Psychic self defence is a whole subject in it's own right and difficult to sum up in a few paragraphs. Nevertheless, that I is what I will try and do. There are 'emergency' ways of protecting yourself if you do think that you are under attack, such as seeing yourself in a sphere of bright white light and knowing that only love may enter into it - similar to the circle cast during ritual. Or you may prefer to see yourself surrounded by mirrors, reflecting back whatever bad feelings you feel are being sent to you. But for any form of self-defence to be most effective, you need to establish what form the attack is/has taken. Perhaps, more importantly, is it a psychic attack at all? Is it just nightmares indicating a deeper problem within the psyche that needs to be worked on. Is it the shadow I mentioned in a post elsewhere? Or is it just the workings of a fertile imagination fed on a diet of Hollywood and TV? There are ways of establishing whether an attack is genuine and what form it takes. But, sorry, I'm not going to talk about that here. First of all, within Ceremonial Magick, we do contact, control and subjugate the so called Qlippotic Demons who dwell on the reverse side of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. This is done for very good reason - not to harm, but to know ourselves better. If these Demons are not subjugated to the Magician's Will, they can turn against us. However, again this is not the stuff from Hollywood, but more a case of something within our personality that needs to be dealt with and mastered. This, however, is an art that is very carefully guarded and only passed on to those who we are certain will be able to master what they discover. I use this as an example, to emphasis the point that the great majority of dabblers in occultism are protected by their own ineptitude. They fail to gets results, and consequently come to no harm. But that, unfortunately may not always be the case. A student may take a formula from a book and try to use it. For this reason, most formulae are incomplete or have deliberate errors written into them. But even an experienced occultist may get into difficulties if he attempts magickal work when he is in bad health, over-tiered, or has had even a moderate amount of alcohol or 'other substances'. As a ceremonial magician I have spent sometime building-up my own ways of protecting myself - sorry, not saying what they are because it would be to give you a key to my house and let you come and go as you please! Suffice it to say, the walls are always in place. But even then, when travelling on the astral (either consciously or while dreaming) I have been subjected to what may be called psychic attacks - but then again, they may just be bad dreams! After one such episode, I dreamt that I was given a magical sword and taught how to use it. To deflect the attack was not just simply a matter of hitting out at whatever I saw, but more a case of projecting energy along my arm and out through the blade as I did so. It was this outpouring of energy that did the work. In another example, I dreamt I was being attacked by the gods no what manner of beast. This time I stood my ground and cast the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. As I vibrated the words, so the beast disappeared. Equally as effective is to cast a simple banishing pentagram. If you do think you are under some sort of attack, the first thing to do is throw up some temporary defences so that you have a breathing space. This may be nothing more than taking a bath view the intention and will being to carry out a ritual cleansing. Water is a vehicle of purification although a trace of salt should also be added. If you consecrate the water and salt do much the better. After bathing, dress in new or at least clean clothing afterwards It is said that some occultists are powerful enough to be able to create some sort of entity to carry out the attack on their behalf. There is an extremely effective way of dealing with such entities A time honoured method for clearing a bad psychic atmosphere out of a house is to strew garlic about the place, and leave it over night and then take it up and burn it. The stuff of vampire films? Dunno, but it does seem to work! If you believe you are under attack by some sort of thought form, then the best method to deal with it is within sacred space or properly cast circle. This is particularly useful for protecting a sleeping place with the circle being cast around the bed - this can also be done by visualising the casting if there is insufficient room to physically cast it. If you are dealing with a person whose influence you find overwhelming, imagine that they are separated from you by a sheet of plate-glass. You can see them and hear them, but their magnetism cannot reach you. Visualise this sheet of glass until it appears to you to be absolutely tangible. Or if you do not have to talk to them, imagine that they are separated from you by a brick wall, and say to yourself "Your aren't there. I can't see you, or hear you, and you imply do not exist in my world." When dealing with a person who saps your vitality, interlace your fingers, and lay folded hands upon your solar plexus, keeping your elbows pressed against your side. Keep your feet touching each other. You have thus contracted all your own terminals and made a closed circuit of your body. If anyone tries to dominate you by gazing intently into your eyes, do not attempt to return gaze for gaze, for this only leads to an exhaustive struggle. Instead look steadily at the spot just above the base of their nose, or between the inner ends of the eyebrows. There are other, ceremonial, ways of dealing with psychic attack. But as I mentioned above, these are not for the untrained and so I will not go into them in the relatively small amount of space afforded by this post. And remember the golden key - ask yourself, are you really under psychic attack or did you eat too much cheese before bedtime! | 
