Creating safe space in which to relax and let down our guard is the focus of a lot of house and hearth magick. Some of the oldest charms and magickal devices our archeologists find are specifically for protecting one’s home, property and lands. We can draw inspiration and ideas from these practices, many of which are being revisited and revised to this day. Witch bottles, incantation bowls and all manner of ancient protection magick still work. We also have some newer magickal tech to choose from, not to mention the protective possibilities that occur when cultivating a cocreative relationship with land, familial and house spirits. In short, there are a lot of options out there.
Let’s start with the simpler stuff.
Basic Home Warding
Begin by introducing yourself to your house or apartment. My preferred way to do this is to sit on the floor with both hands touching the floor, or to stand with one hand touching the wall. I then gently soften my shields (I wear a set that include psychic ‘blinders’ so that I don’t get distracted by all the energetic noise around me) and reach out to the spirit of the house or apartment. Almost all dwelling places have an egregore – a spirit that has formed courtesy of all the energy and emotion that has taken place within the walls of a home. The egregore generally takes on much of the character of the emotions frequently experienced within the home and they usually adapt to match different human caretakers over the course of time. My partner and I have lived in our home for almost three years now and our egregore is much more in keeping with our way of life (quiet, peaceful, creative) than with that of the previous family at this point.
When you feel that gentle sense of presence responding to your query, introduce yourself if you haven’t done so before (or if you are warding a property that is not also your home). You can do this aloud or silently. Explain your intentions – that you want to help protect the home (and land, if applicable) from ill will and malicious energy. Try to obtain some indication of consent from the egregore. Most are happy to have some help.
Raise energy in some way to begin generating the shield. You can chant, dance, drum, rattle…there are lots of possibilities. I like to chant because it leaves my hands free to help shape the energy structure I’m forming. Begin by visualizing a sphere forming in front of you that’s roughly the size of a beach ball. That sphere is going to end up being the shield, but we start small to establish the character of it. Design your shield as you see fit. For example, you can visualize it as having a mirrored surface to bounce back any energy directed at it. If you live in an area with a lot of crime, you can add some spikes to the outside of the shield to make your home unattractive as a target. Other visualizations include stone, metal, castle walls, flames….each kind of shield has its own character.
The shield visualization I use for my own home includes a few different properties. The shield slowly spins so that it’s difficult for others to get a lock on it. It includes moving mirrored sections that are assigned to block malicious energy. If directed ill will makes its way to my home, the mirrored part of the shield moves to reflect that energy back to the sender. Other sections of the shield are permeable to benevolent energy and Beings with good intentions, but provide some filtering of that energy so that it’s not disruptive. There are a few other properties, but part of a good magickal defense system is not telling anyone exactly how you’ve constructed an obstacle. Sorry, kids.
Once you’ve got a firm visualization for your shield, begin to ‘inflate’ it. Pour the energy you’re raising into that sphere and watch it expand. Allow it to fill the room, then expand past it, leaving you inside. Expand the shield until it’s large enough to encompass the house or apartment you’re shielding. Then, settle the shield into place, visualizing it centering perfectly around your home. Once it is positioned, “thicken” the shield. Pour more energy and visualization into it until the shield walls are dense and firmly set.
Check in with the egregore of the home again before you conclude your work just to make sure it’s comfortable with the shield. Listen for any suggestions or feedback.
With a shield that’s constructed of raised energy, you’ll want to redo the shield every few months. Remember that energy dissipates naturally. Shields also need to be boosted if they’re bouncing back a lot of energy or deterring beings from approaching your property. The energy used for those purposes will need to be replenished.
Enhanced Home Warding
There are ways to make a shield longer-lasting and stronger, but they take a little more work and preparation. One of my favorite ways to boost a shield is to use anchor stones. Anchor stones help ground your shield and feed it additional energy. They can also act as repellants themselves depending on the kind of stone and any sigils or symbols you etch onto them.
My preference for anchor stones is to use stones that are already part of the environment around the home. If you have a yard, this is an opportunity to do a little digging for rocks. If not, you might be able to gather rocks from an area close to your home. For example, my partner and I had an apartment in Williamsport. We gathered our anchor stones from a park right nearby.
Your other option with anchor stones is to choose stones that are associated with protection metaphysically. Most of the darker, heavier stones have this association. One of my favorite crystals for this purpose is black tourmaline. It’ll ground damn near anything. Jet, Obsidian, Hematite, black Kyanite and Onyx can also be used.
Before you create your shield, cleanse the stones you choose to use and then wake them up – remind them of their power to ground, steady and defend, and explain to them what it is you need them to do. One way I use anchor stones is to assign them to earth, transform and then reuse any energy directed at the shield to bolster the shield itself. It allows you to take advantage of energy rather than just repel it. This is great for general ill-will – you’ll still want a specific bounce-back of some sort for directed sendings.
You can paint (or just trace in holy water or a protective oil) appropriate symbols or sigils for protection on the anchor stones. There are MANY symbols, sigils and bindrunes that can be used/adapted for this purpose. As always, make sure you completely understand the symbol or sigil you are using. Bindrunes in particular can be tricky – you’ll want to ensure that the bindrune doesn’t include any accidental runes (runes created through combining others) that could make your shield less effective. Remember that you can create your own symbol or sigil as well.
To use your anchor stones, start them in the center of the protective sphere you visualize. Once the shield is in place and thickened, place the stones around the perimeter of your house or property. Wherever you place one, connect it to the shield in that location.
A shield with anchor stones can last 6 months or more. I refresh my shields every 6 months just to be on the safe side.
Other Techniques
Your shield is the base of the protection magick around your home. You can add on to that shield through many different means. Here are a few commonly used and easily found or constructed items you can add to your arsenal.
Witch Bottles have been in use since the 16th century at least and remain quite effective. They need to be buried or hidden at the furthest reaches of your property.
The Evil Eye is both the name of the problem and of the solution to it (also sometimes called Nazars). Evil Eye charms are generally shaped like a single eye and are blue in color. That particular magickal tech has morphed into a few different forms, including blue bottles or bottles filled with blue beads.
Witch Balls are blown glass balls that generally contain a few strands of glass inside them. The bright colors of the glass attract malicious spirits and energy and the threads trap them.
Salt. Yes, you’re going to hear me extol the virtues of salt again. For protection, I use black salt specifically although any salt will work. I regularly run a line of salt around the exterior of my property as well as along one of the interior shields I use on my home. Yes, I use more than one shield. Yes, that’s an option.
Remember, this is really only the beginning of protecting your home, but it’s a great place to start. Cultivating relationships with the spirit of your home as well as the land spirits around you can also do wonders for your home’s ability to deflect ill intent. There are many, many more charms, symbols and energetic constructs you can add. Got a favorite? Leave it in the comments below. And if you need help, let me know. Space clearing and warding is one of the services I offer professionally.
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Out of curiosity, what do you mean “One way I use anchor stones is to assign them to earth”. I’m not sure i understand the assign them to earth part.
Thanks!
Hi Scott!
By that I mean that I direct them to gather up and channel the energy directed at my shield and transform it into neutral energy (which can then be used). Sometimes force-grounding or neutralizing energy is called “earthing” it because we use the Earth itself (the stones, dirt and decaying organic matter of the soil) as the neutralizing agent.
That sentence was a little clunky, my apologies for the confusion 🙂