Building walls as a part of protection
I truly believe that when most witches fall short of success, it's not necessarily a failure of power or spellcrafting but rather a failure of strategy.
Witches can raise power and cast spells just fine and still not be able to accomplish goals. So when it comes to protection here are things I've learned, take what you like and leave the rest behind:
Do you actually have a magical wall or boundary that stops unwanted things from reaching you?
For this post, ward = protective wall; a division that creates discrete, defensible spaces
Conjuring good energies is not a ward
Cleansing negative energy is not a ward
Binding behaviors is not a ward
Banishing unwanted beings is not a ward
Calling guardians is not a ward
Cursing your enemies is not a ward
Asking gods for blessings is not a ward
A good place to start any protection is to BUILD A WALL.
This should be understood as a literal magical wall that is built within the spirit worlds that overlay our physical worlds.
Physical boundaries make the best anchor points for magical walls: the boundaries of your property, your house, the walls of the room, fences, cairns or markers, or encapsulating objects (your whole bed, your whole body)
Wall building spellcrafting and correspondences post
Making container spells with correspondences like stones, nails, wood, shells (sea creatures, nuts, eggs).
Making sigils that define the existence of the barrier
Going around physical boundaries and raising and fixing energies
Placing magically potent amulets or symbols along the boundary line, including symbols drawn with energy
Enchanting a candle or incense and carrying it along the boundary line to establish the boundary
Asking spiritual helpers to assist you in any of the above
You can have multiple walls. If you are under serious spiritual attack, you should probably have multiple walls.
Suit of armor: personal protection
Inner chamber: ward on your bed/sleeping space to protect your sleep
Room: ward on you bedroom or private area where you work magic and divination; a place where you can get a break and rest
Home: ward on entire home; more rooms may be individually warded as desired
Homestead: ward on entire property; can still be done on your building/nearby property if you live in apartments
Avoid splitting focus when you build walls.
Focus on BUILDING A STRONG WALL.
You can place 'aggressive protections' down later, this is like waiting to add spikes and boiling oil until after you've built the wall.
Do not siphon off your wall's strength and power by also having the wall do cute tricksy things ('this wall cleanses what is within!' NO, why are you redirecting power to provide passive cleansing?! You need to prioritize your actions, stop trying to mop while there's a hole in the side of the ship.)
Plan a point of ingress/egress and retain complete control over it.
"This wall is an immovable object. This wall is a mountain that existed before the rings of Saturn. This wall has only one gate, and I hold the key."
A physical key works very well to control this magical gateway.
DO NOT BUILD IN LOOPHOLES TO PROVIDE GRACE TO HARMFUL SPIRITS.
"This wall protects me from all spirits, unless I misunderstood their intentions, unless they apologize to me, unless they agree to be nice to me, even if they really dislike me but they just agree to not actively harm me-" like why are you doing this to yourself. Do you not think you deserve a greater degree of protection? You are not the 'mom friend' to spirits who needs to give them chance after chance for their mental health. You are not the 'group glue' that is holding the spirit community together. It is not your job to sacrifice your sense of security and wellbeing so random spirits have a game night to attend. Please choose yourself and your own safety.
Once your wall is built, assign guardians to it.
Pray and petition that powerful protectors assign angels, elementals, or spirits to patrol the gate in your wall. Contract with spirits yourself (such as your familiars or helper spirits). Build watchful and protective energy constructs.
If you've wisely placed the gateway to your wall to align with a physical gateway (such as the front gate or front door), see if a nearby plant, tree, stone, &etc. can be contracted to watch the gate for you.
Energy construct vessels (an amulet where the construct lives) and spirit vessels can be placed near the physical gateway to greatly empower their work.
Assign guardians in this order: First the gateway, to oversee who approaches and tries to pass through - the guardians should reinforce your rules, and protect against anything that isn't allowed to pass. Secondly, other guardians may patrol around the wall.
Planets can assign elementals, making Mars an excellent planetary power to petition for protection
Ask your spirits to introduce you to guardians who can help you with this task
A second protection spell can function as a guardian by utilizing protective correspondences and assigning the second spell to guard the gateway of the first.
When searching for guardians or creating constructs, keep in mind that keen eyesight and discernment are of great use; therefore correspondences that also benefit Second Sight and clarity are well employed (give wormwood or star anise a spin).
Once guardians are assigned, build any fancy extras you want - these are your aggressive or illusory protections.
Work with your guardians and ask them what tools would best help them protect the wall. They may give answers that aren't exactly about fortifying the wall (like, 'the wall is fine but we could use a resting place nearby').
If you aren't working with guardians or otherwise ready to proceed, now at this point add the spikes, the boiling oil, the invisibility shields, and anything else you want to fortify your defenses.
Add these by creating additional protection spells that 'drape over' the wall. Once the boundary of the wall has been established you may find it to be much easier to lay down additional protections along the same line.
Finally, deal with conditions inside of the wall.
Once protection work is done, things like cleansing, adjusting the vibes, etc., are a separate and IMO unrelated process.
