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This week’s theme is fighting. Start with Direct Magick Fundamentals: Fighting With Magick.
Don’t think of shielding as a wall surrounding you. A wall doesn’t let you see what’s happening on the other side. A wall can be scaled or tunneled through, and you’ll be caught by surprise. A wall isn’t good shielding.
Good shielding has 3 goals:
- Make incoming connections obvious to you
- Slow attacks down so you can respond
- Make you less noticeable to attackers
Don’t Visualize A White Shell
Google “Psychic shielding.” You’ll get a lot of variations of “visualize a white light surrounding you.” The white light is energy you’re sending out to keep attackers at bay.
It’s bad shielding.
- Energy doesn’t help you notice attacks. Worse, the noise from the additional energy makes it harder to notice connections.
- Energy will only stop a novice. Anyone good will force disruptive energy directly into your mind, bypassing the energy shell.
- Sending out energy makes you more obvious. Which means more attackers. Epic. Fail.
Active Shielding
Shielding isn’t about stopping attacks. It’s about slowing them down so you can respond. Being aware of incoming connections, and ready to resist them, is the best shielding I know.
To shield a connection, fill it with your awareness. Just look at it, think about grabbing it or entering it. Keep it in your thoughts.
Anyone using the connection will have to push you out. It’s obvious. And having your awareness there means you’re ready to respond.
Remember, it’s awareness, not energy. Energy is noisy and obvious. Don’t flood your connection with energy.
Maintaining Shielding
Maintaining awareness of your connections doesn’t happen overnight. It takes practice, and a series of exercises building up to a constant, relaxed alertness.
First, get comfortable placing your awareness in a few connections while you’re totally focused on it. Then, place your awareness in your connections (while you’re focused) and maintain it while you do a simple task, like driving or cooking. Then start while you’re distracted with that simple task, finding the connections and becoming aware of them.
Then build up on 2 fronts:
- Distraction. Increase the complexity of the task (reading, talking, etc) while maintaining awareness in your connections.
- Completeness. Increase the number and type (see below) of connections you are protecting.
Build up slowly over a few months, doing a few short sessions each day, while you practice whatever else you are learning.
When I first learned shielding, I was only aware of basic magick connections. The kind you make to systems or spirits.
Some attacks snuck in by using other kinds of connections:
- Connections to the physical area (“physical connections”)
- Connections using my mental signature (“mental connections”)
- Connections along the energy layers of either mental or physical
You’ll eventually want to maintain awareness in those connections, too. I say “eventually” because you need to start working in those domains before you can shield them. I couldn’t shield physical connections until I learned energy healing, for example. So keep shielding in mind as you learn other magick skills.
Other posts in this series:- Fighting With Magick (March 17, 2010)
- Blocking a Magick Attack (March 20, 2010)
- Effective Energy Attacks (March 23, 2010)
- Effective Psychic/Magickal Shielding (March 31, 2010)
- Fighting for Ritual Mages (April 3, 2010)
- Bypassing Magickal Shields (Advanced Direct Magick) (April 6, 2010)
Tags: Protection/Safety