One of the questions I get from new witchlings is how they can know their protection spells are good enough. It’s a really important question to address. We all want to feel safe. It’s one of the things we need in order to survive. Our safety needs to be secure so we can flourish. But if you’re not sure on how good your protections are then things can get dicey.

But how DO you determine how strong your protection spells are? There’s not a device you can purchase that will do it for you and you’ll probably want to make sure that things are up to snuff before some big bad comes along.

Here’s three ways to test those protection spells of yours. Some might be doable right now as you sip your cup of coffee and others may need you to tap a friend.

 

 

Read up on others’ spells

This might seem like a weird suggestion to start off with but it’s actually the most useful one on the whole list.

Reading what other practitioners are doing may inspire you to add, alter, or adjust your protection spells to accommodate situations you may have never even heard of. Reading about their spells and techniques means you can hone your own abilities and spells to be as best as you can be.

There’s a second part to this. You should also read up on people’s curses and hexes. Let’s be completely honest here – people are going to curse other people. It’s been happening since the dawn of humanity and it will continue to happen until the dusk of it. You can elect not to use curses in your own practice but that’s not going to stop people from cursing you if they want to curse you.

So reading up on the potential curses they might use will help you program your spells against those curses. It’s a preventative measure that every practitioner, no matter who they are, might want to consider in their protection spells.

 

 

Set up an emergency protection kit

You know those storm kits or bug out bags you’re suppose to have? You know the one that contains food, water, and a whole bunch of stuff in case there’s some emergency or terrible storm? You can set one up for witchcraft too.

An emergency protection kit should include ingredients for protection spells, cleansing spells, and banishing spells. Everything should be prepared as much as it can be in advanced.

Use plastic bottles, even through they’re not as pretty as your glass. They’re not breakable, they’re lightweight, and you probably won’t damage much you need to hurl it at a spirit. I find the plastic spice jars are perfect for this. One container each for protection, banishing, and cleansing.

Handmade cone incense might be fantastic on the altar but shitty stick incense can be held, waved around, and stabbed into just about any relatively soft material to make it stand still (a cake, mud, rice, sand, etc.). Plus it’s cheap so you don’t need to be shy about using a bunch of it. Aim for one incense scent that can be used in all three scenario’s. I like Sandalwood but use whatever works for you.

Tealight candles are absolutely perfect for this. They’re short lasting but they have their own metal holders so you don’t have to deal with wax everywhere. Which is good because when shit goes down, who’s got the time to handle spilling wax?

Print out your spells. Even if you’re into handwriting all your spells out, type up the spells for these situations (just select a few; one or two for protection, banishing, and cleansing)

Throw in a quartz crystal, a cheap pendulum, a lighter, some string, a small bottle of water, and maybe a bell and you’re ready for all kinds of situations. I keep all of this in a zipper pouch in my witch kit but sticking it in a drawer works just as well. It saves time and you’re less likely to waste your more expensive ingredients when you’re in a hurry.

 

 

Write out your strengths and weaknesses

if you’re very self-aware, you probably can identify some strengths and weaknesses in your practice. I known mine, for example. Do you know yours?

If you don’t, try to come up with some. If you can’t, ask some friends what they think your personal weaknesses and strengths are and see how that compares to your practice. Sometimes they’re related.

Knowing what your weak at means that you can compensate for them and you can play to your strengths. Ideally, you should try and keep a balance but that’s not always easy.

 

 

Test them directly

Depending on what you’re protecting, you can go about this in a few ways.

If you’re alone and aiming to test household protections, leave the building and hurl a spell at it. Try a curse or some energy manipulations. See what happens. Since you’re the one casting the spell, you’ll be able to know what spell to unravel and dispel in case your protections fail.

If you have spirit friends, they can test your personal and household protections. Depending on what kind of protections you have set up, they may not even be able to pass through your protection spells, thus proving them effective. If they fail, your spirit friends may be able to offer advice or assistance in altering the spells.

If you have witchy friends, you can use them in a similar way as above to test your household and personal protection spells. How? Host a Faux Hex War or Faux Curse War. Also known as a witch war.

A curse of hex war is just like it sounds – it’s a war fought with curses and hexes. They can get nasty very quickly, especially when there’s more than two practitioners involved. Usually the ultimate goal is to destroy the other practitioner’s protections and damage them. Why? Who knows. Reasons vary. Maybe they don’t like each other personally or they’re morally opposed to something. People fight for lots of reasons.

Ideally, faux curse or hex wars will work similarly. Faux curse or hex wars will have you throwing out curses (or other damaging spells) at a specific target. Your target should deflect them and if that doesn’t happen, then you cease your attack and offer the counter-curse (or tell them what spell you used so they can counter it). Then they’ll do the same for you.

Some practitioners of this will specify what spells can and cannot be used, to be gain control in case one of the participants isn’t as trustworthy as others wish they were. It’s also a great way to test offensive spells. It’s something of a game and can be a lot of fun.

(By the way, you don’t need to use offensive spells. You can use witch wars to bless people too.)

 

 

If you feel you’re really, truly protected, then you’re probably safe. Sometimes overdoing protection spells will cause you to miss out on wonderful spirit opportunities. If you’re looking to talk to faeries or work with spirits, then making your house Fort Knox isn’t going to be very welcoming to them, is it?

But, it’s better to know what you can do to make yourself safe in case you feel like you need it. I hope you never do.

Inspired by my tumblr post here.