Protection and Energetic Hygiene

So, as many of you are aware, I’m an OG Rune Soup Premium Member. One of my RSPMBFFs is Orchis8. She’s appeared here on the blog before, with an amazing guest post about retro sigils and Mercury retrograde. Some years ago, she compiled and organized an outline of magical protection strategies, and I pitched in and created an infographic for it. We shared these periodically within membership.

She recently reached out to me with a suggestion that we share this information more broadly. At the same time, I found myself mentioning to a different friend how people who either do magic and/ or have perspectives outside the dominant narrative MUST have good protection and energetic hygiene practices in place or they risk getting unhinged, losing personal coherence, or falling prey to various troubles (emotional, physical, and external). I think we are seeing that happen in real time in our spaces and the broader field, so her timing was perfect.

Orchis8 is correct that this information really needs to go out into the world right now and I’m happy to share the outline and the infographic below with all of you. Check out her substack for more magical awesomeness!

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Layers of Protection by Orchis8

APOTROPAIC operations avert evil & harm from a person &/or a place by various means:

• CONTAINMENT
  • in the earth, esp at or under thresholds (buried witch bottles),
  • in the freezer (Gordon White’s famous war water spell),
  • in the walls (hidden shoes, dead cats, etc).
    • ENTRAPMENT within
      • bottle trees outdoors or at boundaries,
      • various box or bottle traps,
      • knots, webs, nets, thread jars, & witch balls (esp hanging in windows).
    • ABSORPTION
      • in minerals (tourmaline, shungite, etc, esp for EMF),
      • in sand, soil, or salt,
      • in whole, raw (in-the-shell) eggs (placed in corners),
      • in vinegar (dishes in corners).
• EXPULSION by
  • burning,
  • drowning, esp in rivers,
  • incantations, mantras, Psalms, Orphic hymns, prayers, & exorcisms,
    • St Benedict medal on doorknob or on person,
  • sweeping & floor washing,
  • perambulation (beating the bounds, etc),
  • herbal baths, egg cleansings (Limpia): see Kaitlin Coppock’s massive article on cleansing,
  • cord cutting,
  • hand gestures (manu fica, etc).
• REPULSION by
  • nailing down boundaries with coffin nails or railroad spikes,
  • counter-magical substances:
    • metals (silver, iron, esp over entries),
    • woods (rowan, hazel),
    • herbs (garlic, mugwort, rue),
      • including living plants (St John’s wort, rosemary) at entries,
  • Cimaruta, Hamsa, Azabache, God’s Eye, & similar amulets, on walls or on person,
    • including red thread on wrist,
  • Haint Blue on ceilings or exteriors,
  • chalking external doors on Epiphany,
  • bells or windchimes,
  • sigils & symbols, outside or inside, facing entry,
  • light & fire, including ash or salt boundaries,
  • Holy water & anointing oils (I use only Sphere + Sundry oils),
  • Florida water & bluing,
  • incense (esp frankincense, palo, or dragon’s blood–the nuclear option).
• DEFLECTION by
  • laughter (Sheela-na-Gig),
  • mirrors, esp inside, facing entries, or prisms in windows.
    • IMITATION, such as
      • Gorgoneion, evil eye (nazar boncuk), fascinum, & similar amulets outside or inside, over/facing entry.
    • DELAY by counting out evil (Gordon White’s bedgoblins spell).
    • CONFUSION with
      • SATOR squares,
      • knots, webs, nets,
      • thread jars, & witch balls.
    • APPEASEMENT (controversial) by making offerings to beings/forces outside the bounds of the household.

BUT perhaps the best approach is to develop proper CUSTODIANSHIP of the land or place by

• learning–experientially–about your BIOREGION,
• farming/gardening, hunting, foraging from an ANIMIST perspective,
• developing ALLIES from amongst all the non-human persons in your bioregion,
• cultivating an attitude of gratitude,
  • & to be in RIGHT RELATION to
    • YOURSELF, by maintaining your physical health & your emotional & spiritual coherence, which includes
      • learning some energetic basics (grounding, centering, shielding),
      • mediating regularly,
      • eating as healthy as possible,
      • exercising, preferably outdoors, as often as you can,
    • & to the HUMAN & NON-HUMAN PERSONS of the place, by
      • knowing/acknowledging local history (“staying with the trouble”),
      • knowing/acknowledging the local land/water spirits,
      • paying attention to, if not getting involved in, local politics,
      • acknowledging the local (esp, the wronged) dead, &
      • connecting to your own ANCESTORS of place, blood, & affinity,

& practicing good STEWARDSHIP of your HOUSEHOLD by

• wisely using & maintaining its resources,
• being as prepared as possible for “black swan” events,
• building a strong “spirit team” of ancestors (of place, blood, & affinity), deities, saints, angels, etc;
• creating a mobile egregore (Ivy’s idea), with its own name, motto, password, & key,
  • nourishing a healthy spirit biome within the household by
    • avoiding excessive banishing within a protected place,
    • making regular offerings to the spirit team,
    • communicating regularly via divination, dreams, journeying, deep listening, noticing omens, etc,
    • praying for, not just to, the spirits on your team, &
    • including the spirit team in decision-making that affects it.

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Notes from Orchis8:

The custodianship/right relationship/stewardship layer is truly where most of the strongest magic is, in my opinion. I cannot stress enough the protective benefits of getting right with your ancestors & with the land.

Note: I have also linked to Sphere & Sundry products & articles in the outline. I recommend their products wholeheartedly. I no longer waste my money on anyone else’s! In the write-up to their Fiery Wall of Protection series (linked above), you’ll find a three-pronged approach that includes Deneb Algedi & Mother Algol products: This strategy once got an intruder into my building arrested within 24 hours!

Ivy’s ideas about the Magical household (linked above) were truly foundational for me, & I urge anyone doing any kind of magical work to start by building up your household as a Being, in the way she describes. This kind of work naturally blends into or will (almost) naturally emerge out of the process of building your ancestor practice.

Now for the Infographic, which gives you a way of seeing how these layers of protection come together to form a powerful field, or perhaps, a potent shield, around your other, smaller-scale magical strategies (I’m not dismissing those; I’m just putting them in their proper context). When this living field/shield is fully operational, & you are maintaining it properly, you can feel it working. Please note that Ivy & I are both fond of the Turkish evil eye amulets, which explains her choice of colors for the graphic.

Notes from me:

Household egregore magic has been a core of my practice for many years now, and I can speak strongly to its efficacy.

I am obviously also a huge fan of Sphere + Sundry and recommend their offerings in my planner – including for plenty of protection days. For those new to protection workings / materia, I recommend Deneb Algedi as a great starting point.

The infographic can be used directly as part of your protection workings, as an altar piece, for petitioning protective entities, or as an amulet in and of itself. You can also map the inner layers onto an actual glass Nazar that you will empower / bless and hang in your household.

We hope this information serves you well.