Wards

I realize now, long after the fact of course, that I forgot to mention in the Grounding and Centering post that it was essentially my reaction to Chapter 2 of Trance-Portation. (Remember, I’m working through the book and using this blog as my “journaling” exercise as recommended by Mrs. Paxson) To recap Chapter 2 briefly before moving on: my reaction to the chapter on basic psychic readiness techniques is that I already do those things; I just do them under a different name.

I will add to that something which I did not bring up last time: my house needs wards. Physical ones, I’m thinking, since I already do so much work in Talismanry and it makes sense to cash in on that skill whenever possible. Of course, this means getting supplies, then making the wards with those supplies, then purifying everything, then doing a full blown ritual to set the wards in place. It probably also means starting some sort of tradition of offering to whatever Netjeri end up inhabiting the wards. There is a lot that goes into something like this.

But I don’t think I need all of that merely to begin the work outlined in this book. The shrine room has been properly consecrated and dedicated—given the shift in energy of just entering that space, I know it is well protected enough to give me a safe place to begin trance practices even if I wouldn’t be comfortable doing the same in my living room—so I’ll go that route for now and take my time to do the wards properly.

Still, I thought it might be interesting for people to see exactly how I’m going to go about the warding process, so I decided to write a few posts about it. This is the initial “brainstorming” type post and I’ll occasionally post updates as I work through the stages of actually making this vision manifest.

First, I’ll start with what I mean when I say “wards”—in this case, I’m talking about specific, carefully crafted objects which can act as vessels for protective spirits (Netjeri) who will be tasked with defending my home and keeping its unseen spaces clean in exchange for offerings of some sort. There are other ways of going about warding, but many of them require a lot more dedicated time and personal energy to be spent maintaining them (sometimes weekly or even daily refreshing is required depending on how the ward has been set up and its relative staying power). I also like the idea of having some friendly and protective Netjeri around: my goal here is not to empty my house of the unseen, but to make the unseen part of my home more comfortable. I fully intend on working with spirits throughout my trance work explorations, so it makes sense to have a few allies around in case something goes wrong, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Planning is critical when going about major things like permanent wards. It helps to define one’s goals and then build one’s process around those goals. First, I’ll start with the obvious goals arising from the problems I’m trying to solve:

Goals

1. Keep my blessed (but still nosy and oblivious) dead out of the bedroom and away from the hallway in front of the bedroom so I can sleep at night.
2. Chase out the little unseen critters that like to play with the white noise of the fans and mess with random things.
3. Defend against the larger unseen things that occasionally show up when mystical work is done outside the shrine room.
4. Keep out the energies from other apartments.
5. Help get rid of the damn spiders. (Seriously. I have a dedicated dust-buster for spider removal and I have to use it daily despite the building having been sprayed on numerous occasions)

Then there are the things I intuitively want to make sure I consider when coming up with my design options because it makes me feel more comfortable and at ease when things are structured in such a way:

1. As I already mention several times, I definitely want to go with inhabited wards. Specifically, I want friendly ally spirits who are well aware that they are more or less “employed” to protect my home. (And will be “paid” through some sort of reasonable set of offerings). Companionship is a bonus for both of us, and I should hope that they would see it that way too and enjoy being around the house as much as I hope to enjoy having them around.
2. I would like said ally spirits to work together throughout the home space rather than having “domains” and/or being tied to specific areas. (ie, I don’t want to designate one as the kitchen spirit because I want a long term relationship with these beings and what do I do if I move into dorms for grad school and suddenly don’t have a kitchen? Or worse, we end up in a studio apartment and suddenly there isn’t enough space for them to each have a “domain” even if the domains are non-specific)
3. I also want them to have some autonomy and be able to express their personalities and interact with me and my guests. I don’t want them to be objects or mechanisms. I don’t want them to be servants who can only speak when spoken to. I want them to be members of the family.

My ideas based on the above:

I think I’d be best off creating a system of wards, inhabited collectively, and not individual wards inhabited individually. This does several things: it removes the tendency for wards to be “domain” driven and encourages the right types of spirits to apply for the job, aka spirits willing to work as part of a team effort and who don’t feel an overwhelming need to “claim” physical space. I don’t mind if they claim items in the house. In fact, I’d be thrilled if they, say, took an interest in managing the tarot cards or decided that one prefers to work with windows and another would rather mind the doors. I think that would go a long way toward encouraging the sort of autonomy and personality I’m hoping for.

Along that same line of thinking, it would also help to have some central focus for the system, perhaps a sort of altar where I could leave their offerings for them or speak to them in general terms even if I don’t know specifically where they are at a given moment. The outer wards then, would not be "inhabited" so much as serve to communicate the boundaries of our space and act as guidelines rather than anchors. It would make sense to place them above doors and windows to show the edges of the home. It might be nice to still make them vessels as well as markers, though, to give the spirits places where they could curl up and rest when not active. That might help keep them from all ending up at the central altar. Sort of like their own version of a “living room” (the altar) and “bedrooms” (the outer wards). In that way, I suppose they could claim the wards as their own, but in a more generalized fashion and not dependant on the placement of the wards.

That central altar could also be where I let them know what I need them to do as well as where I give them offerings for doing those things. For example, maybe a small jar where I put my requests of them—I could write a note about the spiders, for instance, and trust that they would take care of it as best they could. For bigger issues and crisis situations, I might want to skip the jar and have some way to call an emergency meeting, maybe a little bell would do the trick.

 I should also create a sort of “contract” delineating what I expect of them and what they can expect of me in return, so everyone is clear on the terms of the relationship.  I should set out a few simple but firm rules for any spirit living in my space and how I intend to hold them accountable. For example: I need them to be friendly to my dead even as I ask them to firm about the boundaries of my bedroom. They could be a bit scary toward the dead if need be, but I would draw the line at them doing anything that would overtly hurt my dead. I would want them to be clear that I will personally handle any dead that won’t listen to them. That would take a bit of explaining to communicate, but the rule itself would be simple and clear: Don’t hurt any of my beloved dead for any reason.

 I should also list the things I am willing to do in return. Things like the food and drink offerings I can provide (breads, fruits, wines, water, etc…), other non-food offerings (flowers, incense, candles, etc…), gifts I can bring whenever I find them (such as smooth stones found along the river, feathers, collections of objects of certain colors, etc…), creative offerings I can make for them (drawings, beaded baubles, origami, etc…) and actions I am willing to perform (such as singing a song they like once a week or reciting poetry or doing a dance or some such).

It might also be worth the time to create some means for them to be able to communicate when they want to leave (for whatever reason) and give them a clear, no-hard-feelings way out (rather than them having to cause enough trouble to get dismissed). Maybe some sort of sign which we both know the meaning of and will allow me to react appropriately—though in addition to the sign, I should devise a way to confirm their intent so I don’t respond rashly to an accidental coincidence. Tarot cards are an obvious mechanism for confirming, but defining actual signs…that’s trickier. I would need it to be something odd enough that I’d notice but not so odd as to be outside the realm of their ability. Maybe having a set of options is the best route to take. Off the top of my head I can think of a few: multiple light bulbs burning out all at once, the repeated sounding of a wind chime placed in a corner with very little air current…something like that.

So now that I have a basic idea of what I’m doing, it’s off to make design sketches and figure out exactly how I’m going to make all of this work. :)

[An additional note: Yes, I have already talked to my Ahku about staying out the bedroom. It hasn't changed much because I think they have trouble telling the difference between "bedroom" and "rest of the house". Having one of the ward spirits herd them out of that space if they wander into it seems like a good solution. Maybe they'll get a sense for where it is eventually. In a broader sense, while I don't mind sharing my space with them, I do need my own space occasionally, and while most of them understand that, not all of them do. It is not my intent to have the ward spirits deal with this issue in my stead, but rather, to help enforce the decisions I make.]