Create a home protection | Photo by Arden Reimer | The Wright State Guardian
On Monday, Sept. 9, Mindful Magic held an event where they provided the supplies for attendees to create a ward intended to protect a person’s energy within their home.
Mindful Magic
Kit Rheyne-Vanderpool, a double major in English and Philosophy, has been a member of Mindful Magic for around two years. In that time, they have come to every event that they have been able to attend.
Vanderpool considers themself to be a Hellenistic pagan but explained that one of the cool things about Mindful Magic is that they do not have any official ties to any one belief or subset of beliefs.
“A lot of us in here, we practice magic or witchcraft, or we’re pagan. However, we do have some Hindus, we have some Christians, atheists [and] agnostics. We’re kind of a catch-all,” Vanderpool explained. “We do consider ourselves a spiritual club, just because a lot of what we do are spiritual practices.”
When elaborating on what they love about the club and their practices, Vanderpool shared that they felt so much freedom within them.
“The biggest rule of anything is intention,” Vanderpool explained. “I am a very firm believer that intention is basically the basis of any practice and all practices, even when it comes to things like religion.”
The President of Mindful Magic wishes to keep her name out of the press, but she is very excited about all things related to the club that she leads.
“It’s just a good event to do first, [because] protection is really important to spirituality,” the President explained. She wanted people who were just settling into their new residential spaces to be able to create something that would make them feel safer and more comfortable.
Creation process
“We have some sticks from the woods outside, and we are [smoothing] them out,” the President said. “So we’re really putting our energy in them and focusing on the feeling of being protected, or like visualizing something that makes you feel protected.”
She explained that for visualization, some people choose an object like a thick iron wall, while others think more about cuddling by a fireplace. The ward is intended to help protect feelings and energy, as opposed to physical entities, so it can be vastly different for everyone.
After people were done smoothing out the wood to the shape they wanted, they moved on to the next step of creating their ward.
“People are carving runes into them. Some people, I think, are choosing to carve different things into them, just depending on their own personal practice,” the President said.
On the board of the room, she wrote up what she said was a basic protection ward. She wrote it up three times, due to the “rule of threes,” which she and many others believe in.
“Then you can seal it with whatever you choose. What I suggested for the nature of the event is that you can breathe into it. It gives it [its own] little life, and you can recharge that afterward by just continuing to breathe into it,” President remarked. “A lot of people put it on their altar. You can put [the ward] in your drawer, just somewhere that’s safe and kind of tucked away.”
Atmosphere
There was a high level of attendance at this event, with many students going to this club’s event for the first time to try it out. The members and people who had experience were very open and willing to explain how everything worked, and what the purpose was.
Ryan Ferguson, a third-year elementary education major, went to the event, making it the first he had ever attended with Mindful Magic.
“I find it very fascinating, even though I don’t believe in it. Like I love watching ghost shows, and love to get into the occult sort of stuff,” Ferguson said.
When expanding upon what specifically interests Ferguson regarding the occult, he shared that he was mainly interested in ghosts, and was looking forward to Mindful Magic’s Paranormal Investigations, which is an event that they sometimes hold around campus.
“I feel like I hope something’s out there, even though I don’t really believe it. You know, maybe I’ll see something,” Ferguson explained. He shared he had a good time, and signed up for the club’s email list.
As the President and other members helped the new attendees, everyone returned the favor and helped clean up the event. Overall, the event had a welcoming feeling, as could be expected from a club that is so open to people of all different beliefs.
