#spritiual

(Yogi Bhajan words)

"Prepare to serve in this age as leaders- rich, happy, healthy, creative, conscious, trustworthy, and worthy."

"Touch a person, hold a person, then carry a person. Carry them, simply and truthfully."

"I am with you".

"The most veteran, courageous, and pious act of a human is to be with another human, because we are all like stars in the sky, born at one time & space, to be ourselves. Everybody is our coherent neighbor. All we have to do is say "I am with you". When you start being one with everybody, then you are actually with God, because if you cannot see God in all, you cannot see God at all."

" Every day is yours and yours alone. It is not anybody else's. The breath of life is yours. You are yours."

" I am radiant. I am reality. I have my own reverence."

" Let people know you are a graceful reality, with reverence of courage. You have to protect your own reverence. Nobody can protect it for you"

" Come out and just touch people ."

" I am with you, don't worry. Nothing is going to happen. Go home, enjoy life ".

Howdy y’all it’s your favorite neighborhood witch here! Instead of studying for my stats midterm, I will be writing a catch all post about how to best protect yourself! I have made posts similar to this (wards - sigils - cleansing) but this will be a cover-all post about protection! 

GENERAL SAFETY FOR BEGINNERS

So when starting out your craft, you are always told to research and understand protection, but no one really tells you what that means or why it’s important. It’s super important to research, but I take a stance of: research as you go. Of course understand protection (what I’m gonna talk about today) but as you do new projects or specific things within your craft, research as needed. This makes it a lot more manageable and “bite size.” 

WHAT IS PROTECTION?

Protection, in a spiritual sense, is a layer of protection from any unwanted energies. This can be done many ways, and it’s recommended that you do multiple things to protect yourself, especially when diving deeper into your craft (ie: cast a circle when preforming a spell)

PROTECTION IDEAS

The type of protection you do is up to you, but here are some ideas to get you started: 

A very important one would be to ward, here is a post I made about warding if you need a refresher 

Make an onion braid! This is a bit more traditional and rooted in folk legend but you need quite a few onions (long ones, with the green still on the top) and a bunch of twine. Fold the twine in half and tie a knot near the end creating a loop. Lay the twine on a flat surface and place an onion upside down so that the greens of the onion form a third "string", along with the two free ends of the twine. Using the two free lengths of twine and the onion stem, form a tight braid. Repeat this until the onion is securely in place. Repeat the process with the rest of your onions, braiding them in and out between the other stems and the two strands of twine. As you do so, focus your intent. Here is an article with a bit of a better explanation on an onion braid. This article is focusing on braiding onions as a means to elongate their shelf life, but an onion braid is an onion braid. 

CRYSTALS! Crystals are something many practitioners are comfortable with very early on in their practice as they seem very approachable in comparison to other forms of magick. Some crystals with properties to protect you or your space are (generally) any black crystal! You can put a crystal like obsidian or black tourmaline in the four corners of your room or space (or even your altar) as a means of protection! Some other crystals with protection properties include: amethyst, clear quartz, pyrite, labradorite, carnelian, and any black crystal. There are obviously more than this, but these are the most common 

Putting a layer of salt/black salt around the perimeter of your house can help ward off malicious energies while also keeping slugs at bay! (the slug thing was just a joke but genuinely this a very big problem in my area and slugs have gotten into people’s gardens and they clogged our pipes last spring....could have used the salt protection then haha) 

SIGILS! Sigils are one of my favorite ways to protect my space! If you want to know a full run down on sigils, check out my sigils post! 

There are quite a few other ways you can protect yourself, so here are a few lists of more intensive ways that you can go about your protection: 

Ultimate protection masterpost part one (this includes spells, so be wary if you are not yet comfortable with that) 

Ultimate protection masterpost part two

Protection Ideas List

Protection Rooted In Folklore

OTHER SOURCES/INFORMATION

Remember it’s always important to cross reference your information, for this post I used multiple sources I knew have been vetted by much more experienced witches than I am- but still! You need to make sure what you’re reading is credible

Safety For Beginners

The True Validity of Tumblr As a Resource

Basic’s of Protection: Chaotic Witch Aunt

Protection Magick: The Witch of Wonderlust

Sigils 101 

How To Cleanse

What In The World Is Warding

I disappeared from tumblr for a very long time, and I’d like to make it back. Truthfully, I don’t know just how committed I am to that. But, while I’ve been gone, I underwent electroconvulsive therapy. Today is the first time since well before the treatments that I’ve been able to write again - that I sort of feel like me again. So, please, enjoy this poem. 

My intentions are strung together with winded golden wire - 

Beautiful and glistening - strong enough to withstand fire. 

They wrap around my bones, through my chest, climb my spine. 

Entangled with my failures, they remind me:

I’m a shrine. 

I’m a holy place where bad things happened. 

I’m a mausoleum of the oldest fashion. 

I’m a sanctuary with a rugged start, 

I’m a hallowed place where you feel your own heart. 

Sometimes I forget and tend to go blind 

when I feel hollow so much of the time. 

I am not just an empty tomb; I am a shrine. 

Yes, there are ghosts; they stay and they roam. 

They linger here because I’ve been afraid to let them go. 

A burnt offering smells sweet, but it still requires a flame. 

There is not one single church that hasn’t housed some pain. 

My body is a temple; so is my mind.