A Tiny Tutorial
A Brief Introduction to Protective Magick
Dear Friends,
Questions come in themes. The one I’ve encountered most in the past couple of weeks is “how do I build a spiritual life?”
When I ask why this is important, it’s often answered that a feeling of being exposed and powerless is the motivation. There’s a very justifiable distrust in religion to protect, since that need has often been used to hurt rather than shepherd the flock.
Fortune tellers are concierges that sit at the veil. When someone feels cursed or lost, we’re there to direct them to the nearest little patch of clarity. In the best and most loving way possible, we’re clergy for freaks and heretics— those who have been injured, betrayed or cast out of their places of worship. Yet we are no more or less likely to kindle faith or lead astray as anyone anointed to an office of keeping secrets, absolving sins, or sharing in shame and hope.
At the risk of sounding cynical, I’ve started to think that a scale of pain caused can be about proportion to its resources. One religion might get a bad rap, but wherever a hierarchy exists, no matter how small, there’s a chance it’s not living up to what it’s meant to do.
The strong do not always protect the weak.
The wise do not always teach the ignorant.
The capable do not always aid the incapable.
These roles are mutable. We are not ever the damsel or villain. We have a tendency to see these positions as static, which clouds our judgement in so many ways. Taking ownership of our power or fragility is essential. We need an accounting of both. We can be deceived into thinking its all about where we come from, our vitality, or how we look. If you’ve ever been in a group project you’ll see who was born to lead, to color code notecards, to show up stoned, to bring cupcakes and diffuse drama. This is at least partially about innate disposition rather than social or biological inheritances alone.
Power has a good deal of mystery to it. I’ve seen influential millionaires wither under the scrutiny of someone truly righteous but of little means. I’ve found myself doing errands I didn’t want to for a prisoner in a cell hundreds of miles away. Power can be accessed, divested and relinquished in surprising ways. Defining it is more complex than we think.
Hierarchy is where we like to source our power. Yet that’s where privilege, rather than power, is most available. They are not the same. Hierarchies can be a hothouse orchid, carefully tended to ensure it roots and flowers according to the plans of a botanist. Or it can grow wild like Queen Anne’s Lace in sprawling fields. There is nothing truly wrong or unnatural about an order of things.
It’s the disproportionate value we place on leadership rather than fellowship, the unsung praises of nurturers and listeners and applause for loud clanging bells, that have us all clawing to the top. We all possess authority in some arena, but not every arena. The instinct to never cede power rather than to shed or wield it as the situation calls for has long left the world imbalanced.
The beauty of magick is it allows us to weave the celestial into the worldly. As above, so below. Magick enables us to conceptualize and access power in transcendent ways for our mortal benefit. Its gifts stretch far beyond the manmade metrics that dictate the force we have to bear or can shape the world with.
Last week, my sister Zoë and I taught a workshop on protective magick. I want to share some of the practices we discussed. Zoë brought in folk magick traditions. Mine were connected to ceremonial magick and the living tradition of hermeticism. Below are some of the answers to the question of “how do I protect myself with ritual?”
There is still a distinction between this and “how do I build a spiritual life?”.
We have a profoundness addiction, so what I have to say may feel lackluster. It’s one of those religious sounding things we like to avoid because it feels orthodox. We’re all too willing to throw the baby Jesus out with the bathwater to avoid being uncool. This is my un-profound take on what it takes to build a rich spiritual life:
Prayer and service.
Yeah, disappointing, I know. Very Catholic sounding. Taking a bended knee and putting someone else’s needs first seems counterintuitive relative to what we seek from religion and spirituality. Which is, of course, agency. I promise it all makes sense.
Triumph and surrender are not sweet without one another. Responsibility and control is a burden without respite from its demands.
We are meant to have both dignity and humility, to stand on our feet and lead, to kneel and follow. There’s value in taking a turn at it all. I hope whatever your faith, your path allows you to find not just strength and prosperity but also love and charity.
LVX,
Alejandra
The Freezer Spell
If someone has ill intent towards you, write their name on a piece and place it in a small, sealable container. This works really well for petty co-workers or exes who you would rather not hear from. I recommend plastic, as I’ve had my fair share of glass explode on me. Orange prescription bottles are perfect.
Fill the container with water, tighten the top, and throw it in the freezer. Do not remove it unless you need to. For example, one of my clients had an ex-husband who was an antagonistic stalker. We had to remove the freezer spell when we needed him to show up to court for child support. He had been completely MIA prior. When court was over, she returned his name encased in water to the freezer. From my observations, the freezer spell works to stop a person in their tracks where you are concerned, not in their existence as a whole. If a freezer spell must be removed, allow water to melt, then throw it, along with the paper, into a body of moving water. Flushing works too if you are willing to be a bit unceremonious.
The Invisibility Shield
If we find ourself someplace unsafe or uncomfortable and don’t want to be seen, this practice helps us to be unseen. You can use it to dodge bad guys, landlords and the fuzz when you have an unexpected run in. Of course it doesn’t work literally. It has the effect of helping us blend in and be overlooked in busy places. Typically only the people we intend to cross paths with or those actively looking for us will spot us when this is employed. The benefits of this practice last about an hour or so, with its shelf life extended depending on how long you do the breathing portion.
Breathe in and out through your nose, with intention, rhythmically, several times.
With each inhalation, envision you are pulling in energy from the world around you.
Picture the inhalation grown brighter and brighter, surrounding the crown of your head and emanating from the soles of your feet into the earth.
Curl your dominant hand’s pinky and ring finger beneath your thumb, so you’re making a peace sign. Instead though, your index and middle finger should touch. This position is known as a “mudra” and you’ll see many a saint and icon rocking this gesture in religious art.
Extend your dominant hand, with its mudra gesture straight forward. Use it to draw an invisible circle around you. Picture this circle like a jet black hula hoop. Perform this clockwise, moving your whole body as needed. End the circle at its starting point.
Extend your hands outward, palms up, in a T-position. Draw them upwards until both palms are touching over your head. Picture that inky black circle extending while your palms lift, so an upper half of a black sphere encases you. Draw your arms back down to your side.
Once more, make a T-position with your arms outward. This times, your palms are facing downward. Then, bring them together so they are clasped in your center. As you do this, you envision the bottom half of a dark sphere appearing. Now you are wholly encased in an onyx easter egg of sorts. It shields you from visibility.
Have faith in your magick, but be aware of when you are asking for too much (like wearing sparklers on your head while dancing on top of a bar—all the Hermetic exercises in the world won’t stop the date you never texted back from seeing.)
Low Maintenance Banishing
Protective work ideally begins with banishing. “Banishing” can mean purifying. Simple, ordinary acts such as sweeping, doing your dishes, vacuuming are all a part of physically and mentally preparing ourselves to banish undesirable energies.
1.) Take a shower. The end.
Showering resets your nervous system after an upsetting or emotional issue. Immersing ourselves in water recalibrates our brain, purifying it of tension and trauma. Of course, it doesn’t resolve an issue but it does allow us to break the feedback loop between our body and mind that exacerbates stress. In this clarity, we can work towards more long term solutions. No, you don’t need to go to the Red Sea and whistle at the sky while Venus is conjunct with something or other. That’s cool, but if you are hella depressed or worried and also don’t know much about rituals, hygiene is a very good start.
Floor Washes
In our protective magick workshop, I talked a little bit about different perspectives on banishing through cleansing. Here is an excerpt to help give context:
“First, we prime our physical environment. This means sweeping, dusting, discarding any empty alcohol containers or trash, and making sure there are no dirty dishes. Open the curtains and windows. In one of the least subtle metaphors, sunlight is a natural antiseptic. If you want to be very sensory, you can chime a bell, play a recording of them or light anaromatic fragrance. Note that this is a ritualistic approach for those with time and energy. In a crisis situation, these are not necessary steps for protective work to be effective.
Before we shield ourselves from any incoming unwanted energies, we have to also discard the unwanted energies already in our midst. We wouldn’t want to lock ourselves in with bad company. In Meshika culture women were responsible for sweeping households, not because domesticity and cleanliness were lighter duties a “weaker sex” could handle. They were important tasks, imbued with a type of spiritual importance woven into the fabric of daily existence.
In the religious tradition of Burkina Faso, the energy accrued in the grit loved ones track into a home, or their scent on a garment, is protective, kind, gentle, and shielding. When we send unwanted energies away, we should also be aware we’ll have to refill with the good things we’ve discarded.”
We naturally know how to protect ourselves, regardless of whether we’ve studied ye olde texts or not. You may not have had someone to teach you things. You still know magick, I promise. So it shouldn’t surprise you to find out things you already do are very rooted in ritual. As Zoë discussed at our workshop, the pine we use in wood cleaners like Pine-Sol or Murphy’s Oil have magickal properties instilled in them. Even contemporary products draw on age old wisdom.
Pine floor wash:
Pine is a symbol of resilience in nearly every place it grows. Its magickal property of protection makes it well loved and enduring in household uses. When we clean with Pine Sol, we are discarding the grime and washing it in a protective elixir or sorts.You can make your own pine floor wash by throwing pine nettles into water for a night, then straining the water and adding it to your floor wash.
Lavender floor wash:
We know lavender to be calming. It brings a sort of grounded harmony to the households it occupies. Fabuloso, the iconic, preferred brand of mop detergents by Mexicanos, is a lavender scented floor wash. There are Latino folk magick traditions that employ the leftover crosses from Palm Sunday, soaking in Fabuloso, with a dash of biblical recitations. Anyone can add lavender to water and strain it after twenty four hours. Add it to your floor wash, and your home will feel lovely and chill.
Fin
Your time and attention is dear to me in this oversaturated attention economy. Thank you kindly. If you would like a private divination, home blessing, or tutorial on magick, you can always find me at www.gemineyetarot.com. I am working hard to open the next chapter for myself. Now would be an excellent time to book your appointments, consider a little paid subscription, or just send good juju.