What is a shield?
A psychic shield is a non material substance/force/power with
which you
surround yourself for protection. Many types of force can be
called into play
in its construction, and many forms can be used, all at your
discretion. It's
important that a friend, instructor or adept NOT do this work
for you; your
shield will be with you permanently, and you need to have the
intimate
connection that creating your own provides.

Why make a shield?
The best reason is for protection against psychic flak of all
kinds,
especially important when you are first starting down the Path,
and aren't 
yet well-versed in defensive measures. It's protection from
mind-games and 
psychic vampires (yes, they do exist), and a good shield helps
you to
separate mundane flak from psychic flak. It exercises the
faculties of
self-reliance and visualization. All told, it's one of the most
essential
tools of the working occultist.

What do I need to know about shields?
Your shield is your BASIC piece of protection/comfort/defense.
It is a
permanent part of you, and something like wearing a Circle like
a second
skin. It should be flexible and semi-permeable, moving and
growing with you,
and "breathing" with your energy usage. Be aware that what you
visualize when
you start out is what will be there, but that the shield will
probably change
of its own accord to keep up with your changing capabilities and
needs.


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Building the Shield
Preliminary Cleansing
When building your first shield, it seems rather ridiculous to
lock in any 
negative energies you may be carrying with you currently.
Therefore, a
preliminary cleansing, as follows:
Stand in a quiet place and center your energies. Visualize a
gleaming sharp
sword in your hand. Use it joyously, vigorously slicing through
the air close
to your body on all sides, over your head and under your feet.
As you slash,
visualize all unfriendly or negative ties being severed and the
ends
shriveling away to nothing. Do not be specific -- "this tie,
that tie" -- ALL
unfriendly ties are being cut!! Note that friendly and
unfriendly ties exist
on different planes, so you can't damage the friendly ties --
although you 
may be surprised that ties you thought were friendly, aren't --
and vice
versa. It isn't necessary to do this every time you work on your
shields,
although a once-a-year cleansing and general housecleaning
couldn't hurt.

Other helpful rituals include: The Lesser Banishing Ritual of
the Pentagram;
the Middle Pillar; the Kabalistic Cross; any other
cleansing/grounding
rituals you may be aware of.


Visualizations
You have to decide every detail of the visualization of your
shields. What 
shape will it take? What color (if any)? What materials? What
appearance?
These are the basics; we'll touch on the embellishments later.

Shapes - Round, spherical, cylindrical, square, cube, pentagon,
pentagram, 
ovoid, and any other shape you like. If you can form and hold a
duodecahedron
in your mind's eye, go to it!!

Colors - Any color of the rainbow, and a few never seen on this
plane are all
acceptable. White is one commonly-used color, but if you want
chartreuse, by
all means go ahead! Try to avoid black; not for its effect on
you,
necessarily, but for not giving the wrong signals to the folks
you might want
to be working with.

Textures - Vary widely; from brick walls to energy cocoons, to
steel spheres
and laser force fields. Whatever your mind conceives of as
protecting is what
you use.

Warning - Leaving this construct semi-permeable is strongly
advised. This
leaves you open to receiving positive energies while still
giving you
protection, and allows the important vibrational interactions
that lead to 
growth.


THE PROCESS
Once you've decided what you shield will be, sit quietly and
begin to
visualize it around you in the form you've chose. Take 10 or 15
minutes to 
get it solid and clear to your inner eyes, then quit for the
day. Once a day
for a week, re-visualize your shield and strengthen it. Then
check your
shield once a week for the next month, re-visualizing and
strengthening as 
needed. After that, check on your shield as you feel it's
needed, but at
least once a year. Keep in mind that once your shield is well-
established,
it's basically self-sustaining and maintaining. Eventually, the
only times 
you'll need to be aware of your shield is at its yearly
housecleaning, when
you think of an improvement, or when it's reacting to a threat.

EMBELLISHMENTS AND NIFTY EXTRAS
(Thanks to Fiona MacGregor, the Dark Horde H&CTC, & Caer
Ironhold)

Attach a vial of Essence of Poison Ivy, to react upon attack.
Silver-mirror the outer covering.
Add glue or rubber bands to the outside of your shield. Don't
forget to clean
more often if you use glue.
An automatic maintenance system.
A sorter. Friendly energy breezes in, unfriendly energy is
repelled.
A detection device. Allows a thinner shield, which sounds an
alarm when
confronted with negativity.
A grounding device. This simply grounds negative energy it
encounters.
A slingshot, to return negative energy to its source. Can be
amplified to use
the law of threefold return.
Any other embellishments you can justify in the name of defense.
(c) 1981, Dana Morgan
http://www.notelrac.com/whuups.dir/magick.dir/intro_shielding.html