A while back I wrote an article on magical foundations and I touched on shields and wards but I didn’t go into them in depth, mainly because I could have sworn I had talked about them before. I went double-checking today and well I didn’t. So today we are going to be talking about protecting yourself.

First off I would like to start by stating that icky spirit things are not behind every bush ready to pounce on you and psychic and magical attacks don ’t happen every day. Compare putting up shields and wards to preparing your household against intruders. More then likely you will not have to deal with them but you still lock your door on the off chance one happens by.

Now everyone has at least some basic protections it’s a natural ability but we are going to be talking about how to make things stronger and better.

I’m going to start you off with the most basic shielding exercise I learned. This one does help if you can visualize at least a little bit.  Close your eyes and see a white light appear around you caressing your skin. It can appear around you as a beam of light from the heavens, a spotlight, a mist that swirls around you or shooting up from the ground. I don’t care how you make it appear just as long as you do it. This light is a little bit different from ordinary light because it bends severely (as opposed to the small amount ordinary light does in response to gravity.) See it follow every curve of your body, make sure you get the top of your head and the bottoms of your feet as well.

Know that this white light will let in all the good stuff you desire but it will also bounce the icky stuff away. You also want the settings to let things flow out from you. Now you might be asking why? See you could set the shields to keep everything out but then you are shutting out the good things in your life as well as the bad.  You could also lock everything in constantly but bottling up everything isn’t good or healthy and in the long run it would be detrimental to you as a witch. Keep in mind you can adjust settings with both wards and shields at any time. When you do shield set it up so that it also protects you in your sleep and if by chance you should fall unconscious. As with all skills, magical and otherwise, practice is needed.

Another method of shielding is feeling yourself wrap a protective blanket around you. Like when you were a little kid and you knew nothing bad could get to you if you were just all covered up with your favorite blanket. Well make yourself a magical blanket to wrap yourself up in only this one does protect you from everything that is meant to harm you.

For years the white light shield was the only method I used. When I learned it I was also taught to do it every day before you went out. This by the way is a sucky method. It doesn’t make them stand up if you fall asleep, faint or anything along those lines and if you get out of the habit of putting them up well, we won’t get into that cause it’s not pretty. I learned eventually put them up as if they were meant to stay up. I also learned to work with layers of shields. It is a good idea to get in the habit of reinforcing/reenergizing your shields daily but this is different then rebuilding them. Smooth out any rough edges, check for any weak spots and make sure they are working at their peak capacity.

Experience has taught me that different shields work better against different things and if you work magic long enough you will attract attention and not all of it is welcome.  Depending on the situation I will have three to seven layers.

The question is what should these layers be? This is where a good imagination comes into play. What you want is to think of something protective and see yourself covered top of head to bottom of feet in the material. Common things to shield with are the elements: air, fire, water, and earth. You also want to come up with not so common protective shielding visualizations. I have used whirling swords before as well as a very prickly rosebush. A friend has used porcupine quills. Just keep practicing until you are comfortable building your shields in your mind.

Now we will proceed to wards. Wards are permanent shields over fixed objects. These shields allow energies, which are meant to be there, free access in and out. At the same time, they keep unwanted and/or bothersome energies away.  When building wards, pay particular attention to the following areas: windows, doors, phone lines, electric lines, cable lines etc.

There are some that suggest that when you are building wards you focus the energy on an object such as a piece of tiger’s eye or a clear quartz crystal. (For information on how to build wards in this manner, please go to this site: Wards 101 by Jordsvin
http://members.aol.com/jordsvin/kindred/Wards101.htm.) Personally I don’t care for this method. Probably because I have kids and cats so objects like rocks do not stay where they are placed. Some people place then directly on the building, I have a different preference though. I prefer to have the house wards slightly outside the house, along the property line if you have one. That way I don’t have to worry so much about the doors and windows (although I still need to make sure the phone lines, etc are protected.)

Enough of this, I am going stop talking about what I don’t do and focus on what I do. I will note what parts are considered warding and what parts are considered blessings. How I power the wards I have and so on and so forth.

One thing I have had experience with is moving, enough so I am starting to think of myself as an expert. (In my oldest daughter’s lifetime, she has lived in 8 places. She will be 11 at the end of August.)

When my family moves into a place, one of the first things I do is give it a good cleaning on the physical and on the non-physical level. (I find this works best if you do this before you start moving your possessions into the place if at all possible.) For cleansing on a non-physical level, I usually mix up a special blend of herbs, (which has been different each time because I have remembered to write down exactly what I have done with incense exactly once. For your information this is not a good thing.) I grind the herbs with a mortar and pestle until they are in a semi-course state. (Some people say grind the dried herbs finely but I like the texture better when they are coarser. Feel free to decide your own personal preference.) I usually dump the herbs in a bowl at this point in time and add a few drops of different oils and I use my hands to mix the oils and herbs together. The herbs should not be too moist. (About the moisture amount you would find in soil that is perfect for planting seeds.) I burn this blend on charcoal, which is specially made to burn herbs.

One of the next things I do is mix together some water and sea salt. (Tap water will actually work fine although I have used rain, river and snow waters in the past.) If we are in a house, I circle (or as close to a circle as I can) the property line clockwise starting in the east and heading south, then west, up north and finally back east. I sprinkle the salt water as I circle and state: “I bless and consecrate these lands in the name of the Lady and the Lord.” (Yes I realize for all intents and purposes, the property is now holy ground but I have also found blessed space keeps the rare icky spirit thing away.) It is very much like casting a big circle. I see the circle form and see it both above and below the house. If we were in an apartment, I would be doing a similar thing on the inside of the house but would take special care to make sure to get the doors and windows.

There are tons of other protective measures you can do. Salt or sandalwood in corners, a broomstick across a doorway, a witch ball hanging in a window and a witch bottle buried under the house, are but a few examples. What is protective would be too extensive to include in one small article but fortunately there are plenty of books out there, which can be used as a reference point.

Now at any places things have to get in, (the phone lines etc.) I place little whirling swords, which will mince anything that isn’t supposed to be there to pulp. I tune the wards so they release the energy from inside and let anything that is supposed to be there in and out readily. Imagine it like a one way mirror, I can see out as needed and do what I need to do as needed, but from the outside all you get is a reflection back unless I want you to be there.

I have also found that like shields, wards are more effective if you have layers. I am not going to tell you exactly how many layers I have and what these layers consist of but as with shielding, you want to be creative. In the linked article, the writer suggests invisibility, which I do like although I prefer to call them “don’t notice me” type protections.

Since I moved to this area, I have found that I like to tie wards to leylines for power. This is a personal preference and one I would not suggest doing unless you wish to be responsible for a larger area then your property. You need the larger area so that someone doesn’t mess with your leylines. In return for using this power, you will find the need to protect and heal your lands. Any leyline(s) you use should be one(s), which are not easily moved.

Although they are not warding or shielding, protective spirits (or guardian spirits), either created or attracted, can be very handy. If you do deal with protective spirits you want to remember, created ones need to be fed energy on a regular basis. Attracted ones like “thank-you” gifts once in a while. You also need to pay attention to these spirits (both created and
attracted) or they will fade or go away. It is well documented what fae spirits like as thank you gifts. For others, I would go with your gut instinct.

As I stated at the beginning of this article, I did not write this because attacks are common but building wards, shields and having protections around you is just plain smart. It is better to be needlessly prepared then caught unaware.  I would like to finish up this article by explaining how to make one version of a witch bottle.

Items needed:
1 small bottle or jar with lid
pins, nails broken glass (a broken mirror would be excellent) and all manner of sharp objects urine (yours)

Open the jar and fill it with the sharp things. Be careful not to cut yourself. Fill the bottle almost to the top with the urine. Close it tightly and charge it (focusing your energy into it with a specific intent) with protecting the area you are warding. Bury it under the house or in the area you wish protected.

And that is it. Pretty simple actually but also effective.

By Sheila K. Watkins

A while back I wrote an article on magical foundations and I touched on shields and wards but I didn’t go into them in depth, mainly because I could have sworn I had talked about them before. I went double-checking today and well I didn’t. So today we are going to be talking about protecting yourself.

First off I would like to start by stating that icky spirit things are not behind every bush ready to pounce on you and psychic and magical attacks don ’t happen every day. Compare putting up shields and wards to preparing your household against intruders. More then likely you will not have to deal with them but you still lock your door on the off chance one happens by.

Now everyone has at least some basic protections it’s a natural ability but we are going to be talking about how to make things stronger and better.

I’m going to start you off with the most basic shielding exercise I learned. This one does help if you can visualize at least a little bit.  Close your eyes and see a white light appear around you caressing your skin. It can appear around you as a beam of light from the heavens, a spotlight, a mist that swirls around you or shooting up from the ground. I don’t care how you make it appear just as long as you do it. This light is a little bit different from ordinary light because it bends severely (as opposed to the small amount ordinary light does in response to gravity.) See it follow every curve of your body, make sure you get the top of your head and the bottoms of your feet as well.

Know that this white light will let in all the good stuff you desire but it will also bounce the icky stuff away. You also want the settings to let things flow out from you. Now you might be asking why? See you could set the shields to keep everything out but then you are shutting out the good things in your life as well as the bad.  You could also lock everything in constantly but bottling up everything isn’t good or healthy and in the long run it would be detrimental to you as a witch. Keep in mind you can adjust settings with both wards and shields at any time. When you do shield set it up so that it also protects you in your sleep and if by chance you should fall unconscious. As with all skills, magical and otherwise, practice is needed.

Another method of shielding is feeling yourself wrap a protective blanket around you. Like when you were a little kid and you knew nothing bad could get to you if you were just all covered up with your favorite blanket. Well make yourself a magical blanket to wrap yourself up in only this one does protect you from everything that is meant to harm you.

For years the white light shield was the only method I used. When I learned it I was also taught to do it every day before you went out. This by the way is a sucky method. It doesn’t make them stand up if you fall asleep, faint or anything along those lines and if you get out of the habit of putting them up well, we won’t get into that cause it’s not pretty. I learned eventually put them up as if they were meant to stay up. I also learned to work with layers of shields. It is a good idea to get in the habit of reinforcing/reenergizing your shields daily but this is different then rebuilding them. Smooth out any rough edges, check for any weak spots and make sure they are working at their peak capacity.

Experience has taught me that different shields work better against different things and if you work magic long enough you will attract attention and not all of it is welcome.  Depending on the situation I will have three to seven layers.

The question is what should these layers be? This is where a good imagination comes into play. What you want is to think of something protective and see yourself covered top of head to bottom of feet in the material. Common things to shield with are the elements: air, fire, water, and earth. You also want to come up with not so common protective shielding visualizations. I have used whirling swords before as well as a very prickly rosebush. A friend has used porcupine quills. Just keep practicing until you are comfortable building your shields in your mind.

Now we will proceed to wards. Wards are permanent shields over fixed objects. These shields allow energies, which are meant to be there, free access in and out. At the same time, they keep unwanted and/or bothersome energies away.  When building wards, pay particular attention to the following areas: windows, doors, phone lines, electric lines, cable lines etc.

There are some that suggest that when you are building wards you focus the energy on an object such as a piece of tiger’s eye or a clear quartz crystal. (For information on how to build wards in this manner, please go to this site: Wards 101 by Jordsvin
http://members.aol.com/jordsvin/kindred/Wards101.htm.) Personally I don’t care for this method. Probably because I have kids and cats so objects like rocks do not stay where they are placed. Some people place then directly on the building, I have a different preference though. I prefer to have the house wards slightly outside the house, along the property line if you have one. That way I don’t have to worry so much about the doors and windows (although I still need to make sure the phone lines, etc are protected.)

Enough of this, I am going stop talking about what I don’t do and focus on what I do. I will note what parts are considered warding and what parts are considered blessings. How I power the wards I have and so on and so forth.

One thing I have had experience with is moving, enough so I am starting to think of myself as an expert. (In my oldest daughter’s lifetime, she has lived in 8 places. She will be 11 at the end of August.)

When my family moves into a place, one of the first things I do is give it a good cleaning on the physical and on the non-physical level. (I find this works best if you do this before you start moving your possessions into the place if at all possible.) For cleansing on a non-physical level, I usually mix up a special blend of herbs, (which has been different each time because I have remembered to write down exactly what I have done with incense exactly once. For your information this is not a good thing.) I grind the herbs with a mortar and pestle until they are in a semi-course state. (Some people say grind the dried herbs finely but I like the texture better when they are coarser. Feel free to decide your own personal preference.) I usually dump the herbs in a bowl at this point in time and add a few drops of different oils and I use my hands to mix the oils and herbs together. The herbs should not be too moist. (About the moisture amount you would find in soil that is perfect for planting seeds.) I burn this blend on charcoal, which is specially made to burn herbs.

One of the next things I do is mix together some water and sea salt. (Tap water will actually work fine although I have used rain, river and snow waters in the past.) If we are in a house, I circle (or as close to a circle as I can) the property line clockwise starting in the east and heading south, then west, up north and finally back east. I sprinkle the salt water as I circle and state: “I bless and consecrate these lands in the name of the Lady and the Lord.” (Yes I realize for all intents and purposes, the property is now holy ground but I have also found blessed space keeps the rare icky spirit thing away.) It is very much like casting a big circle. I see the circle form and see it both above and below the house. If we were in an apartment, I would be doing a similar thing on the inside of the house but would take special care to make sure to get the doors and windows.

There are tons of other protective measures you can do. Salt or sandalwood in corners, a broomstick across a doorway, a witch ball hanging in a window and a witch bottle buried under the house, are but a few examples. What is protective would be too extensive to include in one small article but fortunately there are plenty of books out there, which can be used as a reference point.

Now at any places things have to get in, (the phone lines etc.) I place little whirling swords, which will mince anything that isn’t supposed to be there to pulp. I tune the wards so they release the energy from inside and let anything that is supposed to be there in and out readily. Imagine it like a one way mirror, I can see out as needed and do what I need to do as needed, but from the outside all you get is a reflection back unless I want you to be there.

I have also found that like shields, wards are more effective if you have layers. I am not going to tell you exactly how many layers I have and what these layers consist of but as with shielding, you want to be creative. In the linked article, the writer suggests invisibility, which I do like although I prefer to call them “don’t notice me” type protections.

Since I moved to this area, I have found that I like to tie wards to leylines for power. This is a personal preference and one I would not suggest doing unless you wish to be responsible for a larger area then your property. You need the larger area so that someone doesn’t mess with your leylines. In return for using this power, you will find the need to protect and heal your lands. Any leyline(s) you use should be one(s), which are not easily moved.

Although they are not warding or shielding, protective spirits (or guardian spirits), either created or attracted, can be very handy. If you do deal with protective spirits you want to remember, created ones need to be fed energy on a regular basis. Attracted ones like “thank-you” gifts once in a while. You also need to pay attention to these spirits (both created and
attracted) or they will fade or go away. It is well documented what fae spirits like as thank you gifts. For others, I would go with your gut instinct.

As I stated at the beginning of this article, I did not write this because attacks are common but building wards, shields and having protections around you is just plain smart. It is better to be needlessly prepared then caught unaware.  I would like to finish up this article by explaining how to make one version of a witch bottle.

Items needed:
1 small bottle or jar with lid
pins, nails broken glass (a broken mirror would be excellent) and all manner of sharp objects urine (yours)

Open the jar and fill it with the sharp things. Be careful not to cut yourself. Fill the bottle almost to the top with the urine. Close it tightly and charge it (focusing your energy into it with a specific intent) with protecting the area you are warding. Bury it under the house or in the area you wish protected.

Read more of Sheila's articles, poetry and more at Whispers of a Stone Circle and American Witch and Pagan