Everybody experiences occasional negative emotions or a feeling of something negative going on around them. especially when it seems like a succession of unpleasant or negative events have occurred one after the other. Negative coincidences do happen sometimes; most of the time, this is due to our own low energy. However, occasionally we may get a strong sense that something else is at work.

Here are a few things you can do.

Raise and cleanse your energies.

Grounding yourself.

Make sure you are standing on the earth, and imagine green roots coming from your feet connecting you to the earth. And a white light at the top of your head going up into the universe.

• You might want to visualise yourself in protective armour or use white light to shield yourself. Meditate on protecting yourself and see what happens.
• Take a cleansing bath See the ritual here.
• Cleanse and protect yourself and your home by smudging. See our cleansing home ritual here.

Cleaning is something everyone should be doing. You clean your body, so why not cleanse your whole self?

Shield yourself.

If you feel negative energy is being directed your way, try to imagine mirrors around you reflecting any negative energies back.

Create a protection jar.

You will need:

• A jar with a lid
• Crushed eggshells (think of how the shell protects everything inside)
• a protection crystal; see the list below
• Black pepper or Black Witches Salt: this is a mixture of ash from a fire or incense, pepper,, or salt.
• Rosemary: You may choose another protection herb; see below.

Put all your ingredients in the jar and seal the lid with wax. Repeat or chant something like “I am completely protected” or “I and my family are completely protected.”

Keep your jar on your altar or even next to your bed, wherever you feel it needs to go.

A few Protection Crystals

• Black Obsidian
• Black Tourmaline
• Smoky Quartz
• Black Jade
• Jet

A few Protection herbs

• Rosemary
• Sage
• Bay leaf
• mugwort
• Thyme

If you feel you need something a little more powerful and stronger, you could do the protection ritual below. However, after taking the above steps, you may feel that everything is better.

Sending back negativity—a mirror ritual

You will need:

• A compact mirror—one that you can close up—is best. However, you can use any mirror. Make sure it is one you do not need for anything else!

• A black candle; if you do not have a black candle, white is fine.

• Sage or dragon’s blood smudge stick

Before you begin,

You may wish to cast a circle. I personally don’t do this in my rituals. I prefer to ground myself and protect myself and the area I am working in. I then call upon my loved ones and guides in spirit.  You may wish to call upon gods and goddesses as well.

I remember when I started practising the craft. I did try to cast a circle and got into a confusing mess. Do what feels right for you, but remember that you need good protection and good boundaries. Additionally, I would like to add that you should avoid sending hate and/or anger towards other people, because if you do, you are more likely to receive it back in some way. You are simply sending back something. Thank you, but no thanks!

What to do?

Cleanse the mirror using the smudge stick; this will clear any energy the mirror is already holding.

light the black candle and say something like, “I send back to the sender any negative energies.”

Take some time to meditate to help set up your intentions and charge the mirror. Say something like, “I said back any negative energies from where they came.” Repeat or chant this several times. You really want to build up the energy to charge the mirror.

Place the mirror in a safe place, and surround it with rosemary and your crystals. (see above). You may wish to keep it on your altar.

Keep the mirror in place for as long as you need to. Remember to recharge it every new moon. When you feel that the energies are better, you can smudge the mirror with sage again to remove any residual energies. Do this at least three times and surround it with cleansing crystals, such as clear quartz, citrine, selenite, or carnelia. This is best done on or near a full moon.