~B.D: Every witch should learn how to shield. It offers great protection against every day negative energies, and more. It is especially great for empaths.
–There are many different ways to shield, and what works for one may not for another. The way you put up a shield is extremely personal and it will only work if you do it in a way that makes sense to YOU. It will only work if it is built in a way that it can stay present in your mind. You must will it to be there, in the same way that you walked around with a word in your head while you were preparing the evening supper. It should feel the same way.
–What makes shielding personal, is that you have to design the way it will look and feel. That is the only way that you will be able to keep it in your mind without effort. Here is an example: If I tell you to imagine yourself surrounded by a medieval armor, you may need to keep your attention very focused in the details of what such armor looks like. If it is not a familiar shield, your mind will want to keep going back to adjust this or that detail that is slipping your mind, like the way the face looks or how the hands are placed. It might even feel stiff and you movements will feel awkward. Anything that doesn’t feel right will break your concentration and decrease the effectiveness of your shield. –Also, the kind of shield you choose will highly depend on the situation you are facing. If you are going into a battlefield, you want battle gear. If you just want to walk around the office and want to be impervious to negative energy, a nice bubble might do the trick. But no matter what, everyone needs to know how to shield.
–Take a moment to assess the situation. What kind of shield do you need and want? Right now, you are just practicing, so you can try out different shields. But in general, what will you need this shield for? Imagine the kind of protection you want. It should feel comfortable, easy to focus on, strong and it should make you feel safe. It can really be anything. It can be an extra layer of light, guardians that surround you, a tornado, a brick wall, a bubble, a Viking’s shield, a blanket… It all depends on you and on the situation. Imagine a few possibilities that you may want to keep in your ‘shield closet’. It will be easier to conjure them quickly if you have imagined them already. For the sake of this exercise, let’s try something light with some basic energy and shielding exercises.
–First Center and ground. Grounding is especially important. That is your best line of defense, even without a shield. Now that you are grounded and centered, we will try some simple energy exercise, as they themselves are the simplest form of shielding and are something you should learn to do properly in order to shield efficiently.
1. Put yourself into your comfortable position. Begin by RELEASING; close your eyes and imagine all of the worries and anxieties of your day just pouring out of you like water, down and out through the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet. Leaving your body, and entering down into the earth.
–Now place the palms of your hands together. Imagine a ball of white light between the two palms, radiating out from where they touch. Imagine it very strongly, see it clearly. Now pull your hands slowly apart. Imagine that ball of light stretching out between your hands as you separate them, becoming a beam of light between your palms. Hold this for a few seconds or longer if you can. Then slowly bring your hands together, shrinking the beam of light between them until they close together and it is gone.
–Clear and release all excess energy …Imagine a stream of white light or water flowing through you from the top of your head and carrying all excess energy away through the soles of your feet. Practice this until you get good at it and then you will be ready to expand it.
2. This exercise begins with the ball of light in your hands do it just the same way until you come to the point where you have created the beam of energy between your two hands. Then, instead of stopping, imagine that beam growing and expanding to form a ball of white light between your hands. Hold that image as long as you can. Then slowly bring your hands back together, seeing the ball shrink between them, growing smaller and smaller until by the time your hands close, the ball is gone. Clear and release when you’re done.
3. Now you have those energy exercises mastered, we can begin to shield. First test your energy field. Where does it reach? Do a quick scan of its margin. At the boundary of your energy field, imagine your shield being formed.
–Visualize a layer coming in and surrounding your energy field. Draw up energy from your roots and direct it to the outermost layer of your energy field. See this energy transform itself to offer you protection. It may seem to harden, like the bark of a tree, or glow more brightly like a flame. Command this energy to do your bidding and protect your personal space. You should ultimately get a feeling of: ‘This is in here and that is out there.’ That which is outside should not come within.
–Once you’ve visualized your shield, draw back into yourself, but without letting your shield collapse. Your focus is no longer on upholding the shield. It should uphold itself, the same way the word lingered in your mind during the visualization exercise. Will it to be there, and that’s it! The minute you question whether it is holding, you are casting doubt into it and weakening its presence. Conjure it, know it’s there, and go on your business. This is not easy and it takes a lot of practice. Be forgiving of yourself and have fun with this.
–Once you’ve practiced this, you can go on to trying different types of shields. Your creativity is the only limit. The more complex your shield is, the more mental focus and attention will be needed. Try the basic shield above first so you have an easy option for ‘everyday wear’.
*References; adelinastclair.wordpress.com/ Witch School First Degree: Lessons in the Correllian Tradition by Donald Lewis-Highcorrell.
~B.D: Usually my shield is just a protective bubble that nothing can break through. If for some reason while I’m in the bubble I have a negative thought, I imagine the thought leaving my head as a black smoke cloud, and being sucked out of the shield, and being pushed somewhere else by the walls of the shield. I usually make the bubble if I’m somewhere where I feel loads of negative energy and I don’t want it to touch me.
-Sometimes if I’m actually scared of something (like a spirit or really negative energy) I will imagine an aura of white or gold light around me. It feels warm and welcoming. Nothing negative can touch me while this aura is glowing. If I become more scared or have a negative thought, I make it glow brighter and warmer. It pushes the negative thoughts/feelings away, and I’m safe again. I even make this aura when I’m doing a cleansing bath. I make it so that the negativity that leaves my body can’t touch me again, even though I’m in the bath water with it. Then the negativity gets flushed down the drain with the water and I let my shield down (see my cleansing bath ritual post). I also have protective jewelry I wear (see my post on amulets, charms, and talismans).
Church of the Morningstar 