Have you heard of the three rings of magickal protection? This is a technique that I learned from Terry Riley when I was a baby Pagan, and it has stuck with me since. I love sharing it because it is unique and can be easy to do.
If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, or seen me lead a workshop, you’ve probably heard me say that protection is the bread and butter of energetic work. It also goes hand in hand with cleansing. If you do a cleansing, it is recommended to follow that cleansing up with protection work. his helps to ensure that the space you just cleansed stays that way. Protection work is not going to last forever, you will have to redo it at some point, but it will help ensure your space stays purified longer.
I recommend protection work to people on an almost daily basis. I believe that it is smart to be protected as much as possible – when you’re at home and when you are out and about. There are many, many ways to protect yourself, your car, your loved ones and your home or workspace. The technique I am talking about today is a magickal shield that I use mainly on my home, but it can also be used wherever you need it.
What do You Need for This Protection?
You do not need any supplies or items for this protection technique. This is one of the reasons that I like it. What you will need is to be able to manipulate energy and be able to visualize or be able to talk yourself through the steps.
Visualization and energy work are key parts of magick. I am still reeling from the fact that not everyone has a constant inner dialogue and that not everyone can visualize. My mind feels like a constant loop of inner dialogue and imagining scenarios in my head. But for those of you who cannot visualize, you can still do this technique. One thing you can do is focus on your other senses to help you paint a picture in your mind. Or instead of trying to see something in your mind’s eye, read or speak a detailed description of whatever it is you are trying to envision.
Tips for Getting Started
I typically teach this technique the way that I do it. It’s the way I am most familiar with, and I’m confident that it works that way. However, I am not you. Please feel free to take this idea and make it your own. We’ll talk about that more in a later section. To explain this technique, I am going to use the example of building the three rings of protection around your home.
It is generally easier and more accurate to build this shield while at home. For one, it is usually easier to manipulate energy in the area that you are in than it is to try and manipulate energy from across town. Being at home also gives you a very good idea of where your property lines are or where you want to specifically shield. If building a shield or manipulating energy is new to you, or you have trouble visualizing, then being able to go outside and look at your home can also be very helpful.
If you are worried that your energy shields won’t last long, you can try anchoring your shields to items around your home. You can use something like a fence, tree, or other immoveable objects to help hold your shields.
If you are new to energy work, or you’re out of practice, setting and holding a shield this large is going to require your attention. Once you set your shields up, you will want to spend some time, as often as possible, reminding yourself that they are there and visualizing them. The more you get used to working with energy and creating shields, the easier it will be to set them up and forget them for the time being. However, all shields and energetic barriers will be have to be renewed at some point.
Set the Stage
Cleansing your home before doing this is never a bad idea, but it is not required. Sometimes when I reset this shield, I like to walk my property line and cleanse it. That is often more work than I want to do, but it does make my shield feel a little crisper, if that makes sense.
Now that you are ready, take a few moments to ground and center. After you have grounded and centered, if you like, say a prayer to your deities and/or ancestors. Tell them what you are doing, tell them why if you have a specific need, and ask them for their help. If you work with your local land spirits, you may also want to let them know what you are doing and ask for their help as well.
When I do this, I also like to pull energy up from the earth and energy down from the heavens. I use these energies to enhance my own personal energy and put more power into the shield.
How to Build the Three Rings of Protection
To begin, visualize (or describe to yourself) a large black bubble completely encasing your home. This black bubble should go all the way around your home, above it, and underneath it. If you live in a building, your shield may likely end up cutting through your neighbor’s ceiling or upper corners. Normally I would advise against doing energy work on someone else’s property, but in this case, it can’t be helped. If you live in a freestanding structure like a house or trailer, you don’t have to worry about your energy shield being on someone else’s property. But you still want to make sure that your bubble goes under your home, so it will cut into the ground. This is the first ring of protection.
Under your black shield, envision a brown shield. This will be a second bubble, located underneath and inside of the black bubble. The brown shield is the second ring of protection. The third and final ring of protection is a white bubble inside the brown bubble. All three of these layers stack on top of each other and completely encase your home.
Okay, but Why?
This is a question I sometimes get when teaching this shielding technique. Perhaps it does sound like overkill. But there is a method to the madness. Three layers of shields or three layers of protection are better than one. But the different layers also act like filters.
The first ring, the black bubble, is a protective energetic barrier. This ring is going to take the most hits and is going to do the most work. Black is the color we use most often for protection and hiding. The black layer is going to shield and hide your home from unwanted energies. However, it is always possible that something gets through. That is what the other two layers are for.
The second ring, the brown one, is a filter. Brown is not a color that gets a lot of attention in the spiritual world, but it is a very useful tool. Brown is a color associated with stability and grounding. If energy works its way through your first ring, when it comes into contact with the brown ring, the brown layer can help ground the energy. The brown ring of protection can, if used properly, send that energy down into the earth where the earth will recycle the energy and put it to use elsewhere. Brown is also associated with transformation. If energy comes through the black ring, the brown ring can also filter and change the energy.
The third ring, the white layer, is there to make sure that negative energy does not make it into your home. Once energy moves past the brown ring where it has been filtered and changed, it comes into contact with the final white ring of protection. White is a color that boasts a lot of associations including protection and blessings. Any energy that makes it to your white ring has been made neutral by the brown ring. if that energy makes it through your white shield to your home, that energy has now been transformed from unwanted, negative or malicious to at worst neutral energy and at best a positive blessing.
Create Your Own Three Rings of Protection
You have now read through my technique for building the Three Rings of Protection. But as I said earlier, feel free to make it your own. I like to build my shields from the top inward. I don’t know why, that’s just how my brain works. But if it makes more sense for you to build from the inside out, then go for it.
I like the color combination of black, brown, and white. If you don’t, feel free to experiment and see what colors work best for you. You can even test using different elements in your shields. Perhaps one layer is watery and another one more airy.
Different situations call for different shield types. You may want to create your three rings of power so that no energy, whether good or bad, can get through. You can also create your shields in a semi-permeable way. These shields allow specific types of energy in. They’re targeted for ill-intent but allow psychic input from beings and spaces that are not malevolent. These are useful for shared spaces where you do wish to connect with others. If you follow my instructions to the letter, you are creating a semi-permeable shield.
Practice Safe Hex!
Now you have everything you need to create your own Three Rings of Protection. You’ve learned the how-to’s as well as the why fors. If you are interested, you can take this protection technique and use it as a personal shield or try shielding your car with it. I have found that this technique is a bit bulky for my tastes when it comes to personal shields or shielding something that moves, like a car. I typically only use this on my home and stores, but give it a try. Play with the shielding layers, see what works best and what feels right to you.
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