House/property Shields ritual and spell

As I poke around facebook one of the biggest things I keep seeing are people asking for help getting things out of their house, or having to smudge constantly, something bad in my kids room, people sending bad curses or energy their way, etc. 

One of the first things I learned as a child was how to shield.  One of the first spells I was taught to write was for protection over my entire room.  The entire wiccan circle thing; a religious representation of shielding a personal workspace; never heard of that till I was well over 25 and my first thought was – WHY?  If you are in your house, that is “obviously” already shielded, what are you building the second shield against?  Perception is a funny thing.

If you move or directly engage with energy and especially other people (like I’m doing right now with you the reader) you need to have your shield game on and up and running as if it was just as important as cleaning out the fridge.

I do my home and property shielding about once a month with my new moon ritual.  It’s my sit and reflect over the last 28 days, and get ready for the next 28 days moment.  Boost the shields, maybe redo the prosperity bowl, and some self love in the dark of the moon when the gamma is lowest.

This year, 2024, I decided to write up house shields 101 and create a ritual with a visual representation of the shield work.  I wrote this ritual for you all.  Mine is personal and intricate with my ancestors and the elements so wouldn’t be appropriate and actually the reason I haven’t done one of these before.   

I work heavily with the elements and see them as a representation of the 4th dimensional beings (spirits).  Shield work is an excellent way to build bonds and friendships with these types of spirits, as it includes all of them. It is really sort of a low grade spell with general intent and easy for smaller elements to handle on the day to day.  I consider this high magic as you are requesting assistance from outside yourself.  In this case ancestors and elements. 

I performed this ritual on Jan 11th after 7am, the first “day” of the new moon for the year.  You can do this ritual whenever you feel you need it, want it, or are “feeling” your energy and in the mood to ask spirit for help.

I have a large glass bowl that will be my vessel.  This bowl fits neatly under my working alter.  I suggest you find a bowl or container that is open topped or see through so you can boost your shields and see your components as a reminder.  I suggest a re-read and a shield boost at least once a month.  You don’t have to do the entire ritual again, just get out the container and read the spell again.

My components –
5 pieces of origami paper (6” square paper)
Pen for inking runes and shield on paper and bay leaf – mine is glass and I use different colored inks, but you can just pick a favorite writing tool
Water for dipping ink pen – Collected on full moon, Dec 2018 Ursids meteor shower winter solstice. 
Rosemary - Protection
Red Peppers – collected for Yule each year – protection and Winter Solstice power (black pepper works just as well just without the ancestorial connection of my ingredients)
Water from my properties – if you don’t have open water, get some out of the faucet.
Rose (my mother’s Rose bush, pick something with ancestor attachment meaning for you)
Black Tourmaline - protection
Bay leaf – ancestorial power tree. 
Red candle (if you don’t already have one representing your elements or on your alter) – Representing fire. 
​
I started by writing the spell (provided below).
I chose four runes to make my shield representation from. 
Othila – Earth – Homeland and family
Algiz – Air – Protection
Thurisaz – Fire – Strength
Hagalaz – Ice – Weapons of War
I combined these together to create my shield.  See image below.
 
I dipped my ink pen and drew a rune from each element onto a piece of paper, the fifth piece being an image of the combined runes to make the shield.
 
I then took each paper and folded it into a crow’s head except the last full shield paper, which I folded into a crown.  The representation at the end will be of four crow heads surrounding a crown.   You don’t have to fold the paper, or you can fold it into something more meaningful for you.  I just thought a murder of crows would be a great representation for protection, home and ancestorial family.
 
I meditated and connected to my power and the universe in alignment with my beliefs, you do you here.
 
I then started to read the spell slowly, adding first the shield, then my crows, slowly adding the materials to the bowl.  I read the spell four times, once for each element.  I dripped red wax over the entire bowl.
 
I meditated for an additional 30 minutes as my alter candles burned out.
 
I will repeat this shielding every new moon, or when I feel the need.  

** note - these images were done and staged for you. These are not images of my finished protection bowl, only the parts in the bowl. The crow is not part of my shield, just an example for the photo. I highly suggest you NOT share your shield bowl as it's a personal item.
​