Warding the Home
Warding
or shielding the home can provide many benefits to a magical
practitioner. It can filter out psychic background “noise” or ambient
energy that might make one uncomfortable in the home. It can provide an
atmosphere of comforting energy that allows a person to recharge and
relax. It can also protect those inside from random negative energies, or
even the rare deliberate magical attack. For all of these reasons,
establishing effective wards for one’s home seems like good practice for those
heavily involved with the magical arts.
Establishing protective shields amounts to little more than energy control. Warding allows for energy to be kept out of the home, but also for energy to be kept in the home. Some wards may block certain energies while permitting others to pass through. Others may redirect or even transmute energy, according to the desires of the occupants. In this sense, wards act as any other element of the structure and decor of the home: to help maintain a safe a comfortable atmosphere for the occupants.
Careful
thought should be given to the construction and operation of wards for the
home, according to individual needs. Will your shield be flexible or
rigid in its response to incoming energy? Will it be permeable to some
kind of energy, or completely impenetrable? If it is permeable, to what
degree should it be, and will it allow energy to enter, leave, or both?
Will your protective wards consist of one strong perimeter, or several
interlocking layers? How will the wards be anchored to the structure you are
trying to protect? Will incoming energy be absorbed or dispersed?
Will shields be configured to reflect negativity back to its source?
The needs and tastes of the occupants should play heavily into all of these decisions. If someone who likes to feel the ambient energy of the surrounding neighborhood lives in the home, a more porous shield should be considered. If you are in an area with much negativity in it, a flexible shield may bow into the living space. If you are in an apartment building, do you wish to ward the entire building, just your unit, or both? If you are practicing magic in your home, do your wards allow for such energy to be released? Do you feel comfortable with full shielding at all time, or do you want something that will activate only under certain conditions?
Other
features can be incorporated into home wards. Filters can be designed to
allow some energy through, but strain out types that you don’t want.
House shields can be programmed to reflect incoming energy back to its
source. Mechanisms for notifying the occupants of intentional attacks can
be developed, as can methods to identify the source of such attacks.
Shields can be self-replenishing, or can feed upon incoming energy. Wards
can be anchored to objects that can be taken to new homes in the event that the
occupants move -- especially if this occurs frequently, like it would for
college students -- or they can be permanently embedded into the structure.
Servitors can be designed to intercept incoming negative energy, or to maintain
and repair wards and shields.
All of these design factors should be considered, but so must the actual techniques employed in creating and maintaining wards and shields. Many different possibilities exist, and of course they depend upon the tastes of the one creating the wards, as well as the specifics of the design and function of the defensive systems. While I cannot cover all of the methods that could be employed, I will attempt to cover several that can be easily and effectively utilized.
Charms:
Some of the simplest wards are charms or other objects that are placed around
the house, especially ate the corners and in front of doors and windows.
Iron has protective qualities, and small amulets of iron can be hung in
strategic locations. Tiny mirrors can be placed above doors and windows
to reflect incoming energy. Wind chimes, flutes, and other pretty dangly
items can be placed around the home to “break up” incoming energy – Feng Shui
and its principles may apply here. Plants absorb magical energy – placing
them around the perimeter of the home or in window boxes can be very effective,
and they can provide an indicator of an influx of negative energy if they die
suddenly and without apparent cause.
Visualization:
Achieving magical consciousness and visualizing shields around the home can
prove effective as well. Armor plates can be visualized growing on the
outside of the house. Force fields can be imagined in place. A
technique popular among my circle of friends is to imagine strands of energy
woven tightly within the outer walls of the structure. Walls can be visualized
in the same way, and can be constructed of layers of elemental or other types
of energy. More complicated techniques can be employed, but can often be
more difficult to visualize successfully. Visualized wards and shields
should be recharged or otherwise maintained on a regular basis, as many can
fade over time.
Sigils:
Sigils can not only make it easier to provide a physical anchor for a defensive
system, but can encode complex programming for multiple layers and
structures. One ward system that I once created had three different
layers to it, and the instructions for each were encoded in a sigil, which was
then combine with the other two. Such sigils can be engraved permanently
on some part of the house – preferably a central location – or can be etched
into a small object placed in a similar location, which can more easily be
moved to a new structure or modified according to later needs. Less
complex protective sigils can be used to create defensive charms as described
above. They can also be used to establish a perimeter, such as by
inscribing the sigils along the outer walls of the house, or by etching the
same protective sigil on four pieces of iron and placing them at the corners of
the property.
Servitors:
Servitors can be constructed to perform many tasks related to magical
defenses. A well-programmed servitors might function in pace of a complex
ward system, actively intercepting and redirecting negative energy. A
servitor might also be effective in maintaining and recharging any wards or
shields put into place by other means. If an influx of negative energy is
deliberate, a servitor could be launched to track down the source of this
energy. For the particularly ambitious, a servitor might be constructed
to build the entire house defensive system, in addition to maintaining
it. Of course, such servitors should be constructed very carefully and
clearly, and monitored continuously to ensure that they are operating as
intended.
I have by no means presented a comprehensive analysis of magical defenses for the home, nor have I provided specific techniques for constructing such defenses. You, the individual, must decide on you own what methods of design and implementation are best suited to your needs and ability. Hopefully the suggestions made here will prove useful to any such endeavor.
Published on The Witches' Voice August 2007