A Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Protection: learn how to protect your energy

There are many ways to achieve spiritual protection and oftentimes this is a very misunderstood concept. So what is spiritual protection anyway?

It’s a way to protect your energy (vibration/frequency) by cleansing, banishing, or shielding. Spiritual protection is a form of spiritual hygiene. Think about it this way, when you don’t cleanse your body you will be funky, right? The same holds true in the unseen; our energies can get heavy when not regularly cleansed. This can cause you to feel sluggish, lazy, confused, or even in a state of anxiousness or panic. Maintaining your spiritual hygiene can also protect you from energy vampires and other malevolent spirits, as well as toxic energies (hexes, evil eyes, etc).

Who needs spiritual protection?

Everyone, but especially folks who consider themselves to be empaths or highly sensitive to energies, or are in a highly visible career (a celebrity or influencer). You might be thinking “I already pray so I’m protected” but I urge you to consider that if everyone who prayed was already fully protected, then nothing bad would ever happen to those people. Truth is, bad things happen even to good people. Prayer is amazing but in my opinion not enough, especially if you are sensitive to energies, live in a big city or with a lot of people, or work in a heavy energy kind of environment.

Energy is not good or bad; we determine how we use the energies within and around us. If someone has the intention to send you harm and their energy is more dominant than yours, then their negative intentions can cause you harm if you’re not shielded.

I’ll share some easy and quick ways to get you started; these are techniques I’ve used myself, among others. You can make your spiritual protection (spiritual hygiene) routine as simple or as complex as you’d like; it’s up to you. I also want to note that depending on your spiritual lineage, some items may not work for you, so do your research. Always try something and if it doesn’t work for you, try something else. Some spirits, for example, are unaffected by tools like Sage or Palo Santo. The more you amplify your spiritual protection work, the more experienced you’ll become with what works, depending on the circumstance.

Let me break down a way to spiritually protect yourself, according to the elements:

Water

Spiritual baths are my favorite way to use the water element for spiritual protection and cleansing. There are many different types of waters which can be used: Florida Water or other spiritual colognes, Holy Water, Moon Water, or herbal baths. Some folks even use rain or storm water for their rituals.

I have a small spray bottle that I carry with me which has Florida Water and Holy Water. I quickly spritz myself whenever I have a ‘heavy’ conversation or encounter, and I especially spritz myself upon entering my home. It’s a quick way to ‘sanitize’ my energy.

At least once per month I highly recommend taking a spiritual bath; you can soak in a bath tub, do a foot bath, or douse yourself in a prepared bath, if you don’t have a tub. The bitter repels and the sweet attracts, so use bitter herbs whenever you want to cleanse your energy. Again, you can make this as simple or as intricate as you’d like.

Here’s a simple spiritual bath recipe:

Buy some Hyssop tea, or another kind of mint tea (spearmint or peppermint), and place in boiling water. Use about 2 tea bags per cup, or more as needed. You’ll need about 1 Liter for a full body bath. Steep the tea on low heat for about 15 minutes and then let it cool. Once cool, add a splash of your favorite spiritual cologne and/or Holy Water.

Shower or bathe as usual, and after cleansing your body, turn the water off. Place the spiritual bath mixture from head to toe, using your dominant hand. Go from top to bottom stating your favorite prayer for protection (check some suggestions in the ‘Air’ section) or asking a spiritual ally (such as St. Michael) to cleanse your energy from what is harming you, or no longer serves you. Do not rinse! Just step out and put some clothes on, without drying yourself off. I highly recommend doing this on a Saturday; day or night.

Go about your day as usual but try to be more aware and vigilant of how you feel, especially when around other people. Generally though you’ll want to take a spiritual bath on a non-busy day. This should be a day of rest and relaxation for you, and preferably one not to be around a lot of other people/heavy energies.

If you work in places of heavy energies (hospitals, funeral homes, for examples), you’ll want to take baths more often.

Fire

Fire and smoke are potent for cleansings, but as someone who lives in a small apartment, I don’t go this route too often. Using fire for spiritual protection is wonderful when you have big, open spaces, where fire can be used safely.

Fire can be used as candles, incense (preferably resin incense with charcoal), or burning. One simple method can be anointing a white candle with your favorite protective oil. You can state a protective prayer as you light the candle, and set the intention that the flame will burn away evil from your home, or work spaces. Now, candle-work can be delicate, and so if you are new to spiritual protection I would not start out with fire. However, fire is potent for breaking strong energies, likes hexes, jinxes, and curses. I recommend consulting with a seasoned Spiritualist before you begin any fire work.

Air

Using the element of air (which can include sounds and frequencies) is, in my opinion, one of the easiest ways to get started with spiritual protection work. Air techniques include prayers, chanting, and playing high vibrational frequencies.

Reciting protective prayers is an easy way to get started; my favorites include Psalm 91 or Psalm 23 for protection, or praying to a spiritual ally, such as St. Michael. I always tell ya’ll to internalize a protective prayer, and that way you can recall it subconsciously whenever you are attacked in your dreams; the enemies will always attack at your weakest points, and we are most vulnerable in sleep state (or when intoxicated).

Earth

Earth protection can include using material tools, grounding, and burying.

The easiest way to incorporate the Earth element in your everyday life, is by wearing protective charms or amulets on your person. You can also place these items in your purses, vehicles, etc. This could be in the form of wearing protective crystals, such as Black Tourmaline, Saint medals, Crucifix, Rosary, a protective mojo bag, carrying certain herbs (like Rue/Ruda), or wearing protective oils. Most of my jewelry is blessed and offers protection.

Some protective items can be hidden in plain sight, and some others (like mojo bags) you actually do want to hide. As well, don’t allow anyone else to touch your protective tools. Sometimes kids touch things accidently, and that’s OK because they don’t have harmful intentions, but other adults touching your stuff is a no-no. Even if they touch it accidentally, you’ll want to cleanse it before wearing it again. If it breaks upon someone touching it, be very wary of that person.

*BONUS*

Salt, folks, is a powerful cleanser and protector. A simple salt bath, if you have nothing else, can still serve to cleanse your energy. You can do a weekly Epsom Salt bath (or foot bath) and it can work wonders! The same applies if you live near the sea/ocean, and can soak in those healing waters.

Some other things to note about spiritual hygiene:

• Keep your windows and/or doors open whenever you are spiritually cleansing your spaces. This is so that the energies you are trying to remove have access to the nearest exit.
  
• If any of your protective tools break, discard them right away, and preferably outside your home. For example, if you wear an “evil eye” amulet and it breaks, throw it out. That means it did its job at protecting you from a spiritual attack, and so now is the time to amplify your spiritual protection work. You can throw it in the trash outside your home, or if you are able to, bury it into the earth away from your home/land.
  
• Make sure to cleanse your tools before using them. You can wipe or soak them in a blessed water, such as Florida or Holy water. Sometimes you can purchase items that are already cleansed and blessed, and if that’s the case, don’t clean it. But I would only buy blessed tools from someone I trust. Not everyone selling spiritual tools has the best intentions (or energy quite frankly).
  
• Sometimes it’s not the actual person that is your enemy, but it could be an energy (or entity) attached to them. You could be really cool with someone who does loving things for you, but they might be ‘toxic’ for you because there’s a harmful energy surrounding them, that also negatively impacts you.
  
• One of the most loving and powerful methods for spiritual protection is just saying “No”. Say NO and mean it whenever you don’t want to do something; this could be your intuition and/or ancestors/guides trying to get your attention. They are always trying to help you avoid pitfalls and danger. Don’t force yourself if you feel it’s a NO. Put yourself first.

What’s your favorite way to protect your energy?