Manifestation, magic to draw things into our lives, has been a real buzz-word for the last decade or so, and who does not want help from the universe to create their dream life? But we have almost forgotten the other side of the spiritual coin, banishing – magic to eliminate, to free our lives of things, thoughts, habits and people that don’t bring us anything good. We’re so busy thinking about the next steps and staying open to possibilities that we have forgotten how to keep things out.
Because we live in a super active, be-aware-stay-up-to-date-hustle-and-get-things-done-and-be-seen-doing-it-culture, peace and harmony has become a rare commodity. We need to shield ourselves from all the distress that a world in turmoil causes, harmful negativity from other people and the stress created from the constant flow of information. The world is coming at us all the time and if we internalize everything that happens around us we’ll suffocate. Most of us (in the west) live in a very safe world – physically speaking – but energetically, mentally and emotionally, this is a very challenging time in history. We receive more information in an hour than anyone who ever lived before us received in their entire lives, and our brains are not evolved to process all of this noise.
Instagram and Facebook feeds, TikTok, email, Snapchat, Discord and News App notifications our phones allow mindless algorithms to control our minds by luring us into bottomless pits of useless noise that activate our fight or flight response. It can feel like there is no break, no hiding, from the global marketplace of information. To cope with the stress we need to be able to break free, rest and recharge. But we also need to build up resilience and learn to be able to block out about 90% of what’s going on around us at any given time. We can call this practice of building resilience “shielding” and I aim to make it a part of my daily energy hygiene this year.
Forged in fire
Fire is a powerful element for banishing as anything that goes into fire is destroyed forever. Deities associated with the element in classical mythology are warrior kings such as Mars and Vulcan, the divine blacksmith who forged the armor and weapons needed in battle. A mentally strong and resilient person is someone who we say “can take the heat”, and the idiom “forged in fire” illustrates that we need to go through hardships in life in order to develop stamina. Fire is the source of creation and destruction. Just think of the sun, the burning ball of magma in the sky that makes life possible but that will one day explode and put and end to the existence of our galaxy. In alchemy, fire is associated with transmutation and change, the means to alter and evolve matter from it’s basic state and realize it’s highest potential. All of these images, the warrior, the tools of battle, creation and destruction, change can be focal points in crafting a strong protection spell.
Imbolc is a fitting time to do magic for banishing and shielding, as it is a fire festival. These ancient festivals come to us from the Celts and reflect crucial moments in the agricultural year, as opposed to the equinoxes and solstices which are linked to the sun’s movement in the sky. In the modern pagan wheel of the year you have the opportunity to observe all of these holy days, patched together from different religions and parts of the old world, or focus on the ones that speak to you. Again, sympathetic magic and correspondences is a game of creative association, so let’s see which images we can conjure up to weave an Imbolc spell for protection.
Imbolc is associated with the goddess, Brigid, a Celtic fire goddess, protector of the home and hearth, as well as a patron of blacksmithing, poetry and inspiration. Brigid is an enormously successful goddess. Originally worshipped as a Celtic deity, she managed to conquer the Christian world as an Irish saint and she even appears in the vodou religion of Haiti as the loa Maman Brigitte, consort to the loa of death, Baron Samedi. Few ancient deities have survived this long in the world of living religion and managed to meld into several belief systems. Brigid draws power from all the people who believe in her, past and present.
In a version of the myth, Brigid journeys through the world at Imbolc, banishing darkness by spreading her light and warming the earth to kindle spring. There is beauty, hope and strength in this image and I will invoke Brigid’s light to banish my darkness in my ritual. But on a less abstract level, I will invoke Brigid the blacksmith by enchanting a piece of jewelry with all the fiery strength that goes into forging shields and armor for the battlefield.
Jewelry make excellent talismans. Wearing jewelry for magical purposes is a practice that’s been around since the first stone age human put a string with bones around their neck from a slaughtered animal to imbue their bodies with some of that animal’s strength and soul, and the practice evolved as man learned how to mine precious metals and stones from the womb of the earth.
Everyday Magic 