As we saw in the last article being cursed, although rare, can happen either by design or accident. As an example impatient people in a queue can inadvertently ‘curse’ someone ahead of them by looking at the back of their heads and ‘transmitting’ thoughts such as “Get a move on” or “You’re so slow” via the eyes to the sensitive area of the head. These insidious suggestions work at a subconscious level to undermine the persons sense of self confidence and well-being to cause anything from headaches to panic attacks.

The best defence against this sort of unintentional attack is to have a good self image and positive outlook in the first place. Meditation can also help both to steady your own mind, and be aware of thoughts or emotions that may come from an exterior source. Happiness and optimism also create a powerful shield against any negative transmissions since both line of sight telepathy and curses work on a resonance principle. The more negativity a person has or uses the greater impact a curse will have on them.

In magick the first person affected by a spell is the person who casts it. This is an excellent reason to stay away from practicing what you perceive as negative magick, particularly if you believe in the existence of payback for negative actions – the idea of ‘Karma’ as perceived by many people today. If someone holds this belief and uses maleficent magick it gives a powerful anchor for any counters or curses aimed at them to latch on to and work to full effect via a subconscious guilt complex.

The idea that if a curse cannot be attached to a person it rebounds on the person who sent it is enshrined in old stories and modern films and TV programs. But the simple precaution of using an instruction/command that “If this curse should be reversed the energy shall disperse. With benefit to all and harm to none” seems to sidestep that lore rather nicely. Techniques of self purification can also be used to stop the spell being bounced back but can leave a cloud of negativity that can attach itself to a person or place that was not the intended target.

Personal protection by visualising yourself surrounded by white light or a protective circle/sphere is known by most people who are familiar with magickal matters. However, many of them put far too much faith in the effectiveness of this technique thinking that it will stop any attack no matter what the source or their own mental state. This may have been true in the days of classical magick where everyone tended to learn the same sort of techniques and mindset/worldview but in the 20th century magick took on a more scientific approach. Atavistic magick, Chaos magick, and Psyonics were all developed by deconstructing traditional techniques and combining it with the latest discoveries from quantum physics, biology, and psychology.

Radionics, which was developed as a distant healing system based on dowsing principles, seems to be particularly effective at bypassing traditional defences. Fortunately, like Tai Chi, this system is used almost exclusively for healing and people who know how to use it for antagonistic purposes are very much in the minority. The best way to avoid attracting their attention is to stay off their radar by not making yourself a tempting target.

This is one of the main principles of psychic protection: don’t make yourself a target in the first place. Usually people are targeted for a reason; such as being perceived as a threat, or deliberately or accidentally upsetting someone. The most common reason for psychic attack I have come across is being part of a magickal group that then breaks up because of internal tensions. In the past many famous ‘magickal duels’ have been fought between members of mystical Lodges when differences of opinion arose, resulting in poltergeist phenomena and hauntings of the people involved. This was in addition to court action and defamation in print! I can’t help thinking that a copy of Dale Carnegies’ book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” should be among the required reading for any Coven.

Amulets and protective thoughtforms are effective against most low-level magickal attacks that, unless you have really upset an experienced Mage, is all you will need. There are many ways of making these using easily available ingredients in addition to the traditional methods. I am a particular fan of integrating protective herbs extracting and energising their essence by immersing them in alcohol which, being Martian in nature, also boosts their protective powers. The container housing the mixture can also be used to shape and direct the energy raised by the mixture, any ritual done, and by the effect on the mind that its appearance causes.

The best example I can show of this is how I prepared some of the protection bottles looking after our home and the cat pen where our familiar lives. One of them is a sake bottle from Japan in the shape of a Samurai warrior; the others are Superhero shampoo bottles. On Beltain (Mayday) I purified them, packed them with fresh flowering rosemary from the garden having explained to the plant what I wanted it for. Then I filled the two Superhero bottles with vodka and the Japanese one with single malt, sealed the tops of all the bottles with epoxy putty, and placed them on a mirror tile between two other mirrors facing each other.

They were also surrounded by nine red charged candles that would empower the bottles as they burnt down. The aim being that the infinite reflections of the candles, and the energy they released, would be multiplied and focussed on the containers laser-like making them fully-fledged spell bottles. This in itself makes them powerful amulets but the symbolism of the bottles enabled me to invoke the essence of the characters they were shaped after and attach it to the appropriate bottle. With the rise in the number of spiders in our back garden and bats being spotted in the front one I think the empowerment has been successful.

With simple protection techniques such as those outlined above you can significantly cut down on external sources of bad luck. Also becoming more positive in outlook and behaviour will also make you less of a target for any intentional malevolence and any that does come your way will have nothing to work with and thus have no effect.