose. Then, jam as much protective energy that you can create into the object. For this, you’re going to draw the energy into yourself first. So at your altar or other private space, light a candle and set your object in front of it. Close your eyes, if it helps, and envision this energy being pulled into your body through the palms of your hands, moving through your arms, into your torso. A blinding, white-hot ball of energy inside your chest, building and getting bigger and stronger and hotter. Then just blast that energy back out through your palms into the object.

 

You’re going to make as many wards as you think you’ll need, and then place them where you want them. You’ll want them near the points of entry to your home or space, on your front and back porch might be a good choice. In or near your office or vehicle, your locker, in your purse or wallet too, so that you carry that protection with you. And check in with your wards periodically, because they will need to be charged. And if you have a ward that gets to the point that you feel like it’s just done all that it can for you, thank it for its protection, and retire it. If it’s something natural, you can return it to nature. If it’s something that doesn’t work as a ward anymore but still holds sentimental value, then just keep it. 

 

That should be sufficient to keep out most mundane forms of unwanted energy or entities. You can repeat this process as needed to keep yourself and your spaces cleared, and rest easy. There are a lot of books that contain sections on protective magic, and they’re good all-around witchcraft books, but probably my favorite is called By Rust of Nail and Prick of Thorn by Althaea Sebastiani. It’s not a long book at all, but it is ONLY about protection magic, and it’s one of my personal favorites on the topic. It explains the theory a lot more thoroughly than some other books, and it goes through so many different kinds of protective workings. Particularly if you’re concerned about anything that we would typically call ‘demonic’ or if you feel that you’ve personally been hexed, it’s worth it to have that little book to consult.

 

As a witch, even if you never do anything bad in your whole life and are a total lightworker and you never do baneful magick and you’re the world’s best healer, the very FACT of your magic is going to attract all kinds of attention from the spirit world. And not all of that attention is going to be welcome. The same light that attracts guardian angels will attract negative entities too. So it’s best to be prepared, and I hope you feel prepared. 

 

Even if your home currently feels totally clear, just do a cleansing to practice it. It can’t hurt to have the experience under your belt so that in the event, goddess forbid, you ever DO feel attacked or compromised, you will have the confidence to clean your own house and set those magical boundaries so that it is less likely to happen again.

 

Join me next week when we talk a bit about Halloween and get into the deep, muddy waters of baneful work, like hexes, jinxes and curses. Until then, my name is Eli, and you’ve been listening to the Middle-Aged Witch podcast.