Of Chimes And Wards, Part I

My Spiritual Alarm System.

Yesterday I finally got around to accomplishing something I’d meant to accomplish since I first got to my little space in Missouri: I cleansed and warded my room. I had planned to do it on Saturday, but a series of disturbing dreams Wednesday and Thursday and the burning desire to just get it done prompted me to spend my Thursday evening planning and preparing for the ritual. Then, a surprise two hours of free time Friday morning (weather caused the cancelation of my unit’s PT) allotted me the time to actually perform it. This was not my first attempt at cleansing an area, and in fact constituted a much smaller scale cleansing than my first, but it was the first time that I tried to set up a semi-permanent ward. I’m calling it semi-permanent because I built it to last for the duration of my time here, but also plan to dismantle it when I leave so that my energy doesn’t interfere with whoever uses this room after me.

The burning desire to get this done as soon as possible began Wednesday with merely a spark that slowly progressed into a full-fledged burning. I won’t go into the details of my dreams, but suffice it to say they left me with a growing unease and the awareness of lots of bad juju floating around. I didn’t want to live in that kind of negativity, and it was causing me undue stress. Ergo, cleansing. I decided to build a ward (and by “ward” I mean a standalone protective spell/barrier to prevent any unwanted entity from entering what is now *my* space) because my current roommate has a lot of—shall we say—presence about her that I don’t really want crossing my threshold uninvited. I also don’t like her boyfriend. He’s weird.

That one’s coming from me, and I’m nothing if not eccentric.

Anywho, I designed my little spell around several concepts: briars and brambles, which I’ve always found to be one of Mother Nature’s most elegant barriers; clinking chimes, which I made myself several months ago but had yet to employ in a folkloric capacity [more on wind chimes and their history here]; and, of course, visualization. I’ll post a full outline of the ritual in my next entry. For now, I’ll continue to explain my theories behind what I did.

I had made the chimes using natural materials as much as possible: metal wire, mostly of the copper sort; sandstone colored yarn; seashells, of various sizes and shapes, which I had collected at the beach over the years; nuggets of carnelian, jade, green jasper, blue-lace agate, clear quartz, coral, and real turquoise (not dyed howlite); beads made from copper, glass, bone, and wood; and natural rice pearls. I employed several different knotting and braiding techniques while weaving the yarn around the wire frame and to connect the web of clinking shells and beads that comprised the chimes. While making them, low these several months, I burned incense and focused on protective, positive energy. Every material I used (with the exception of the wire and the yarn, for obvious reasons), I used in numbers that have a certain significance: three, five, seven, thirteen, and some multiples thereof. What can I say? I have a thing for prime numbers, and I fully disagree with the cult of thirteen as unlucky.

The chimes have been hanging on the handle of the door to my room—just as they are depicted in the photograph above—since I first unpacked them. However, I had not consecrated them to their purpose (ward away evil spirits, alert me to the presence of anything crossing the threshold, etc) until yesterday. They simply hung there, looking very primeval and mystic, and making a slight jingle whenever I opened the door. Nevertheless, now my chimes are thoroughly aware of their purpose, as I formally charged them with it as part of my warding ritual. All of this description was in an effort to explain part of the spell, as it incorporated having hand-made chimes as a spiritual alarm system. The ritual could easily be adapted—just alter the wording—to account for gifted or purchased wind chimes, or else excluding the chimes entirely.

Thus, I feel all accomplished and witchy right now. I haven’t felt anything trying to invade yet, but between Gregory the Gargoyle, my juniper berry perimeter (don’t worry, no pets or small children here, so the berries are at no risk to poisoning anything except bad juju), and my impenetrable bramble barrier, I feel quite protected when in my room. Expect the recipe for my room cleansing & warding ritual in a few hours! Blessed be.