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What Is Blocking Magic?

Blocking magic is pretty much what it says on the tin. It is a branch of occult practice that seeks to block unwanted energies, foulings (which include the more culturally recognisable terms of curses, hexes, and so on), the evil eye, or the effects of geographical disturbances; for example, if you live near a supernaturally overactive crossroads, cemetery, neolithic site etc.

Blocking magic seeks to create a shield of defence that can be either temporary or implemented for longer term use in order for a person to be able to protect their wellbeing without having to resort to more offensive tactics, such as firing back or blasting.

One way to look at it is that blocking ways are the passive defensive, where blastings are the offensive defensive. Neither are inherently wrong when it comes to defending yourself or the ones you love, but some techniques are more suitable than others in certain situations.
For example, if a person was unconsciously giving you the evil eye because they were jealous of you, or were having issues in their personal life (mental health issues for example), a blasting may not be the most fair, or reasonable, way of dealing with the situation (though granted, as witches, we all tend to share slightly differing views on ethics, so please feel free to disagree with me).
In this particular situation, blocking the antagonist’s energy and shutting it down manually could prove to be much more efficient, and less harmful for someone who is not intentionally attacking you.
Another example to consider, could be that of geographical disturbances.
Now, not every cemetery, crossroads, bier road, neolithic site, haunted house, and so on, are going to automatically be places of ‘geographical disturbance’. Some of these places are actually quite lovely, magical, and extremely beneficial places of energy for the Folk Witch. However, for the occasional energetically awkward spot that does cause disruption to residents and visitors alike, you cannot realistically blast an entire area, or even sufficiently cleanse it (at least not usually on your own) without an exorbitant amount of effort. In reality, this is going to do nothing – well, not unless you count wasting time on ineffectual practice and the pissing off of the local spirits of the place.
A practitioner, however, can potentially employ a mix of groundings, charms, and blocking workings. These can, in theory, help to protect the boundaries for an individual or their residence when either cleansing or banishing energies or entities from an area are not possible.

How Blocking Magic Can Be Implemented?

There are innumerable ways one can incorporate blockings into their arsenal of defensive magic, most of which which will be entirely subjective to the witch, their practice, experience, and the exact needs and reasonings for performing such workings. Really, the possibilities of how exactly one can implement and perform a blocking is only limited by the witch’s imagination, and where I do list two examples of blocking workings within this blog entry, there is nothing stopping a practitioner from creating their own working that are specifically tailored for their own needs. Many practitioners, especially those new on their spiritual and witchcraft path, often feel as though they are somehow unqualified to write their own workings. In reality, this is not usually the case. Assess the situation, set a clear intention and boundaries, and have a go. After all, practice does make perfect. And even when we make mistakes or a working fails, it’s an opportunity to grow and learn, as failure and the analysis of it is still progression. You simply learn what not to do next time.

When Should I Use Blocking Magic?

Ultimately, you can use blocking ways whenever you feel a direct need for it. During the times you feel threatened, intimidated, are having a run of bad luck, feel a fouling has been laid upon you, or you’re just getting niggly vibes from someone you just don’t trust, but don’t actually have any evidence they are actively doing anything against you, and you just want to put something in place for the ‘just in case’. Blockings are particularly useful in this situation because they are not offensive workings and will not cause any harm to another person. Therefore, if your suspicions are wrong, and the person you do not trust is in fact harmless, nothing negative will happen. I sometimes joke that blocking ways are the prophylactic of psychic protection and defence magic.

You can also energetically block the attitude and negativity of other people and how their pessimistic, aggressive, or self deprecating attitudes impacts upon your energy. In extension to this, you can also use blocking magic to protect yourself against ‘psychic vampires’- though how much of this comes down to ‘magic’ and how much actually comes down to a self prescribed placebo from simply distancing yourself from the negative person is debatable. You see, when one performs some kind of blocking upon another person, usually (though granted, not in all situations), other more practical steps are taken alongside the actual working.

For example:
– Physically distancing yourself from them.
– Avoiding their phone calls.
– Blocking or unfollowing them on social media.

When considering blocking workings, it may also be beneficial to consider other courses of action too. For example, a student came to me last year and asked for advice on how to deal with an overly toxic teacher who was consistently putting their students down and openly shaming their work in front of peers. On the surface, a blocking working might sound like a good course of action here. It would limit the impact of nasty and negative energy and potentially provide some level of shielding. However, it was also not the most practical way forward – especially as this student still had to see this person several times a week for lectures. Then there are banishing’s, in the hope that the teacher would somehow move on or find a new school. But these often come with an element of risk, because even if you are very careful with how you word this sort of working, it can still potentially lead to harm. An in this case, the student who came to me for help was very clear that they did not want to harm their teacher, merely stop the bullying. This was ideal, as a first course of defence should rarely be offensive defence, unless absolutely necessary.
Next, we considered freezing workings. These are somewhere between blockings and banishing’s and work by freezing the antagonist’s actions towards you – but again, this was not entirely suitable, as this may render the teacher unable to teach the class.
Finally, we settled upon a sweetening working. This is a simple Folk Witchcraft method of sweetening a persons disposition towards you. I advised the student to write their teacher’s name down upon a piece of paper- or better yet, on the back of a photograph of the teacher (if they had one), or the back of a piece of paper that held the teacher’s handwriting on it. Then, once they had done this, lay the paper down upon the table and fold the paper up small, but always folding in a direction towards them, not away from them. While they folded the paper, they were to say “Look on me with favour, look on me with sweetness”.
Once this step was completed, they were to place the paper in the bottom of an empty clean jar and then pour honey over the top until the jar was about three quarters full. After this, I advised that they then shake the jar once a day (ideally before a lecture) and say “Look on me with favour, look on me with sweetness”, three times. I am told that on the fifth day of doing this working, the teachers attitude began to soften and they became much more tolerable to work with.

So you see, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to choose a course of magical action.

Ethics: Is Blocking Magic ‘Black Magic’?

No, it isn’t. But in reality, any form of magic can be potentially turned upon it’s head to cause harm, and blocking ways are no exception. You could, in theory, use blockings to prevent someone from getting that job they have applied for, advancing in their life, block successes, place blockages in relationships and more! However, none of those are going to be covered in todays blog because it would take far too long to detail, and it is irrelevant in regards to todays topic of psychic protection. This is because the aforementioned forms of blocking would instead come under malefic or ‘black magic’ workings. A topic that is best served for another blog or even a workshop held in safe space, and even then, for academic purposes only. Let’s be honest, when it comes to black magic, it is often beneficial to learn it from a purely academic or defensive place – because with psychic and magical defence – forearmed is forewarned. I was also brought up with the understanding that in order to fully understand magic and wield power, one must learn both sides of the metaphysical coin – because a Witch who cannot understand the dynamics or harm cannot possibly understand how to heal. And if we are going to make a more everyday comparison, even Doctors must learn about disease before they learn how to treat it.

Examples Of Blocking Magic.

The Teapot Working.

This lovely and somewhat quaint, but effective working was one created and passed down to me by my Mum and Nan. It has since been adapted by myself to be the full working that it is now. It involves the use of novelty teapots that are shaped like English cottages.

Background.

As a young girl, being brought up by my Nan, I grew to observe lots of little folk ways that she and my Mother practiced. My Mother and Nan used to joke and refer to themselves as the Witch of Croydon (which was my Mother), and the Witch of New Addington, which was my Nan. In reality, neither my Mother or Nan ever seriously identified with the term ‘Witch’. Despite the fact that both practiced sympathetic magic and in all other sense of the word, were Witches.
To them, the title ‘Witch’ was some fairy tale or hippy term used in children’s stories, or by the type of person who hugged the stones of Stone Henge. To them, their ‘ways’ were just that. Little ways that could be turned to for use when needed in every day life. It always struck me as unusual that my Mother in particular never seriously adopted the term ‘Witch’, seeing as it was in fact her who taught me about crystals, bought me first tarot set at the age of about of eleven, and taught me numerology. But self identity is subjective to the individual, and we have to remember that it is only in recent history that people have begun to safely claim the title of Witch within the Western world.

One of the folk ways practiced at home was the incorporation of the use of an old decorative and novelty tea pot, that was stylised to look like an old English cottage.
These inconspicuous little trinkets could sit comfortably upon the mantlepiece, and no one would ever suspect that their true purpose was magical. This element of subtle and hidden Witchcraft was very common in my home. There were no Athames or wands or fancy Witchcore décor. True to traditional folk ways, my family made use of the every day tools around them such as the best scissors, candles, paper, brambles, rosaries, and so on.

My Mother and Nan would use one of these teapots in defensive magic to block people they did not like or trust. This would be done in a very simplistic and yet clearly effective manner of simply writing the offender’s name down on a small piece of paper; ideally, on what my mum would call ‘power paper’, which was the central two pages taken out of her ‘book of ways and means’ (akin to a book of shadows). This paper could have little bits torn off it now and then to use in workings such as this one. It was done this way by my mother because she believed the pages of her journal held power from all of her gathered wisdom, and therefore could be used to apply additional energy to certain workings.

Once the offenders name had been written down upon the small piece of paper, it would be rolled up and posted down the spout and left within the teapot.

When I asked why and how this method would even worked as a blocking, I was told that in part it was because the teapot looked like a house and could represent the offender’s own home.

“When someone doesn’t like you, or they wish you harm, they will often do it from the safety of their own quarters – rarely out in the open where everyone can see. The teapot represents their own quarters because it looks like a house. But the doors and windows aren’t real are they? You can’t look out of them and see anything. So, once someone’s name has been posted down the spout, their view of us becomes obscured too. If their vision is obscured, they can’t see you to attack you or cause any mischief.”

I went on to ask who’s name had been put in the teapot over the years…

“Oh, not many. And I clear it out every year too – that helps stop people from finding them (the bits of paper) by accident. The names are mostly that old bat (name of a certain neighbour up the road), or any time you girls (children and grandchildren) were dating questionable sorts we didn’t like”.

This last addition made me laugh, the idea that my family’s matriarchs would cast the names of teenage boys and young men that they did not like in to the teapot to keep them away from the young girls in the family seemed to be such a hilarious and yet practical thing to do. Typical matriarchal folk magic at it’s best!

Unfortunately, as my Nan died suddenly of Coronavirus in early 2021, and I was unable to retrieve many of her belongings due to Covid travel restrictions, I was unable to save her cottage teapot. And my mother’s own pot supposedly broke a few months before she passed away on Summer Solstice 2012. This has led to me purchasing my own cute little vintage teapot – you can find dozens and dozens on eBay and Etsy for an absolute steal!

I do use my teapot and it sits quietly upon my altar at home. Thankfully I have only ever needed to put two names in it, I hope this means I am a fairly well-liked and affable person, hence why I’ve not needed to add many names!

My method alters from my family’s in only two respects.

My Mother and Nan would seemingly discard names after a year or two, where I personally keep questionables in the teapot for as long as I see necessary. After all, why not? It’s not harming them, or necessarily binding them. Merely blocking anything they may or may not be attempting to send my way.

The other obvious difference in practice is that I do not write the names down clearly for anyone to be able to read and intrude upon. Instead, I adopt an air of anonymity and turn the offender’s name into a sigil. There are countless ways one can do this, and some within the Occult community can get rather uppity if you deviate from any of their recognisable formats for sigil construction, but that’s their twisted panty-liner to bear. If you create a sigil and it works for you, kudos.
I personally take out all but one vowel from a persons first a second name, and then leave all of the consonants.

For example; Jane Smith would end up being ‘J A N S M T H’

Then, if I feel necessary, I may choose to add in some additional symbology such as runes, numbers, or ogham. You can also potentially work in some colour magic when choosing what pen or pencil you are using, but admittedly, I do not usually do this as this tea pot working is meant for simplistic sympathetic magic. If you’re needing to add on more complex symbology and correspondences because the person you are blocking is a huge pain in the arse, then perhaps you may need a different working. However, please feel free to play around with this working and make it your own. Just ensure that when and if you add it to your own grimoire, to reference where you found the original working.

The Inked Hand.

This second working is designed to block unwanted energies into the home. Now obviously, there are many charms that also help to protect a home. Some are designed in order to block, neutralise, and even return unwanted energies and influences from the home, some of these have even been mentioned in previous blogs. This addition is an interesting working to add to ones arsenal for potential future use. It has the added benefit of only needing three tools!

1. Your hand
2. Some liquid eyeliner.
3. A sigil of your choice, or a rune such as Isa (used to freeze/stop) or Algiz, which is used as a protection symbol.

Find a quiet time to perform this working, ideally a time where you know that you will not be disturbed. Setting your intention clearly, take your liquid eyeliner and mark your chosen sigil or symbol upon the palm of your dominant hand. Then, while the liquid is still wet, press your palm against the inside of your chosen door.
Hold your palm there for a moment while you you either speak the following words, or some other chosen words or protection prayers that you know.

“I block and I seal.
I know and I feel, safe and sound in this
home of mine.
Stand firm on the ground – a fortress all around.
This line is drawn, a boundary harm cannot cross.
I block and I seal”.

Gently remove you hand and allow the symbol to dry. You can wash it off after two or three days, safe in the knowledge that the power of the working is still there. If you ever feel the need to reinforce this working, you can repeat it as needed. I would suggest perhaps annually if you were wanting to incorporate this as part of your established long term practice.

Conclusion.

I hope that you enjoyed this weeks blog and that it has perhaps offered you a valuable insight into how other witches employ this form of magic and energetic defence into their witchcraft practice.
Our next instalment will be part of the Grimoire series, where I shall be sharing a healing working using sacred waters.

From the time, mists, and distance between us, blessings from me to you.

Zanna, June 2023.