B8. Protecting your home

If you haven't guessed by now, I take protection pretty seriously. Protecting yourself, your car and your home are perhaps the most commonly protected items. Protecting your home can take many different forms. Presented below is a scaled down version of the method I use for setting protections on my house. Some of the steps that I use are not for people just beginning their magickal studies due to the energy you are working with. (Learning magick is a learning process and each individual progresses at a different rate. The learning process is similar for all earthly disciplines. For example, a first year medical student would never be allowed to perform open heart surgery for the simple reason that he is not yet experienced enough and does not have the knowledge. The same holds true in magick.) I will make notes with some steps that they are not for the beginner - if you are beginning please do not take offense but accept that it requires a bit of experience - use your best judgement when considering using any technique ... if you feel comfortable with it and think you can handle it then give it a try.

Read through the entire procedure first, decide what steps you wish to use. Of these steps, only a few are required. The other steps serve to reinforce your work.

MAJOR WARNING! Protecting a house can take a lot of energy out of you, as with working any type of magick. ALWAYS have some type of snack set up and waiting for when you are finished. A snickers bar and a glass of milk are excellent if you like it, a granola bar and milk or tea are also good. The food will help you ground yourself after expending magickal/physical energy and it will help restore energy which you have used. Never go to sleep after a major magickal working without eating something even if you have to force yourself to eat. (It is not uncommon for people to find the thought of eating revolting after intensive magickal workings, the body is so drained that eating is a major chore.)

The following steps are what I consider to be absolutely necessary to protecting your house. You can add to these steps or follow the entire plan outlined. Use your best judgement. If you are just beginning to study magickal protection then I recommend that you only use the steps listed next. Again, magickally protecting a house is very taxing - imagine running a 26 mile marathon in a suit and long underwear with a 50 pound bag of flour strapped to your back while you are wearing hard sole shoes and screaming a german opera at the top of your lungs. Ok, it is not that bad, but it is a lot of work, uses a lot of energy, depending on the number of steps you use. On a more practical note, if you were weight lifting, would you start trying to lift 200 lbs? I don't think so.

Required steps from below

Step 2

Step 3 - if you have the incense available. If not then omit this step

Step 5

Step 10

Step 11

Step 13

Items used

Incense - clearing, house cleaning, protection. All of these flavors are available at the Mystic Gryphon and many other metaphysical supply stores.

Holy Water - can't get enough of it.

String - used for knot magick.

Athame - used for directing energy, not required for any step. (A finger will do just fine.)

White candle - two or three

Purple or blue - one (possibly)

Steps

1) Clean the house physically. It doesn't have to be spotless but picked up is helpful. This is not an absolute requirement, Goddess knows that I have frequently set protections on my house when it was an absolute mess. However, a clean house does assist in setting protections, it helps to create order.

2) Go to a spot in your house, preferably near the center, clap your hands (stomp your foot, strike your staff on the ground) three times and in a clear, firm voice state that all negativity, all evil influences, any entity intending or wishing ill will or harm upon anyone in this house or on this property leave now of its own free will or be dispelled forever!

(Hey, you gave them a chance, if there is something which doesn't go then that is their problem and trust me, they will not like what you are about to do!)

3) Light a stick of clearing or house cleaning incense. Start at your front door, or the door that you use most often and proceed to go through every room in your house clockwise until you return to the starting point.

CAUTION! Step 4 is not for a beginner, it requires a good deal of energy and practice in setting and maintaining shields. It is not required for protecting your home but it can be a useful tool. If you try this and start experiencing pain, dizziness or light headedness STOP and absorb the shield back into yourself. (Also it wouldn't hurt to grab a quartz crystal and something to eat if this happens.)

4) Return to the center of your house, call up your sphere of light, expand it until it covers your entire dwelling. See the sphere solidify about your house.

5) Light the two white candles and ask that the Goddess and God come and fill your house with their energy, dispelling all negativity, protecting you and all within from anything intending to do you harm. (I light one candle and ask the Goddess to come in and then the other candle and ask the God to come in.)

Note: Always be careful when using any type of fire.

Step 6 is not required but helpful. If you do not have protection incense available you can use another blend dedicated to the God or Goddess. If you are not sure of blend to use then ask someone at your local metaphysical store or contact The Mystic Gryphon. Again, the incense is not required but is helpful. If you really like incense but do not have access to a metaphysical supply store you can use a stick of pine incense available at most grocery stores now. (The pine incense from a grocery store is sort of a desperate measure in my opinion but pine is very useful as a clearing agent to dispel negativity.)

6) Light a stick of protection incense, go to your front door or the door you use most often, walk clockwise through the entire house letting the incense spread into your dwelling. In each room, state that all negativity, all evil forces, anyone or anything intending ill will or harm be forever barred from entering this area. State that only positive, good, beneficial energies can enter into this area.

Note: Stick incense will leave strings of ash. You may wish to invest in a stick burner to carry with you or you can get a small flower pot filled with sand or dirt and put the stick in it.

7) Light a purple, white or blue candle go to your front door or the door you use most often, walk clockwise through the entire house letting the light of the universe fill your dwelling. When you return to your starting point you can either let the candle burn out or you can extinguish it. In each room, state that all negativity, all evil forces, anyone or anything intending ill will or harm be forever barred from entering this area. State that only positive, good, beneficial energies can enter into this area.

Note: Be extremely careful when carrying a lit candle, hot wax can drip onto your hand or arm, if dropped it could catch something on fire. A candle holder with a candle is very useful. You can also cut a small sqaure of light cardboard (say from a cereal box) and put a hole in the ceter of it, push the candle through it so you now have a barrier between your hand and the wax.