The Boundary: Setting Wards and Alarms
When it comes to DIY Magick, you could learn a dozen ways to draw money or love, remove sickness, or hex your enemies, but one of the first things anyone who is interested in the mystic Arts should learn is how to protect themselves and their homes. We'll take a look at protecting yourself in tomorrow's post, but for today, let's look at home protection.
Home protection is quite often your second line of defense for keeping your family safe (the first being your local spirits), and thus, is of supreme importance. And while there are a myriad of ways you can set this up, my personal favorite is to use wards, which are effectively energetic walls that separate your home from the outside world. In fact, I have layered so many wards, illusions, and invisibility spells over my home over the years that GPS often struggles to find it. Delivery drivers will leave packages with my neighbors until I personally meet them outside and direct them to my house (which has numbers on the front that can't be missed). I've even had to step out of my wards to meet someone at the road when coming over for the first time. And my house isn't obscured by trees or bushes, I have a clear line of sight from the street to my front door, and yet people who have never been introduced to my home never seem to find it. While these techniques alone won't give you that level of protection, they will help you shield yourself from unwanted influence and turn away those who mean you harm.
Method one: The Circle
The first method is simple: walk out of your home and walk around it at least three times, moving in a clockwise direction. After your final circle, face your home, raise your hands, and chant something along the lines of "walls of light, walls of stone, rise up now and guard this home." As you do, visualize your circle rising up and around your home as a sphere of light, encasing your home in all directions, and then see this light become solid stone, or iron, or whatever you feel is most protective.
Method two: Anchoring
Anchoring is a powerful practice, and one I've taken to practicing several times a year, just to reinforce my protections. You'll need spikes of some kind for every corner of your home. These can be railroad spikes, coffin nails, carved wooden stakes, or my personal favorite, porcupine quills. Take your chosen spike to each corner of your home and drive it into the earth. As you do so, visualize the spike dissolving into energy, and reforming into a spooky barricade around your home. After the last spike, meditate for a bit and feel the protection take hold.
Method three: Sigils
It is not uncommon for practitioners of Magick to hide occult symbols on their person or home to encourage certain sympathies. There are a myriad of sigils you can use, from full phrases written in theban to Norse bindrunes. Ultimately, the symbols you use don't matter as long as they are personal to you. In any event, begin at your door and work outward to cover your porch, steps, or whatever else you have in front of your door. Draw these sigils in chalk, marker, or at least in water, feeding them energy through breathwork and focus. As you complete a sigil, send some of your energy into it to awaken it.
You can combine these methods as well. Simply drive your stakes and draw your sigils. You can also take it one step further by setting up an alarm. This is easiest to do if you have already built a connection with your local spirits. Regardless, this practice will build a relationship all on its anyway.
Finally, when the rest is done, set out a filled offering bowl near the entrance of your home and offer it to the local spirits in exchange for their protection, as well as their service. Specifically, you want your land spirits to notify you the moment something crosses your wards. This part may be difficult for some, but even if you feel that you are having trouble communicating with spirits, you should still make a point to lay out the offerings and ask for the aid of your local spirits.
And that's it! Pretty simple stuff, honestly .
Until next time, have fun!
