This article is a companion to my article "Wards 101", which was published in the February `96 edition of Rainbow Wind Magazine. "Wards 101" is concise, reasonably well-written, and contains all the information you need to ward yourself and your home and to consecrate and maintain a household guardian.

I felt the need to further comment on psychic self-defense after the following recent incident: some good friends of mine who are new to Paganism decided not to become the students of a Pagan teacher after finding out that he had a horrendous reputation in the Community as a lecher (dirty old, or not-so-old man) and sexual predator. He was quite upset about this, and continued to telephone them. They contacted me reporting "bad, creepy feelings", weird dreams, and similar symptoms, and openly wondered if they were under psychic attack! Considering the character of the individual in question, that was a distinct possibility. In any case, I helped them ward their home and set up a household guardian, showed them how to build up the natural psychic protection in their own auras. So they wouldn't forget, I sent them a copy of "Wards 101"!

The Elk (Elhaz, Algiz) rune works very well in warding and psychic self-defense. It looks like an upside-down Peace Symbol without the circle! A charged amulet with this rune (best painted red) can work wonders for your personal barriers and peace of mind. For extra OOMPH! the rune Thurisaz (Thorn) works too, but be careful--see my "Rune-of-the-Month Club" article on that particular rune. A safer, but highly effective alternative is to add visualized "mirrors" facing away from your living space to your wards. Set them to return any negative sendings to their maker.

Try to stay away from places with negative psychic atmospheres as much as possible. These include family and bankruptcy courts, mental hospitals, sleazy bars, criminal hangouts, and any other places where great human suffering occurs. When you must be in such places, keep your barriers up. By the way, according to my friend Thorr Sheil, when such places are abandoned or converted to other uses, the negative charge decays gradually in a "half-life" pattern, just like radioactive elements! Avoid negative people, too! Why bother to ward your home if you are going to invite Mr. or Ms. Naughty Spellbook Commando over to your place for dinner? The wards won't work - you invited those nasty people in!

Try to keep your home reasonably clean and neat. Physical dirt can attract psychic garbage. Psychic goop often collects in the same places as "dustbunnies"! Rosemary and/or Hawthorn dispel negativity. Put them in corners and under furniture. Replace them after every vacuuming.

Your own attitude has a lot to do with your psychic self-defense and well-being. If you think you're hexed, you are! If some Spellbook Commandos (you know the type; they think they are great magicians but pretty much operate out of what they read in cheap spellbooks) say they are going to hex you, or have hexed you, laugh in their faces. Laughter is a great hex-breaker! So is grasping an iron object.

The aforementioned Thorr Sheil (PO Box 080437, Staten Island, NY 10308-0005 USA) has a number of very nice psychic self defense spells. Here are just a couple, slightly modified by my own experience:

1. Jernstang: take a large iron or steel nail or a railroad spike. Hold it and fill it with blue light. Invoke Thor and ask that justice be done. Tell who you are angry at and why. When charged, pound it into the ground near the miscreant's home or place of business. WARNING: be sure you are in the right, or you'll get some nasty backfire!

2. Blowback: to "fix" malicious gossippers. On a windy night, mix flour, salt and pepper in your left hand. Think of the problem and call on Thor for help. Open the window or back door and say three times: "Against ill winds and ill words, Thor protect me!" Then blow the mixture into the wind. The troublemakers will soon be revealed for what they are and get a dose of their own medicine.

A good way to clean your own person psychically is to brew some nice rosemary tea and bathe in it.  Drinking a bit wouldn't hurt either if you are not pregnant.  For keeping your home astrally pleasant, clean it first and then strew rosemary in corners, around doors, and under furniture.  Then smudge with your favorite purification herbs.  Rosemary does fine here too.  So does vervain, or a smudge stick.

As you can see, common sense and responsible living form the basis for psychic self-defense. Magick to supplement this is not difficult. The Universe maintains a balance. Psychic attacks are among the hardest sort of magick to do, and the easiest to deflect. This should come as no surprise. If psychic attacks were easy, we'd probably not be here - all our ancestors would have all been hexed to death centuries ago! Most people who know enough magick to effectively launch a strong psychic attack know better than to do so except for the gravest of reasons - like someone murdering one of your friends or relatives but getting off on a technicality. Responsible magicians don't launch a psychic attack on someone for letting their dog "poop" in their yards or other such trivialities. In such a case, it makes a lot more sense to just call the police or the Health Department, and maybe try warding your yard in such a way that the dog won't want to cross your property line!

The late occultist Dion Fortune wrote a book entitled Psychic Self Defense. It's still in print, and you might want to check it out as well!