(Offering loaf from a few years ago, made with lees from a batch of mead I made for ritual purposes.)
HAGGING OUT - PROTECTION / VENERATION
My protection spellwork originally started with whatever my elders taught me to do. I think that's true for most of us; our grandma taught us a prayer and we would say it without really understanding the words, mimicking her folded hands. Over the years, I've done all the candles, colours, directions and rhymes, but when it comes to protection spells, I am invariably doing a form of inter-generational veneration through what I was taught by my family.
It was my lodgemother who taught me the sigil I put on every door when I move into a new home - I used to put it in ink, but now I use sea water and a feather, or my finger, always on the north doors and windows, and I leave the south free.
There's eggshells crushed to powder, drawn in a sigil I was taught by a great aunt. This one sits under the carpet of our foyer and it keeps wickedness at bay. The aunt from the other side of my family taught me about haint-blue - the colour applied to porches on the ceiling in the south, to mimic water and keep bad spirits out of the house. And so I've finally found just the right colour and that will be on the ceiling by winter.
I leave the spiderwebs in the corners of my house alone, and we are rather diligent about escorting them elsewhere if we find spiders trespassing. In my house, Spider warns me of intruders or danger - if I dream about them, it's a warning. And so, I let them be for the most part. Sometimes I open the window so a few midges fly in to keep their larders well stocked if we have any spiders along the windows - especially if there's been a particularly timely warning.
Everywhere in my house is a charm of protection, warding, good fortune, uncrossing and harmony. And each of those things was taught to me by an elder who gave me wisdom and felt I was important enough to tell me how to protect myself against things other people laughed at. I honestly spent a lot of time wracking my brains, trying to figure out what practice I could possibly highlight, when I have been given so many. I can't write about any one thing - my whole house is a warded, safe space because I've an army of ancestors and genius loci who have all made it so, due to years of symbiosis and collaboration.
So, my theme for protection isn't any spell for protection directly, but definitely keeps the protection going, and imo strengthens it. I can have dreams about spiders, but it was my mum's friends (her brothers and dad were all cops) who taught us to saw down a broom handle to put into the sliding door to keep outsiders from being able to force them open.
My protection spell is strengthened every Halloween - because that's the year I set my altar for my Blessed Dead, and thank them for everything they taught me. And their love strengthens the wards in return.
Outside, in the waning moon, there's a small dram of local whisky in a sturdy glass for the spirit of place. It is just another offering of gratitude for the privilege of living here, and the protection we have been given in these plague years. It is a simple thing, and maybe not as showy as High Magic, but it is heartfelt and very effective. It must be, because I'm still here, safe, and sound.
