Spiritual Protection How-To Guide

This is on my radar. While I’m hardly the world’s premier expert (Lord knows,) I’m glad to contribute to the best of my ability and share what tips I know. Spiritual protection is a HUGE and vastly underrated topic, but for those who delve into the unseen world in any way whatsoever, it’s more than worth the effort of paying attention.

First of all, if you’ve got this kind of action going on, there is essentially a process to address it. I advocate a multi-faceted approach. If you just deal with part of the problem, you’re only going to be partially successful. Health of any stripe is a holistic concept: Physical, Emotional and Spiritual health are inescapably entwined. If one is compromised, the others are at risk. As reminder: energetic work is a great complement to, but not a replacement for, appropriate mainstream professional assistance.  Please cover all your bases and stay safe.

For each of these suggestions, take a few minutes before you start to breathe deeply and slowly. Imagine yourself as a tree, with roots deep in the earth. Imagine a white light entering into the crown of your head, giving you power and energy to successfully complete your work. Be very clear and focused on your intention throughout, as that impacts your success tremendously.

Auric Shields

We are born with a natural defense system in the aura. The aura isn’t just an energetic phenomena, it’s a highly practical defense mechanism; it protects us from outside interference, much like the skull protects the brain. When the aura becomes compromised, we become much more susceptible to unwanted and negative influence.

Common issues that could compromise the aura’s effectiveness include (but are certainly not limited to):

• Physical illness and disease.
• Exceptionally high stress.
• Grief.
• Alcohol and drug abuse.
• Extended periods of poor nutrition or limited sleep.
• Reluctance in setting boundaries with other people.
• Energetic or emotional vampires.
• Extreme emotion or emotional trauma.

If you are in a situation where your aura is potentially weakened or disrupted, meticulous self-care is vital.  Addressing physical and emotional needs helps you remain strong enough to filter out unwanted influences. Take care of your body! Process your emotions! Be particular about whom come in contact with and allow into your space! Enforce boundaries and cut energy-sappers out of your circle without hesitation or regret. This is job one when you’re under (energetic) fire. Think of bulking up your aura akin to putting on a bulletproof vest: Much harmful energy will bounce right off a solid aura.

Environmental Factors

How you live and whom you come into contact with influences the type of energy you are exposed to. The physical world and the energetic world mirror one another. Paying special attention to who you invite into your home is very relevant, as well as keeping a physically and energetically clean house. Fortunately, this is not that hard.

• Physically clean house and purge. Objects hold energy, so getting rid of old stuff–particularly stuff given to you by people who have issues–is a great idea. Words hold extra power on their own, so don’t forget to rid yourself of disruptive letters or upsetting emails. Don’t just hide or store this stuff; destroy it if possible, and discard physical remnants off-site. If you cannot get rid of it for some reason, you’ll need to energetically clean it (smudge it, salt it, or burying it in the ground for a while can all work). Do this, and you’ll feel immediately lighter.
• Let the light in, literally. Utilize sunlight as “nature’s disinfectant.” Much like mold, negative entities thrive in dark, damp and dirty environments full of clutter. As you lighten up your physical surroundings, you simultaneously make the environment less hospitable to ugly energy.
• Avoid questionable environments–or questionable people into your environment. Alcohol, drug abuse and addictive behaviors severely weaken auric protections; some ugly energy may congregate where these activities take place regularly. Avoid such environments especially when you’re not at your energetic best. Avoid people who spend a lot of time in these environments lest you inadvertently pick up a “hitchhiker.”
• Raise the vibration in your home.
  • Sound is a very quick and practical tool for raising vibrations. Uplifting music (classical or reiki music are solid options), meditation soundtracks, chanting or Tibetan bowl CDs are all useful choices. (Skip heavy metal even if you’re a fan, or songs with especially dark lyrics.)
  • Aromatherapy is great, and works almost as quickly as sound. Lavender, rose, frankincense, myrrh or clary sage essential oils are a few good choices, although there are many others that would be appropriate and helpful. Check the metaphysical properties on your favorite scents and use pure essential oils in burners or dabbed on cotton balls placed around your home. Add a few drops of oil to a little to water and pray over it that it fulfill it’s intended purpose. Flick the water onto the walls and into the corners of rooms, with a little bundle of herbs, or use a spray bottle.
  • Laughter and fun times with loved ones, uplifting experiences, and expressions of gratitude and affection all raise vibrations not only of participants, but of the location at the same time. These vibrations are often subtle at first, but the “positive energetic residue” builds over time.
  • Gemstones can help a lot. Selenite is a natural cleanser. Black Tourmaline absorbs negative energy. State your intended purpose for the stones. Leave them in sunlight to cleanse them in preparation, or dedicate the stones leaving them out under a new moon (for a new intention) or full moon (for maximizing power); place them around your house.

Energetic Space Cleansing

So, what if you’ve already got a problem? Well, start with the previous strategies for sure, but we’ll also need to add some stronger ammunition. There are infinite numbers of techniques and many will work well, so pick those options that seem most practical and resonate with you personally. This article is obviously not going to be comprehensive, but I hope to offer some ideas that can help you right now.

Aside: If you live with others who are not willing to cooperate, there is a limit to how much you can accomplish. Yes, you can do magical workings, you can cleanse the house regularly and set up protective boundaries. But asking me how to “keep the place clean” when you have others consistently dirtying it up is like asking how to keep roaches away when half the family leaves leftovers out on the floor. You can either clean up constantly or convince them to be less messy, you know?

Some people think you need to hire someone with special skills to clean the energy in your house. You can certainly hire someone, but it’s not necessary. You do need a solid intention, and you need confidence. Nobody has more of a right to clean your house than YOU. Realize that and act with appropriate authority in taking charge of your space. It helps. After physical cleaning, use these additions to finish the job.

• Physical gestures of wiping and cleaning energetic gunk off walls, windows, etc. and shuffling the dark energy out a cracked window or door reinforces the cleaning. Visualize what you’re doing and go through the physical motions of doing it.
• Sound – Tingsha Bells can help break up thick or stagnant energy. If you have an area that’s particularly “dark,” use these bells. You can also chant. Rune names such as Ansuz (Odin/Breath), Kenaz (Fire) chanted in long, deep tones also help clear an area. If you’re of a Judeo-Christian bent, try intoning aloud Hebrew names of God for similar impact.
• Smudge – a very old, well known technique, involves using smoke, usually that of burning bundles or loose sage leaves. State your intentions to clear all harmful energy, pray or call upon Universal assistance, and waft smoke throughout your house, particularly in corners or around doors, windows and mirrors. I like to use a counter-clockwise motion when clearing.
• Use Holy Water – you can get it from a Catholic church if you’d prefer, or you can make your own. There are many video tutorials on YouTube, but Holy Water is merely water that has been prayed over and consecrated, salt that has been prayed over and consecrated, mixed together and then, prayed over and consecrated.
• Call in the Spiritual support system – Ancestors, guides, and any spirit you feel a special connection with can help. Saint Michael is a good choice, as is Odin.
• Ward. After you’ve cleaned up, ward your space. You can do this a number of ways. Set up a gemstone grid and task it with warding, instructing the grid to power itself from the earth energy, negative emotional energy from the vicinity or even energy expended by entities trying to breach it. Sprinkle sea salt around the perimeter of your home, with extra attention to entryways and windows. Set up a guardian statue, tasking it with protecting you and your space. As you talk to it and treat it as “real” it gains power. Runes are excellent and powerful as magical wards – Algiz is an especially good choice. Trace Algiz, or Pentagrams, or Crosses–whatever protective symbol speaks to you, in holy water on walls, windows and doors. You can even use your finger to outline the symbols, imagining a brilliant blue fire creating the symbol. Moth balls placed around the room, or small bowls of vinegar, can eliminate unwanted spirit activity in a space.

Personal Cleansing

Many of these tips help clean you off at the same time you’re cleaning your space. Detaching an entity can be trickier, depending upon how long it’s been attached and deeply embedded the entity has become. But here are some basic suggestions to start with.

• Smudge yourself (or the person impacted).
• Request assistance from the Angels. They are real and they can help, but with the exception of dire, immediate circumstances, they only intervene upon request.
• Take a bath or shower with sea salt, epsom salt or even table salt if that’s what you have, cleaning yourself with the intention of clearing the attachment. Always work from top to bottom.
• Perform a “cord cutting” ritual (this is geared to human connections, but can help with entities as well).
• Do not feed it! Negative entities often feed on fear, hatred, anger, violence and excess. The more you feed it, the stronger it becomes.
• Tell it to GO. Confidence and intention can work wonders. Parasites really do prey on uncertainty and victims that put up too much of a fight may get abandoned.
• Keep an environment inhospitable to these energies and they’re less likely to stick around.
• Calling in a professional energy worker. This is certainly an option, although to be quite frank, not everybody who hangs up a shingle is reputable. And not everybody who reads Tarot cards or uses Reiki to heal even believes in this depth of the spiritual world, let alone works with it. Someone who works in a magical tradition (like Hoodoo or Santeria) would most likely do this type of work.
• Create amulets and carry protective stones to stay clean, especially for a couple weeks after the cleansing. Tiger’s Eye is a great protective stone. An Algiz rune carved on wood (enlivened with chanting and a bit of blood) is very powerful. You can buy protective symbols, but really, making them yourself out of items you find can be just as powerful if not more so.

Learning More

There are lots of great books on psychic and spiritual protection. Here are some of my favorites.

You may also be interested in the videos Josi and I did on this subject, Spiritual Protection: For Sissies? & Spiritual Protection, Questions and Answers. These are hour-long discussions on the practicalities of do-it-yourself spiritual protection. 

Be well, and be safe out there!